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12:21 AM
@Ben I like version 2 of the corruption system. Looks pretty good. As your 'death save' mechanic how about: After receiving influence if a character is at or above 20 points in a given tree they must make a constitution/wisdom save against a DC of 1/2 the influence in that tree. On a success there is no additional effect. On a fail they are lost to the influence of that tree.
 
 
2 hours later…
Ben
2:08 AM
@linksassin Nice
I spoke to a few people and all of their responses when they learned that characters could be lost to this was very reluctant.
So I feel like their does need to be that buffer there.
 
Yeah character loss is a bit of a downer
I'm not too surprised they had that reaction
 
hey, any of you familiar with Elvish naming? got an elf, for which I have an idea as to how to hame, but am not sure what it translates to (basically, I need the Elven male dimunitive for "bear")
 
Ben
As @linksassin put it earlier, there is plenty of warning that the characters are going to potentially lose themselves to the Influence, if not handled properly.
That's the best I can do. Lol
 
@Ben heh, still need that dimunitive though
 
Ben
You might be able to ask over on scifi.se?
 
2:16 AM
@Ben hrm. might drop by their chat if really need be
 
Ben
Yeah. know there's a few Tolkien enthusiast over there
Just from experience
 
Heh, I've been looking at that wiki a bunch lately in making my AiME character
 
@V2Blast ah
 
2:46 AM
@Shalvenay Are you specifically looking for Tolkien elves?
 
@linksassin no, not necessarily :)
 
There is always the classic Latin fallback for fantasy languages. Ursus is the latin original for Bear
Ursidae is the family from a genetics view.
Ursus is a genus in the family Ursidae (bears) that includes the widely distributed brown bear, the polar bear,the American black bear, and the Asian black bear. The name is derived from the Latin ursus, meaning bear. == Species and subspecies of Ursus == A hybrid between grizzly bears and polar bears has also been recorded. Known commonly as a pizzly, prizzly, or grolar bear, the official name is simply "grizzly–polar bear hybrid". == Mating system ecology == The mating systems within the genus Ursus are primarily classified as polygynous, polyandrous and promiscuous. Both males and females mate...
 
@Shalvenay My friends and I randomly pick pharmaceutical names that sound elvish
 
@MikeQ That's awesome. Do you look up the meaning/effects of the drugs you name your characters after?
 
2:52 AM
@linksassin yeah, I considered going with the Latin, but I'm not sure if Latin ever had a masculine dimunitive for bear either (just the feminine one that is the origin of the modern name "Ursela")
 
@linksassin Yes, and sometimes the names are selected according to the character quirks, or vice versa
 
@MikeQ That's cool. I am going to suggest that to my players from now on.
 
List of diminutives by language includes a few bears.
 
Ben
@BESW Oh dear. Lol.
 
@linksassin e.g. Lord Metamucil, he who clears the path. Nyquil the night elf, etc
 
2:55 AM
@MikeQ On second thoughts I'm not sure I could get through a whole campaign of that kind of pun.
 
Ben
Su'dafed. He is good in small doses, but in concentrated bouts can really make you go wild
 
aaaah
of course it's regular :D
Urzelus/Ursulus (the former being more of a modern transmogrification, the latter being closer to the Latin origins)
 
2 questions-as-answers posted by new users that still need an additional vote or two to be deleted:
-3
A: Can a short rope used with Rope Trick create a “safe space” during combat?

Frederick David BabbittWhat is the rules for casting Summon Monster inside the Rope Trick them coming out with them to fight?

-1
A: How do spell scrolls interact with warlock invocations?

Jesse DollarOk, so what about Sign of Ill Omen which allows you to cast Bestow Curse? I'm curious if that would allow for ascribing as a scroll.

 
3:58 AM
[ SmokeDetector | MS ] Bad keyword with email in answer, potentially bad keyword in answer (86): Do your spells end when you die? by ALIYA KODAK on rpg.SE (@doppelgreener)
[ SmokeDetector | MS ] Bad keyword with email in body, potentially bad keyword in body, blacklisted user (133): DO YOU NEED DEATH SPELL CONTACT DR LARRY by ALIYA KODAK on rpg.SE (@doppelgreener)
[ SmokeDetector | MS ] Bad keyword with email in answer, potentially bad keyword in answer, blacklisted user (156): DO YOU NEED DEATH SPELL CONTACT DR LARRY by ALIYA KODAK on rpg.SE (@doppelgreener)
 
I really don't get what the people that make these kind of spam bots hope to achieve.
 
Generally, the kinds of people who make those spambots hope to sell them to gullible people looking to advertise online.
 
I guess that makes sense. But they mostly post such utter rubbish that it barely counts as advertising
 
4:13 AM
Well, if you're trying to scam people, you try not to attract people who might catch on. And that works both for people who write spambots and people who use them.
 
Just when I think I have stopped underestimating the stupidity of humanity...
 
Ben
The human creature really is a simple one, when it comes down to it. Violent, simple and angry.
 
5:05 AM
Fred shares the origin of Fate of Cthulhu and how he's seen it develop along the way 👇 https://twitter.com/fredhicks/status/1120489039491211270
Important thread on developing Fate of Cthulhu. 👇 One point: Mental health is not a meter of your success or failure. https://twitter.com/sblackmoore/status/1120485311795142656
2
urrrgh I love a lot of the ideas but WHY does it have to be tied to old H. P. "Your Cat's Name Is What?" Lovecraft?
You could do this without him, Evil Hat.
 
It's definitely not my favorite
 
5:24 AM
2
Q: Will the Antimagic Field spell cause elementals not summoned by magic to dissipate?

Q PaulThe antimagic field spell says that summoned creatures will temporally vanish until the creature is out of the antimagic field, but would an elemental native to the current plane vanish? As an example, the UA Mystic can get psionic disciplines that create elementals.

 
5:37 AM
"Mountains of Madness is my favorite Lovecraft story because there's no one to be bigoted against in the Antarctic. Except maybe penguins" --my former boss
 
I mean... if you're willing to completely ignore the possibility of allegory of the same nature as that in The Shadow over Innsmouth, yes.
Otherwise it's a pretty clear parable about the dangers of a noble civilization being overthrown by its ignorant and debased slaves who were ungrateful for being raised as high as they could go.
 
5:58 AM
Based on what little I know of it, sounds perfectly accurate
 
6:27 AM
The more one reads how HPL describes actual people he was repulsed by/scared of, the more one sees very little difference in comparison to how he describes his supposedly fictional horrors.
Specifically re: Mountains of Madness, there's a poem (whose name I cannot say here in full without getting rightfully flagged and kicked, and which I have no interest in saying at all) which basically summarizes the origin story of the Old Ones and the Shoggoths but is simply describing his version of the relationship between white people and black people.
(If anyone's gonna look up that poem, it's toward the top of Dr. Okorafor's article "Lovecraft’s racism & The World Fantasy Award statuette, with comments from China Miéville," and that's about the only context I could ever recommend it.)
 
I was curious what the name was, though I could guess what word it contained... and of course I was right
Here's the blog post you mentioned: nnedi.blogspot.com/2011/12/…
:|
 
That poem, ugh
That's something I'd except from a caricatured racist on something like South Park.
 
And that's one reason satire needs to be telegraphed very clearly.
 
^ Aye
 
6:42 AM
(Tangent on the article linked above; "Birth of a Nation" was not as singularly influential as film classes would have us believe.)
 
7:03 AM
Horror authors in the Lovecraftian vein whose works should be derived into an Evil Hat RPG: Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Victor Lavalle, Mira Grant, Aliette de Bodard...
 
We touched on Lovecraft, tangentially, on a discussion with a half-acquaintance who was annoyed by a new player in their table, by said half-acquaintance's words, "insisting on too much political correctness".
 
Oh joy.
I ran into something like that on the Fate Discord server the other day, somebody upset that the new fighting-video-game-inspired Fate World has a half-page about how you don't have to objectify women just because you're doing a fighting game.
On the bright side, I made a new friend and now we're talking safety techniques in the PMs.
 
Our discussion ultimately boiled down to a very good point that I think I'll cherish for a long time --- he defended works he liked based on the fact that entertainment isn't politics. I think it made me understand his view (one that I still disagree with) better.
 
Yeah, I get that perspective.
 
@BESW it does for some reason seem to be extremely common especially in those
I don't think I have played a single one that didn't do it in fact
some more than others but still
I still like em a lot but that's definitely a dark spot on most if not all of that type of game
 
7:14 AM
I also know that for a definition of "politics" that isn't narrowly confined to partisanship, many of the people I game with can't ever just "turn off" being directly and personally affected by the power dynamics surrounding us.
 
yeah
also a fair way to look at it
 
It's an understandable but detrimental perspective. And gets quite nasty if it cuts only one way. You know, how all-white Westerns are a normal, non-political thing but the instant you add a black cowboy it's a diversity add and therefore political.
 
Yeup, and that's exactly the problem: the idea that defaultness in media is a natural state rather than a choice.
 
The way I see it, there's no such thing as a political film. Or "politically touchy" or whatever --- it's not a quality of the film or game or anything but the context around it.
 
I rather feel like the word "political" has lost most of its meaning outside specific agreed-upon jargon contexts.
 
7:18 AM
Yeah
 
Politics (again, not talking about partisanship) are a matter of context. The relationship between things is what the term IS.
 
Yep
 
But until we can find spherical pirates in a vacuum, everything has context. And we live in a world where personal context is the context of power dynamics.
 
7:35 AM
why are the pirates Spherical?
 
[grin] It's from a time somebody was asking for help with a game where everyone had agreed on "pirates" as a theme.
Jan 5 '18 at 21:37, by BESW
Seriously though. Are we talking about Pirates of Caribbean, Muppet Treasure Island, Captain Johnson's A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the most notorious Pyrates, The Pirates of Penzance, Peter Pan, One Piece, Captain Harlock...?
Jan 5 '18 at 21:40, by BESW
These aren't spherical pirates in a vacuum, you all thought "pirate game" sounded good because of some pre-existing notion of pirates. The more you can keep a hand on that shared inspiration, the better your chances of an enjoyable coherent campaign... and the easier it is to identify the themes that your group will be expecting.
A spherical cow is a humorous metaphor for highly simplified scientific models of complex real life phenomena. The implication is that theoretical physicists will often reduce a problem to the simplest form they can imagine in order to make calculations more feasible, even though such simplification may hinder the model's application to reality. The phrase comes from a joke that spoofs the simplifying assumptions that are sometimes used in theoretical physics. Milk production at a dairy farm was low, so the farmer wrote to the local university, asking for help from academia. A multidisciplinary...
 
ah ok
I think I understand now
 
8:28 AM
@BESW oh, didn't know about that metaphor. At least now I know why Sheldon/Leonard mentioned spherical cows in one of the first BBT episodes.
Also morning
and also...
Apr 19 at 9:51, by Derpy
in the meantime..... brought a chocolate Lindt bunny at the office, trying to convince myself that I should wait next week to eat it.
the bunny is gone.
ate it.
now all I have left is the little ribbon with the bell.
 
9:13 AM
@Derpy is the ribbon made of chocolate
 
 
@BESW wish it was.
@V2Blast just a ribbon and a metal bell
 
 
9:35 AM
5
Q: Can a multiclassed druid/rogue benefit from Expertise while in Wild Shape?

L0neGamerThe text concerning changing proficiency bonuses for a druid's Wild Shape feature is as follows: Your game statistics are replaced by the statistics of the beast, but you retain your alignment, personality, and Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma scores. You also retain all of your skill and s...

 
@BESW considering it is raining today, maybe I could use the bell for a terubozu
 
 
4 hours later…
1:25 PM
@BESW slight tangent, my Brother-in-law recently started to get really into reading HPL stuff. And, based on previous conversations here that had blown me away, I told him to be careful of the racism in there. He thought he knew what that was, but I gave him some of the articles here and it similarly blew his mind.
 
8
Q: How would it unbalance gameplay to rule that Weapon Master allows for picking a fighting style?

VadrukContext For a new campaign I'm building a protector aasimar Kensei. We're using the Point Buy system, so being an unarmored monk I managed to raise my default AC to 15 (17 with Agile Parry), at level 3 through: STR 10 DEX 15 CON 14 INT 8 WIS 16 CHA 10 At level 4 I was thinking of taking the We...

 
Morning all :)
 
hellohello
 
hows it going?
 
a little tired.
yourself?
 
1:38 PM
tired as well. I've been sleeping like crap lately
Is this tiredness related to goodbaby5 by any chance?
 
[ SmokeDetector | MS ] Few unique characters in answer, toxic answer detected (168): Can a multiclassed druid/rogue benefit from Expertise while in Wild Shape? by Oliver Wright on rpg.SE (@doppelgreener)
 
Good job smokey.
 
1:55 PM
I find it difficult to take criticism(?) from someone who's profile picture has them (presumably themselves) with a toothbrush in their mouth...
 
I thought that was an...odd choice as well lol
 
we get a post like that once every few months, it's kinda weird
 
Toothbrush and all? or just the poetic nature of their post?
 
Nah this one is rather odd in my memory since they went through the trouble to register and upload a picture even.
This is the first toothbrush-wielding nerd-pwner that I have encountered at least lol
 
I'm not sure about the word 'wielding', but sure
 
2:09 PM
A German man just came into the pub and tried to ask for cutlery but ended up saying "I need some food weapons" and I will now be referring to them by nothing else
 
@Someone_Evil new D&D question "am I wielding my sword if I carry it in my mouth?"
@doppelgreener XD
 
@doppelgreener The only difference between a trident and a fork is ambition
@Rubiksmoose Fortunately off-hand attacks require them held in your other hand
 
@HotRPGQuestions Sorry, cannot upvote an answer that calls Charger or Medium Armor Master an "upper tier feat."
 
@nitsua60 oh dear. I didn't notice that on first read through. Those feats are definitely not worth an ASI right?
 
@Rubiksmoose Which one? The proposed one?
 
2:17 PM
(sorry corrected)
 
@Rubiksmoose 100%..... 80%
 
Charger and MAM I meant.
 
I also stayed up late playing video games... but that was partially to watch the baby
 
@Rubiksmoose Depends; if you want a specific concept, yes, if you want 'general optimization' probably not...
 
@Someone_Evil I meant mechanically worth really, but yeah I can understand why one would be good for a concept.
 
GcL
2:19 PM
@nitsua60 They mean "upper tier" as in "high on the hog". They're feats that only those adventurers with a wealth of feats can afford. It's a luxury feat.
 
@goodguy5 It's good to have excuses (I mean this genuinely)
 
GcL
Like that diamond encrusted butter knife they got enchanted to detect butter
 
@GcL Oh, interesting. So, second-rate feats.
 
@goodguy5 Start-up idea: Parent-strength coffee.
 
GcL
@nitsua60 Maybe call them essentials
@Rubiksmoose That's been done under the generic category "amphetamines"
You used to be able to get them as "diet pills"
 
2:21 PM
If only we had a question around here about ranking feats =)
 
hahahaha yeah but this would be organic, free-range, health amphetamines coffee
 
GcL
I like this plan. Add non-GMO
 
@nitsua60 😭
 
@nitsua60 I mean we're seeing some wildly different opinions on certain feats..
 
GcL
@Someone_Evil Must be opinion based. Close it. /S
 
2:22 PM
1
Q: Would a 5e feat tier list be on-topic?

goodguy5A not dissimilar question is asked here: Feat classification/ranking The PHB only has 42 feats. A main problem with the above question is the volume of feats in 3.x. Would a 5e version be on topic? Should one just ask about specific feats and their goodness? or perhaps lumping them into categ...

( ^^ For those who didn't catch the reference.)
 
I'm definitely considering opening 42 questions
Is the feat ___ Good?
 
At least there is one solid criteria: is it better than an ASI mechanically.
But that "better" is problematic.
 
GcL
@goodguy5 You'll need to define a clear context and evaluation criteria.
Then you'll have to endure a month of me down voting every line of your chats here in response to your cheekiness.
 
@Rubiksmoose Virtually all feats are dependent on play style and for combat-ones specifically will depend on what kind of enemies your DM is prone to.
 
GcL
@Rubiksmoose Only if you leave it undefined.
 
2:25 PM
@GcL Only a month?! I've been doing that for many months already and it has no effect!
 
@goodguy5 It's Chaotic Neutral at best.
 
GcL
@Someone_Evil That could be stated as an assumption.
 
@Someone_Evil Weapon Master is objectively bad
 
GcL
@Rubiksmoose It's like a DC 8 con save. Only Mazrim ever failed it.
 
15
A: Does the Pact of the Blade warlock feature allow me to customize the properties of the pact weapon I create?

RubiksmooseThe properties will be the same as the normal weapon You can choose the form that this melee weapon takes each time you create it (see chapter 5 for weapon options). (PHB 107) Note that the ability explicitly tells you where you look for your options. If the weapon you want isn't listed in ...

 
2:27 PM
@goodguy5 Yes, I had that one in mind when I added 'virtually'
 
@Someone_Evil I would argue that a lot of "balance" question suffer the same thing and we do allow those. However, that is not really a huge endorsement as I think balance questions here are sometimes problematic as well.
 
So much for my Yklwa wielding hexblade.
 
GcL
@goodguy5 Unless the criteria is for narrative purposes and there's a monarch out there that is only hiring adventurers that are certified and feated weapons masters
 
@GcL Then make a different feat that does something better. and have the monarch look for that instead.
 
@goodguy5 Or get a better monarch, this doesn't seem to be quite up to spec.
 
GcL
2:30 PM
@goodguy5 That would be a monarch that is a rational and well balanced manager that knows something about the profession he's hiring out. That would break immersion entirely as it's far too improbable to even include in a fantasy setting.
 
@Someone_Evil I hear if you plant the right flowers you get lots of them.
 
@GcL better yet, introduce a Weapon Mastery Notary.
 
GcL
@goodguy5 Advanced training course to get your weapons mastery certification. Only 500 gp.
 
@Rubiksmoose I think it is easier to be objective about 'this feature breaks if your DM ...' that this 'this feat is bad because DM's rarely/often/etc. ...'. This is particularly around the mid-tier ones...
I guess really such a tier list need to have a lot of carefully constructed criteria/markers to use (if it is to be objective)
 
2:36 PM
@kviiri HNQ optimises for controversy, basically. if something's a roiling pot of drama, it's guaranteed to hit the HNQ. then there's a handful of other things: clickbait titles, or super weird looking Puzzling or PCG entries. a bunch of things make it on there briefly. actually fascinating questions, or upstanding examples of what defines a site, are fairly rare.
this is why i asked if we wanted to opt out of HNQ a few months ago.
 
@Someone_Evil Yeah I'm on board there. I like the idea of this question because I would be interested in seeing how they compare mechanically even if it rests on a lot of assumptions.
 
though in hindsight I'm not surprised people chose to remain in: there are good reasons to remain in HNQ, and I think it was mainly diamond moderation across the network that was noticing those problems (because it was on us to go in and fix it every time dramatic questions blew up thanks to HNQ)
I'm considerably relieved they implemented the additional controls on HNQ. I didn't actually expect those to get completed in any reasonable amount of time.
Looks like the code base changes are remaining a force for good.
 
@doppelgreener Is a kind of voteable 'Don't make this HNQ' a worthwhile idea? Like this Q is perfectly reasonable, but it's a straight rule clarification and should attract attention/'advertise for us'.
 
@Someone_Evil mods have the power to remove a question from HNQ now, if that is what you mean.
 
@doppelgreener That's not the point I was trying to make
 
2:40 PM
@Someone_Evil I'm trying to imagine a seamless way to implement that kind of feature.
 
I mean it seems like our questions, controversial or not, popular or not, seem to be getting hot very easily
 
@Someone_Evil Currently only diamond moderators can remove a question from HNQ. I think it may be beneficial for high-rep users to be able to vote a question off HNQ, but that might actually be bad...
 
I really just think that the HNQ algorithm right now is just really bad at capturing actual hotness. It is like it is trying to anticipate things that might go hot but the majority of them never really do from what I've seen. It is mostly just a bunch of flashes in the pan.
 
I don't disagree with HNQ as a concept but that bot basically links questions that aren't even lukewarm.
 
Unlike closes and reopens, there is no "put back on HNQ" option.
 
2:41 PM
@Rubiksmoose Yeah, I think this is quite well expressed
 
@kviiri Our social drama questions used to very reliably, nearly always, hit HNQ if they discussed anything even a little controvertial.
But a lot of our other questions hit HNQ because our site gets velocity in a way other sites can't: we have a lot of active interested audiences who can read, understand, enjoy, care about, and sensibly vote on almost every question.
 
@Rubiksmoose You would probably need a split mid-tier; possibly 'for certain character concepts' and 'depends on DM-style/monster composistion' or something similar
 
Apr 3 at 18:26, by Rubiksmoose
user image
 
@doppelgreener But if that's the case, shouldn't we have a higher threshold? It seems to me our questions go hot with just an upvote or two, and before they hit triple-digit views.
 
50% of this site's non-closed questions hit HNQ last month.
 
GcL
2:45 PM
@doppelgreener You're giving a collection of humans too much credit. I blame the cats and the music they listen to.
 
@kviiri It's looked like it's around five split between Q and A, a lot of the time
 
@kviiri sounds like that would involve a network-wide change though.
 
To be clear, I'm dissatisfied with the current situation but for entirely the different reasons as before
 
@kviiri @Rubiksmoose Yeah, you can look at other questions from other sites that end up on the list: they're not meaningfully more popular than what we see here hitting the list: dba.stackexchange.com/questions/235469/…
 
@Xirema that is true. I've noticed this for Japanese at least. Though they are much smaller than us I think so I'm not sure how meaningful the comparison is there.
 
2:53 PM
@kviiri I think not so much a higher threshold, but instead an algorithm that looks at more sustained patterns. IIRC, HNQ currently works based on velocity: 15 votes in 10 minutes is fast enough to hit HNQ apparently, but it's not going to last, so we get flashes in the pan. OTOH, 30 votes over an hour is a much better indication of an interesting question.
(despite having overall lower velocity)
@Rubiksmoose as far as I understand, the staff seem interested in replacing the HNQ algorithm.
 
So it's a sorta evolutionary strategy: anything can be detected as hot, but if it's not actually interesting it quickly gets culled?
 
at least I'm picking that up from the last two Main Meta announcements they made about it.
 
3:06 PM
oh that is good. And, now that you say that, I kind of vaguely remember getting that impression as well maybe.
 
 
2 hours later…
5:02 PM
askthehalfelfoc
huh...
I mean, where do you even find a stable internet connection in faerun?
and that said, I anecdotally feel like any time I've ever seen someone refer to a character as "my OC", they're always the same type of people
 
In the context of an rpg, shouldnt all PCs be OCs
The people who choose to replicate characters from other people are ALSO a certain kind of person I suppose
 
@SirCinnamon My character is Drizzle Da'Ruden.
He has two sowrds.
 
5:17 PM
I'm trying to decide what a sowrd is and what it dows
like, is it pig shaped?
Does it plant seeds?
 
@SirCinnamon pre-gens?
 
@SirCinnamon and just because a character IS "oc" doesn't mean one uses the statement "My oc".
If I said to people "I'm going to go pee with my boy parts", everyone would know what I meant, but it would paint me in a different light than if I say "I'm going to go to the bathroom. (or to pee.)"
 
5:35 PM
@goodguy5 I still want to design a time travel campaign based on the Lair Action of the sphinxes sphinges
What does the Realms look like in a modern setting?
 
@goodguy5 I hear the Underdark has great web sites
 
GcL
@Someone_Evil That's because they tend to drow-ned the competition.
I summon @Yuuki with the chant "wordplay wordplay pun pun pun"
 
5:54 PM
@Someone_Evil yea, but it's all the dark web
 
4
Q: Are there existing rules/lore for MTG planewalkers?

RorpI'm a DnD fan and Magic the gathering fan. I'd heard that Wizards of the Coast says that Magic the Gathering planes are Dungeons and Dragons planes, I was so exited and full of idea of adventures. In my research, I didn't see anything about planewalkers from MTG. Is there lore and/or writte...

 
GcL
@goodguy5 That's conducted by onions, no?
 
So... Kara-Tur is the Chinese Dynasties of the Forgotten Realms (even with their own Silk Road called the Golden Way), Faerun and Zakhara are the Europe (including Turkey) and Arabia respectively, and Maztica is mesoamerica. In the next couple centuries, do we see the colonization efforts of Faerunians into the continents near Maztica?
 
GcL
I don't know, but that sounds like waiving matches at the tinder that is fantasy approximation/appropriation of cultures. You want to end up in not-a-bar? because that's how you end up in not-a-bar /S
 
I mean, there are clear influences in the design. Not commenting on the quality of those representations, but they are present.
There is even the Hoardlands between Faerun and Kara-tur (similar to the various nomadic tribes that have controlled the region between Europe and East Asia in our world)
And there is a vast largely uncolonized region between Faerun and the Gulf of Zakhara (emblematic of the role that the Sahara had in separating groups like the Phoenicians from groups like the Egyptians and Greeks if not for boats)
 
GcL
6:16 PM
Do you usually play in the FR setting?
 
@GcL Usually I play in small-scale adventures that take place in homebrew settings. The lore of FR just interests me a lot
(although as I say that, the two campaigns I am currently GMing are within the Realms)
(but that is largely because I've been giving adventure modules a try)
 
GcL
Where abouts in FR are the campaigns?
 
@GcL In the Swords Coast
(Part of Faerun)
 
GcL
How are the adventure modules playing out? What do you like about them?
 
@GcL As a GM I like not having as much work (although I do think adapting to suit the party is important). As a player, though, I haven't enjoyed the module I'm sampling (although it may be the group I'm with, as I did enjoy a mini-campaign before that one which used a module)
I also like that the world has a lot to pull from that can tether the characters to the world. That is hard to replicate in a homebrew setting.
 
GcL
6:21 PM
What about the module you're sampling are you not enjoying?
 
6:31 PM
@GcL The lack of immersion. But I suspect it is because my group spends so much time explorin everyting, as well as treat it more like a video game than a roleplaying game. I.e. they explore everything to try to get whatever advantage they can, rather than seeking out the goals of the group, and solve problems based on the end result rather than the story. It feels very metagamey and its hard to get in character without feeling My Guy-ey when the rest of the group is taking a gamey approach
I think it is just a difference of playstyles
 
Hmm... I get that 5e got rid of the headache of iterative attacks that plagued 3.5e/PF, but is there something that approximates the Vital Strike feat (trading your normal attack cadence for a single big hit)?
 
@GcL For example, they refuse to go another level down (even to chase enemies we would probably want to eliminate and even when we know that it's the next step), because we hadn't explored some hallway on the other side of the current level.
 
@Yuuki Magic Initiate to pick up Booming Blade or Green Flame Blade. :-P
 
I'm all for completionism in video games, but when are goal is to stop an evil curse, time should be more of a focus imo.
 
GcL
@DavidCoffron The modules aren't challenging enough that hitting all the encounters is lethal?
 
6:34 PM
@Yuuki I don't believe there is. Not afeat anyways
 
GcL
I found that to be the case with canned quests. If the characters take more than one path they end up with more encounters than are survivable.
 
@GcL Not the one I'm in, especially when we can just rest (as the party has no sense of urgency fmpov)
 
I don't know that I've ever played in or run a game where a true in-game sense of time pressure was sucessfully implemented.
 
@Yuuki You could just make both attacks and narrate it as one attack (where hitting both deals your massive hit, hitting only one is a partially blocked hit, and hitting none is obviously a miss)\
 
GcL
@DavidCoffron Resting in a dungeon? I usually make that a risky proposition. Like the kobolds make a barricade or ambush when they figure out some noisy adventurers are around.
 
6:37 PM
@Rubiksmoose I don't want time pressure from a game perspective, but just a roleplay perspective. Like, we should be getting to the heart of this tomb as soon as possible to stop the curse, because the longer it lasts, the more people it can harm.
 
One of my favorite build themes in Pathfinder was Vital Strike on a ranged character to simulate sniping.
 
@DavidCoffron ah I see.
 
It sure wasn't optimized for damage, but I liked it.
 
@GcL Well, this is a megadungeon, so there at least has to be some resting. And the party is good at finding safe places to do so
Last long rest was spent in one of the leader's quarters and the people on watch used disguise self to assume that leader's visage and keep other enemies away
 
GcL
@Rubiksmoose I track time of day and days of the month. Usually there's a bonus for finishing in under the estimated time, and sometimes a destroyed/dead/missing mcguffin at the end if they loiter.
 
6:39 PM
@GcL how do you convey that to the characters?
 
GcL
@DavidCoffron I like that. Clever. You only get one long rest per 24 hours, no?
 
@GcL Correct
But the dungeon isn't dangerous enough to require more fmpov
 
GcL
@Rubiksmoose Oh, if there is a time sensitive manner... broadcast with more than a few on the nose hints. Sometimes a banner or rally. I'm not one for being subtle about important mechanics.
 
@Yuuki You could very easily simulate that using what I suggested. If you hit one ranged attack only, your "snipe" was off a bit. If you hit both, you hit the "precise point". And a miss on both is a miss
 
Good call. I find subtlty is often lost on players, through no fault of their own.
 
GcL
6:40 PM
Or like... if there's a fire danger... a few charred corpses and gouts of flame or someone saying "there's a lot of fire down there, so you know"
They procured potions of fire resistance... yay! Then didnt' use them... boo
 
@GcL Sometimes I'll just outright tell them. Like I'll say "familiar with the scent of fire in your nomadic life, you know there is fire down there" (even if I don't have a way of conveying in through blatant clues)
Or "the longer you spend in the cave, the closer the enemy gets to pushing through the pass to reach the prince's envoy. You suspect any longer than 4 hours and the prince's small guard-force will be overwhelmed"
 
GcL
I like those hints. Seem straight forward enough.
 
@GcL Followed by a rollable token in the corner if it's in roll20 to repsent the time remaining, or a display on my tablet if in person
 
@DavidCoffron I like it. And the fact that Extra Attack only gives you one more attack rather than the slew of iteratives that you had in 3.5e/PF definitely makes it easier to manage.
 
GcL
@DavidCoffron Seems like a lot of chiseling.
 
6:52 PM
@GcL No, you just give a rough idea after every meaningful event
 
GcL
@Yuuki Was 3.5 the one where you got more attacks depending on your total bonus to hit
 
Yeah.
 
GcL
Like +7/+2 or +12/+7/+2
That was annoying
 
Every time you hit a threshold of +5, you'd get another attack with a -5 to hit.
 
Roll20's permanently reducing the price of the MM and several D&D adventures on their marketplace: reddit.com/r/dndnext/comments/bgjs1w/…
 
6:53 PM
@GcL Especially if you were Two-Weapon Fighting and/or had some way of getting more attacks (Rapid Shot, etc).
 
GcL
After their whole silencing dissenters on reddit and their own forums, I'm steering clear of roll20
 
On the other hand, some redditors really should be silenced.
 
@GcL So after a fight, you take off 10 minutes. After an exploration encounter, maybe it took 30, so you take off 3 10 minute intervals. Maybe a conversation took 20 minutes, so you take off that
 
GcL
@Yuuki The threat range for crits could be as low as 17 or 16 as well.
 
@GcL Critfishing builds were definitely dumb but I also liked Butterfly Sting builds.
 
GcL
6:54 PM
@DavidCoffron yeah... the amount of rock dust would bother me. Unless your wet chiseling, but then you've got to have plastics down everywhere or in a tub.
@Yuuki You make an abomination of a wasp and a butterfly? What kind of evil wizard did you play?!?
 
@GcL I like the sense of knowing you're at the halfway mark and when you're 30 minutes left and still haven't seen the exit (even if it's right around the corner). It makes the party really change priorities.
 
@GcL Why is your word association "sting" to "wasp"?
What kind of monster thinks "wasp" instead of cute and adorable bees?
 
GcL
@Yuuki Because bees are generally pretty nice and wasps are mean.
 
Well, bees are helpful and that's what the Butterfly Sting build is.
 
GcL
Bees... not very stingy really. Wasps are very stingy.
 
6:59 PM
You essentially critfish for other people.
 
GcL
They die after they sting?
That's kind of a crap build for a player character. "ah ha! <stab> <die>"
 
Whenever you confirm a critical hit, you pass that confirmed crit to an ally.
 
GcL
So you stab through two people? Seems like it should be called the shish-ka-bob build
 
You deal normal damage and they get to deal critical damage. I used to run it on Rogues all the time and pass crits off to a Barbarian or something.
> Butterfly Sting
Prerequisite: Combat Expertise, worship of the associated deity.

Benefit: When you confirm a critical hit against a creature, you can choose to forgo the effect of the critical hit and grant a critical hit to the next ally who hits the creature with a melee attack before the start of your next turn. Your attack only deals normal damage, and the next ally automatically confirms the hit as a critical.
 
GcL
That is one of the worst names for a feat.
Naming is hard and all, but that's particularly bad.
 
7:02 PM
It has to do with the prerequisite "worship of the associated deity".
The associated deity in this case is Desna, whose symbol is a butterfly.
 
GcL
I like it even less now that I know it's an inside joke that requires external context to get and has been codified into a feat name.
 
I like the effect though.
 
GcL
Like hidden achievements. Take this feat and hope you worship the associated diety.... but were not telling which one!
 
I definitely enjoyed using it.
 
3
Q: Does the doubled proficiency for Charisma checks against dragons via Dragon Ancestor apply to all dragon types or only the chosen one?

shimaritsuI wanted to know if the x2 proficiency to Charisma checks in Dragon Ancestor is applied to all dragons or only the selected dragon ancestry. Additionally, whenever you make a Charisma check when interacting with dragons, your proficiency bonus is doubled if it applies to the check. Thank you

 
7:18 PM
Question: how (un)balanced is the Raven Queen UA warlock patron? media.wizards.com/2017/dnd/downloads/…
 
except for the lameness of of Soul of the Raven, seems fine (as in, it's basically a get out of jail free card)
I wish it said what happened if you were damaged while merged.
 
yeah, 6th-level feature is really good for escape and the like... and 10th-level features gives immunity to frightened, and advantage on death saves (and resistance to necrotic)
 
@V2Blast I consider gaining spiritual weapon in the Expanded Spell List to a bit unbalancing. Not sure if overall it makes it much stronger than official options (I haven't done a cost benefit analysis on it), but that should not be underestimated as warlocks are one of the most bonus action light classes and gaining access to a very powerful bonus action option is very strong.
@V2Blast And are you also asking about the patron Invocations? because some of those are ridiculous (or are you saying that there is no access to the Raven Queen ones since the other ones were never made available anyway)
 
@DavidCoffron specifically the patron features themselves, not the invocations
 
7:38 PM
@V2Blast Looking it over, I'm almost inclined to say it is a little underpowered, at least in games I'm used to (although maybe spiritual weapon makes up for its low combat focus). The perception bonus is incredibly nice although I doubt a warlock typically has high Wisdom and Charisma. I find that death saves (the most important part of the level 10 feature) rarely are particularly important that late in the level progression. And finger of death once per day is pretty solid,...
... but it's not that strong in the grand scheme of things
In the right situations, the patron is very strong, but overall I'd say it is middling at best.
No balance issues at my first glance.
 
GcL
7:59 PM
Yeah... looks like it's a free familiar and darkvision plus a limited wildshape?
 
@GcL And Charisma-based Perception. Plus the "limited wild shape" has a very different function
 
8:13 PM
@GcL a "Wild Shape" 2 levels before druids can even Wild Shape into something with a flying speed
@DavidCoffron not "Charisma-based", exactly - it's an additional bonus to your Perception checks on top of your regular modifier
 
8:38 PM
@V2Blast Yeah, but when was the last time your warlock had meaningful wisdom and charisma
 
@Rubiksmoose I'm glad it helped him see that stuff more clearly; I'm sorry it's there to see.
 
8:53 PM
> "Right. So, it's pop-culturally quite well known that Lovecraft was a bit Xenophobic, and I do remember reading some pretty bad stuff, but it was awhile ago that I read it, and I'm sure it can't be as bad as I rememWHAT THE F--- IS 'NAUTICAL-LOOKING' SUPPOSED TO MEAN, HOWARD??? WHAT DOES IT EVEN MEAN????"—Hbomberguy, Outsiders: How to Adapt H.P. Lovecraft in the 21st Century
 
9:04 PM
@Xirema As bad as his fiction is (and Red Hook is baaaad), one doesn't really get the full effect until reading his letters to friends; then it becomes clear that his mistreatment of various groups of people in his stories is quite restrained, and it's his monsters where he shows how he really feels about other people.
 
Arcanum Worlds (who's also behind that Odyssey of the Dragonlords kickstarter), a group of ex-BioWare folks including the lead designer of Baldur's Gate I and II (James Ohlen), just put up their Heroes of Baldur's Gate adventure on DMsGuild: https://www.dmsguild.com/product/269398/Heroes-of-Baldurs-Gate-5e

It's set in and around Baldur's Gate (obviously), with extensive city and region maps, and features some classic NPCs. PDF version is $20, hardcover is $45, and bundle of both is $55.
 
9:20 PM
[sigh] I want a lot of the mechanics in Fate of Cthulhu.
 

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