I use a lot of the Internet on half-power like this, since animating every possible element of webpages became the fashion. That's life.
Answering my own question, having looked it up, The Colour of Magic was 1983 and Planescape was 1994, so The Lady did come first. Don't know if you know that one.
It has, if you remember, one goddess who was known as The Lady, which was short for Lady Luck, but people didn't usually say that. Or talk about her at all if they could help it, really. Everyone knew that was a bad idea. If you actually prayed to her, your luck would run out, up to and including lightning.
(1992, though the original short story is 1985 and obv. based on much older cultural touchstones)
(I really hope the new film gets really explicit about how awkward the text became when it was transposed from Liverpool to Chicago.)
My point, at any rate, is that "don't speak their name or bad things will happen" seems to be as old as names, and has really never gone out of style. (cf Robin Goodfellow and the Fair Folk, who were neither good nor fair but saying so might suggest it to them.)
War of Ashes: Fate of Agaptus is a setting largely defined by the reluctance of mortals to attract the attention of deities, and by the world-changing disasters which that attention causes. (But if you ignore the gods entirely, they notice that too, so you have to walk a line of keeping the gods indifferently ambivalent.)
...But now I'm thinking about conspiracy theories, which are the modern pop culture go-to for "the power that does not want to be known," and hrmmm. There may be something to that, though I always have to step carefully around story ideas drawing on conspiracy.
Concept: a cosmic Being that seeks to remain unknown, and bribes those who do discover it with supernatural abilities in exchange for enforcing its secret.
Okay, I think I might have something with this. Call it A COMEDY OF (T)ERRORS and use a simple "success = escalation" mechanic, because it's an impossible task for the same reason all conspiracy theories fail the sniff test: to so perfectly suppress information requires more coordination and organization than humans can achieve.
Eddy the mage is facing 3 Azors, which are 15, 25 and 10 ft far away from him. Azors have the special trait Heated Body (emphasis mine):
Heated Body. A creature that touches the azer or hits it with a melee attack while within 5 feet of it takes 5 (1d10) fire damage.
Eddy casts Steel Wind Strik...
There do seem to be a few pockets where extant folklore supports the claim, but any broader implication looks like not so much jumping to conclusions as building elaborate cantilevers to reach conclusions for extended periods of time.
(Also, searching "taboo" and "bear" quickly got me into listings for the inevitable romance novel subgenres, which amused me enough to distract me from the scholarly search.)
Fun fact: while the name Arthur may be derived from the word for "bear," it would have to have been derived through Celtic rather than Welsh, which cast an interesting light on King Arthur (whose early provenance is more Welsh than Celtic).
(There's a Welsh-Arthurian scholarly branch that holds "Arthur" means "Bear Man," which breaks down when you get into the phonology in ways that the Celtic "Bear-Prince" derivation does not. Basically, the earliest poems don't rhyme right if it's Welsh.)
...weird that I keep randomly stumbling over the Matter of Britain a lot lately.
Relatively new DM with a group of 5 PCs (some with ttrpg experience, some not) through a twist on the essentials kit module. One absolute first time PC is running a 3rd level rogue with low HP 13, lower even than our party wizard.
My issue occurs in combat encounters: the moment the rogue takes a...
fortunately, most of the proposed solutions should work for both. Although, talking to the palyer should probably be step #1, rather than the last option.
@NautArch I am not going to answer until the asker has clarified a few more things. My gut is that there's a little bit of XY going on, but I am not sure. I think that the player has no idea how the game works (to the point of ending up in the opposite status of "ignorance is bliss")
@NautArch I also sense a bit of DM anxiety (table issue, not in game issue) but so far no detail on what's behind that. There's a group I play with now who at level 1, 2, and 3 were very "oh, no, I lost HP!" in a way that really puzzled me. (My bard has healing word, or DM doesn't mind 5e's yo yo healing).
It wasn't until level 5 that the constant "cast a heal spell on me!" requests subsided ... so I was the only one in the party who didn't do the thing similar to the problem posed. I was the weird one who takes 'the best defense is a good offense unless we all agree "time to withdraw, this is too big for us" is the situation' which, weirdly cropped up during an act end boss fight. I had to stiffen their resolve "Hey, guys, this is why we are here!"
@NautArch I think it was a reaction to received tone: the title in bold didn't help, and the "properly" smells of "you are doing it wrong" a bit too strongly.
@NautArch and as it worked out, that boss fight, though a near run thing versus a demon, was a victory and a memorable one. Let's hear it for the bard (player) stiffening morale! (And I was the only one to drop to 0 HP that whole fight ... ) It scored me an uncommon item (instrument of the bards, Cittern) that is for an uncommon item Really Useful!
It was not an easy decision, but it was set up like it was exactly for me. My character pursues power and martial prowess. ANd he's a yuan-ti who had been starting to accept non-yuan-ti as peers, but whose party members have been increasingly making evil choices.
So, he was able to rationalize getting mortal power as helping his friends, but also that it gives him everything he's looking for - including becoming a powerful pit fiend after death.
Felt like a, "Well, crap. I need to take this deal." moment.
if one of my PCs is a warlock with Devil Sight who casts Darkness centered on himself, and he casts Eldritch Blast, do rays after the first have advantage due to being hidden?
In D&D 5e, if you are attacking from hiding (successful stealth check) with a bow or spell, do you get advantage?
Assuming yes to the above, if during combat you successfully hide again (break line of sight and succeed on a stealth check), do you have advantage when attacking from hiding again?
...
@KorvinStarmast Funny thing, is he was arrogant to start. But he was starting to experience feelings for other humanoids and it was confusing him. He decided to watch how the party acted and if they went evil, he'd embrace his evil tendencies, but if they went good, he'd pull himself away.
@NautArch Even better. The rest of the party then gets to learn "Hmm, that Evil that she has on her char sheet's alignment block has in game consequences." 😯
@KorvinStarmast What are you talking about? The player knows exactly how the game works. D&D is a game where you start out fragile and nothing on your character sheet will protect you, so you "play smart" and avoid engaging with the game rules until you level up and find treasure, becoming more powerful. That's the reason first-level characters start out with few useful abilities and, in some cases, single-digit hit points: because that's the vital experience of introductory levels of D&D.
@Glazius They are third level in the question at hand on main site, they seem to not know how to use cunning action(a second level feature). Their HP at level 3 being 13 is a char build mistake; DM probably needs to coach them on that rather than wringing their hands. Being cautious isn't a bad thing, and if this was a first level PC I'd not have commented.
And any DM who lets a new PC build a character with a CON less than 12 is doing that player no favors. @Glazius No worries, I realize you don't D&D much anymore.
@Glazius In Basic, back in the day, 0 HP meant "You are Dead" so that's a wholly different context.
@Glazius I may be a lone ranger on this, but I have always felt, based on my experience, that one element of DMing is coaching. That colors my view on how to handle new players, particularly in a group with both new and experienced players.
@NautArch at my brother's table we run into that alot, given how much 3.x all of them played. When I DM for that group I am consistenly reminding them "just tell me what you are trying to do" and sometimes, they don't even need to roll the dice. 😊 It still crops up in our Salt Marsh game sometimes, depends on the night, but everyone in that game is pretty well grounded in the system.
@KorvinStarmast In this case, "-13 in a single blow" also means "you're dead" doesn't it? Though I suppose that's a symptom of the larger problem of making bad MaxHP decisions.
@Glazius Yes, which means 14 damage if at 1 HP, or, 27 damage if at full HP. At third level there are some crits that can do that. You are correct: it's a symptom whose root cause is as you say, but there's also a player psychology aspect that may be a factor. (But cunning action lets the rogue dart in and out to attack, or, it lets the rogue try to hide as a bonus action, being tougher to hit ... ) Fear of Crits is a real thing, though. Still is at a few of the tables I play at.
@Glazius Yeppers; DaleM's answer is mostly spot on. The problem is only if the rest of the players are annoyed by it. If not, Dale, and a few others, point out that it isn't really the DM's problem. (I'd still recommend a respec/rebuild to get the HP into the average range though, but others have already recommended that).
@KorvinStarmast Not so sure I agree with DaleM. And it does seem like at least the DM has concerns, and everyone at the table needs to have fun - including the DM.
If the actions are un-fun for the DM, then it is a problem.
And the obvious issue that the character is NOT a coward.
@Glazius Sorry I did a typo up there, 26 damage in one blow from full HP (13) would do it. If you take any damage while you have 0 hit points ... If the damage equals or exceeds your hit point maximum, you suffer instant death The player might be afraid of taking damage while at 0 HP also ... but that's not specified in the question.
@NautArch As I see it, if the other players with PCs don't mind, it mostly doesn't matter, but if the DM is having axiety ... then the answers with "respec to a less badly built rogue" might be the best course to chart ...
DanB's frame challenges a good portion of that ...
@NautArch Actually, by engaging with the DM and asking why they think this is a problem (beyond the build mechanics for a new player issue, which I personally think is a root cause)
@NautArch As he has not told me that it's a pre gen character or a rolled character, I can't begin to advis him. No, I am not doing that. Note that I don't have a posted answer and I am still waiting for responses to a few question.
Nervous today. Juggling the work of adding a new player to a D&D game with the work of preparing for said D&D game, and the work of a job (that went until 2 AM last night).
Eddy the mage is facing 3 Azors, which are 15, 25 and 10 ft far away from him. Azors have the special trait Heated Body (emphasis mine):
Heated Body. A creature that touches the azer or hits it with a melee attack while within 5 feet of it takes 5 (1d10) fire damage.
Eddy casts Steel Wind Strik...
