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MikeQ
MikeQ
12:54 AM
@Axoren Math? Having the foresight to consider the consequences of things you put in a game?
Experience is a good teacher, and learning to identify patterns of good and bad design, so things can be balanced in advance
For example, while fighting against 14 goblins may seem plausible in an action movie, it doesn't translate to turn-based gameplay. Some fuzzy math is involved: if the enemies get up to 14 turns per round, and combat encounters usually last several rounds, then that's going to be a slow and deadly encounter.
@Axoren In theory, enemy scaling vs player scaling shouldn't be across the board. The player should feel more able to handle old threats, but still be challenged by new threats. Of course in practice this isn't always the case.
 
BESW
BESW
1:24 AM
@Axoren I wouldn't call it a mistake. It's a choice about the gameplay experience, and it's a choice a lot of people like. But there are also systems which make other choices.
Many games think that maintaining an even level of relative opposition across days/weeks/months of gameplay is a desirable experience, and that the increased challenge comes from managing an ever-growing set of options.
D&D-like games, in fact, are less prone to this than a lot of CRPGs, because they include the option to face foes with lower complexity and numerical advantage.
There are even D&D-likes which build this into the GM's monster-management system in clever ways to allow feeling awesome in the face of large groups, like 4e's "minion" feature.
But there are other games where complexity is divorced from numerical advancement, or don't even have numerical advancement at all, or have numerical advancement that's not proportional between PCs and opponents.
Or weird outliers like Golden Sky Stories where numerical advancement over the course of the session is loosely and irregularly tied to numerical advancement over the course of the campaign.
Or Lady Blackbird where advancement often involves replacing kinds of complexities, and even the most linear numerical progress is closely tied to increasingly complex narrative competencies rather than pure number-adding.
But even these are not refutations of linear numerical progress; they're alternatives.
 
SmokeDetector
SmokeDetector
1:41 AM
 
Powerdork
Powerdork
1:52 AM
Blacklisted user?
 
MikeQ
MikeQ
According to smokey there was a spam link in one of their posts
 
GcL
GcL
2:44 AM
@Axoren I like throwing some re-hashes of old encounters at players to illustrate how far above their low level beginnings they are. Also is a good excuse to run into some old NPCs that were relatively powerful, but are now beholden to the players.
 
V2Blast
V2Blast
3:20 AM
@MikeQ Looks like it was a link to Anyflip.com where someone had rehosted the PHB. It was in this answer (since deleted by the author, so only those with 10k rep can see it and its revision history): rpg.stackexchange.com/a/165280/33569
 
Medix2
Medix2
dnd-5e question, is there some part of the rules that says a spell must use the spellcasting ability modifier, attack roll (etc), of the class casting that spell? (I just can't seem to find it anywhere)
 
V2Blast
V2Blast
CJ Leung of the YouTube channel Don't Stop Thinking made a video about how he might reimagine the Forgotten Realms' analogues of China - Shou Lung and T'u Lung (apparently it's the first in a series of videos about doing so for Kara-Tur in general):
 
nitsua60
nitsua60
@NautArch did you mention stropping a razor during the other day's shaving discussion? I think this guy's got an even better method for you: youtu.be/xiCUSZI-ttw?t=180
 
Medix2
Medix2
3:57 AM
Found the answer to my question, nevermind
 
V2Blast
V2Blast
4:10 AM
> Each spell you know and prepare is associated with one of your classes, and you use the spellcasting ability of that class when you cast the spell. Similarly, a spellcasting focus, such as a holy symbol, can be used only for the spells from the class associated with that focus.
 
Medix2
Medix2
Yeah I found that as well, thank you though!
 
 
3 hours later…
Hot RPG Questions
Hot RPG Questions
7:23 AM
4
Q: Is probability of succeeding an opposed check the same when the second check is passive?

enkryptorAn "opposed check" is a well-known kind of check in many games, when two opponents roll dice, add modifier and compare results. It differs from a convenient dice roll when you compare your result against a constant number (DC, target number or whatever). There is also a concept of "passive check...

dnd-5e dice statistics
 
 
3 hours later…
Hot RPG Questions
Hot RPG Questions
10:11 AM
3
Q: Do the temporary hit points I get each turn from the UA Order of the Immortal Mystic's Psionic Resilience feature stack?

KeylaleighRight now I am playing a Mystic (UA), and I have chosen the Order of the Immortal as my discipline. The Psionic Resilience subclass feature gives me temporary hit points equal to my Int mod at the start of each turn; my Intelligence score is 20, so I get 5 temp HP each turn. If I have gained tem...

dnd-5e unearthed-arcana stacking temporary-hit-points mystic
 
 
3 hours later…
NautArch
NautArch
1:40 PM
@nitsua60 ha! I'm a town guy. But I haven't graduated to a straight razor. Just use the disposable safety blades.
 
 
2 hours later…
Rock Stone
Rock Stone
3:15 PM
Unfortuately, as a DM, I'm not the creative type. I'm looking for ideas on how an animal would respond to Speak with Animals; what words would they use, grammar, etc. How would it sound to the user, and to the rest of his party? I have a ranger that uses it occasionally, and he asks questions that I think are beyond the animal's understanding, so I'm stuck for a response.
 
vicky_molokh- unsilence Monica
vicky_molokh- unsilence Monica
@RockStone Well for starters, grammar is language-specific, so is just translated into a proper form in the other language by whatever magic does the translating.
 
NautArch
NautArch
4:05 PM
@RockStone I'd think of more simplistic responses. Complicated questions they won't be able to answer.
But then again, I make my dogs 'talk' all the time. So maybe they are more eloquent :P
 
nitsua60
nitsua60
4:30 PM
38
Q: The Follow Questions and Answers feature is now live across the Network

Yaakov EllisWe are happy to announce that the previously announced follow question and answer feature is now live across the Network, including Stack Overflow, all Stack Exchange sites, and all Meta sites. (International Stack Overflow sites will have it turned on in a day or two once we have translations al...

discussion announcements follow-post
2
@NautArch I don't know if I'm a town guy or not. I can see town--or, at least, some churches' steeples--from my study. But there's a farm and a river between me and there. "Outskirts," I guess.
 
Rock Stone
Rock Stone
5:10 PM
So what would the response from a dog be to "Is there a cave/dungeon around here?" Or from a spider? See, I'm just having a real hard time imagining how they think. I suppose I could just handwave it and tell the PCs what they want to know, but there's no RP, and it seems like that would make it too easy for the PCs if they could just get easy info wherever they go.
 
NautArch
NautArch
@nitsua60 moreso that my hands aren't calloused enough to use them like a strop
@RockStone mountain hole?
 
Hot RPG Questions
Hot RPG Questions
6:15 PM
1
Q: Can an aarakocra grapple using their feet?

squidCan an aarakocra grapple using their feet? I've gotten into debates on this subject. Some (including myself) say that it should be possible to do. However, most - if not all - of the DMs I play with disagree. They state that a fly speed of 50 feet is game-breaking as it is, and that being able t...

dnd-5e grapple aarakocra
 
nitsua60
nitsua60
6:54 PM
@RockStone I tend to play them as just slightly-exaggerated versions of any other NPC I play. (While, admittedly, I feel NPC roleplay is the weakest part of my gm-game.) One'll come across as vaguely drunkish, another overly-distractable, another hypercompetent, another abrasive.... The "animal" part of them then informs the what of what they're saying. (Or the what of how they're their trait. Nosing around in a pack, scurrying out of the light, &c.)
 
Helwar
Helwar
7:19 PM
Guys, making a character dor D&D5e here, I rolled twice and have to choose an array of stats. Wich one would you pick?

[14,14,14,13,12,11] (wich is a total of +8 bonus, but kinda meh stats)
[17,15,12,11,9,8] (wich is a +5... but at least 2 of the abilities are a little bit high up)
 
Someone_Evil
Someone_Evil
@Helwar What sort of character are you looking at?
 
Helwar
Helwar
I dunno really, I have just been invited to this one. I was thinking a dragonborn fighter, just because it's the first thing that came to mind
maybe Battlemaster? Or Gunslinger if the others are all melee
I just know one of my partners is an Hexblade :/
 
Someone_Evil
Someone_Evil
When looking at a fighter character especially, I like to ask: what other aspects define the character for your (and for this discussion: does that aspect "need" an ab.score representation)?
 
Helwar
Helwar
hum, going more into the RP and justify it like that
 
Someone_Evil
Someone_Evil
Well.. I'd expect some feet put down if you made a leader-type character with a low charisma for instance
 
Helwar
Helwar
7:26 PM
haha ok, makes sense
I think I'll wait to know what the others do, and figure then If I can drop 2 ability scores to improve the others, or I need an all rounder?
 
MikeQ
MikeQ
@Helwar Do you know what level(s) the character will be? Accounting for ability score increases could help you decide which array to use.
 
Helwar
Helwar
Lvl 1
 
MikeQ
MikeQ
Level 1 and no advancement?
 
Helwar
Helwar
hum, we'll see if this goes on or not, lvl 1 for the moment
 
ordi
ordi
Do you need to make an active perception check to detect a Gelatinous Cube or you can use your passive?
 
Someone_Evil
Someone_Evil
7:31 PM
@ordi I believe you use your constitution traditionally
 
Helwar
Helwar
@ordi DM's call?
 
Someone_Evil
Someone_Evil
This might be useful:
18
Q: When hiding, what value is the Stealth check compared against?

Andrew StephensI've just bought a starter set, and I'm struggling a little to understand the concept of hiding. Do I roll 1d20 + Dexterity (Stealth) when I first want to hide, and note down the number - then, for each turn that a creature is actively looking, roll a Wisdom (Perception) check for it and compare...

dnd-5e skills stealth
 
ordi
ordi
7:44 PM
thank
 
NautArch
NautArch
@ordi I'd make it passive unless they are actively looking for some reason
 
 
3 hours later…
BESW
BESW
11:09 PM
Solos & Duets. A bundle of one-player (and a couple two-player) tabletop rpgs & larps, hosted by Lucian Kahn (@oh_theogony) with content from anna anthropy, astrolingus, jeeyonshim, Lucian Kahn (@oh_theogony), Meguey & Vincent Baker, et al.
 

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