TRPG General Chat

12:28 AM

9

Q: What is the best way to deal with NPC-NPC combat?

I'm about to run a premade adventure, and reading through it I see a potential situation where one group of monsters could, though PC actions, end up fighting each other. As a PC, I hate seeing my DM, for lack of better words, play with himself. NPC vs. NPC combats played out blow-for-blow in i...

Zachiel

Please, someone tell me I'm not wrong T_T

V2Blast

@Zachiel what are you not wrong about?

Zachiel

I hate being told that monks in 3.5e are OP

V2Blast

Ah. never played 3.5e so I wouldn't know :P

Zachiel

That being proven by a build that is basically "convince your DM to allow these 3.0 books, these optional rules, then multiclass a lot, take a lot of psionic things (wait, is that still a monk?)"...

trogdor

12:33 AM

@Zachiel I've played a monk one time and was overshadowed by a grapple Barb and a caster

I forget if they were a warlock or a sorcerer

I even had a cool seeming prestige class that was way easier to put levels into as a monk and that hardly helped

Monk is not OP in 3.5

Freaking casters are, period

Zachiel

I'm basically getting a psionic warrior character with all the rest of the levels in monk.

trogdor

Maybe monk is stronger than some classes? But not pretty much any of the casters

Miniman

I played a Monk once. It sucked. I was literally useless. I was actually glad when the party got TPKed in the first session.

trogdor

And even for martial classes it depends a lot on build

@Miniman I felt relatively similar, the only reason I had fun that one campaign was because of my backstory and prestige class and the group I was playing with

Miniman

@Zachiel Why not take Tashalatora and have all the levels in psychic warrior?

trogdor

12:38 AM

I certainly didn't get any time as the most useful person

To be fair I may have done it to myself a little with that prestige class but I doubt it

It seemed like I was missing some,... Honestly mostly useless monk stuff that would not have really made a difference

Err well actually at the end I was the most useful person

But that was like literally,.. because of my one time a day prestige class thing

It was definitely not a monk feature

XD

BESW

In my experience, 3.5 monks are useful in direct proportion to how much the GM thinks monks are useful.

In particular, the most effective monks I've seen were in campaigns where the GMs made a monk's non-combat utility particularly effective and filled combat scenes with enemies that were particularly vulnerable to monk specialties like trip attacks.

But everything a monk can do, somebody else can do better.

trogdor

@BESW well, as with any class the build choices matter too, and what else you have In the party

BESW

The thing a monk's especially good at is surviving combat despite being largely unable to contribute to ending the fight.

trogdor

Yeah

If you have an all caster party you are the least powerful person

BESW

Heck, the non-casting grappler outshone your monk at every turn.

trogdor

12:50 AM

But if you can say, tie up a lot of opponents and not die, you can still contribute by making it so the casters have breathing room to do the caster stuff

@BESW yeah

I mentioned that

It was not the best

I was experimenting and he was still in min-max mode

I kinda blame his other group though

BESW

The best way to tie people up is a PrC that monks don't have the class skills for, and for which a monk's BAB would delay entry by 2 levels.

trogdor

His stories about those games painted a picture of min-max or die

(and then die anyway because bad DM )

@BESW yeah

BESW

(And it duplicates a lot of the monk's abilities so boo.)

trogdor

I'm just saying, they can contribute

Zachiel

For reference, that's the "build" I've been given

trogdor

12:54 AM

Not In any way that overshadows other classes very much though

BESW

@Zachiel I'm reminded of 4e Seeker builds.

(The way to make a Seeker powerful is to get as many generic power boosts as possible which would make ANY class better.)

Zachiel

This one actually focuses on dealing damage. I wonder how it fares.

BESW

And even Seeker builds don't open with "See what your GM will let you get away with."

trogdor

@Zachiel I mean, that's never been the main goal of the class right?

That to me is a broken build for monk (assuming it is) not a reason the class is broken

That's like modifying your car to have those ridiculous wheels that stick out and then saying every model has those ridiculous wheels

It's not the same thing

Knowing how to break monk does not equal monk is broken

If people are looking to say that about a class out of the box in 3.5 look at druid

Zachiel

@trogdor well, if you can build even a single OP monk, then monk is OP (just play that build, other builds are suboptimal). Now, if it is overpowered against other monks or against other martial, that's the question.

trogdor

1:00 AM

All the normal caster power plus an animal companion and wildshape

Zachiel

Druid has a single, big problem.

I'm not interested in playing a druid. XD

trogdor

@Zachiel well my point is not everyone knows or wants to play that build

It isn't literally the incarnation of the class

Shalvenay

@trogdor this

Zachiel

But if that build worked (and ok, if I had access to the required classes and feats, which I don't) at least I could use it without feeling useless.

trogdor

@Zachiel oh that's not what I meant, I'm just making an example of my point

Zachiel

1:02 AM

@trogdor Yeah, mine was more a pun.

trogdor

There are in fact out of the box "I'm more powerful than other classes",... Classes. And monk is just by no means in that category

@Zachiel lol

In fact I think monks take significantly more work to break than a lot of classes

Zachiel

1:15 AM

I just noticed it's a gestalt build

so, full BAB

Whatever

trogdor

Full BAB as in as good as a fighter? Or full BAB as in not losing any BAB a monk normally gets?

nitsua60

1:32 AM

@Miniman remember this one? Ah, good times.

Miniman

@nitsua60 Heh, long time ago now.

nitsua60

Just got an updoot today, though.

I just remember really being amused by the comment:

Guys...guys.... you dont have to get in to a bidding war just for my epic votes....but I also wont stop you :D — Airatome Aug 9 '17 at 1:45

Shalvenay

hey there @nitsua60

nitsua60

Hiya

Shalvenay

@nitsua60 you mind if I toss a couple things at you in Discord?

David Coffron

1:37 AM

@KorvinStarmast was it you that had the spell area of effect online tool? I can't remember what it as called

nitsua60

@Shalvenay Fine, but give me 20 min or so--I was just about to clean out a litter box.

MikeQ

@Shalvenay Any luck on getting other players for the one-shot?

Shalvenay

@MikeQ I think we'll be fine with me and V2 playing, although there is someone (veteran RPer, albeit new to 5e specifically) from outside this Stack I could invite if that's cool with you

MikeQ

Sure. I'll remember to start with an icebreaker/table rules sort of spiel.

David Coffron

@KorvinStarmast (Nevermind it was @SirCinnamon)

V2Blast

2:00 AM

@Shalvenay 👀

Shalvenay

@V2Blast all I got was a placeholder box :P

V2Blast

emojipedia.org/eyes

Hot RPG Questions

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Q: What ability score does a Hexblade's Pact Weapon use for attack and damage when wielded by another character?

I read this question about other PCs using pact weapons and realized that I'm not sure if the weapon would use the warlock's Charisma, or the other character's Strength/Dexterity for attack and damage rolls. Now, the text of Hex Warrior says "when you attack with that weapon you can use your Ch...

dnd-5e weapons warlock ability-scores hexblade

nitsua60

@HotRPGQuestions Q +4/0, 1 A +9/0, 36 views.

Tepid at best, bot.

Joshua

Too bad there's no lich emoji

KorvinStarmast

2:21 AM

@V2Blast 🏌️‍♂️ I guess I now have emoji resources.

That is what son in law and I did this past weekend. Good fun.

MikeQ

2:35 AM

@Shalvenay Actually, I'd appreciate if they contacted me a bit beforehand, just for a quick conversation so I get a sense of them and their style

Shalvenay

@MikeQ OK, I can have them do that

BESW

4:22 AM

looking at print costs for your RPG and throwing up a bit? consider not making your book standard letter size. the difference between making a 6x9 book and an 8.5x11 book is staggering. that's the key to high quality, low cost offset: 6x9inches, 200 pages or less.

Tweeted by swordpeddler on April 23, 2019 at 2:02 PM

BESW

4:35 AM

Our most popular character sheet. Is the #Faterpg and #dnd5e sheets inspired by @DreamWorksSheRa show! If you have had a chance to check em out, you can download them for free on the blog https://tmblr.co/ZJwLjY2eUvVjc #dnd #charactersheets #ttrpg #rpg

Tweeted by DangerousDice on March 13, 2019 at 8:46 PM

trogdor

4:54 AM

@BESW it's just too bad they are for D&D

BESW

5:08 AM

There's a Fate one!

trogdor

Oh well then that changes things

That's much better XD

V2Blast

5:52 AM

"She-Ra D&D sheet
She-Ra D&D printer friendly
She-Ra Fate sheet
She-ra Fate printer friendly"

links at the bottom of the Tumblr post

and then there's another post adding links to a D&D character sheet's spell page in addition to those

and one adding Spanish translations for the Fate sheets

BESW

6:20 AM

"The Avengers Assemble… in the Apocalypse World," by Stephen Morffew for Step into RPGs.

BESW

6:47 AM

24. My fav things I've written are sidebars where I break kayfabe & talk directly to players about identity things, frex: Pirate Nations p. 130, Emerald Empire 142 & 173, Iron Street Combat 10-11 & 22, Monsterhearts 2 40-43, SCUP 252-259, Scion: Hero 284-285. #AprilTTRPGmaker

Tweeted by LulaVampiro on April 25, 2019 at 4:26 AM

"Subtle Forms of Racism to Avoid in SFF," transcript of speech by Helen Gould at Eastercon 2019.

Stackstuck

stumbles into chatroom, swaying

I think I know what the person who discovered Pun-Pun might have felt like now.

If I'm correct about what I've not read in these rules...

There's a theoretically infinite loop I could make out of them.

Dunno if I can spin it into infinite stat boosts, but.

MikeQ

Which rules? And what's the infinite loop?

Stackstuck

rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/146815/…

I'm like, half-drunk on "I should be sleeping" at the moment, but...exponential growth.

exponential growth.

this is literally quadratic wizardry

even if it takes a turn it's still quadratic wizardry

oh, wait, there's a question to be had there...

what happens if an item that started a chain of effects poofs out of existence, is the question

though, Reduced Recharge, and an extra charge stuck on top, those would definitely leave an infinite, and infinitely sustainable, loop...

probably

anyway, the siren song of sleep beckons.

V2Blast

7:45 AM

A good article by James Haeck on how to write a good backstory: dndbeyond.com/posts/478-roleplaying-101-building-a-backstory

Former Baldur's Gate I and II designer James Ohlen (who just released Heroes of Baldur's Gate on the #DMsGuild) is heading Wizards of the Coast's new game dev studio ... on a NON-D&D, NON-MAGIC project!? https://www.pcgamer.com/kotor-dragon-age-origins-lead-designer-will-lead-a-new-studio-for-wizards-of-the-coast/

Tweeted by jamesjhaeck on April 24, 2019 at 8:18 PM

kviiri

8:28 AM

@Stackstuck Super-quadratic

kviiri

8:41 AM

Working with computer science has kinda primed me to correct confusion between exponential and quadratic

V2Blast

10:30 AM

I made a post on the Roll20 forums bringing up that the AiME-specific character sheet (forked from the 5th Edition OGL sheets that I've used for every regular 5e game long ago) hasn't been updated in 2 years 👀

(AiME = Adventures in Middle-earth)

doppelgreener

10:41 AM

@Stackstuck this feels like the Anima Beyond Fantasy equivalent of the Peasant Railgun

not in its effect, but in the observations that apply to why it does or doesn't work

doppelgreener

11:25 AM

With the release of Avengers: Endgame, I'd like to remind everyone you can disable the Hot Network Questions list in your user preferences. It's the fourth checkbox on that page, the one in the “Sidebar” section. This will hopefully minimise your chance of spoilers coming in the form of HNQ titles.

8

trogdor

@doppelgreener ah thanks I didn't even know I could do that but it is now disabled

at least until I have seen that movie

BESW

Nov 3 '17 at 4:14, by BESW

Please don't spoil Thor.

trogdor

lol

doppelgreener

@trogdor it is a very new setting, was only added a couple of months ago.

V2Blast

@doppelgreener done, thanks

trogdor

11:32 AM

@doppelgreener hot questions was only added recently too right?

doppelgreener

@trogdor what do you mean?

trogdor

didn't we not have it here?

until relatively recently?

or is that something else?

doppelgreener

oh, the hot questions list on our site!

trogdor

yes

I guess

doppelgreener

that's been around forever, just became more visible recently.

trogdor

11:34 AM

is that technically a different thing?

doppelgreener

no relation to HNQ.

trogdor

ah

then I blame that naming convention

calling them both hot question things

doppelgreener

they probably use the same or similar hotness algorithm though, so questions in our Hot list would be the ones that stand a chance of making it to HNQ.

trogdor

yeah,.. yeah that's it

doppelgreener

it's not ideal lol

trogdor

11:35 AM

I mean, like I don't think it ruins anything

but yeah it doesn't seem entirely ideal

nitsua60

12:23 PM

"How can I protect myself as a flying archer" has 0 score, 0 answers, 52 views, and is one of "today's hottest questions." It's amazing I don't set myself on fire every day with how much I clearly don't understand hot.

BESW

trogdor

fnord of course

is that just an image or was it part of a page?

doppelgreener

@nitsua60 what

How does that even happen?

trogdor

it seems like eyes on it count towards the rating?

doppelgreener

Oh. It's not on HNQ specifically. Phew.

trogdor

12:35 PM

although I would have thought there would be a cap on how much just one of those three factors could contribute by itself

doppelgreener

@nitsua60 just add all the numbers together. That is accurate right?

trogdor

lol

good lord no

doppelgreener

Honestly though determining "hotness" or "popularity" is a surprisingly difficult and common computing problem that I don't think I've ever seen solved fully well.

kviiri

aye

trogdor

yeah not sure how I would do it

like I figured they would cap any single of those three factors without at least a little of the others but I don't know just how to do that or in what ratio or anything

kviiri

12:42 PM

Although sometimes a problem being hard is actually a good point to consider whether it needs to be solved in the way we think.

trogdor

yeah in a general sense I think I get what you mean there

not sure how it specifically applies to this but I also feel like that's sort of the point you are making XD

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