TRPG General Chat

Hot RPG Questions

07:29

1

Q: How can I use TWF on a dex-based character who casts spells?

I have a character who wants to: Use two-weapon fighting Use their dexterity bonus, not their strength bonus, to attack Cast spells with somatic components I'm having trouble finding a way to accomplish all of these: If I use two weapons, I have to drop or sheathe one of them to free up a hand...

AncientSwordRage

11:26

@Medix2 I don't think I can neatly define or list learning difficulties, so I've left the examples in my question after clarifying

Medix2

@AncientSwordRage Yeah that's fair

I was just thinking about the fact that ADHD isn't actually defined as a learning disability, well, in the US. Instead it falls under "other health impairment."

Trish

@Medix2 yes and no: it is not medically one, but depending on the school system and/or school education plan, it puts you in a "special needs group" - as in you can get different material or the same material with different structure.

Medix2

@Trish Yes and that is by falling under the "other health impairment" category and not the "other learning disability" category

Trish

however, afaik about the Indian school system, it is not recognized at all there.

AncientSwordRage

That sort of proves my point ^

Medix2

11:37

Right so if somebody answers this from the perspective of India's schooling system, ADHD isn't a learning difficulty. Eh, I guess any good answer will really just give a full list so it doesn't really matter the nitpicking and legal mumbo-jumbo

AncientSwordRage

@Medix2 I'm hoping by naming it, they'd include it... I can provide a list from somewhere and just caveat that my list isn't exhaustive either

TheDragonOfFlame

13:23

So, in a game I run, I need the characters to get into the bad guys’ dungeon, so they can meet a demon who is imprisoned there.
My initial thought was that I could have them attacked by overwhelming odds and captured, but that seems like railroading.

any thoughts?

Someone_Evil

If they're anything like mine, mentioning the dungeon and/or some reason to enter could be sufficient

What kind of dungeon is it?

BESW

Is it the kind of group where you can tell them your goal and ask for ideas and support to achieve it?

TheDragonOfFlame

@Someone_Evil I am talking a literal dungeon, prison cells, chains guards the whole shebang

BESW

Kidnapping's a classic, but I'm fond of the Formal Invitation From The Villain.

TheDragonOfFlame

@BESW haven’t tried that. Not sure how they’d respond. I did sort of send out a general question asking what they’d like in the game, but they only gave long term goals

Someone_Evil

13:35

Have a different prisoner they're motivated to meet in there? Maybe to break out?

Doesn't actually need to be different either, come to think of it

BESW

> Dearest Nemesis and Sidekicks,
I hope this letter finds you in good health. I'd hate for you to drop dead of something boring before our game is played out. In light of which, please accept this invitation to dinner tomorrow evening in Darkest Dungeon, on the corner of Fifth and Main. It's an intimate black tie affair, just some of our closest rivals. The messenger will be providing you with the binding fae pledge to non-violence on everyone's part that night, and proof that I've already taken it.

Bonus points if they've never heard of him before.

Joel Harmon

@BESW I can only assume that this is delivered verbally, and that the villainous plot involves a flatbread based ambush.

SilentAxe

14:12

That sounds like a really cool idea!
Have some stray cat (literally) approach the party saying "There's a fair prince imprisoned against his will in the dungeon! He would be extremely grateful if you rescued him! Also there are a lot of magic items in there."
And when they get there have the demon go "I didn't expect that stupid imp to be useful for a change! Would you be so kind to break the binding crystals so that I can RIP OUT THE SPINES OF EVERYONE IN THIS TOWN!"

NautArch

14:33

Is this too broad? Trying to compare entire classes seems like a lot, but someone may be up for it.

GcL

@NautArch I feel like variations on that question have been asked before.

SilentAxe

@NautArch My idea exactly. First impression was that it should be closed but I might put together a spreadsheet comparing DPR for some sample builds.

@GcL I thought so too, but I couldn't find anything with [dnd-5e] [ranger] tags that matched. Maybe some other tags might work.

NautArch

@GcL Between entire classes including subclasses?

But it also seems familiar from other questions, hence my asking before doing anything :)

@GcL Put up my own answer to the "pinning" question. You're right that it shouldn't be closed.

GcL

I suppose you could bin it as DPR in good match ups and DPR in poor match ups. That way you don't have to try to pick a particular foe. E.g. fighters in good match ups can expect [X1 to X2] DPR in poor match ups [Y1 to Y2].

NautArch

14:48

ANd silly question, are martial classes just martial? Like does eldritch knight count as a martial now?

Or a college of swords bard?

Is a rogue martial?

GcL

Doesn't seem like a useful question to me, so I'm not really interested in putting together a DPR comparison.

NautArch

Ranger subclasses vs all possible subclasses seems like an enormous undertaking

GcL

@NautArch I would assume fighter, monk, ranger, paladin.

NautArch

@GcL paladin counts with all their magic?

I guess ranger magic counts.

GcL

anything that gets Extra Attack, might be a decent dilineator

NautArch

14:49

I think asking which classes they want would help.

That may be worth closing for.

SilentAxe

You forgot Barb

GcL

Barb

SilentAxe

The plus side is that it is limited to PHB, and damage only so a lot of subclasses don't matter

NautArch

@SilentAxe like what?

SilentAxe

Ok, I forgot that Oath of Devotion gains sacred weapon otherwise it is the same as Oath of ancients

Assassin vs Thief also don't get any damage boosts unless you count the very situational Assassinate

NautArch

14:56

@SilentAxe Yeah, one of my players just asked for assassin for their next characdter and reminded them of that.

They were okay with it /shrug

Now I've got to help them manufacture surprise :)

And this is not a group that surprises.

GcL

@SilentAxe sneak attack is nice, but really doesn't scale super well. The dodge or hide bonus action does make them really damn hard to hit though.

Also the dex save for no damage can be entertaining. I'll take fireball for 0 damage, LeVar.

SilentAxe

15:14

@GcL As a DM my main problem with rogue is that I never know how much hiding I should let the rogue get away with and therefore how much power I give them. If I let them hide behind the only tree in the desert or any corner in the dungeon, they basically have perma advantage and invulnerability. If I always tell them "Enemy just saw you. You can't hide" that that severely gimps them.

NautArch

@GcL Thief and Mastermind are subclasses I'd like to try for rogue.

@SilentAxe I usually go with the narrative. I'll try and make places for them to hide, but not every environment is possible.

GcL

@SilentAxe I usually let rogues hide most places when they go out of line of sight. They foes can know the last place they saw the rogue which lets the charge over to that spot.... sometimes to great hilarity when the rogue isn't there anymore.

NautArch

My current rogue player is also a swashbuckler and took the tasha's alternate option for not moving one round to get advantage the next (he took that even though I said no tasha's and I didn't realize until later.)

GcL

@NautArch I concur. If you're running a game for a rogue, make sure your environments are sufficiently detailed to allow a lot of hiding. Take a look at the Paris catacombs or caves near Budapest or any really old city for inspiration. Plenty of places to hide.

NautArch

15:29

My icewind game is on hold tonight, so going back to Scum & Villainy. Really enjoying that.

And one of the guy's in my group is going to try and set up a Fate of Cthulhu one-shot. Never played that before.

SilentAxe

Is "Summon Beast" AC in line with what could be expected of a "typical" monster of that level. e.g. AC 12 at level 1, AC 16 at level 9, AC 20 at level 17 and above?

AncientSwordRage

16:15

@BESW this is delicious

NautArch

16:43

@SilentAxe I want to say "no" in that beasts usually got more HP as they go up, not more AC.

SilentAxe

@NautArch My spreadsheet also said that attack bonus mattered surprisingly little at high levels but I just checked the "Creating quick monster stats" table in DMG and that says AC 13 for CR 3 and below, AC 16 at CR8 and AC 19 at CR17 and above, so that's very close.

NautArch

@SilentAxe The table is more general, but it seems like the primary toggle there is HP vs AC. Monsters seem to have primarily one or the other.

Unless they're wicked powerful and get both.

But the highest Beast CR appears to be 12

which ain't that high.

AncientSwordRage

17:13

Introducing the Monsterizer for D&D 5E by RPGBOT.

AncientSwordRage

17:24

@AncientSwordRage I've not test driven that yet, but it looks quite comprehensive

NautArch

@vicky_molokh-unsilenceMonica unfortunately, I think your question would be better served asked by your DM then by you :-(

Unless you want to play the game of telling the DM what the town has, and the DM confirming whether or not that's actually a thing. But it may not be even though other towns do have the thing.

vicky_molokh- unsilence Monica

@NautArch I'm mostly asking it from a 'well, assume creatures are living in there; approximately what options do they have?'. It's more of a worldbuilding question than GMing one.

Err, maybe that wasn't phrased well. Sorry.

Establishing the baselines (and knowing what to ask about) rather than seeking final verdicts.

Akixkisu

@AncientSwordRage Can't wait for someone to do a Daniel D. Fox on that if it isn't entirely compliant.

NautArch

@vicky_molokh-unsilenceMonica I fully agree, but it's not your world.

Akixkisu

Otherwise looks pretty awesome.

vicky_molokh- unsilence Monica

17:30

@NautArch Well yeah, it's not mine. I'm hoping some people knowledgeable about the world (or at least the default state of the world) may be willing to share that knowledge on the matter. (Of course anything found gets run by the GM.)

NautArch

@vicky_molokh-unsilenceMonica if that's the case, I think you're going to have to give us more details about the size and look of the town. But even then it's your DM's town not a forgotten realms town. Not all towns of that size have the same things.

But I do understand that my answer is more of a frame challenge than an actual answer. I'm just not sure we can actually answer this in a helpful way for you and your table.

vicky_molokh- unsilence Monica

@NautArch Yeah, it's a frame challenge and I understand that. And I appreciate the effort spent on crafting the text. But after seeing similar answers many times before when asking about a specific setting+system combination, I think they soon stop being as helpful for askers.

NautArch

I think that it is practically helpful but not theoretically helpful. You are looking for a potential theory, I am trying to give you an answer that you can actually bring to the table.

If you are looking for something more specific I think you need to give us more details then. Experts on the lore may be able to help, but they're going to need to know more about that town.

Knowledge of current town defenses and size will help guide other stackisms in finding a more direct answer.

NautArch

17:48

@KorvinStarmast I don't think Vicky's party is in the town when the dragon approaches. They're asking more about what the town can do.

vicky_molokh- unsilence Monica

I'm asking more about what towns typically can and do do.

NautArch

@vicky_molokh-unsilenceMonica but towns are very diverse. If you're looking for help in figuring out what this town might have we need to know more about that town.

vicky_molokh- unsilence Monica

18:03

This isn't a question about a *specific* town though*, it's a question about the *typical available solutions* to a problem that is recurring for the denizens of the setting.

* == I actually fear naming the town will just lead to people handing out spoiler tactical info for the specific scenario instead of helping me get the big picture of what are the expectations in the world.

NautArch

@vicky_molokh-unsilenceMonica if it's not a specific question about a specific town, then I think you can leave everything out about your party and what you're trying to do. You're just looking for information about what was done mundanely to help ground a dragon.

But I also don't know your relationship with the DM. Are they usually open to the players telling them what's in their world?

It just may be possible that this is a narrative event, and trying to do something more is stepping on the toes of what the DM is planning. Which is the players do all the time :-)

My answer was really based more on actual table play, not on lower information. If it really is about the lore, again I'd very much recommend removing all the specifics about your situation and just ask the general question.

vicky_molokh- unsilence Monica

@NautArch Errrrr, most or all of extra details about the party are there because I got questions about it, not because I wanted to focus on it in the first place.

NautArch

@vicky_molokh-unsilenceMonica Who asked questions to include that? But either way, this is either a specific situation with specific solutions, or it's general and shouldn't have the specific details.

By grounding this in your story, I'd hope that answers are tailored to your actual need and not just general. If you're looking for general, I'd remove your story from it.

vicky_molokh- unsilence Monica

@NautArch You're right, it shouldn't really have those specific details. Maybe I am wrong, but I got the impression that the discussion wanted me to disclose some of those details.

I'm . . . not sure what to do at this point. Deleting comments would just be confusing.

NautArch

@vicky_molokh-unsilenceMonica I think it did as it grew (but I don't think you added them, they were already there.) But if your question isn't about your situation, then I'd really remove your situation.

I'd edit all of that out and just ask about in lore (5e or otherwise) how have towns defended themselves with mundane equipment from dragons (specifically grounding them.)

Want me to take a crack at it? You can always revise/rollback.

And then a comment clean-up :)

vicky_molokh- unsilence Monica

18:19

@NautArch Sorry, I probably overreacted to the 'are you the GM or player' question. I'm open to edits, at this point I'm thinking my original question is not great at attracting answers that I'm likely to read to get a better idea of the typical approaches.

NautArch

@vicky_molokh-unsilenceMonica Quick and dirty, but what do you think?

And sorry about the GM or player - that really was to help me figure out what you were looking for. I think that threw me, too.

And on a side note, Command to bring down a dragon was hella fun,.

vicky_molokh- unsilence Monica

@NautArch Q&D does look good. Might be worth some additions, but it's probably better than my own text. Thanks. I'll be back later and see how it goes.

NautArch

@vicky_molokh-unsilenceMonica Removed my answer as well. Clean up in aisle comment!

Cat of doom2

18:48

hello

NautArch

@Catofdoom2 Howdy howdy

Cat of doom2

i'm in a new campaign as a human monk at level 1 and i somehow 1 shotted 3 bandits in a row while the other 5 players are just getting whooped

NautArch

Dice gonna roll

Cat of doom2

the DM also said that she wouldn't let one of the other players ever no longer how long we play asscend to godhood

GcL

@Catofdoom2 Mostly on account of all the paperwork. You answer one prayer and then it's just work work work.

Cat of doom2

19:02

but she wants to be a god of death

how long and how much hard work do you think should be needed to become the grim reaper, god of death kinda things

@NautArch @GcL

TheDragonOfFlame

@NautArch I’ve done it. What I would do is calculate the best build you can make with only the core class features for dpr (without over the top min maxing) and compare. Ranger fairs quite well! After first level at least

I’ll give it a try

GcL

@Catofdoom2 That's actually one you're born into. Although, you do have to be a nanny for quite a while as training. Something about chasing off monsters under the bed and closet monsters with an umbrella.

Cat of doom2

19:21

what if you make a deal with the devil? @GcL

GcL

@Catofdoom2 Which devil?

Joel Harmon

@Catofdoom2 It seems to me the biggest obstacle to becoming the Grim Reaper is going to be the guy who currently has the job.

GcL

@JoelHarmon Actually, they're busy at a timeshare with the Hogsfather.... so it's open half time at least.

Cat of doom2

@JoelHarmon i think their is only one "death" but their are severel vessels and servents and "grim reapers"

Joel Harmon

You'll have to clarify what your cosmology looks like. Assuming you're playing D&D 5e, which seems likely, the system is nebulous about the whole cosmology. You might start by finding an appropriate spellcaster to contact someone in that hierarchy and inquire about job applications.

Hot RPG Questions

19:26

8

Q: Does the Fate Accessibility Toolkit cover learning difficulties like ADHD or dyslexia?

Looking at the description I cannot tell if the list on the product page is exhaustive or just a sample of what's inside? Discussion of specific disabilities, including blindness, D/deafness and hardness of hearing, mobility issues, dwarfism, chronic illness, autism, depression, anxiety, schizop...

fate accessibility

Cat of doom2

@JoelHarmon i am talking about DnD 5e and its multiverse and stuff

Someone_Evil

@JoelHarmon Now I just want to watch the sketch about someone temping as Death

Joel Harmon

This is where you end up contacting a Reaper, who starts begging you to take his job.

GcL

@Catofdoom2 In that case, there is only one death. Also, there are many deaths. Also, sometimes death was an adventurer and the other deities were also adventurers. Either that or it's dragon's all the way down.

@JoelHarmon In my headcanon they try to get you by telling you how awesome the benefits and vacation packages are.

Cat of doom2

@Someone_Evil @JoelHarmon @GcL can anyone find the requirements to become a vessel to a god anywhere in the lore?

Someone_Evil

19:32

Gain a Cleric level?

Joel Harmon

@Catofdoom2 Yeah, they're called Clerics.

Cat of doom2

cleric to the god of death?

GcL

@Catofdoom2 At the base level, I think any ceramic works but they really do prefer glassware.

Joel Harmon

Alternately, Paladins for more of a warrior flavor, or Warlocks for their pacts-with-some-entity.

Someone_Evil

@Catofdoom2 I belive there's a domain in the DMG for it, or Grave in XGtE

Joel Harmon

19:34

@Catofdoom2 Yes, but now you have to choose which god of death. Several pantheons have distinct ones.

GcL

@Catofdoom2 That's most adventuring clerics really. Sure they say they worship whomever, but they mostly go places, see things, and murder the inhabitants.

Cat of doom2

the big one. the one that rules over all the other ones

Someone_Evil

That might depend on which one you ask

GcL

@Catofdoom2 Is there a big one? I thought they were separate fiefdoms.

Joel Harmon

That's the issue. There's an Elven pantheon, a Dwarvish pantheon, etc, and each has their own version of a god of death.

Cat of doom2

19:35

are they all real?

GcL

The deity of feline deaths is notoriously lazy and doesn't answer to anyone.

Joel Harmon

In some interpretations, each solar system also has a different one.

The real answer here is "talk to your DM about it, but have some ideas first".

Cat of doom2

@JoelHarmon solar system!? not universe or dimension? thats a lot of reapers.

Joel Harmon

@Catofdoom2 The proper term is "crystal sphere", as I recall, but that's from some older lore.

GcL

@Catofdoom2 You get a solar system? What kind of spelljammer campaign are you running there? You want gith?! because that's how you get gith!

Joel Harmon

19:37

Really, 5e doesn't want to lock players into any given thing, so even stuff like Greek/Roman deities are fair game.

GcL

@JoelHarmon If you do lock players into a thing, make sure it has a bathroom. Otherwise the clean up is awful.

Someone_Evil

Greek mythology does have a canon answer for how to become the god of death, but IIRC that starts with being born from a titan, so your options are limited

Cat of doom2

is their a way to make a deal with death and posses some of his powers yes or no?

Someone_Evil

You mean as a Warlock? Because that sure sounds warlock-y

Cat of doom2

i think warlock cause that can only be limeted by the DM but paldins and cleric are very simailar regardless of god

GcL

19:41

@Catofdoom2 Yes. Be a warlock. Choose the abstract concept of death as your patron. Write them letters that have morbid poetry.

Cat of doom2

not me, my friend

GcL

@Catofdoom2 I had a campaign where two clerics worshiped the same deity and were as different and diametrically opposed as two characters in the same party could be. Hilarity ensued.

Someone_Evil

You'll probably want Undead or Undying as patron

And my experience is that warlocks land a lot more similar to each other than clerics, but I can see that varying massively

Joel Harmon

@Catofdoom2 I know it was true in previous editions, and I think it is for 5e, but pally/cleric can dedicate themselves to an idea/ideal, rather than a deity per se.

GcL

I do like the 5e paladins. Such a better interpretation than previous editions.

Joel Harmon

19:48

My big complaint was the 3e alignment restriction.

GcL

They seemed to lend themselves to "my guy syndrome" and start all sorts of intra-party conflict over bullshit.

KorvinStarmast

@Catofdoom2 level 20 still isn't deity level, so the answer is "infinite, and it's still not enough"

Cat of doom2

but feats and making deals and selling souls and making deals with devils

KorvinStarmast

@Catofdoom2 there isn't one; that's part of the FR cosmology hitch.

@Catofdoom2 no unless your DM says yes

Joel Harmon

Alternately, there are an infinite number of creatures with the type 'devil', just as there are with 'demon' or 'angel'.

Cat of doom2

20:02

angel isn't a type

Someone_Evil

All of those are technically tags, but that doesn't change any part of the point being made

Joel Harmon

Bah, they spelled it "celestial".

KorvinStarmast

@Catofdoom2 they were in a previous edition (lore) but that is currently fulfilled by the celestial creature type, with Deva, Planetar, and Solar. (Titans turn it up to 11)

NautArch

@Someone_Evil Didn't Peter do that on Family Guy?

KorvinStarmast

There were things like ascending to godhood, or demigodhood, in the Immortal set that was the last of the Basic/Expert/Champion/Master/Immortal line (parallel to AD&D) but porting that into 5e has not yet happened.

Someone_Evil

20:06

@NautArch Seems likely, but not too big on that particular humour/style tbh

NautArch

@Someone_Evil More than fair.

@Catofdoom2 At the end of the day, it's perfectly reasonable for a DM to say that this isn't that type of campaign.

Cat of doom2

sad

NautArch

Not really. It's the beginning. Just lean in another direction.

@GcL Methinks I have a downvote to my answer on the shield-pin because of my downvotes to the others.

Joel Harmon

Also, that wasn't a "no". I'll circle back again to "the cosmology isn't super well defined, so you should talk to your DM and the other players, and see if you can get them to agree to one that meets your goals".

NautArch

@JoelHarmon It was the DM who told them "no".

Joel Harmon

20:21

That said, if you did actually meet your goal, I'd suggest ending the campaign, because D&D as is doesn't really support that. Consider asking your group to try out a system that does, like Nobilis, to continue that campaign.

@NautArch Maybe I misread or glossed over something, but I didn't think that was the case.

NautArch

1 hour ago, by Cat of doom2

the DM also said that she wouldn't let one of the other players ever no longer how long we play asscend to godhood

Joel Harmon

Ah, I took that to mean the other player couldn't become a god, not that Cat couldn't become a lesser celestial.

NautArch

@JoelHarmon oh wait, maybe I"m wrong here. I thought @Catofdoom2 was talking about the other player.

GcL

20:36

@NautArch What do you need me to downv ote? I hadn't even opened up my fresh box of down votes, but I can go get it from the shelf.

NautArch

@GcL Bring me back to zero!

Ouch, you really did it :P

Out of curiosity, doy ou really think it's downvote worthy, or is it just because I asked?

GcL

20:54

You literally asked. I didn't even read it.

Pyrotechnical

21:22

Can I just say that I think it's absolutely hilarious that the same bot keeps spamming up this question? rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/53836/…

Just gonna need a bit of magic to get back your ex!

Captain Hat

Are niche rules contradictions a finite resource within any given system? I was lured to this stack by 5e gems like 'Can I talk to animals as a wildshaped Circle of the Shepherd Druid?' Feels like there are less questions of that ilk now. Does the sweet stream of ambiguities eventually dry out?

MikeQ

Depends on how ambiguous the system language is. D&D 5e has a lot of ambiguity built-in, hence the overwhelming majority of questions along the lines of "can I use [combat ability with simple language] for [unintended purpose]". They never ran out, but eventually people were mostly asking the same questions or similar questions, and then those get disregarded as duplicates.

Carcer

the pace of 5e's extra material output is also considerably lesser than previous editions, so there's not as much new stuff to ask questions about over time as there may have been in the past.

Joel Harmon

21:38

And the new paradigm for 5e is that most books are settings/campaign books, generally avoiding rules updates. Compare with 3.5e, say, in which each book had extensive new options for character generation.

TheDragonOfFlame

21:56

0

A: How does the ranger's DPR stack up against other martial classes?

Rangers are on par or better than other classes in terms of DPR. The martial classes are Barbarian, Fighter, Paladin and Ranger (assuming the definition of martial class as ‘class with martial weapon proficiency’, as the other definition ‘class that cannot cast spells’ does not include rangers). ...

Does my answer to this look good so far?

I was honestly quite surprised by my conclusions

Carcer

sword and board fighter is a bit of an unfair choice for dpr optimisation comparison would be my observation

TheDragonOfFlame

As opposed to great sword fighter?

Or mail, whatever

Carcer

yeah, I feel if you're going to do dpr comparison you need to build each class with dpr as the focus

TheDragonOfFlame

I was doing the typical example of a fighter, not the most optimised

I could do both maybe

Carcer

doing both seems reasonable, yeah

MikeQ

22:04

Trying to compare against a "typical" example isn't going to support your answer. There is no "typical" build. Who says the typical ranger is dual wielding, and not ranged? If you want to compare DPS then your best bet is to compare how each class does DPR optimization.

TheDragonOfFlame

@MikeQ I did no range because range’s benefits come from the range not from the dpr

And rangers come with two short swords default

Carcer

22:25

though it would be highly amusing if advanced analysis determines that the reason everyone thinks rangers suck is that they forget to cast hunter's mark

4

TheDragonOfFlame

22:39

@Carcer lol

dual weapon fighting is broken with hunters mark

i really want to make a level 2 ranger then the rest monk with hunters mark

NautArch

23:03

@GcL Fair enough, just making sure!

Transcript for