TRPG General Chat

NautArch

12:23 AM

@nitsua60 We are not, although I have a mini you can have.

Keeping my real one :)

KorvinStarmast

1:12 AM

@nitsua60 we are sipping an old fashioned and waiting for the grilled veg to finish.

Yum. They are for sipping ...

Hot RPG Questions

3:44 AM

4

Q: Should a sneaking group use group checks?

I always considered sneaking to be a per character check, because I have a hard time imagining a paladin in shiny, heavy and loud armor sneaking silently, just because a rogue with stealth expertise goes next to him. I was under the impression that my approach was according to the rules, because ...

Adeptus

7:03 AM

FYI, the Random Bundle Game site, that makes searching the itch.io BLM bundle easier, has updated to also work for the Palestine bundle. If you only have one of the two, you can filter to just that one.

4

AncientSwordRage

9:20 AM

@HotRPGQuestions CF. This thealexandrian.net/wordpress/39430/roleplaying-games/… and this thealexandrian.net/wordpress/40062/roleplaying-games/…

Akixkisu

11:19 AM

rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/187932/… does the system do auto lq flags if the post is very short?

AncientSwordRage

@Akixkisu I think so under some circumstances

Akixkisu

@AncientSwordRage I thought it would do that for answers but not for questions.

But I guess it is good at bringing attention to something that is more likely to cause issues.

AncientSwordRage

@Akixkisu true

Akixkisu

11:37 AM

@BardicWizard The disconnect, where you are further along the journey, realising issues that the others have yet to see, makes for a precarious moment. I believe the best grasp that you can get is an inquiry to understand how you came along realising the issue. And an inquiry to understand why your friends didn't realise them the same way - that intro perspective helps you communicate your perceptions.

Thomas Markov

12:21 PM

@Akixkisu Seems like a low quality question to me.

Medix2

12:35 PM

@ThomasMarkov You should probably update the prestidigitation answer to include the actually nonmagical, somewhat lasting effect of the spell

Thomas Markov

@Medix2 Already did awkward finger guns

Medix2

Welp, 58 seconds too slow on my part XD

Thomas Markov

Went to a bachelor party this weekend and we had a 6 hour D&D one-shot

It was the night of the wedding rehearsal and the groom got kidnapped by a succubus and we had to rescue him.

I also learned that Zealot Barbarians are really strong.

Which I guess I knew in theory, but playing one really opened my eyes to it. Really strong in early game.

@StackExchange I feel like Im being watched

Someone_Evil

12:50 PM

Don't worry, the StackExchange cannot hurt you

And that user can't reply anyhow

Thomas Markov

@Someone_Evil what is that user?

Someone_Evil

Named themselves StackExchange and (independently) suspended, that's as much as I know and probably all I can tell you should I find out more

Medix2

@ThomasMarkov Your edit actually assumed I didn't intend something I did intend XD

Thomas Markov

@Medix2 confused thomas noises

Medix2

It was supposed to be 2-3 and 1-3 with the "to" meaning

Thomas Markov

12:55 PM

Oh I see now.

@Medix2 Maybe "at least 2" would be more clear?

Medix2

I changed it to "X or more"

Thomas Markov

That looks good.

Medix2

I don't know that I understand Dale's question though... what could I possibly say? Congrats, your code has no bugs and your understanding of statistics is correct: as proof here is your code, my opinion, and a statistics textbook???

kviiri

Re: expressing numeric ranges in English, I like to play board games and quite often they follow the convention that lower bounds are expressed as inclusive: eg. "at least X" or "X or more"

But I have one strategy game that, for no reason I can think of, uses the exclusive lower bound style, so eg. "more than X"

So if a player requires eg. 35 points to win, the game instructs it as "more than 34 points"

Not that it confuses me particularly, I mean, I'm a programmer, I'm used to different ways of specifying ranges. But it feels weird

Trish

@kviiri in wargaming that is often called X+

Medix2

1:10 PM

I'd say the order of clarity (from least to most) is: More than X < At least X < X or more

Akixkisu

@Medix2 You can also just opt not to answer.

Someone_Evil

I think, replace "I" with "an answer" to get the real idea of the complaint

Medix2

Precisely, and the answer just saying that Dale was correct was deleted

Akixkisu

No answer or a qualified answer in that case just establish the same thing, one is much less work.

Which doesn't make the question bad.

Someone_Evil

It's weird because it would possibly have been better, or at least workable, as a self-answer. Though I'm currently looking at it towards answering with a deeper understanding, ie. identifying why this occurs and why the results make sense

NautArch

1:15 PM

We definitely have Q&As like this just asking: Is this right, and the answer is often "yes, yes it is".

The heavy lifting was done by DaleM.

kviiri

A "fun" linguistic quirk is that in some languages, the direct translations for "greater than" and "less than" correspond to the mathematical notations ≥ and ≤ instead of > and <. Just in case you need to translate a game.

Akixkisu

@Someone_Evil either approach seems fine.

kviiri

Or math, or anything :)

Akixkisu

Self answer leaves more room.

But essentially isn't necessary.

And further away from the actual problem.

kviiri

Eg. the French words inférieur and supérieur mean "less than or equal to" and "greater than or equal to", and strictement ("strictly") is used to indicate strictness (exclusion of equality) as needed.

Medix2

1:18 PM

Well, apparently DaleM also rewrote the question so now I have to think about whether it even is correct anymore

Like, the answer is that a group of 6 is strictly better than a group of 5, right? Oh... rounding

kviiri

@Trish Yea, I've seen that fairly often. Funnily enough, the game with the weird style is probably the most war-gamey game in my shelf.

Apocalypse World also uses that style: the three roll results are labeled 10+, 7-9 and 6-.

Thomas Markov

I posted an answer.

Basically, "youre trying too hard."

how do you do floor symbol in mathjax

Medix2

@ThomasMarkov May want to rephrase "(k/2)+1" so it's not a .5

Thomas Markov

yeah lol

Medix2

Isn't it lfloor and rfloor?

Yes, it is. With the \ though

Thomas Markov

1:24 PM

that worked

G. Moylan

"trivially obvious" comes off a little snarky

NautArch

^^

Medix2

Might be good to prove the numbers are equal

Maybe throw in the word "intuitive" instead

G. Moylan

or "clear"

Thomas Markov

@G.Moylan "trivially obvious" is common parlance in mathematical discourse :P

Medix2

1:27 PM

That is true

kviiri

But if you're talking to non-mathematicians, maybe better to alter it a bit

Thomas Markov

In my undergraduate studies, we called it "the clearly operator"

kviiri

In the CS department we joked that it's what math people use when they really don't want to prove something

Thomas Markov

@kviiri Yep, we just use the clearly operator.

kviiri

And if they really don't want to prove something and feel guilty about it? You can use the proof is left as an exercise to the reader operator.

AncientSwordRage

1:29 PM

@ThomasMarkov A past lecturer liked the phrase "Symmetry, therefore zero!"

Thomas Markov

@kviiri haha I just deleted "trvially" and added this at the end.

G. Moylan

@ThomasMarkov gotem

Medix2

Time to add the group-check tag to stuff

Thomas Markov

@Medix2 its not many questions, probably okay to do it.

Medix2

It won't let me make the tag group checks :(

Someone_Evil

1:34 PM

Because an existing one is too similar?

Thomas Markov

@Medix2 just edit the name of group-check?

is that how that works?

KorvinStarmast

@ThomasMarkov Loved your title for this answer👍 The term I learned from an old gunner's mate was "shooting mosquitoes with buckshot"

@ThomasMarkov but did he actually want to be rescued?

G. Moylan

I don't at all follow that binomial explanation

Medix2

@ThomasMarkov It says the tag group check exists and is too similar

Thomas Markov

It does exist, Dale added it to his question.

And it is the first question to feature it

Medix2

1:37 PM

Yeah, and I can't change it

Oh grumble grumvle: "New tags cannot be created from the mobile site" is also listed, so even if it did work, it wouldn't work

AncientSwordRage

@G.Moylan that is the cannon

Medix2

Whatever, it'll be singular and we'll just have another one of those tags

kviiri

@ThomasMarkov :)

Someone_Evil

@Medix2 Fixed it :)

Thomas Markov

I think the issue with Erik's answer was one of sufficient support.

It was a completely unsupported expression of agreement with Dale's analysis

Which, while correct, does not make an answer.

NautArch

1:42 PM

WHen all the work proven it is done in the question, an answer of "yes, that's correct" seems legitimate.

Someone_Evil

Answers need to show themselves correct, and it's slightly odd with questions that eat into that ability

NautArch

8

Q: Is this attack type chart correct?

I am wondering if this chart showing the types of attacks in 5e-dnd and what things they can count towards is correct: (source1) The chart works by listing on the y-axis different ways of making an attack and then along the x-axis it lists different phrases features throughout the books use. I...

dnd-5e weapons attack improvised-weaponry

This is basically the same thing. It's longer because there was something else to talk about.

Medix2

@NautArch Oh no, it me

Oh and there's that "is this bonus action casting chart right?" question

G. Moylan

Wait, isn't Lio's answer actually talking about an even number N and the next number having the same amount of required checks, while Dale's Q says an odd number N and the next number have the same?

NautArch

@Medix2 mario?

AncientSwordRage

1:46 PM

@Someone_Evil I'd have asked, then self-answered with my analysis

Medix2

@G.Moylan One is failures the other success, I believe

Thomas Markov

@Medix2 but the answers to these questions provide some meaningful further analysis. Erik’s answer was just “yup, looks good”.

G. Moylan

@Medix2 ah I see that thanks

Medix2

@ThomasMarkov Yeah, and now I wonder yet again why delete and undelete votes cannot be removed while close votes can. Maybe to incentivize using deletey votes more carefully

Well, time to prepare for work, just hopefully not another 13 hour shift XD

Thomas Markov

2:01 PM

I added usage guidance to the tag, but it can probably be improved.

Feel free to change or suggest changes.

group-checks

RevanantBacon

@ThomasMarkov Seems pretty clear to me. I dunno if aggregate is the specific word we'd want to use, but I also can't think of a better word /shrug

Thomas Markov

@RevanantBacon Yeah, I was thinking maybe it was a little technical, but then I thought "Yea it's technical, technically the best."

RevanantBacon

@ThomasMarkov You are technically correct

Would preponderance be better?

bobble

one, two more questions for the tag?

Medix2

Maybe this works: "A group skill check is where success or failure is determined for the party as a whole, rather than each party member succeeding or failing individually."?

G. Moylan

2:20 PM

@Medix2 we had the same idea, I just submitted this for review

I guess the threshold for auto-edits is different for QAs and tags

Thomas Markov

@G.Moylan 20k rep

Medix2

What an edit summary XD

G. Moylan

2:37 PM

@Medix2 wow

Thomas Markov

@Medix2 Not a bad answer tbh. I gave him the bronze badge he was after.

AncientSwordRage

@Medix2 Hmmm.... paging @Someone_Evil...

G. Moylan

@ThomasMarkov a fine addition to my collection

Someone_Evil

@AncientSwordRage How did you manage to have that not ping me?

Thomas Markov

Maybe the period?

@Someone_Evil...?

Someone_Evil

2:50 PM

No ping either, must be it

Medix2

@ThomasMarkov. An interesting test

Thomas Markov

I got that.

Medix2

I used a zero width space

Thomas Markov

You little so and so.

Someone_Evil

@Medix2 Cheater!

Medix2

2:53 PM

@ThomasMarkovwithalongername

Okay, I've had my fun now XD

Someone_Evil

That should work, because it's only looking at the first three I thought, but why does the ellipsis mess it up

Medix2

Well it can't be first three since @sompoolevil doesn't work

AncientSwordRage

@G.Moylan glad you got your TSQL answer btw

G. Moylan

@AncientSwordRage likewise. I finally came up with a way to edit the Q such that it still asks the same question and makes similar assumptions without explicitly saying so

AncientSwordRage

@G.Moylan "Removed <word> because it offended sensibilities" XD

Someone_Evil

3:05 PM

Maybe I'm misremembering slightly. @med should work though?

Medix2

Yup, it does

That's why I don't like names with nonstandard characters in the first three characters. But copy paste their name fixes that

G. Moylan

@Medix2 someone I know in Discord uses unicode characters in their name and they're practically impossible to ping. I have to hope Discord suggests the right name or take extra steps

@AncientSwordRage yeah that guy seemed unreasonably annoyed by the fact that I clearly had a misunderstanding about a step. "the question is wrong" ok buddy

Medix2

@G.Moylan In both their username and nickname? Could use copy paste though, or if they have a unique role

G. Moylan

@Medix2 just nickname as far as I know. I didn't know you could username ping

Medix2

Does anybody know if the problem in this pcgen 3.5e dnd question could be because of a error in the data files? I debate leaving a comment asking for them

G. Moylan

3:13 PM

They should add a "Bounties Collected" user tab/category, like they show for Qs or As

Medix2

@G.Moylan "Answers collected" XD

Someone_Evil

@G.Moylan rpg.stackexchange.com/users/50702/…

G. Moylan

@Someone_Evil turns out when you read the buttons....

AncientSwordRage

@G.Moylan people get that way, but I on't understand why

G. Moylan

@AncientSwordRage I find that the SO culture seems to cultivate that particular kind of attitude. People that make mistakes or false assumptions are treated as "stupid" or "wrong" by some. There seems to be a huge gatekeeping culture behind coding in general, but maybe that's just the perception I come away with from Stack Overflow.

AncientSwordRage

3:24 PM

@G.Moylan I think a lot of people lean to heavily on SO being for experts only

I don't like that attitude, because it lends itself to the ELU/ELL split

G. Moylan

@AncientSwordRage I'm not familiar with that acronym

AncientSwordRage

I haven't yet asked an interesting question from ELL on ELU, but I've been tempted to push those buttoms

English Language & Usage vs. Language Learners

KorvinStarmast

@G.Moylan "why should I give you this advice for free? Lawyers charge 300 buck an hour" is not an unfair position to take from an expert programmer.

G. Moylan

@KorvinStarmast but on a site where the whole idea is to answer for free anyway?

AncientSwordRage

@KorvinStarmast if you want to be paid for being helpful you're on the wrong website

ACuriousMind

3:28 PM

@G.Moylan ...aren't people that make mistakes wrong by definition of "wrong"? The problem is the "treating as stupid" part, not the "treating as wrong" part.

G. Moylan

@ACuriousMind I meant more that a question is asked based on a false assumption and then the whole question is treated as "wrong" or invalid

when a good answer would just point out the error and explain the correct answer

I literally just had this happen to me. The second highest rep user on SO chose to point out that my question was "wrong" because I made a bad assumption, and then did't bother to actually answer my question. He instead chose to just dump on it and leave. I've seen this before

ACuriousMind

I think that depends on how easy it is to correct the false assumption. Sometimes you can correct the assumption in a few sentences or a reasonably concise answer. Sometimes the "answer" is "you have to read several books of prerequisites first to make this meaningful" (not sure if that can really happen on SO, but it can happen on Physics)

KorvinStarmast

@AncientSwordRage That's not my point. Why should any expert participate in SO? Their time is valuable. What incentive do they have? There's an old SO blog post that links to a pre SE/SO guideline on 'how to ask a good question" so that actual experts (who have finite time) won't consider the question too basic (you didn't do enough research, still a down vote answer) ...

G. Moylan

@KorvinStarmast The incentive should be to improve the quality of code you might encounter in the wild

KorvinStarmast

@AncientSwordRage Further that point, at History SE we have a close reason that includes "this question is too basic" and thank goodness we do.

@G.Moylan I note an appeal to altruism (should) - we don't live in a perfect world.

G. Moylan

3:34 PM

@KorvinStarmast we don't but that's the point of the site is to improve code quality and coder education

Someone_Evil

IIRC the stacks that overlap with school subjects tend to have a close reason around that

KorvinStarmast

@G.Moylan Hmm, I suppose that the larger purpose is to solve problems (unique edge cases) in the complex world of coding. Those problem solutions are then stored and curated. SO/SE is, in the long term, a library.

AncientSwordRage

@KorvinStarmast Maybe that used to be the case, but SO is now my primary tool for doing research (There is a MSE post about how that's a good thing)

KorvinStarmast

@AncientSwordRage OK, that's interesting, I'd like to see the link to that. Too much of MSE is, to me, noise.

AncientSwordRage

@KorvinStarmast "Life is not fair, that's why it's your job to make it fair" - Not sure how said that

KorvinStarmast

3:36 PM

@AncientSwordRage No, it isn't my job to make it fair.

Thomas Markov

@KorvinStarmast Math.se is like 90% or more noise.

KorvinStarmast

@ThomasMarkov No surprise; the goal of a high SNR is tough to achieve. (Sci Fi Fantasy stack, I am looking at you! (as in, low SNR)

G. Moylan

@KorvinStarmast "I have X problem what do?" serves an educational purpose for others along the way, and Very good answers explain reasons why one approach might be better than another. Code quality should net increase as a result, meaning you (should) encounter fewer headaches when inheriting code

AncientSwordRage

@KorvinStarmast I think it was this that I saw

53

A: How should you respond to "Give me a fish" / RTFM questions?

I believe the appropriate action should depend on the question. If the poster is simply asking for someone to write their code for them without putting in any effort themselves, I would downvote and vote to close. If the poster has demonstrated some prior effort, then perhaps it's down to them...

G. Moylan

Questions that make false assumptions are valid and good because other people make those same assumptions. Good answers explain what's wrong

KorvinStarmast

3:39 PM

@G.Moylan That is a collateral effect, I think (and IMO it's a good thing if the searchability of a given stack is solid for future uses who find the library of solutions to be findable)

RevanantBacon

Not to mention that teaching is inherently a Good Thing™

AncientSwordRage

there is an older/more upvoted answer that was migrated from MSO that is not in agreement

@G.Moylan exactly

@KorvinStarmast then who's job is it?

G. Moylan

@KorvinStarmast but that's the whole reason the site is searchable and not just private message boards. The whole conceit of the site is to provide our learning for others

KorvinStarmast

@AncientSwordRage You seem to make the assumption that there's a fair world somewhere. It is not within my span of control to make the world fair. I can occasionally help people deal with a problem that they are running into. That much I can do.

G. Moylan

@KorvinStarmast that circles back to your comment about lawyers. What good does that attitude do anyone?

@G.Moylan "lmao I could totally help but I wont"

Hot RPG Questions

3:43 PM

5

Q: Is the Decanter of endless water unlimited?

I have given my party a decanter of endless water (was part of an in game joke, a dwarf was left the amulet of the drunkard and a decanter of endless water to make sure he never was without a drink). At the time it felt like an innocuous magic item to give but then the campaign took a left turn i...

dnd-5e magic-items

G. Moylan

@G.Moylan that's against the entire point of this website

AncientSwordRage

@KorvinStarmast no, but you can still strive for fairness in those you deal with

@G.Moylan you do get some who work Pro Bono, but not everyone can

you don't get lawyers turning up to the Pro Bono Lawyers group and saying "I'll help, but you've got to pay me"

well, depending on how it's set up you might, but that's not the point

G. Moylan

@AncientSwordRage right

AncientSwordRage

striving for fairness, while accepting you'll never achieve it absolutely is a difficult ask but it's not impossible to do

G. Moylan

As to why experts would participate in a site like this, I reiterate my point about code quality. If you help other people do better at their job, it will overall result in a net reduction of Bad Code ^TM that you might inherit in the future

not to mention the sweet, sweet internet points

AncientSwordRage

3:50 PM

@KorvinStarmast One person's noise is another's signal...

@KorvinStarmast I'm curious about examples?

G. Moylan

4:16 PM

what do our current site ads look like and where can I find them?

Someone_Evil

8

Q: Community Promotion Ads — 2020

2020 has come! But… oops, where did the time go? It’s already March! Belated as it is, it’s time for a refresh of Community Promotion Ads! What are Community Promotion Ads? Community Promotion Ads are community-vetted advertisements that will show up on the main site, in the right sidebar. The ...

discussion community-ads

L Cooper

4:29 PM

@G.Moylan Developers (and engineers on the whole) LOVE to be right about things, and tell other people exactly what they're doing wrong. I suspect that it's this common personality quirk that makes SE work!

G. Moylan

@Someone_Evil I thought we could control our ads on other sites, no?

AncientSwordRage

@G.Moylan that's a new and confusing thing

KorvinStarmast

@AncientSwordRage Not sure if you've noticed, but people answer and argue in comments all the darned time. Basically drove me away from the site. Not even bothering to adhere to the purpose of comments.

G. Moylan

@AncientSwordRage "It's too peaceful here, let's start a flame war"

AncientSwordRage

@KorvinStarmast on history.se? I barely go there

KorvinStarmast

4:40 PM

@AncientSwordRage Sorry, I was referring to Sci FI/Fantasy, I think I brained the wrong SE. I am still in the review queus on History, and I see that close reason, still, with some frequency

AncientSwordRage

1 hour ago, by KorvinStarmast

@AncientSwordRage Further that point, at History SE we have a close reason that includes "this question is too basic" and thank goodness we do.

what I was curious about ^

ah ok

as for Sci-Fi, I do see people arguing in the comments, but maybe less than previously

bobble

Puzzling has a problem with hints getting buried in a heap of comments, on questions but sometimes (and this is worse) broken up over many answers

AncientSwordRage

@bobble oh no

also, hi Bobble!

bobble

\o/

I am sitting on my feet and for some reason my feet hurt, can't imagine why

AncientSwordRage

\\oo/

@bobble mysteries of the universe, eh?

Hot RPG Questions

4:55 PM

5

Q: When performing a group check, is it better to have an even number of creatures?

The rules for group checks say: To make a group ability check, everyone in the group makes the ability check. If at least half the group succeeds, the whole group succeeds. So, for groups of 1 and 2, 1 needs to succeed. For groups of 3 and 4, 2 need to succeed. And so on. Assuming all members o...

dnd-5e skills statistics helping group-checks

AncientSwordRage

@ThomasMarkov did you see my alexandrian links

NautArch

5:08 PM

@nitsua60 Nice bounty :)

RevanantBacon

@AncientSwordRage How do you quote messages like that?

nitsua60

@NautArch My real one is my parents', given to them on the occasion of their wedding by my grandparents. It makes the world's best waffles, but the wiring's completely given up the ghost in its 53rd year.

@NautArch "Here, have twenty updoots =)"

NautArch

@nitsua60 ohnoes! Can't get it fixed?

bobble

@RevanantBacon copy-paste permalink to message.

44 secs ago, by RevanantBacon

@AncientSwordRage How do you quote messages like that?

RevanantBacon

Ahhhh, I've seen it done before, but I never knew how it was done

36 secs ago, by bobble

@RevanantBacon copy-paste permalink to message.

nitsua60

5:09 PM

@NautArch The CL correspondent is a small-appliance hobbyist. I've spent a few years taking it to shops, but can't find anyone who wants to get near a 50 y.o. appliance with a ten foot soldering iron.

RevanantBacon

Neat

nitsua60

But this guy--who I thought might be you--says he's interested and can do high-temp soldering and tiny-tiny spot-welds, both of which are required for this rebuild.

bobble

If the message is from another chatroom, the name of the chat also shows up

in The Sphinx's Lair, 1 hour ago, by msh210

@GarethMcCaughan hush. If you explain the "how", you lose the audience's sense of wonder.

NautArch

@nitsua60 Interesting! Def not me, but now I wonder who it is.

The Oracle

5:23 PM

0

Q: Is this a legitimate follow-up question?

I was wondering if a Water Elemental can freeze, so I read the stat block (twice), yet apparently I somehow missed (twice!) the part that partially answers my question. Hence, I asked the question Can a Water Elemental freeze? and it could immediately be answered. In retrospect, this makes it a r...

discussion specific-question

Thomas Markov

@AncientSwordRage no

AncientSwordRage

8 hours ago, by AncientSwordRage

@HotRPGQuestions CF. This https://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/39430/roleplaying-games/art-of-rulings-14-group-actions and this https://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/40062/roleplaying-games/random-gm-tips-stealthy-thoughts

Seemed tangentially related

@bobble only if the how is disappointing

bobble

5:39 PM

to prevent anyone from panicking: lists are broken across all SE sites for the time being: meta.stackexchange.com/questions/366240/…

2

AncientSwordRage

@bobble reasons not to panic, 1. Lists are broken

Thomas Markov

5:59 PM

I dont understand what this question is asking.

L Cooper

@ThomasMarkov I think the core question is "how do I change the Sting ability on a pseudodragon to be a tiny fire breath", but there's a lot of extra fluff about making dessert that's obfuscating that bit

AncientSwordRage

@ThomasMarkov homebrew this for me?

Thomas Markov

It's a close vote for me.

@LCooper We try not to answer in comments, which half your comment does.

AncientSwordRage

@ThomasMarkov re your comment, do we have a canonical "my DM won't accept the answer in RPG.se" question?

And were those links helpful in anyway?

Thomas Markov

@AncientSwordRage havent read em yet

AncientSwordRage

6:17 PM

@ThomasMarkov ah, no worries... Lost track of time in a supermarket so probably wasn't long ago I resent them to you

L Cooper

@ThomasMarkov Ah, yeah, I guess that sort of wandered into answer territory

KorvinStarmast

@ThomasMarkov I have an easy answer; produce flame cantrip, based on level 1, recharge 5-6. But the question's closed.

NautArch

@KorvinStarmast I'd just say for creme-brulee making purposes, the pseudodragon may control their flame. Otherwise, no.

KorvinStarmast

but I am sure there are a variety of other good ideas for that, so that one still looks a bit like idea generation ...

NautArch

No recreating of ideas, but that question is 100% homebrew this for me.

KorvinStarmast

6:29 PM

@NautArch Oh, yeah, "homebrew this for me" is the category.

I'll be doing my "forum is where you want to take this" comment

NautArch

Or hop into very own role-playing games chat!

KorvinStarmast

@NautArch I added that

NautArch

@KorvinStarmast oops! removed mine :)

Thomas Markov

If Im the DM, and my player is like "I wanna be a chef, can I use my familiar pseudodragon as a flambe torch?" Id be like "uh, yeah". That this is a question at all is just as confusing to me as the question itself.

Carcer

well, pseudodragons can't normally breath fire

Someone_Evil

6:44 PM

Normal pseudodragons don't have a fire option suitable for crème brûlée (a great design oversight) and so they want a homebrew variant which does. The culinary application doesn't seem to be the issue, but a fire based alternative to the sting is

AncientSwordRage

@Someone_Evil you <blank> a word there

Carcer

they accidentally a whole word

Someone_Evil

Have I?

Carcer

anyway I don't know why the question is as verbose as it is but essentially they want to replace one ability with another but they don't know how to specify a breath weapon that is balanced compared to the original sting.

Someone_Evil

Which is very fair, but a mainsite Q is not well suited to workshopping an ability like that

Carcer

6:50 PM

Eh, this seems simple enough

if they'd tried to do it themselves and asked it as a homebrew review we could tell them if it was balanced and if it wasn't I'd bet the answerer would have a recommendation for what it should be to be equivalent

G. Moylan

@Someone_Evil How can one use the spice weasel in combination with a flambe pseudodragon?

NautArch

@Someone_Evil That's what I tried to narrow down for them. But even then, I'm not sure this isn't 'develop this for me'. Although the easy button is switch poison to fire, but then how to handle the other bit of the sting action.

I'd probably swap out the poisoned bit with catching on fire.

Carcer

a flame breath with a five foot cone that does 1d6 damage reflex dc 11 half would be fine

MikeQ

Does it even need a mechanical ability? The flame breath is defined in combat mechanics, whereas making a creme brulee is more of a narrative thing. It would be similar to a fighter using their sword to cut a cake.

NautArch

but it's different enough that i can't easy button it.

Thomas Markov

6:52 PM

If the question gets reopened im gonna say "leave the statblock as is and let your pseudodragon be a flambe torch".

@MikeQ This.

NautArch

^That's the only really necessary bit.

Everything else is to make that work, so just make that work without everything else.

It's a roleplay mechanic that doesn't really affect anything, let it happen.

Carcer

ah, but then what about internal consistency?

Thomas Markov

@Carcer What about it?

Carcer

some people like it.

Thomas Markov

I dont understand what youre getting at

Someone_Evil

6:54 PM

@Carcer The flambe is only about the top, the consistency of the internals are down to the oven time beforehand

Carcer

it doesn't make sense to a person that a creature could breathe fire and yet not be able to use that ability in combat, I suppose.

if I could breathe fire I can think of a few people I'd have breathed fire on.

MikeQ

But it's only a flambe torch worth of fire

Someone_Evil

A normal torch does 1 fire damage on a hit IIRC

bobble

32

Q: How much damage do torches used as improvised weapons do?

I'm trying to get to the bottom of using a torch as an improvised weapon in 5e D&D. Moving from the more to the less certain: If you make a melee attack with a burning torch and hit, it deals 1 fire damage. (PHB pg.153) The most certain thing is "1 fire damage", though the wording does not...

dnd-5e improvised-weaponry

Thomas Markov

@Carcer "Your pseudodragon has enough fire to lightly torch a meringue, but not enough to injure a creature".

Seems reasonable.

Carcer

6:57 PM

yeah, and I'm not arguing that's a bad answer to the question

I'm just saying I understand why the question

NautArch

@Carcer The other issue is that if we make an equivalent fire version of the sting (as their boldest question asks), it's not going to flambe. It's going to burn that creme brulee to a crisp

Carcer

@NautArch yeah, I'm kind of assuming that we'd assume that a creature that can breath fire can choose to breath less fire rather than going whole ham every time

Someone_Evil

And I think related: deviantart.com/sandara/art/Creme-brulee-757155279

> In a magical world
With a magic cafe
There's a tiny dragon
That makes crème brûlée

NautArch

@Carcer That's a pretty false assumption for 5e, though.

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