TRPG General Chat

Ben

12:06 AM

Morning all

Hot RPG Questions

12:38 AM

7

Q: How do I get a new player to stop rewriting my game to match his favorite fiction?

I have a D&D 5e game that I've been running for a year that is on pause because some players don't want to play online or go outside (stupid plague ruining my tabletop). So I offered my son and the player who still does small gatherings a filler game. My son picked Star Wars, I agreed. He told hi...

Ben

1:14 AM

@HotRPGQuestions Yeesh... now I feel bad about my Diablo custom campaign lol

Adeptus

@TaylorSpaulding Literally 30 miles? Because that's longer than a marathon - it would take a fit person 5+ hours to run that far, not carrying anything. Walking, with armour, weapons, backpack, etc? Probably a full day. Remind them what time of day it is, how long they have been walking, etc.

Ben

@Adeptus Can even break it up with a choice of rest, or risk fatigue (they'll obviously choose rest), then BAM! AMBUSH!

Cos that's just the D&D way :P

Hot RPG Questions

2

Q: Do legendary actions trigger effects that happen at the beginning of the monster's turn?

Do legendary actions trigger effects that happen at the beginning of the monster's turn? Consider this scenario. The monster is standing in the area of the cleric's spirit guardians spell. As written, the monster takes damage at the beginning of its turn as long as it's standing in the field. Su...

dnd-5e monsters

V2Blast

1:55 AM

@nitsua60 The issue would probably be more with correctly identifying what the questions are asking, and finding RPG.SE questions that actually match. Natural language processing can be tricky :P

nitsua60

2:19 AM

@V2Blast Google search =)

(Oh, gosh. Can you imagine a bot that looks at everything tweeted at a person (JC in this dystopia), googles the text of the incoming tweet, and provides the top search result as a "helpful" follow-on tweet to the original target?)

Ben

3

@nitsua60 I'd say it's doable :P

SmokeDetector

4:36 AM

[ SmokeDetector | MS ] Bad keyword in body, bad keyword in title, potentially bad keyword in body (195): How are the placement records of Regional College of Management Bangalore? by RCMB01 on rpg.SE (@Rubiksmoose)

Hot RPG Questions

5:05 AM

5

Q: What is a cordwainer, with regard to Waterdeep's "Most Diligent League of Sail-makers and Cordwainers"?

One of Waterdeep's many guilds is the Most Diligent League of Sail-makers and Cordwainers (listed in the introduction to Waterdeep: Dragon Heist, p. 13). What is a cordwainer in this context? Merriam-Webster defines a cordwainer as a shoemaker, or a worker in Cordovan leather (archaic). Wikipedi...

dungeons-and-dragons lore forgotten-realms waterdeep-dragon-heist

4

Q: What is a joiner, with regard to Waterdeep's "Fellowship of Salters, Packers, and Joiners"?

One of Waterdeep's many guilds is the Fellowship of Salters, Packers, and Joiners (listed in the introduction of Waterdeep: Dragon Heist, p. 13). What is a joiner in this context? Merriam-Webster defines a joiner as a craftsperson who joins pieces of wood. Wikipedia has an article on joiners in ...

dungeons-and-dragons lore forgotten-realms waterdeep-dragon-heist

Ben

5:43 AM

Well dangnabit Jimmy, how the heck are ya??

Hot RPG Questions

7

Q: What can be done to a Scrying sensor?

The spell scrying states: On a failed save, the spell creates an invisible sensor within 10 feet of the target. You can see and hear through the sensor as if you were there. The sensor moves with the target, remaining within 10 feet of it for the duration. A creature that can see invisible ob...

dnd-5e spells divination

BESW

6:59 AM

Hmm. I just got a notification about hitting a thousand views on an old question I'd forgotten about, which is asking how to use an extremely racist OSR system to run twosies using (relatively) less racist early-era D&D adventures. These days I wouldn't grace the system with so much as a mention, no matter how caveated.

The Oracle

8:44 AM

1

Q: Why does inline math require \ before $?

I just asked this question, but my inline math hasn't worked. Why? EDIT Turns out I needed to use a "\" before the "$". Why? That isn't the case on other sites.

support markdown

Hot RPG Questions

9:30 AM

4

Q: Giant D&D Death Monster

Does anyone remember a giant metal type monster from one of the older versions of D&D? I have a vague memory of some sort of monster that the gods of death might send in to balance out the universe if someone (or someones) had cheated death enough times that they were unbalancing the universe. I...

dungeons-and-dragons lore religions-and-deities content-identification

Hot RPG Questions

9:54 AM

1

Q: What is the 'arcane focus' in my attacks/spells?

I am trying to play D&D and am making my first character sheet. I finished everything but one part is confusing me. I have everything done for my sorcerer character sheet and one of the attacks/spells is called arcane focus. I can't find out what the bonus or the damage type is. Please help...

dnd-5e sorcerer new-players character-sheets

V2Blast

@BESW I was curious what system it was, and found the question, and looked it up... And oof, yeah. Based on the description at the top of the DriveThruRPG page (and the questionable cover art), I can only imagine how much worse the stuff inside is.

BESW

If the question were to unceremoniously vanish from the site entirely, I probably wouldn't notice.

[cough]

V2Blast

(I guess the fact that the fourth search result was an RPG Pundit review should have been a sign)

BESW

10:09 AM

LizWeir

oh, re that arcane focus question - some of the wording makes me wonder if the querent is using a character builder that uses the Arcane Focus to show spell attack stats - anyone know of one that does that?

I had a quick check on Beyond and it doesn't, so I may be jumping at shadows, but I figured it was worth checking.

(and yes I am feeling some sort of way about the fact that 'querent' was apparently the first word I thought of to use in that sentence. :-P )

AncientSwordRage

10:34 AM

I'm really enjoying the updates on the question I bountied

17

Q: How do all the World of Darkness and Chronicles of Darkness RPGs connect?

I just got my kick-starter copy of Changeling the Lost 2nd Ed and are starting to dip my toe back into the World of Darkness after a long absent. And I found out that it is confusing as hell trying to figure out which versions and editions of the different versions goes with which. You have old ...

world-of-darkness chronicles-of-darkness-1e chronicles-of-darkness-2e edition-comparison

AncientSwordRage

10:56 AM

@BESW It always interesting seeing what old questions still get interest

doppelgreener

11:22 AM

@nitsua60 i dub this theoretical bot IGoogledItBot

nitsua60

11:36 AM

@doppelgreener Oh, hey! Fancy meeting you here =)

V2Blast

I have session 0 of a sci-fi Fate game I joined in like 4.5 hours... I should go to sleep

later, folks

kviiri

Related ^ We had a party at our house (a small one, due to the pandemic) on Saturday night, I came a bit late due to having other business to run and was super tired... by the time it started getting dark (which is kinda late) I decided I'd try a power nap in order to keep up a bit longer

doppelgreener

@nitsua60 oh wow! howdy!

kviiri

turns out that a power nap around midnight after an active day can quite easily turn into a good night's sleep

doppelgreener

@V2Blast have a good nap!

that makes sense, lol

kviiri

11:40 AM

What happened on Saturday, ye might ask! Well, my ex was visiting a recycling center. She lives right next to one. She sent me a picture: "oh hey there's an accordion for sale and it has more buttons than yours!"

I've been meaning to get myself a spare. And if it'd've been an upgrade, so much the better right?

BESW

A dramatic re-enactment of Kviiri's response.

kviiri

Too bad she had already left the recycling center by the time I replied, and didn't think I was actually interested, so I didn't even know how much it cost. So I sprang to the recycling center myself (I was close by on other business) and much to my disappointment it wasn't there.

Turns out she was randomly visiting another recycling center and forgot to mention it wasn't the one next to our old place, not realizing I'd actually jump at the opportunity. The one she was visiting was in the neighboring town, around an hour on bus plus train, and I would've went there to get it – but I called them first and oh woe, it had been sold already :(

Joel Harmon

@kviiri At least now she knows, and next time can act accordionly.

BESW

Joel Harmon

In a stack chat? Surely not!

kviiri

11:50 AM

@JoelHarmon hey-ho :D

Fun fact: one of the old-schooly and somewhat derogatory nicknames for the accordion in Finnish is pirunkeuhko, or "devil's lung"

Joel Harmon

I like how that only qualifies as somewhat derogotory.

kviiri

Well, it probably was worse back in the days. I mean, back in the days when entertainment music was considered sinful by the more conservative communities

Nowadays people use it as an ironic callback x)

There's also another reason why the accordion is the butt of many music jokes here: en.wiktionary.org/wiki/hanuri#Finnish

Medix2

12:26 PM

Is editing out latin phrases with their translations a valid edit? It just seems weird to have people look something up when they don't have to

Someone_Evil

Specific example?

AncientSwordRage

SE is switching to CommonMark

4

Medix2

@Someone_Evil "inter alia" (among other things)

Someone_Evil

Typically I'd expect the latin phrase to actually be a editor/journalistic/(archaic) style with the words derived from latin. ("sic." I believe is the most common/known example) So it'd mostly be folks getting the opportunity to learn a style, and I don't want to rob folks of the chance to learn something

vicky_molokh- unsilence Monica

@Medix2 Uh, should we edit out 'et cetera' too? I think not.

Latin words seem to have firmly got into the standard vocabulary of many kinds of discourse, especially in the Anglosphere.

Medix2

12:31 PM

@vicky_molokh-unsilenceMonica Except a much larger number of people know what etc. / et cetera means

@Someone_Evil I was thinking about adding a parenthetical "inter alia (among other things)" but I'll just leave it be

NautArch

howdy howdy

MikeQ

Users are free to edit in translations, but let's not make that a requirement

vicky_molokh- unsilence Monica

@Medix2 There's always a first time one encounters a phrase. I once had to look up 'in a nutshell', and I'm sure many foreigners did too, but that's not grounds to distort an author's style.

Someone_Evil

When in context I think it reads fine, or rather doesn't break any flow (the translation might make it worse), but then I also just googled the phrase so obviously I understand what it means

Medix2

@vicky_molokh-unsilenceMonica Which is why I mentioned just doing a parenthetical, but I'll just let posts sit there and avoid editing wording

@Someone_Evil And I suppose there's no harm in making people google something

Someone_Evil

12:39 PM

@AncientSwordRage I actually think one of the things we could notice the most is the change to blockquotes, we quote things a lot and some users may find quotes of multiple paragraphs break a little (or, the way they have to do them will have to change a little)

AncientSwordRage

@vicky_molokh-unsilenceMonica Edit all words with latin origins

vicky_molokh- unsilence Monica

@AncientSwordRage This is your regular reminder to study Uncleftish Beholdings.

Someone_Evil

Actually, go the whole hog and just change the stack to using Anglish, for that more authentic pseudo medieval fantasy feeling

AncientSwordRage

@Someone_Evil I thought that said Anguish

@vicky_molokh-unsilenceMonica I just realised this is highly relevant to my brain-only proto-book

KorvinStarmast

1:08 PM

@Ben that "my daughter's boyfriend" question is a situation that IRL could be a veritable relationships minefield. Ugh.

NautArch

@KorvinStarmast potential layers of hazardous issues

KorvinStarmast

@kviiri hmm, wondering if that's the name for my next dragonborn(red) character ...

@NautArch I am thinking of a sandwich made from hazardous materials between two slices of nuclear waste. 8^o (metaphor, I guess)

kviiri

@KorvinStarmast Go for it! :D

BESW

bundles and sales on itch that are supporting the Minnesota Freedom Fund and Black Visions Collective: a Twitter thread by ink_and_stories

Tampalasan by John Erwin is a rules-light rpg for spear-and-sorcery adventures with a Filipino/SEA-ian feel. Currently PWYW for the alpha test version. Available in English and Filipino-Tagalog.

NautArch

@KorvinStarmast My players got their first long rest since starting the Doomvault. I now need to repopulate the dungeon and I'm really at a loss.

I can't decide if I should find 'new' creatures or just make it easy on myself and turn them dead ones all into undead versions.

BESW

1:24 PM

BUBBLES.

...what, I just really loved filling dungeons with evil life-draining bubbles of extradimensional malice.

KorvinStarmast

@NautArch Ogre Zombies? Sure. And Rabid Blink Dogs

NautArch

@KorvinStarmast They've moved through quite a bit of territory.

BESW

Feb 22 '13 at 0:29, by BESW

Fell Taints got a minor re-skin as "like soap bubbles, if soap bubbles were made of eyeballs and tentacles instead of being round," and were promptly dubbed "those damn bubbles!" by the party.

KorvinStarmast

Not familiar enough with that dungeon to have a good brain on what to recommend. When in doubt, mummies.

NautArch

@KorvinStarmast But they also left a couple of big monsters to help them. One is limited in access, so that one will just keep their areas clear. Not sure what the other one with full access is doing yet.

I think day two is undead while they work on properly repopulating the areas. Just to make it a bit easier.

KorvinStarmast

1:28 PM

Did they murderhobo someone who they shouldn't have? Send in the revenants! Send in the Rec Caps!

NautArch

@KorvinStarmast Everything in here is for murdering for the most part.

KorvinStarmast

Or, have then encounter the janitorial crew, the team of gelatinous cubes ...

NautArch

MOreso that the Thayans have thematically pouplated their dungeon.

Much of the ooze grottos remain untouched, so I could use oozes/jellies.

and they left the stone giants quarrying for stone golems. I can populate some of them, too.

KorvinStarmast

@NautArch Oh, yeah, that's right, it's almost a meta dungeon thingie .. oozes and jellies might be a nice change of pace. (thought gross)

NautArch

Yeah, I might just pull from unused dungeon areas a bit. They just left a couple of big things going (like the iron golems and stone golems.)

There is a Deva and an aboleth roaming.

to help the players.

AncientSwordRage

1:39 PM

@NautArch Aboleths are very cool

NautArch

@AncientSwordRage Yeah, it's a reduced threat, but it's still pretty nasty.

was happy the players didn't attack it.

AncientSwordRage

@NautArch I am surprised at the lore/stats mismatch, as Aboleths are meant to be older than even the Gods

They only fear Mindflayers as they do not know from whence they came

NautArch

@AncientSwordRage Thayan liches are no joke, I guess.

doppelgreener

is the plural of lich lichen?

4

Rubiksmoose

I'm lichen that a lot!

doppelgreener

1:48 PM

or is a lichen a fungal lich?

nitsua60

@Rubiksmoose (saw that)

Rubiksmoose

@doppelgreener 🤔

@nitsua60 You saw nothing! XD

kviiri

@doppelgreener When I was twelve or so years, I was already familiar with liches through Heroes of Might and Magic, and then I started playing NetHack. And I actually believed there was a connection there x)

I mean "lichen" is not a very common word...

nitsua60

It's clearly a germanic root....

doppelgreener

@kviiri you could definitely be forgiven for that

kviiri

1:51 PM

But I had my suspicions fairly early due to 1) lichen being edible (And vegan!) in the game without causing illness like undead corpses generally do 2) lichen being a stationary, harmless enemy in comparison to liches that were super deadly

nitsua60

@doppelgreener Though I'm gravitating toward an alternate theory: "lichen" is an adjective, meaning "consisting of or pertaining to liches."

kviiri

Maybe it's a contraction of "lich hen"?

so it's like a dracolich, except a hen.

nitsua60

wood-->wooden, lich-->lichen.

NautArch

@kviiri Chicken lichen good!

Okay, so the cockatrices will definitely be undead cockatrices :P

Someone_Evil

@NautArch Note that if your chicken has lichen on it, it may in fact be a rock

doppelgreener

2:00 PM

@nitsua60 so is a lichen staff a staff made out of a (dearly departed) lich?

nitsua60

@doppelgreener Yes. Well, no. 'Cause nobody really liked that guy.

Peter Cooper Jr.

2:19 PM

@doppelgreener A lichen staff would be a staff used by a lich, just like a magic staff would be a staff used by a mage.

AncientSwordRage

2:43 PM

@PeterCooperJr. Lick a lichen staff like a lich likens staff

NautArch

3:26 PM

@Medix2 deleting my answer to the movement, i didn't quite understand it, but now I do!

working on an update

Medix2

3:44 PM

@NautArch Now I'm realizing how many questions we have on occupying another creature's space....

NautArch

@Medix2 i was debating about adding the final bit about not ending their turn in the space of the small creature, but it didn't seem totally necessary.

Medix2

@NautArch Agreed, and apparently nobody agrees what happens when that happens so... eyah

NautArch

@Medix2 In fact, i'm never even sure what to do when an allies share a space to attack and then move away.

Medix2

@NautArch A wonderful Crawford moment, that one

NautArch

@Medix2 I've generally allowed it without penalty

Medix2

3:47 PM

@NautArch YUP, same

I'm debating opening a meta on them all but honestly... there's so many, and they're old... I'll just not

Hot RPG Questions

4

Q: Multiclass Paladin + Pact Magic = What paladin spells can I prepare and cast?

I'm sure this has been asked somewhere already, but I couldn't find it. Let's say I'm Paladin 5 / Warlock 7. https://www.dndbeyond.com/sources/basic-rules/customization-options#Spellcasting When I choose what Paladin spells I know, I consider myself as a single-classed Paladin 5, which would ha...

dnd-5e warlock multi-classing

Medix2

@MarkWells What is the athletics check you were referring to?

Mark Wells

@Medix2 I'm assuming the "overrun" mechanic they're referring to is the optional one from the DMG

which involves a contested Strength (Athletics) check

Someone_Evil

@HotRPGQuestions Wait, haven't we got a signpost covering this topic?

NautArch

@MarkWells i'm debating about adding the overrun rules, but it doesn't feel necessary.

but i guess it might be helpful...

nitsua60

3:59 PM

@NautArch OA!

NautArch

@nitsua60 thinking more of a ranged attack

but yeah, they engage and leave, that's an OA (and a paddlin')

nitsua60

(No, I meant you should OA an ally if they encroach on your space to attack an enemy and then leave. Just to maintain your shoulder-room.)

NautArch

nonsequitor: I'm also going to offer my players a chance to get some items they ask for. Debating about percentage opportunity to see if the seller has them. Kinda still using rarity levels, and was thinking 10% for a legendary item, 20% for a very rare, 50% for a rare.

@nitsua60 oh, ha!

nitsua60

@NautArch I'd be tempted to pre-roll all of that (running down the list of items), so that when the PCs meet the seller, it's easy to have as part of their patter "I gotta move this foo, you sure I can't get one in your hands? Bar? No, sorry, haven't been able to find one of those for years. If you find one let me know--I can get you a good price for it!"

NautArch

@nitsua60 I wasn't sure if it was more fun to have the players roll for success rather than me.

And then they roll for pricing within the range I created.

Someone_Evil

4:30 PM

@AncientSwordRage Just fixing it so it reads better on the star board. Hope you don't mind :)

nitsua60

@NautArch It might be. Depends if they like minigames or not =)

Medix2

5:11 PM

@NautArch When I answer the question and immediately find a problem with my logic... Hmmmmmmm

NautArch

hehe, that's kinda why i dislike doing that. I also think it's silly to say "but you can always ask your DM", because you can always do that for every question and I don't want to add that to every asnwer.

Medix2

@NautArch Yeah that's fair. I just find it a useful reminder that I'm not a rules-following robot XD

nitsua60

@NautArch feature-request a bot-account that posts "ask your GM, that's really the only person who can answer this" as the second answer on every question. Just to give readers a baseline "score" against which to judge other answers.

If someone's feeling plucky, that could be "ask your [GM|player|group]" with some bit of ML that tries to suss out which will work best.

Medix2

Like, idk, I find it helpful to go "here's what the rules say, oh and also the rules suck"

NautArch

@Medix2 yeah, but the rules sucking is very opinion-based.

II feel no need tomake the judgement call for someone else on that. ANy rule any table disagrees with can be altered.

nitsua60

5:18 PM

@Medix2 I've definitely posted answers in that vein before. "Here's what the rules say. Here's the experience(s) I've had that tells me they don't work for our purposes. Here's what I've done instead. Here's how it worked."

Someone_Evil

@Medix2 I don't think it's the rules sucking in this instance, it's more that they are designed with some assumption that break in very niche cases (assuming that you don't what to be attacked or hit seems perfectly reasonable most of the time)

Medix2

@Someone_Evil Oh yes, but in my experience the rules sometimes give you a choice with various features; when they do and don't has not made sense to me yet

KorvinStarmast

@NautArch I would divide those percentages by two

Medix2

I'm all for giving my players more options instead, but that's likely a me thing and I'm sure plenty of GM's stick to RAW

KorvinStarmast

@NautArch some folks need to be reminded to talk to their DM, not at them vis a vis the rules / book / personal interpretations.

NautArch

5:25 PM

@nitsua60 I've often done the same, but i haven't actually not played that way. And there were times with Sentinel that having them get away after my OA would have been nice, but there wasn't a choice.

KorvinStarmast

@nitsua60 The entire "prone applies to flying creatures" still annoys me, and IMO they should have created a separate mechanic for that, since prone is (normal English wise) a contrast to "standing" or "sitting" or "kneeling". Heck, most flying creatures are already more or less lying down as they fly, particularly if they are a snake or a four footed creature. 8^p Birds, the qunitissential flying creature are upright when hopping/perching/standing and prone when flying ...

NautArch

And I was okay with that and okay withe the trade-off.

@KorvinStarmast Sure, but I don't know who and I don't like guessing - especially with things I haven't tried myself.

But I can add the anecdote above about having to make a similar trade-off myself.

Someone_Evil

@Medix2 RAW also includes GMs improvising to deal with player actions when appropriate, and if a player narrates: "I am deliberately being slow about moving away from them so they can get a opportunity attack" giving a OA isn't a far push. Calling for a Charisma (Deception) check shouldn't be off the table either

Medix2

@KorvinStarmast Meanwhile prone climbing and swimming

KorvinStarmast

@Medix2 swimming in particular. (But as both have a move penalty that is consistent, that one's a wash).

@Medix2 How is climbing a thing prone?

Medix2

5:29 PM

@KorvinStarmast I don't follow... You were saying prone+flying doesn't make sense. Neither does swimming+prone or climbing+prone imo

KorvinStarmast

@Medix2 No, I am saying that knocking someone prone who is flying makes no sense. They are already prone.

If you are climbing and you fall or are knocked prone, that makes sense.

Climbing is a vertical thing, prone a horizontal thing. In Normal English.

And even if prone is "knock you off your feet" (per a 4 legged wolf) it still makes no sense in re flying. Flying beings know how to function in three dimensions.

Medix2

Hmm, maybe I just don't pay as much attention to the name "prone"

KorvinStarmast

Words have meanings

My favorite example is the Oni versus the flying barbarian

Medix2

Yeah they have meaning...

*grumbles about Attack action, actions, attacks, and that you can move while incapacitated*

KorvinStarmast

here is the inanity about "if you fly and are knocked prone you fall" garbage. Oni has fly speed of 30. Oni is flying. Barbarian has boots of flying and flies up. They are 80 feet abofe the ground. Barbarian is raging and shoves the Oni to "knock him prone" and wins the Athletics context. Here is a flying being who can innately fly. By the letter of prone and flying ...

... the Oni falls 80 feet and takes 8d6 damage. Somehow the Oni doesn't figure out how to right himself and fly along ... sorry, it makes no sense.

(So maybe my kvetch is the flying rules ...)

But, if the Oni fly speed say "hover" no problem.

Rubiksmoose

5:39 PM

@KorvinStarmast I wish I could figure out how to function in three dimensions ;-)

KorvinStarmast

@Rubiksmoose Take flying lessons and you will. ;) Or, you'll not figure it out and then it's a matter of crash, burn, and die. (Yikes!)

(Flying lessons are cheaper than 'driving submarine lessons' or so I hear).

nitsua60

They really just need to errata the "is knocked prone" bit out of the flying rules. The whole "speed reduced to zero or otherwise deprived..." bit functions great. Restrain a flyer? Great--they plummet. Stun one? They plummet, and that's the price they pay for being all "lookee mee I'm flyyyyyyiiiing!" all the time.

But to turn it on its head (which you can do while flying, I hear): can we think of the use-case for which the prone bit makes sense?

I.e. let's put ourselves at that table where toe conversation went "but we need to make sure that X falls." "Oh, good point. Prone covers that."

I can't think of it myself, but I didn't get much sleep last night.

KorvinStarmast

@nitsua60 yeah, I was up all night worrying about the prone condition as well. 8^D (And yeah, I wanted to be prone (asleep, horizontal) but I wasn't so I was up and about ... arrgh)

Mark Wells

@nitsua60 Nah, I've got nothing. There are spells that force creatures to go prone but as far as I can tell they all work only if they're already on the ground (Grease, Earth Tremor, etc.).

KorvinStarmast

The restrained bit I am good with - restrained = falling.

Mark Wells

5:53 PM

The cleaner way to do all this would be "A flying creature must spend at least half its movement each turn to move, or it falls."

KorvinStarmast

On the other hand, as soon as you go 3-D in D&D (as KRyan pointed out in one answer a while back) a lot of things get mushy.

@MarkWells Except for hovering ....

Mark Wells

well yes

KorvinStarmast

(but I personally would agree with that as a useful first take ...)

ToTM style handles flying better I think

Mark Wells

@KorvinStarmast Agreed, though it gets tricky to narrate if we also need to know how everyone's positioned, such as for a breath weapon.

Rubiksmoose

@KorvinStarmast They don't even specify a monster's height in 5e by default (only a few specific call outs IIRC).

which blew my mind the first time I found that out.

nitsua60

6:00 PM

@KorvinStarmast (Thank you for making sure to close the second parenthesis. I'm still stuck in an open one from a meta post last week, and I'm not sure I could have handled the cross-site tracking =D )

Rubiksmoose

@nitsua60 ([{< That must be a relief! )]}>

GcL

@KorvinStarmast I would take care of that in narration. Knocking the flying creature prone is essentially giving a wing a charlie horse or messing with it's ability to fly. Also, you fall 20 meters in like two seconds.

KorvinStarmast

@GcL Not If You Are Flying. I have seen two birds collide in mid air. They don't just fall to the ground.

goodguy5

goodbaby5 has not napped today, please send help.

nitsua60

6:22 PM

@Rubiksmoose You know I can still technically suspend you, right?

Rubiksmoose

@nitsua60 XD

nitsua60

Luckily, I'll just settle for low-level abuse of power....

Rubiksmoose

hahahha

nitsua60

mischief managed!

Rubiksmoose

Gotta enjoy it while it lasts!

Blckknght

6:30 PM

Hey all, I posted a homebrew-review question a week and a half ago that didn't get much attention (no answers). So last week I posted a bounty. But still no takers. The bounty winds up in a day and a half. Can anyone suggest edits to the question that would reduce the burden on answers? rpg.stackexchange.com/q/169351/14661

Are (official, non-UA) Artificers just too new and obscure, so far, for there to be enough balance knowledge available?

MikeQ

No, but sometimes questions take longer than a week to get a well-researched answer.

Blckknght

That's fair enough. I mostly just don't want the bounty to go unclaimed if there's a good answer waiting to be given, if only I hadn't asked for a comparison to something silly.

NautArch

I sometimes answer those, but as I don't really understand the eberron stuff in terms of balance, i'm pretty unsure how to measure homebrew against it.

GcL

7:13 PM

@KorvinStarmast Did one bird intentionally do it in such a way as to make the other hurtle to the ground?

I've seen someone trip and they don't just fall to the ground. I've seen someone shoved thrown that didn't fall either... must have won that athletics contest.

LizWeir

7:44 PM

whooof. playing Princes of the Apocalypse. I'm a tanky Oath of Redemption paladin.

Just did the traditional "WAAAAAIT A MINUTE" to regain 14hp due to an attack exactly hitting my 20AC when- OOPS! Haste increases my AC by 2!

given that I got nailed twice by a [scary monster] for 14 and 22 damage respectively, this is Welcome

David Coffron

@Blckknght Homebrew-review tends to only be looked at by a few of our answerers, and they tend to take there time with answers because of the nature of the questions (it requires a lot of analysis and thought when playtesting is unavailable). I used to do homebrew-review and some answers, especially ones for something as large as a subclass, took 15-20 hours to fully research and consider. I tend to stick to small things like races and spells now, but you will probably get an answer eventually.

The best thing to do if you are impatient is to playtest the subclass. Any quality answer will likely recommend playtesting anyway, especially for some of these abilities that are hard to evaluate.

@LizWeir Ha! It's the little things that we forget. My character would have fallen unconscious the other day if my party member hadn't remembered that I was a dwarf and resisted the poison portion of the damage.

Blckknght

@DavidCoffron Yep, I figured as much. I'm not really feeling any urgency about getting an answer, just didn't want the bounty rep to be wasted. I don't feel all the invested in rep until I go and spend some, then suddenly it seems important! Silly brain, worrying about imaginary internet points.

If you (or anyone else) feels like looking at a much smaller (but still Artificer related) homebrew review, I did spin off this other question that was originally part of the subclass question: rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/169380/…

David Coffron

@Blckknght If it makes you feel better I can go through and upvote any of your quality posts that I haven't yet :)

LizWeir

There was a bunch of poison here too, but alas none of the ongoing sort I can end with Lay on Hands

David Coffron

@Blckknght There you go; some upvotes for answers that I liked but saw too early in the answering process to be comfortable upvoting before I saw what other people answered.

LizWeir

7:56 PM

I keep looking for opportunities to use that ;-)

Blckknght

@DavidCoffron: Thanks! I'm mostly not that motivated by rep, but it's always nice to be appreciated. I always feel best thinking about rep as an imperfect sign of real appreciation, rather than a genuine payment or measurement (since it's so obviously not perfect).

For a little while I was worried this quick throwaway answer on Puzzling was going to end up my top voted contribution network-wide. That would have been sad, given how many longer and more complicated Python answers I've written on the main SO site.

GcL

@Blckknght I know my desire to answer those sorts of questions is rarely piqued. Taking a look at some homebrew and figuring out where it's going to break is sometimes a lot of effort especially on this forum.

@Blckknght you're correct about the bonus to save DC being worth more than increase to spell attack. Rarely are spell attacks made against multiple targets, but most AOE spells include a spell save DC. So you're increasing the efficacy of AOE spells where spell attack is mostly used for direct damage cantrips.

Blckknght

8:26 PM

@GcL Yeah, I was hoping that the limited spell selection available to the characters that could use a musical instrument as a focus would avoid some of that trouble. A DC bonus on Shatter isn't nearly as likely to be game breaking as one on Fireball. Maybe high level bard spells are a bigger deal, I don't know them all that well. Oh, I guess an artillerist Artificer could use their own infused item as a focus fore Fireball, I hadn't though about that before.

David Coffron

8:54 PM

@Blckknght Yeah I get that. My top answer here is about casting fireball inside of a toad; when I spent about 30x as much time and effort on other answers

The reputation system is surely fickle

nitsua60

9:09 PM

Jun 27 '16 at 0:06, by nitsua60

If I repcap on sheep I may have to rage-quit RPGSE. Or at least opt out of the entire reputation system.

Hot RPG Questions

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Q: Do "editions" of White Wolf products correspond?

White Wolf has published a variety of product lines. Each product line has multiple editions. Do the editions of various games line up intuitively? For example, I have a smattering of books from both Werewolf: The Apocalypse and Wraith: The Oblivion. Both games have a first edition, second editi...

world-of-darkness edition-comparison

KorvinStarmast

@nitsua60 I rep capped on "daughter's annoying boyfriend" but I'll not step down. My daughter married her annoying boyfriend. Seven years ago. Today. So it goes.

(He's actually OK in limited doses...)

nitsua60

@KorvinStarmast I'm seven years away from daughters having annoying boyfriends. Layering up sounds good to me =)

KorvinStarmast

@nitsua60 So when she brings one home six years from now, will you be surprised or do you have the alert feat?

nitsua60

I dated a girl in college. I went home one long weekend and met her folks. A 6'6" 300-plus pound man came to the door, engulfed my outstretched hand in his meaty paw, and said "Hi $firstname, I'm Dominic. You can call me Mr. Mancini. I've got a shovel, a shotgun, and a lot of land."
No, I will not be surprised. I am prepared. I have a shovel. I have a shotgun. And I live on 1500 acres.

goodguy5

9:24 PM

@nitsua60 The takeaway here is that he overthrew dominic and took his dominion.

KorvinStarmast

@nitsua60 Bravo Is this nice gal the current Mrs Nits, or did you end up beind enchanted by a different Dryad?

@goodguy5 He is now the padron more or less. Show a little respect ...

nitsua60

@KorvinStarmast What girl. There's no other girls in my past. And I met my lovely ewe after grad school, we worked together. So clearly, I have no idea what you're talking about.

2

goodguy5

10:52 PM

Is there a covid-room esque equivalent for the current situation?

because holy forking shirts

Rubiksmoose

This Is Fine

The news discussion offshoot of the Bridge. Stars reserved for...

5

1

maybe. ^ Absolutely no guarantees about the tenor of that discussion or the moderation thereof, but it's there. Dive in at your own risk.

BESW

I've already had to leave a room or two because of Unsympathetic Takes, and none of them were as on fire as This Is Fine can get on a normal news day.

goodguy5

yea, seems better to just let it go by, I guess.

BESW

This was painted on the side of the road in Minneapolis 13 months ago, quoting from NK Jemisins' "Broken Earth" series, and it says about all I'd want to say about the situation in a space like this.

I will continue to share RPG-related calls to action, like I already have been, but as wonderful as this chat room can be, I fear an in-depth discussion wouldn't be safe for its marginalized members.

"For the entire month of June, all proceeds from Goatmeal Games will be donated to one of the places on this list. We will also donate a dollar for each download on June 19th to Black Lives Matter. Even for free games." (details here)

If you bought the Tabletop Treehouse BLM Bundle, Atlas Sellman will give you a code for Heaven Has No Taste (which is one of those awesome games that has a playlist embedded on its itch page, I love that aesthetic so much).

Atlas will also draw your portrait if you donate to Black Visions Collective directly.

Rubiksmoose

11:07 PM

On that topic as well I'll repost this from NAB:

in Not a bar, but plays one on TV, yesterday, by Rubiksmoose

If someone is interested in GMing for a cause: https://twitter.com/ThatAceGal/status/1266425693732327434

I'll be contributing as a DM there! I'll be sure to post soon as they are looking for players (soon).

BESW

Awesome! Honey Heist, you said?

Rubiksmoose

Indeed! This will be my first time running any kind of game for strangers or any kind of GMing for money (the money isn't going to me obviously but still)

So it will be a new and exciting experience.

BESW

Let me know if I can help in any way.

Rubiksmoose

Will do! You've already helped me a huge amount through our games together of course :-)

BESW

11:28 PM

@Rykara Hi!

This Is Fine

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