TRPG General Chat

TheFallen0ne

01:21

@Someone_Evil I can see why the skill and mount tags weren't appropriate, but I figured for sure it was subjective and tangentially related to downtime b/c I was expecting most costs to involve it in some measure.

Do I have a misunderstanding of how to apply those tags- could you take a moment to clarify for me so I don't mistag in the future?

Someone_Evil

subjective is not a tag which should exist. See Meta Tags

TheFallen0ne

Hmm. Got it. Is this a recent-ish update? When I started posting a few months ago I thought I remembered "Good Subjective" and "Bad Subjective" and was going for the good kind (Back it up)

Someone_Evil

Those quality standards are universal, and wholly independent of tags

You'll note that the blog post I linked is from 2010, so not recent

TheFallen0ne

Ah-hah, I see. I mistakenly conflated the two concepts. I appreciate the clarification. :)

i'll actually glance at the load-box when I put my tags in and check for the meta tag label. I usually just breeze through typing them in

Someone_Evil

No worries

@TheFallen0ne Not sure what you'd be looking for, if you're making a tag (as you just did), it doesn't come with an excerpt

Not a bad idea to look for those though, some tags can have some particular guidance

TheFallen0ne

01:29

I just assumed the little drop-box would tell me if it was a meta-tag. :-D that's what I get for assuming

Someone_Evil

You're gonna have to instead remember to tag for what the question is about, which is the general principle

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@TheFallen0ne btw duplicates are okay to have around. They can make it easier to find questions in search.

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Hot RPG Questions

15:08

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Q: How To Run an encounter against a sleeping party; Utilising a homebrew system

I'm currently working on a personal revision to traveling in the wilderness in 5e, I've hit a roadblock with encounter design. Let me summarize my system and the problem at hand. My system works on dividing days up into 4 six-hour blocks. Long rests now only take 6 hours. If players wish to long ...

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wheatleycrab

15:52

i would like to workshop another question here, given my...unfortunate track record.

With how well my very first question(that was actually based in the campaign I was playing) did, I'm hoping this one will go well too

What are the (most likely foreseen) consequences of my DM giving everyone overpowered Christmas gifts?

Yesterday, I had my last session of the year, in which myself and my party saved Christmas by killing Krampus, and got some very powerful presents from Santa Claus, decided by a roll of a 100-sided die.

I, a Gold Dragonborn Sorc 6, had my Charisma score and maximum increased by 3, totalling 23(+6).
Eyvie, a Tiefling Fighter 6, got the ability to "generate armor under +5" on demand. She gave herself +3 Plate Armor and gave the Artificer +3 Half-Plate.
Booth, a Battle Smith Artificer 6, got a +3 bonus to three of his skills.

Thomas Markov

@wheatleycrab This reads like multiple "homebrew reviews" in one.

And I can tell you what sorts of answers you will get.

"Everyone but William is wildly broken".

wheatleycrab

that is...yeah kind of an apt description of what i typed out, unfortunately.

well. not sure what to do now

Thomas Markov

Hmmm, now an interesting question might be something like "My DM gave me and the rest of the party horribly unbalanced items for Christmas that I'm pretty sure will negatively affect the game moving forward. What do?"

wheatleycrab

The general consensus in the party is that the DM is powering us up so he can use his favorite toys against us without much hesitation given our power levels.

Hence my note about level 20 Leuis

Thomas Markov

I think y'all should pause and have a conversation about the sort of game you are playing, because it seems the DM has a different idea from the rest of you.

Because some of those features are much stronger than even the strongest features the game has to offer.

wheatleycrab

16:04

Good point. I mean, we've had fairly hard hitting opponents before and managed to take them down with minimal losses to health.

The DM does not read too too much into the all the books, and is somewhat winging it, but he's doing a good job of presenting hard, but fair obstacles and making the game enjoyable

Thomas Markov

For example, check out this post of mine where I talk about just how much of a difference +2 AC can make.

wheatleycrab

@ThomasMarkov Someone linked to that answer of yours in my last, unfortunate question

Thomas Markov

And consider that (if I'm understanding correctly), the DM just gave the party +3 (or +4? +5?) armor.

@wheatleycrab I thought it was an okay question.

wheatleycrab

The DM gave one member the ability to generate "armor under +5" on demand. Eyvie generated the +3 Plate and +3 Half-Plate herself.

She has not given the whole party ridiculous armor

I'm still working with my 14 AC thanks to draconic bloodline

@ThomasMarkov Yeah, me too, but my answer got a lot of backlash. Not exactly conducive to a positive outlook on the question as a whole

Thomas Markov

None of these gifts are even remotely similar to the sorts of things one would usually expect for a 6th level party. Some of them are closer to what you might see with a 20th level party.

And some of the are just totally unparalleled in official material.

@wheatleycrab I thought your conclusion was correct, but the analysis was really shallow.

wheatleycrab

16:09

Yeah, that's my take on it as well, Thomas. The DM has made a wonderful mistake, and I have no idea how 2023 sessions are going to end up, but I am ALL for it.

Thomas Markov

@wheatleycrab If you're okay with, that's cool. Have fun.

I'd be looking for a way out, but that's just not my style of game.

wheatleycrab

It's a highschool club, and most of us are freshmen. We don't take it all too seriously, haha.

Someone_Evil

@wheatleycrab Uhm... for 5e?

wheatleycrab

@Someone_Evil yeah, its 5e.

Someone_Evil

Just double checking and then I saw that the +5 was already commented on

wheatleycrab

16:17

yeah, +4 and +5 armor does not exist, but i'm just gonna shut my rules-lawyering mouth up for once and not tell the dm

Someone_Evil

@ThomasMarkov If the question is essentially "are these balanced against eachother?" that's not a problem. Responses might vary wildly though

wheatleycrab

posting the slightly revised question here now
My DM gave myself and the rest of the party horribly unbalanced gifts for Christmas, and I want to see exactly how bad he screwed up.

Yesterday, I had my last session of 2022, in which myself and my party saved Christmas by killing Krampus, and got some RIDICULOUSLY POWERFUL presents from Santa Claus, decided by a roll of a 100-sided die.

I, a Gold Dragonborn Sorc 6, had my Charisma score and maximum increased by 3, totalling 23(+6).
Eyvie, a Tiefling Fighter 6, got the ability to "generate armor under +5" on demand. She gave herself +3 Plate…

Someone_Evil

@wheatleycrab The issue isn't strictly that of existing, when you're talking about homebrew none of the material exists per say, rather what it does to the numerical side of the system

wheatleycrab

also the current tags are [dnd-5e][homebrew][balance][house-rules], if there should be changes

Thomas Markov

I'd probably close for "needs more focus" as written.

wheatleycrab

16:22

dang it.

Someone_Evil

This seems to fall under homebrew-review more so than homebrew or house-rules

Thomas Markov

If there is a specific question about a particular gift you have, it may work for the site, but asking general open ended questions about six unrelated features isn't what we're looking for in a single post.

Examining each question one by one....

> Have I missed the hidden power in the other gifts given?

This seems to be a pretty broad, non-specific question about each feature. This alone would probably need more details/more focus

> Is Booth's gift mathematically broken?

We would probably need some more information about what sort of analysis you're looking for here. Any time someone just gets something for free, there is some sense in which it is "broken", though we might could compare it to magic items and determine if it is level appropriate as a magic item.

> Is Pedro's dagger actually worthless?

Obviously not, I'm not sure what you're really asking here. Needs more details explaining what you mean.

> Is my 23 Charisma not as powerful as I think it is when the math is done?

How powerful do you think it is? What math? I'm not quite sure what this one is asking either.

wheatleycrab

As someone who's actual in-game experience with D&D 5e so far is very limited, I don't know if the statistics of a +3 increase to 20 Charisma for a Sorcerer is as good as my intuition tells me it is

For example, a +2 increase in AC in most people's minds is just an 8% increase, and nothing major

But when you did the math and analyzed the actual differences in probabilities, it came out to a 200% increase in survivalability!

That's basically what I was thinking of when I asked if things were actually not as good or even better than I think it would be.

Thomas Markov

16:37

We may have question looking at that actually.

wheatleycrab

@ThomasMarkov Am I misreading this? what?

Thomas Markov

Side note, I cant think of any situation where having 23 would be different than having 22.

@wheatleycrab I'm looking for a question discussing the effects of going from 20 to 22 in the main ability score.

But I may be misremembering something.

31

Q: How will ability scores be unbalanced if I remove the 20 cap?

My party is a fan of dice throwing. A lot. And although they are not analysing things, they prefer visible improvements, like in numbers: proficiency bonus, ability scores, skill scores, etc. Because of this, I'm considering of removing the 20 cap on ability scores, so they can get over 20 with ...

dnd-5e ability-scores

The analyses there aren't numerically rigorous, but the concepts are at least relevant.

wheatleycrab

I remember finding this question before! Also, Groody's answer on my first question delves fairly deep into the numbers of Elemental Adept back when I curious at Level 3

wheatleycrab

16:59

I have now removed the "Also, DM made a mistake by giving Eyvie that power" comment, and changed the questions in the last paragraph to be as follows:
When the actual probabilities are calculated, and the statistics analyzed, how bad has my DM messed up?
What's the most powerful gift given?
What's the least?
Is there any equivalent to any of these in official rulebooks, or in the Unearthed Arcana?

Would these work?

Someone_Evil

What would constitute a "mess up"?

wheatleycrab

I guess a breaking of balance? im not sure that wording applies though, as its homebrew, and inherently balance-breaking, in a sense?

Someone_Evil

Balance ends up meaning a few different things, and is often thrown around way too much to be a good crouch to lean on

Thomas Markov

If you all have fun and are on board with it, I don’t think anyone can say the DM messed up.

wheatleycrab

@ThomasMarkov That's a good point. hmm.

Thomas Markov

17:08

I can tell you that I don’t think I’d enjoy the game, but that’s just my opinion and it isn’t really a helpful one lol. But I don’t think anyone can tell you if y’all have messed up.

wheatleycrab

okay, "When the actual probabilities are calculated, and the statistics analyzed, how strong are these, exactly?"

Does that work better?

Someone_Evil

Typically balance refers to the balance between players (on their ability to impact what the game cares about, spotlight, etc.). Homebrew material (eg. race, class options, feats, etc.) is generally considered balance when it maintains the balance that exists in official (preextant) material (eg. taking this homebrew subclass isn't (noticably) more powerful than taking a PHB one)

@wheatleycrab That'd technically be 6 different question (see the "needs more focus" TM responded with earlier), though at least some of them are fairly easy to answer and if there's a clear focus and importance of getting the relative power it works (and is better as) one question

wheatleycrab

Perhaps I could ask, instead of all these scattershot questions, just one, "How could these gifts end up spotlighting one character over another?" or something to that effect

Someone_Evil

I have no idea how you'd navigate that

wheatleycrab

fair point. Maybe just delete the other scattershot questions and leave just "When the actual probabilities are calculated, and the statistics analyzed, how strong are these, exactly?"

Someone_Evil

17:15

I think you're frighteningly close to a response of "just play with them, and get back to us when it's actually caused a problem", which leads me to: what are you actually trying to get out of the question?

wheatleycrab

Crazy statistics. I find them amusing and very eye-opening. For me, somewhat half the fun of D&D is the ridiculous numbers and the actions fueled by those ridiculous numbers.

I do believe I made this point straight up in my unfortunate flying question

Someone_Evil

Ah, right. That seems coherent with what you're asking

wheatleycrab

I do at least hope that all my failings are a somewhat good case study for how not to write a question/answer/whathaveyou

Someone_Evil

Hoping I didn't miss feedback above and am repeating stuff, but I did have some more specific notes. What's a "magic 1d4 dagger"? Is it just a magic dagger (+ the bleed effect) or does the 1d4 actually denote something?

wheatleycrab

oh, its just a dagger that does 1d4 damage on hit, + the bleed effect

Should I rewrite that?

Someone_Evil

17:27

Also, in my experience bleed effects are incredibly annoying to keep track of, but I expect you'll figure that out on your own

wheatleycrab

I mean, daggers do 1d4 in the PHB, so I should just say "magic dagger"

Someone_Evil

@wheatleycrab All daggers have a 1d4 damage die, so if there's no change, don't mention it

wheatleycrab

Alright, deleted the 1d4 note

Someone_Evil

I suspect you wont be able to answer this, but the companion will vary very heavily depending on what the summoning limitations actually are

Thomas Markov

The answers to my first question have some good commentary on bleeding effects.

wheatleycrab

17:32

@Someone_Evil I'm not sure what stats the DM is going off of for the hellhound either, and he basically never responds to texts/calls/emails/anything else other than direct verbal discussion

Someone_Evil

@wheatleycrab I'd assume a hell hound

wheatleycrab

@Someone_Evil Which book is this hell hound described? School policy has online filtering which prevents me from going to dndbeyond. It's pretty bad filtering, evidently.

More of an annoyance, really.

Someone_Evil

Monster Manual or SRD

Thomas Markov

@wheatleycrab monster manual/basic rules

wheatleycrab

gotcha

That is certainly a frightening creature

I cannot wait to see how my DM will describe it when 2023 comes around

Thomas Markov

18:10

This is a spam post, please flag it spam.

wheatleycrab

aye aye, captain

Thomas Markov

It's weird, the answer seems on topic and not even terrible, but the link near the bottom is a spam link.

Post is plagiarized from here.

SmokeDetector

[ SmokeDetector | MS ] Manually reported answer (94): How to run an encounter against a sleeping party, utilising a homebrew system‭ by Velendlol‭ on rpg.SE (@Rubiksmoose @ThomasMarkov @linksassin @AncientSwordRage)

wheatleycrab

What is THAT thing?

Thomas Markov

That's smokey.

wheatleycrab

18:17

fun, uh, what's his job?

Thomas Markov

425

Q: Can a machine be taught to flag spam automatically?

TL;DR: We did it, so... yes. What is this? Charcoal is the organization behind the SmokeDetector bot and other nice things. This bot scans new posts across the entire network for spam posts and reports them to various chatrooms where people can act on them. If a post has been created or edite...

discussion flags spam robots

wheatleycrab

Very cool! The wonders of technology.

Thomas Markov

Basically, smokey is a bot that checks new posts for spam, and some users allow smokey to cast flags on their behalf.

wheatleycrab

first VTC i've ever cast and it's on my own darn question. ya live and ya learn, i guess :/

I mean hey, cherry on top, if it gets two more downvotes I can delete it for Peer Pressure

Someone_Evil

18:35

You can still edit it fix issues pointed out

The Oracle

19:14

0

Q: Winterbash: Gimme all your Hatting!

To continue Thomas' tradition of collecting the memorabilia of transient hat awards (and maybe also share the how we got secret hats? I think I got one but failed to record it, grrr...) here is a post for sharing selfies this year -- with hats! Apparently there is no special theme this year (but ...

discussion winterbash

GcL

19:48

@wheatleycrab What do you need downvoted?

wheatleycrab

@GcL My most recent question.

Akixkisu

20:14

My attempt at making 11 Will Save The Day
work is pitiful.

@ThomasMarkov Sexy murder poets trying to thwart basically pleasant bureaucrats once again rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/203473/…

Thomas Markov

@Akixkisu I'd rather be a sexy poet than a pleasant bureaucrat.

Akixkisu

@ThomasMarkov Unfortunately, it is of the utmost importance that the boring basically pleasant bureaucrats prevail.

Thomas Markov

20:30

@Akixkisu Yeah, "we should stop asking clarifying questions" is an odd take.

Someone_Evil

I assumed they're repeating the complaint against (unneeded) closure over not having the background for questions

Which is maybe a bit reading what they're looking for, but hey

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