@JoshuaAslanSmith @Grubermensch @RobertF the more I think about it. The more I think you guys should do Thundertree tonight. The problem I see with doing Cragmaw Castle is that you guys don't know it's location yet (a careful interrogation of Droop will reveal he doesn't remember, he know it's north, but not well enough for directions), you can try to run into a random Goblin patrol in the random encounters table, but the Druid in Thundertree can tell you.

Okay. All settled in.. Just need to look at the sheet.

Add to this that Cragmaw castle basically is the prelude to the final act and I think it makes a bit more sense to deal with Thundertree first.

@MadMAxJr cool, we've got a bit of time if you've got any questions

@waxeagle Should I avoid spoilers?

@Miniman yes

Ok, I'll just say that Thundertree can be extremely difficult depending on the choices players make.

Josh is spoiled already as he's running this, but I think everyone else is in the darkish (though I teased what's in thundertree)

Is the character data preloaded into the table by chance?

@MadMAxJr not yet. let me open it up and add your character so you can fill in your sheet

@MadMAxJr you should have control of your character. Name is currently Estraff

(feel free to change...or not, up to you)

Alright.

do you have a preferred art ref or should I find you one?

Just use whatever fits your table best.

Trying to fill out the sheet best I can...

k, let me know if you have any questions

The sample sheet has the finished values, but not what makes them, so I'm guessing.

@waxeagle fine by me

either was okay you simply asked for a preference earlier and I expressed it

makes sense though

@JoshuaAslanSmith yeah, totally understand, but realized that we hadn't figured out where it was yet and that's sort of the hook that even makes going all the way to thundertree even make sense (other than the background bit for the ranged fighter)

yep

plus we got some sidequests there

@MadMAxJr I'm filling in a few bits

@waxeagle I see that. I'll stop hitting buttons.

firing up hangout now

plus.google.com/hangouts/_/gqiqanbh43emj224on5ze55nsqa

@waxeagle - Great game last night. Whole lot'o zombies! Despite WotC having 2+ years to work on 5e, they still haven't completely fixed combat. D&D combat can still drag when facing a lot of monsters. Although the advantage/disadvantage mechanic does speed things up.

I feel like the mook gangup tactic from DW is something 5e shouldve aped

whenever a group of enemies attacks to deal damage they roll their damage die and then just add +1 damage for each enemy in the group

So if x mooks all deal 1d6 damage, then roll 1d6 +x per round?

correct

7 goblins that each normally deal 1d6 = 1d6 + 6

you dont count the first mook

hes counted via the die

How is the 1d6+6 split up among the PCs?

1 target

thats only for the same enemy type

you can split it up

so lets say you had 6 1d6 gobins

3 attack one player

thats 1d6 +2 damage to both of them

3 attack another

Hmm interesting. Why use the modifier and not just a straight up 1d6 die roll?

because dice rolling, counter to popular opinion, is tedious and time consuming

1d6 x number mooks in group I meant.

because multiple enemies should be a threat but combat should flow and if you roll each enemy as a d6 it can also get super lethal superfast

Actually damage inflicted could get excessive if 1d6 x (# mooks)

yep

especially in DW where your HP is X + Constitution Score (X being based on class)

and it only goes up if your con score goes up

Another solution I think others have used to speed up combat is to make only one init roll for the PCs. Maybe use the party's average Dex modifier? Then everyone just does their thing for the round simultaneously.

hah, salvos

Yea - PCs could also coordinate their movements much better, say if they're advancing down a dungeon corridor or room 5 abreast.

@RobertF that's actually sort of how we're doing it. Since all same typed enemies go together, the PC init roll determines if you act before or after the monsters, from there it's all together

(and so far I think we've had 1 encounter with mixed enemy types)

@RobertF thanks! Still figuring out combat pacing for the system.

Though I will say it's way faster than 4e's combat was

hmmm catching up on the walking mind's MM preview

I wonder if Githzerai will make it in as a PC race at some point

they were unquestionably boss in 4e

@waxeagle - Combat was faster than 4e, very true. You're not doing anything wrong - it's just that the D&D system works great for skirmishes, slows down for big battles.

Maybe the 5e DM Guide will have alternate rules for fast combat when the PCs are wading thru 50 goblins.

@RobertF agree with that.

@RobertF I'm really hoping we have something on turning a group of mobs into a swarm

I could derive something from the existing swarms probably

creepy halfling swarms

my goal as a GM is to make halflings the scourge of the intelligent races (but not in a kender way)

straight up import dark suns tribal cannibalistic halflings but with a touch of civility, but really build on that creepy big head small limbs art style they went with

@JoshuaAslanSmith I like it

and as I figured 5espellbook.azurewebsites.net has been C&D'd

Yeah, saw that this morning

The halflings don't look quite right, do they?

also I plan on making a recurring supporting character Drizzt do'hdumb who shows up, bumbles things, and makes situations worse for the heroes

@JoshuaAslanSmith :)

The halfling proportions remind me of the Red Queen from Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland.

@waxeagle I wholly felt that it was some ADND or 3e fan who just leapt before they looked on it

also morningstar (as I WILL ALWAYS CALL IT)

@JoshuaAslanSmith yeah, I'm a bit surprised that it stayed up as long as it did TBH. Part of the reason I started linking it was that it was still around a week later.

hah

like honestly this is what morning star will be for

exactly

if it's doing it's job, it will cover the ground of both the compendium and the character builder

how did the spellbook generator work?

@RobertF you selected spells and it gave you the full text of them

wasnt a generator, was an index

either as a book style list or as power cards

had the game content of all the spells.

which is a pretty clear copyright vio

for which WOTC typically summons 2d12 lawyers

was he charging $ for the spellbook generator?

nope

but it was well beyond the pale for fair use

its still infringement and costing them $s

because they are giving away paid content for free

the way a lot of 4e usermade tools avoided that was they worked off the compendium and you had to login to the compendium for them to function

he might have gotten by if he had stuck to basic only, but it was the full PHB spell list.

WOTC was still making their rightful profit from their content

@JoshuaAslanSmith I kind of hope 5e has an API (or a fake on like 4e) like that...but I doubt it.

Can't you mark those up and make them easier for people to consume?

only a matter of time before you can bit torrent the PH, right?

@SurrealAnalysis fuzzy. very fuzzy. It's free to copy for personal use

Ah, okay

yeah

@RobertF I can't say with 100% certainty, but if you look it's probably out there

its not anything like an OGL

I thought it was free for non-profitable use

Speaking of Morningstar, any idea when that will launch?

@SurrealAnalysis - The basic rules, not the PH

Yes, I'm referring to the basic

right but I think wizards retains the rights for use of the basic rules

its not a creative commons style license

its more like hey you can use it and share it but you cant repackage the content

> Not for resale. Permission granted to print and photocopy this document for personal use only.

(footer of BD&D ^)

THis fellow had the PH spells online. Or are they identical to the Basic spells?

they basically wanted to avoid printed copies ended up being sold in game shops

@SurrealAnalysis one of these days? They've been saying soon as in a week or two, for a couple of weeks now

@RobertF fully PHB. PHB list is quite a bit longer than BD&D

Some are but the PHB has a much wider spell list because it has more classes and more class paths

D&D halfling art thru the ages:

threatormenace.com/2014/08/19/…

I agree with the author that Lidda from 3.5 was the best.

thats the worst example of 4e art

@JoshuaAslanSmith smilie murderer!

I hate winky faces

which is pure subjectivity but it adds nothing to the question and only distracts

agreed. They really don't belong in Q&As

specially tacked on at the end for no apparent reason

yep I figured from a style guide kinda viewpoint its worthless

so I used my privileges and just edited it away

I'm not missing anything that a PHB would show on that concentration question am I?

This question eagerly awaits you to come out of your slump. No rush,

no

concentration has zero loop holes

there arent any feats that let you concentrate on two things at a time

nor class features

thats the only place for that kind of thing to really exist in my opinion

that's what I thought. I hadn't seen one and I figured it would be a big freaking deal if there was one

yep

similarly if there were a way to get an extra bonus action

The action economy seems pretty locked down

yeah

im okay with that so long as it stays that way

yeah. Was just about to say, the problem is that the history here indicates future books may break this stuff

I'm hoping thats not the case, and the fact that the business model calls for fewer bigger releases hopefully helps with that

even if they had a lot of releases, stricter control and adherence to a style/design guide would prevent that

yes

Hmm. So if you're at a disadvantage, there's nothing stopping you from getting absolutely outlandish and trying to stack as many things that would cause you to be at a disadvantage is there?

@MadMAxJr not really, no

Though you could attract additional issues, like for instance, the cover rules don't use that mechanic

they apply penalties to attack rolls

Skiing down a rockslide using the corpse of a cultist while trying to maintain bardic song and doing a hand-stand. DISADVANTAGE.

there could be some saves involved there :)

Possibly a heavy metal album cover too.

Wonder if we could get Brian at d20monkey to draw that, he loves bards

"Skiing down a rockslide using the corpse of a cultist while trying to maintain bardic song and doing a hand-stand. " Would it be so bad if the DM ruled a 3d20 disadvantage in this case?

@RobertF oh no, you're making several saves just to get there, and if you do get there, your attack is still at disadvantage. if you fail some saves, you're bludgeoned, prone an being inappropriately grabbed by a rock pile

But if you pull it off, you're lord of the table.

@MadMAxJr aye, even if you don't you have an amazing story

@waxeagle did you like dove getting kicked out?

Pulling that off may cause a set of 90s shades to appear and get placed on your face.

@JoshuaAslanSmith generally yes. I think it's the right move, though I don't think it's the end of that. Kind of hope the confrontation continues.

@MadMAxJr yes.

and a Giant banner appears from the sky directing the DM to "Deal with it"

@waxeagle I know right? I wanna really know if the Die is weighted, but I feel like from a writer standpoint its better to never actually reveal it.

let the reader decide in their head and frame the story with that decision as a result

@JoshuaAslanSmith yeah. And the fact that the character is an ass/jumps to his own conclusions about the allegation is pretty much spot on.

yep

I do think nestled within dove's terrible delivery is a legit criticism

I expect some form of introspection in the coming panels

hes usually good about that

which is why I read all the non christmas related stuff

yes, there are legitimate critiques there. Especially re: how he treats his friends. I'm not sure how ultimately fair they are since we see snippets of play, but I don't think the author would include them if the wasn't going to address them

correct

there has in the past been some clique behavior

its hard to take he serious with that hat though

lol yeah

still a comic strip :)

especially since hats in general have taken on a comical edge with his gf's hats

I wonder if she made it for h im

that would 100 percent fit

thats how Im retconning it in my mind

I would be completely unsurprised if she did

Im so meh over the demon/devil division in D&D writ large

5e has done little to assuage this

talking bout the half fiend they previewed today?

Why do you dislike the division?

Seems to make sense to me

On one hand you have the planning evil

The Mephistos of the world

On the other, you have destruction and desecration

yeah but I mean in general

I feel like there doesnt need to be a distinct cosmological divide

Ah, okay

Demon and Devil have slightly different connotations, but can be effectively used interchangeably to talk about immortal beings of evil and malice

So you would prefer something where there are maybe two factions?

Or just a gradient

yeah a gradient most likely

or maybe two different breeds, but all in the same hierarchy

I was looking at the planar/cosmological map in the PHB and it's intriguing

Im either just gonna mash em together or use only one or the other in a campaign

Heya, is a roll20 question fair game?

@Khashir rpg.stackexchange.com/help/on-topic "Tools and equipment used while playing table-top RPGs (including running them online)"

yep

:) ty

basically, the 5E char sheet implementation is super neat, but after reading (I think) the relevant documentation, I'm a bit puzzled by the fact that you have to open the char sheet if you want to use the auto-calculated attacks. Isn't there a way to populate the macro bar with these, without having to type them?

the 'fastest' solution atm is to alt-click the token, bringing up the char sheet, but that's still cumbersome

i agree, and as a DM the character sheet has difficulties wrt using "calculated values" (last time I looked, I couldn't just get a player's AC... I had to calculate it from a few values)... very annoying... because of that, i tend to just create macros and ignore the character sheets

For what it's worth, the AC is on the character sheets pretty prominently nonw

now*

Right below speed

If this got cut from the DMG, I can't wait to see what did make it in:

twitter.com/ChrisPerkinsDnD/status/508014478148251648

@SurrealAnalysis Yes, but there's no easy way to reference it in a macro or ability