You might also like i'm sorry did you say street magic by Caro Asercion. It's a collaborative GMless city-building story game that just got an uplift from a Kickstarter campaign.
There's some conversations on social media right now about the portrayal of orcs in D&D. Most of it is a trash fire of name-calling and bad faith that I'm very glad this space isn't gonna dignify with pretending it's worth dissecting. I'm just gonna link to this compilation of resources on the subject by Amr Ammourazz and strongly recommend not reading the replies.
DREAMSCAPES vol. zero: The Thousand Cousins, a system-agnostic setting about DIASPORA ELVES and reclaiming a home and a heritage that has fallen to environmental disaster. By Carly M. Ho.
Without adamantine armor a critical hit is an auto hit regardless of AC. Though sage advice ruled that a "Improved/Superior critical" attack auto hits when it lands on 18 or 19 BECAUSE it's a critical hit unlike in PHB where the nat 20 auto hit is an entirely different wording
So my question is ...
Wall of Force can be cast as a dome. If I choose to trap an opponent in this way, is there a saving throw?
The spell description does not list one.. So I know there isn't one RAW; But I'd like to know what the popular wisdom is.
@nitsua60 I guess my questions would be: "Are you able to provide me your roll as a single number, instead of a sum of dice and modifier?" and "Are you able to add up damage dice quickly?" (and maybe "Can you get ready and know what you need to roll and gather your dice before your turn comes?")
Or "can you actually roleplay and live with a suboptimal but flavorful character?"
The vampire, being the intelligent undead he is(was?), ignored the guy wielding Blackrazor, because he knew he wasn't a threat and went after Wave's wielder. Success on the charm took that guy out of the fight. BUt because he still remained friendly to his ally's as well, he went with unarmed strikes rather than using Wave against them.
It really was a TPK, but I pulled back so they could win. COnsidered doing TPK and leaving them all outside the dungeon without the legendary items. BUt I wanted to give them something big for completing the dungeon and able to trade for Rare items for the whole party.
But between the damage from the bites taking out max HP and turning the attackers to his side, it's a dangerous combo. And the HP regen each round. Warlock had cast Wall of Light and got enough charges out of it to keep the vamp from regenerating, though. That was a good move.
But the good for the gander rulings didn't sit well at one point.
I let the Barbarian grapple me and put me into the wall of light. But then I did thes ame thing to the warlock and they didn't like it.
And I never summoned the swarms of bats. Was just the vampire against 4 PCs. ANd a flesh golem. Bu they totally forgot about the flesh golem. Had they used it, it'd have been a much easier fight for them.
@nitsua60 yeah, forgetting to use the golem was a HUGE mistake. It also didn't help when Blackrazor forced it's wielder to choose between attacking an undead and possibly killing himself or unattuning.
Yeah, something like holding back an AoE that then never gets used or forgetting to rage (or blowing rages on trivial, earlier stuff) or the like totally overwhelm encounter design, IME. Likewise, then, GM's tactical choices can "re-balance" on the fly much easier than anything else.
My biggest problem as a DM is when I forget the things my characters can do. Like, last BBEG didn't even use bardic music, despite there being six simulacrums of the BBEG in the room.
@Zachiel all the time! This is one of the first battles where I didn't forget stuff (although i do think I forgot to regenerate once early on.)
This was the first time my tactical changes to prevent hte TPK didn't feel right. I played the Vampire intelligently, which I often don't do. It makes a huge difference.
But players not knowing their own characters is a huge issue. I think @nitsua60 hit it on the head with the major impact of that during combat.
In my other game where I'm a player, we've got a new player who i'mnot sure is working out. First time playing, went with wizard, doesn't seem to know or want to learn anything AND has audio issues with her setup.
Unrelated: I should like to borrow the creative hive mind of chat: I should like general fantasy drinks which are orderable from a tavern. Humorous is ok (and preferred), but I want it to scan even if you don't get the joke/reference (eg. Lancre Cider rather than scumble). First on my list is "Grog's orc grog" if it helps set the tone.
There's always that one regional drink that even the locals don't touch, and refer to it as some kind of machine cleaning fluid
Some taverns may also name drinks (or meal platters) after famous heroes or other contemporary figures
If there's some war or schism going on, different drinks may be associated with different sides (and prompt bar fights if someone orders the wrong drink in the wrong tavern!)
It's a list where players can choose or roll to decide one, and ideally without having to do a lot of paddling to decide what it is (and I for one don't know what Magic Hat would be)
Related, I own the GMT Games wargame Cuba Libre and I do have to remind my friends that despite the opportunity for pun, it's not exactly a game to drink with :P (owing to its relatively complex rules)
It might be a translation deal, though. The Finnish translation translates "pipe weed" as "piippukessu", where "piippu" means pipe and "kessu" is a folk name for this actual tobacco plant: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicotiana_rustica
So, I was looking through the cheese collection and found this question about fastest move speed in one turn. Can anyone explain why it's too broad/needs more focus?
My problem with these theoretical questions is that they can be fun or interesting, but without a grounding in an actual problem, then you need to put in all this artificial constraints in order to answer it. But then the constraints and methods used may not ever come up in play, so for me they really aren't interesting.
@Himitsu_no_Yami Then do they mean farthest? Or fastest? Is there a differnce? Either way, clarification/constraints are needed to provide bounds to which it can be answered.
@Rubiksmoose Not bad, but it's butting up against the "scan if you don't get the joke". But maybe it's common enough that I don't risk folks not getting it
@Himitsu_no_Yami It would be the same question. I'm not sure what to do there. You can ask the original author, they were just online a couple weeks ago to add constraints.
But take a look at the variety of other 'fast character' questions. It may already be answered, or something close to it.
THere's a few that ask similar enough things, but if you really think that should be reopened, I'd suggest commenting to see if they can do it. But if you do, please try and consider all of the contraints that would be necessary.
I'm curious, how do you people decide which character to roll for an upcoming campaign? I'm sort of stuck at "I guess I will do some sort of full caster, but I don't really like running on a budget of spells so maybe I will do something from Path of War but they will all be worse than the ex PC of the current DM so no."
@Zachiel I like variety so I tend to pick something that I haven't really done before, provided that the mechanics don't seem too headachey. But I know other players who usually default to very specific archetypes because they enjoy a specific style of play.
@Zachiel Most of the time, I just go with something I'm interested in. I don't think too much beyond that. And then I optimize :) If there's an existing party, i may try to pick something up that's "needed", but I don't think I've ever felt that way.
My first character for 5e was a Paladin. Party was pretty well rounded, and I liked the paladin multifaceted options of attack with spellcasting and healing.
One player likes to show off by finding optimal combos for big damage, and then building characters to perform said combo. Another player likes to feel smart via system mastery, so they tend to pick whichever seems most complicated. Another player just picks "dual wielder" because they think it looks cool, regardless of system.
I have only played a single character in Pathfinder 1e, only to find that I had too many options for swift and immediate actions, and I couldn't stay over 0hp for two fights on a row.
Was it D&D 3.5e, there would be many things I'd be interested in trying out, but I'd need 3.5e feats and classes, so my knowledge is worth nothing
I tried to pick up "nimble fighter who can dance" as a concept for my Pathfinder game, but I had really few chances to show off, and dancing was actually never useful, nor I was good at roleplaying my faith in Shelyn.
@MikeQ I think it's more "every single one of us should contribute maximally to the survival of the whole party", so the player with the most system knowledge will outshine the others as a consequence.
There was one player who consistently built over-specialized characters based on a particular gimmick, such that it was mechanically super effective but very annoying to resolve. Also, said player always insisted that they contributed the most and thus deserved the most rewards. I don't invite them anymore.
@Someone_Evil i tried finding bone dice for my divination wizard. thems expensive (or at least what i found)
So I just offered a selection of rare items in exchange for the sentient weapons. One player (who often just doesn't show up and the guy who still doesn't remember after 2 years how to make an attack roll), said there's really nothing he can use and can he pick nothing.
@Someone_Evil We had a player in one campaign who in character made a set of bone dice (out of an enemy wizard she really disliked), and then bought a set of bone-looking dice so that she could fiddle with them at the table.
@Someone_Evil How about a nice glass of Dice Tea. Goes with any RPG. And you can make the "cold tea" version, or, copy the "long island iced tea" idea such that it is a loaded mixed drink that will throw you for a loop.
Are there any specific guidelines written somewhere on how to ask if a hombrew race is balanced (say in comparison to official races)? I have a question about one I found but I wanna make sure I do this right since my usual "Is X balanced" questions aren't well received
I'll ask here if you guys think this is too many, base race has 2 and each subrace has 2. Base gives unarmored AC = to 11 + DEX and prof in perception (ASI of +2 WIS)
@Himitsu_no_Yami We need to see the whole thing first. But if they're getting +2 to 2 ability scores AND an unarmored AC, that's getting a little weird.
@MikeQ Last game we had a cleric (healer/buffer), a summoner (damage), a mystic (buffer/debuffer/damage), a gunslinger (damage), a swashbuckler (damage) and an alchemist (buffer/debuffer/damage), then the first two stopped playing.
@MikeQ did it involve finding sums of numbers to hit a target number?
@Himitsu_no_Yami I'd say those were reasonable. While many bonuses, skill proficiencies are mostly minor. There's a rules ambiguity on natural armor bonus, and I wouldn't play a Xaela if there's a Half-Orc in the party
But not by a huge amount. But skills aren't something easily come by unless you're doing skill learnings.
Which not every table does. If yours does, then it's less valuable to have those.
But I think in general, ti's more powerful than the more common/standard races. May be a bit more equal to the monstrous races, which typically are more powerful.
maybe they thing attuning is forever? Maybe it's done in spite of you not giving them the items they think they need? My players once helped some vistani ("good", hollywood-movie gypsies" - yes, I know real world roma are neither good nor evil) and they had a party for the heroes and gifted them clothes and jewelry and knives and other mundane things. They would have liked the PCs not to sell them, but they were ready to lend them money and give them back the gifts later. One of my players hand-picket the worst fitting and more jarring pieces of clothing and wore them (500 gp worth of cloth…
It's important to remember that there's a fair variance in the power of the official races, and that that value of different things will vary with table
@NautArch Not everyone can be the brightest pencil or sharpest light bulb in the box. That's why you've got to think outside the box! Attuning an item should require hitting it against things and attaching bits to it until the resonant frequency is pleasing to the wielders ear.
@KorvinStarmast I'm still amazed by how well this drink actually works as a palatable beverage (albeit one you might not remember too well in the morning). By all accounts it should be seriously a gross.
@MarkWells At my main table, we never really did that. At mine, unless they position themselves to not be shooting through other creatures, then they would provide cover.
At the main table, i think it's more "you dn't have a clean shot" and we'd just move to where we did.
@MarkWells Not really. I think the cases where someone has remembered that/ it actually panned out in the affirmative by the DM (or me) has been single digits.
@MarkWells I don't. Makes the combat feel more like 3.5 to deal with it. Unless someone goes out of their way to state they're covering an ally... like an orphan NPC they're escorting... just not worth the overhead.
@Rubiksmoose First time with a long island? Those are sneaky. One drink I encountered in Virginia years ago was a "skip and go naked" or "skippy" or other peculiar name. It's a mixture of cheap light American beer left overs from a keg, frozen lemonade mix, and vodka.
@Himitsu_no_Yami wow, really? that's much more cover than it should. I think half-cover is what it is, which is +2, while Disadvantage is an effective +5.
@MarkWells I do. I throw around the +2 very liberally.
Even when running narrative (not map-and-mini) combat--if there's lots of scrum happening in the area of the target or between shooter and target, +2 comes out most of the time.
@Himitsu_no_Yami That's the case I'm mainly concerned with. Context is that I'm writing up my house rule for this situation and trying to compare it to the published rule, but the de facto published rule is "they count as half cover if the DM remembers, which they usually don't".
@NautArch See, I'd argue that if your target is in hand-to-hand combat with someone you don't want to hit, you never really have a clear shot. It's not just obstructions to your line of sight, it's "lots of scrum happening", as @nitsua60 put it.
@MarkWells I've always been unsure how to handle the stirge type effect. Grappling I never really thought about providing more for.
But that last session where I ruled positively for a player action and then got a negative response from another player when I used it on them was kind of problematic and made me rethink how to adjudicate grappling into walls.
The relative ease of moving someone with a grapple in 5e is disconcerting. The only way it makes sense to me is that "grappled" means you've actually picked them up off the ground.
@MarkWells That's an odd narrative. They'd be encumbered. A number of ways one drag or force another person to move the way you want them to. Especially if they've lost the contest and don't have much control about how they're being held.
For the one off heroic stuff... as long as one of the min/maxers doesn't try to abuse it... just makes good story.
@NautArch Not to me? I don't really care how they defeat the CR4 thing. I do care they the min/maxer doesn't get spammy and contrive crap at the cost of the story or worse taking the spotlight all the time.
I've seen this problem many times on this site, but the most recent question, which also incentivized me to write this meta post, is Do effects that activate on a critical hit still activate when the hit is against an opponent wearing adamantine armor?.
It might actually be one of the more valid ...
@GcL He dipped two levels into Warlock to get EB with agonizing blast. So he had a very strong and powerful always-on cantrip attack. I then chose a lot of spells that gave me options across different monster types: animated objects, hypnotic pattern, Bigby's hand, fireball, Greater Invis, heat metal. And he could cast See invisibility, hex, hellish rebuke, and healw ith healing word and cure wounds.
Plus all of his bardic inspirations for cutting words, etc.
Hold Monster and destructive wave for other single-target or surrounded situations.
And had counterspell/dispel magic to handle casters.
@NautArch I will gently remind you that you introduced this character with "His schtick was always have something powerful. And he did. But it made combat...not interesting." Your genre conventions are not my genre conventions, etc., but did your group actually enjoy having that guy around?
@MarkWells I'm not actually sure, to be honest. And I ended up stopping most of the antics he had because he was a one-man wrecking machine. I think some players liked it, but others wanted the challenge of combat that he took away.
And no need to gently remind, I was and am in agreement that such characters aren't always great at a table. But also, he 15th level and there were a lot of powerful characters. And most were two levels ahead of me and had more abilities.
Had a conversation last night about faerie fire. Here is how I think it works. If I am inside the 20' cube and fail the dex save, I am lit up regardless of where I move to until the spell ends. Is that correct?
Faerie Fire Duration: Concentration, up to 1 minute Each object in a 20-‐‑foot cube within range is outlined in blue, green, or violet light (your choice). Any creature in the area when the spell is cast is also outlined in light if it fails a Dexterity saving throw. For the duration, objects and affected creatures shed dim light in a 10-‐‑foot radius.
But I did generally stop using hypnotic pattern (one player would always go attack each monser to wake them up) and animated objects. @MarkWells, animated objects just wrecked encounters (and we use flanking), even though they were mundane damage.
The rules for Faerie Fire state:
Any attack roll against an affected creature or object has advantage if the attacker can see it, and the affected creature or object can't benefit from being invisible.
As I read it, there are two ways to interpret this. The first is that being held uns...
In a PF game, I tried to be clever by throwing nonmagical powder on an invisible NPC, which evidently doesn't work, because clearly I must be some absolute fool for not knowing every minutia of the system
On today's episode of "wtf is this filter" I am currently able to view Meta and I've always been able to view i.imgur.com links but never able to view i.*stack*.imgur.com links
@MikeQ "If an invisible character picks up a visible object, the object remains visible. ... One could coat an invisible object with flour to at least keep track of its position (until the flour falls off or blows away). Invisible creatures leave tracks. They can be tracked normally."
@NautArch Oh yeah. Whole kerfuffle about it a while back. I dropped them like a hot potato at that point. A group that can't handle criticism and goes out of their way to expunge it while saying they don't is not one I want to spend time nor money with.
I love repelling blast. yesterday's session our wizard cast wall of fire. I pushed giant back into the wall three times. Yay for more damage. I also pushed a giant back into the Cloud of Daggers (conjuration) our Bard Cast a couple of times.
I'm jealous of all you guys getting to play rn. My DM is working from home and doing stuff with other people for now so I haven't had a game to play in a while
Wall of Force can be cast as a dome. If I choose to trap an opponent in this way, is there a saving throw?
The spell description does not list one.. So I know there isn't one RAW; But I'd like to know what the popular wisdom is.
The rules for Faerie Fire state:
Any attack roll against an affected creature or object has advantage if the attacker can see it, and the affected creature or object can't benefit from being invisible.
As I read it, there are two ways to interpret this. The first is that being held uns...
