@NautArch Hm. They may also be mistaking SE questions for a conversation and that edit is a response to the answer, like "Okay, that works, but what about no multiclassing"?
Question about that AL-Heavy Armor Proficiency question: you can take feats like Lightly Armored -> Moderately Armored -> Heavily Armored in a row to get the proficiency, right? Does AL prevent that in any way?
I'm not sure it is a rant, but it certainly doesn't seem like we can be of much help there. Roll better? Don't get put in tricky situations where a saving throw will kill you?
Can be addressed by 3 part answer: - Test the d20 by recording roll statistics. Maybe it's badly weighted. - Out-of-game talk to DM about consequences of nat 1s - In-game take measures to get advantage and avoid low rolls
@Rubiksmoose Oh, that's how I read it. I rolled a 1 on a save, so then this horrible thing happened .Not "I took my damage for failure and we moved on"
Re point 2 - By RAW, rolling a nat 1 does not mean "worst case scenario occurs", however DMs of certain styles may play that way. If that's so, and it's causing trouble for the group, then a discussion is needed.
I think the question probably needed some focus and editing to get good answers. I suspect that it would have just gotten closed as written. I think it could have been fine once edited to be more focused on what out of all those issues they actually wanted help solving and what "solved" looked like to them.
Honestly I'm more concerned with the way the DM was saving the character. That wouldn't fly at my table for D&D, but definitely can see it being an expectation at some tables. It seems there was some disconnect there.
I've always wanted to play D&D before, and recently I finally found an online play-by-chat group I can play with regularly. I spent a lot of time chatting with them and building up a fun noble bright paladin that I thought would be cool and heroic, and always try to be a shining example of good b...
@Rubiksmoose I can't see the question, but a "save ex machina" (falling a large distance and landing somewhere impossibly soft, being swept up by a sudden ally, etc.) is very much a heroic fantasy trope, isn't it?
@ACuriousMind It can be! And for some types of play you should explicitly agree to that. However, some groups prefer the (at least perceived) risk of actual harm to create tension in the story and help things feel more dramatic.
To cross genres (and games) a bit, I totally did this when I ran Masks (a game about teenage superheros). I told them you aren't going to die in this game. Death is a part of the world and civilians and you might be injured grievously, but you can count on not dying. Because that was the story I wanted to tell. It is more about them growing then if they survive or not.
For our D&D game however, we agreed as a table that if we did dumb things we would prefer to have our characters die than the DM break immersion to save us.
@Rubiksmoose Sure, it's a matter of playstyle. And there's an in-between point where the GM will not kill PCs anti-climactically where they were just climbing and fell (thought that begs the question why you made them roll in the first place), but definitely will kill them during a tense escape or climactic fight.
@ACuriousMind Yup. It seems like this DM had a different idea of this expectation than the table though since they were reportedly getting annoyed by the combination of the character almost dying all the time and them being miraculously saved all the time.
I recently came across the following issue in a homebrew campaign setting, and am unsure how it would work RAW:
Our Warlock had used Minions of Chaos to summon a Fire Elemental via Conjure Elemental. Shortly after this we entered the Feywild, leaving the minion on guard duty on the Prime Materia...
Rereading that question, it appears to be a confluence of several factors:
1. The DM thinks "Natural 1→Something reality-bendingly awful needs to happen" 2. But the DM doesn't want to play a game where players lose their characters every few sessions 3. But the DM doesn't want to renege on point 1.
Point 3 is why I, as DM, decided to change the [houseruled] Critical Success/Critical Failure rules used at my table. Because in theory, I like the small chance of something incredible[-ly good/bad] happening, but a 10% chance per roll was far too frequent.
@Xirema When I DM'd, I tried to keep possible outcomes within an expected range. Crit fails were narrated as "uh oh" moments but (usually) didn't incur additional consequences.
@MikeQ I changed my rules to "something major happens!" but they can only occur while the character has Advantage/Disadvantage, and only on particular rolls, so the odds of getting a critical success or failure is only ~5% and only when you have Advantage or Disadvantage respectively.
So for normal [non-attack] rolls, there's no critical anything.
@MikeQ The odds of rolling a natural 20 go to 9.75%. But my rules require more than just getting a natural 20. The other roll has to also be high enough to succeed on the roll normally.
Someone suggested those rules to me in a chat here awhile back.
Ran the numbers, liked what I saw, so I kept them.
I am playing a Shadowcaster in a 3.5e Forgotten Realms campaign and I took Still Mystery at 1st level, which lets me cast mysteries without the use of somatic components. What is the benefit of being able to do that?
@GcL I don't have a guide, but usually they're some variation of a minor narrative complication, such as other creatures noticing their blunder. I've also done the "you drop your weapon... and catch it", which only works once, for obvious reasons.
@GcL It really varies by context, and whether adding complications to the situation would make it more engaging or just more tedious
Let's say we have a spy that has been True Polymorphed into a sheep (to blend in, obviously). The spy originally knew Common + some other languages. As a sheep, though, she can only bleat.
True Polymorph includes in the description (emphasis mine):
The target's game statistics, including me...
Is there any way for an Adventurers League character in the 8th season of AL to gain heavy armor proficiency?
My level 5 wizard has no armor proficiencies, and the only way I found to get it was the following: Multiclass into fighter or barbarian and then gain the Heavily Armored feat.
Are ther...
I am playing a Shadowcaster in a 3.5e Forgotten Realms campaign and I took Still Mystery at 1st level, which lets me cast mysteries without the use of somatic components. What is the benefit of being able to do that?
Let's say we have a spy that has been True Polymorphed into a sheep (to blend in, obviously). The spy originally knew Common + some other languages. As a sheep, though, she can only bleat.
True Polymorph includes in the description (emphasis mine):
The target's game statistics, including me...
Is there any way for an Adventurers League character in the 8th season of AL to gain heavy armor proficiency?
My level 5 wizard has no armor proficiencies, and the only way I found to get it was the following: Multiclass into fighter or barbarian and then gain the Heavily Armored feat.
Are ther...
