@LukeSommers I conduct a change-ringing band which... isn't really worth going into what that is. Suffice it to say: there are many times during a peal that I'll have to yell out a command but there are also, like, nine other things I'm trying to keep track of in my head at the same time. Sometimes I'll time my inhale to be able to shout in time with a brief gap in the bells' chimings, go completely blank on which "call" I'm supposed to be making, and just let loose with any ol' random syllable.
Big hits around the tower have been "breg!" "glech!" "pluuh!" and, of course, "fuck!"
"bob" or "single," most often. Occasionally something directed at a particular person to help put them right: "3 to lead next," "6 up!" "dodge now," &c.
Rogue + M.I. + choosing Warlock = Don't need a ranged weapon cause EB, probably will grab Booming Blade, useful for sneak attacks, you get a first level spell, and it keys off of one of your most likely higher stats
I personally would tweak the Beastmaster to avoid some of the AE issues, but the Ranger overall is OK in a suitable environment. combat isn't the only thing a class is good for...
Yeah people do like to jump on the bandwagon, though I do wonder if JC is getting a bit defensive here. Just because it is popular does not mean that there aren't serious mechanical and thematic issues with the class.
But I find he's giving some rather curious advise... eg. "if you want an animal companion you should just use Animal Handling and Persuasion" (Animal Handling isn't even a skill in 5e) sounds rather lazy to me.
"If you want to use magic just use some Arcana skill checks and ask your GM to sort it out yo"
Agreed. Not to mention this would allow anyone to get an animal friend. And there are just no rules for having/maintining such a relationship so basically they are saying "just wing it DMs I'm sure it will work out fine."
@kviiri because the rules don't say you can. Not with just the skill. With roleplay that will likely include the skill, sure but animal handling has specific things you can do
The animals will respond like animals so you can tame them eventually but it takes time to win any NPCs trust
"whether you can calm down a domesticated animal, keep a mount from getting spooked, or intuit an animal’s intentions"
@DavidCoffron Yea, the rules don't say you can, but that's true for pretty much everything outside of combat and spells in DnD. It bugs me to no end too, especially when JC is trying to peddle "you can do it, just ask your GM" as actual mechanics.
But I mean, it's JC's words, not mine.
And I rather dislike his approach towards the subject
@kviiri I like it personally (although I'm interested in systems that do out of combat stuff well on their own) since it gives GMs some leeway and a strong friendly group can have a lot of fun with that.
@kviiri I dislike his approach to almost everything. He treats the rules as malleable but goes on a podcast like he's an expert on them. He's a great GM but a rules lawyer he is not. I'd rather have one of the balance experts they employed be our Sage Advice outlet but wishers can't be choosers
@kviiri training a battle companion takes years. Convincing a deer to carry your gear might be doable but anything beyond that should not be in the purview of an adventuring setting (maybe if you way too much downtime)
Well ok, he does add the caveat "if everyone's cool with it", but that's one of those caveats that only work for people who know what they're doing.
@DavidCoffron I know, alright? I'm saying what JC is saying.
It's not something I'd ever do in my game because it just seems extremely sloppy. It's either a proper balanced mechanic for allies or no mechanic at all, in my table.
@kviiri shrug i have a game with a backstory animal companion and it runs okay. But that's in a game with lots of magic items and they all started with a feat so they are all a bit up on the power curve anyway
(and even if the balance checks out, there's still the issue of pacing an additional, possibly mechanically complex combatant in battles that already draaaag ouuuut...)
@DavidCoffron And I mean, I've seen players attempting way crazier things completely seriously... :P
In my first party, a player assumed that his high nature score meant his character could actually converse with animals.
Like, chat with chipmunks like you'd speak to a person in the town.
It was a terrible game in many ways. That particular player was the source of many of our problems, both him and his character being very peace-loving tree-huggery kind in a rather straight hack-and-slash 4e game x)
(of course we knew nothing of same page or My guy syndrome back then... we knew "railroading is bad" so I guess we felt kinda obligated to let the fellow go through his attempts to bypass everything by talking)
Actually I have problems, each being a set of 5 bit strings. A problem is in "mirror universe" if for every string it contains that begins with a zero, it also contains a string with the bits flipped
I also have a problem that isn't a set of five bit strings - I do a very poor job deciding how much food to bring to a cabin trip and have faced the consequences today.
(800 grams is a lot of sauerkraut for one day)
hmm, actually it was well worth posting about the problem here, I have an encoding issue I'd better solve right now
I bought myself some d30s and a d100 recently. I then proceeded to drop one of the d30s on my toes. I'm very glad it wasn't the d100.
As for PBP games, yeah... it's very difficult to keep them going, for a variety of reasons. It's a persistent game that everyone can contribute to on their own schedule, which is one reason I really like the medium, but it's a double-edged sword because sometimes people just... don't contribute. :v
Once you get past that introductory period, if you can get people invested, I've seen (and run) games that go for long stretches of time and rack up a hundred pages or more, but that introductory period is rough, and people will usually drop out at one point or another. The game either has to be able to handle that, or you have to be able to attract new players to a game with a rather intimidating backlog.
Had a rough time GMing my game yesterday (before the ToA game). I've also discovered the homebrew workshop on dndbeyond and am vigorously wasting my free time on it
