Actually, that prompts a question to the room: I'd love to hear from some people who really feel strongly about playing a particular RPG. (It doesn't matter which one, I believe.) I'm a player who gets 90% of my fun from sitting around a table with my friends and spending some time chatting and playing elves or whatever; my actual preferences among systems lie somewhere down around how comfortable the chairs/table are in terms of influencing my decision on whether to participate.
So, in the interest of learning more about people who have fun in different ways than me: if you find that the choice of RPG has a really strong impact on whether you're going to enjoy a session/group, do you mind pinging me to describe that experience a bit? I'm super-curious.
@nitsua60 I have a friend who doesn't quite fit that description, but close--he feels very strongly about playing games like Pathfinder and D&D 4e, and it's because of the specific type of complexity in their character creation. You get a lot of pre-made parts that fit together in ways that are determinable but often unexpected, and the complexity is so large not all of the combinations have been documented.
He loves that "tinkering with pre-made pieces to create something new and unintended" element.
A hybrid of system mastery and expressiveness, then? Getting to know the fiddly bits very well not out of a need to "beat" anyone/anything, but to see what can be made?
Yeah. He wants to be able to say "Hey guys, look at THIS!" and demonstrate mastery in a way that surprises everyone else at the table. If a system doesn't have that element, he doesn't feel satisfied.
@trogdor Not necessarily. I'm not looking as much for "I must play foo to be happy!" as I am "the choice of which game we're playing very strongly influences whether I'll have fun." Which, I assume, is a superset of the first, but not the same as.
@nitsua60 I can think of examples similar to what BESW said - players who enjoy constructing Frankensteins out of the system's mechanics, using weird-but-fair combos of the system rules. Even if the resulting character is gimmicky or a one trick pony, they get real excited about it when they show it off.
Aside from that, other players seem more swayed by the DM/players/story/weather versus the system itself to determine their enjoyment of a game.
I don't really feel strongly about it, but I haven't played much outside D&D 5e (and hacks of it, such as Hyperlanes and Adventures in Middle-earth) as well as 2 sessions of Lancer. And a session of Honey Heist :P (Not including the few sessions of whatever I played a few times ages ago in college.) I haven't tried a wide enough variety of RPGs to express strong preferences around it.
I can confirm that I don't really need the "tinkering with pre-made pieces to create something new and unintended" element to have fun though :P
Background
You can skip to the end for a (very) short summary though...
We are a group of good friends, we've all known each other for 7+ years, since high school, and have been playing DnD since then, first 3.5 and then recently 5th edition.
One of the players, let's call him John (who also DM...
Something someone pointed out in the /r/dndnext server: You can pick cantrips using the regular bard's Magical Secrets feature. Magical Secrets says:
> By 10th level, you have plundered magical knowledge from a wide spectrum of disciplines. Choose two spells from any classes, including this one. A spell you choose must be of a level you can cast, as shown on the Bard table, or a cantrip.
The chosen spells count as bard spells for you and are included in the number in the Spells Known column of the Bard table.
if you pick a cantrip with Magical Secrets, how does it interact with the number of spells known (and number of cantrips known)?
I'd ask on mainsite but I'm not sure it's actually addressed by the rules and I couldn't find any relevant ruling so the answers would just be opinions
@V2Blast Curiously, the verbiage is different for Lore's Additional Magical Secrets, which says "The chosen spells count as bard spells for you but don't count against the number of bard spells you know".
Because you gave up access to a higher level spell to get that one.
Well, you replace a different spell with that spell. Are you asking if it replaces a cantrip? or if the cantrip replaces a slot 1-9 spell?
there's a poster at GiTP who explained this a few years back and it made perfect sense to me. I need to find that post. Tomorrow, that will take some searchng.
It's not a question of balance, it's a literal question of "how does this interact with the number of spells known (and the number of cantrips known) specified in the table".
@KorvinStarmast I think the concern is the table has one column for cantrips, and another column for bard spells, up to six of which maybe other classes' cantrips.
@V2Blast Magical Secrets only lets you choose two spells (that may be cantrips) to count as bard spells for you = add the them to the bard spell list. You (can) then choose to learn them as part of your spellcasting feature. I definitely think this should be asked on main so you (and others) can get a properly fleshed out answer.
We're playing D&D 5E. The party consists of 5 players, all currently level 11 (however, I've noticed this problem since they were level 8).
I've been using the Goblinist random encounter generator and the Kobold Fight Club encounter builder to build encounters. However, the party has been slic...
Petrification not explicitly mentioned in the long description but it fits as a "curse" or "transmutation", and the short description in the spell lists does say "Frees subjects from enchantments, alterations, curses, and petrification."
it's also just better than Stone to Flesh for this since it's lower level and doesn't come with a chance that the sucker dies.
Weapons with the Thrown property can be utilised as both a Melee as well as a Ranged weapons. When used as a Melee weapon you base the attack+damage rolls on Strength, otherwise on Dexterity (unless it's a Finesse weapon, in which case you decide).
My question:
1) Why don't I see this reflected...
It's been established that an 2019 UA artificer infusing Repeating Shot on a hand crossbow does not need a free hand to reload it, as it produces its own ammunition (and the weapon itself is not two-handed).
If one were to infuse two hand crossbows with this infusion, would the artificer, or ano...
Every time Ultimate Magus is mentioned on a forum, someone adds that Versatile Spellcaster would be great with it. I do not see how.
The Versatile Spellcaster feat (Races of the Dragon, p. 101) says:
You can use two spell slots of the same level to cast a spell you know that is one level hig...
Background
You can skip to the end for a (very) short summary though...
We are a group of good friends, we've all known each other for 7+ years, since high school, and have been playing DnD since then, first 3.5 and then recently 5th edition.
One of the players, let's call him John (who also DM...
We're playing D&D 5E. The party consists of 5 players, all currently level 11 (however, I've noticed this problem since they were level 8).
I've been using the Goblinist random encounter generator and the Kobold Fight Club encounter builder to build encounters. However, the party has been slic...
Weapons with the Thrown property can be utilised as both a Melee as well as a Ranged weapons. When used as a Melee weapon you base the attack+damage rolls on Strength, otherwise on Dexterity (unless it's a Finesse weapon, in which case you decide).
My question:
1) Why don't I see this reflected...
Every time Ultimate Magus is mentioned on a forum, someone adds that Versatile Spellcaster would be great with it. I do not see how.
The Versatile Spellcaster feat (Races of the Dragon, p. 101) says:
You can use two spell slots of the same level to cast a spell you know that is one level hig...
