Dungeons & Dragons Fifth Edition General Discussion Thread
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Old Thread >>48230495
Have any of you taken an unexpected feat? Say a wizard with athlete or something?
New shitty Magic promotional content when?
>>48243876
It's halfway through the day and it hasn't dropped yet. Its annoying.
>>48243916
WotC is on the west coast. It's not even noon there yet. They usually drop stuff at 2-3PM their time.
So we got another two or three hours? Lovely.
Hmmm, then lets while away the time.
If there were to be a new Oriental Adventures book, would you want the concept of a Sohei to be represented by a Monk or Paladin subclass?
Does Barovia have farms? I don't see how Vallaki and Barovia (village) can acquire enough food to sustain themselves, unless there's something I missed.
>>48243942
Aw fuckbiscut...
>>48244152
They definitely have wheat farms and beat farms at least (see: Blue Water Inn). Where those are is up in the air, I doubt anyone farms outside the town walls save for the village, which doesn't have any.
>>48244152
>>48244224
The Vistani could deal in food trade from the outside world into Barovia, couldn't they? Not that I expect the lot of useless sacks of shit like them would bother, but eh.
Have Revenants been officially statted for 5e? I want to play a Revenant and go full edgelord.
I'm making a race with a friend, one of the features would be like stonecunning but for jewelry/treasure. What we want is a feature that offers bonuses to appraisal, for example, group gets a golden ring and he inspects it, this character would be considered proficient with the skill and get double the proficiency bonus .
Now a few questions:
>is the history skill used to appraise objects?
>any other skill that would make sense to use when appraise?
>is letting them know if the object is magical or not (with a good enough roll) too powerful/abusable?
I also need a name that's not goldcunning.
>>48244279
Monster Manual pg. 259.
UA Gothic Heroes has stats for playable revenants. Talk to your DM about it.
>>48244312
Nice.
>>48244291
I think you just want wording like "When you make an Intelligence check to appraise the value of jewels and treasure, you add your proficiency bonus."
There's no appraise skill in 5e. It falls into the "other uses for Intelligence checks" on page 178.
>>48244054
Barbarian
>>48244291
Since there's no skill for it and it's just an Intelligence check normally, you don't need a one word name for the racial feature.
Eye for value
Discerning tastes
Jewish
Plane Shift: Innistrad is out. http://www.dragonmag.com/5.0/#!/article/106375/102161027
It's in the Mega as well.
>>48244375
god damnit, i wanted to avoid jews joke as much as possible but i kept getting tempted
>>48244407
>Is out
>Is shit
Well, what did I expect any better?
>>48244407
>Stensia Humans
>Your hit point maximum increases by 2,
and it increases by 2 every time you gain a level
So a Stensia human dragon sorcerer with the tough feat gets +5hp a level. Very nice
Kessig humans
>40ft movement speed
>ignore difficult terrain on dash
>don't provoke OAs if they attack a creature
Literally just variant humans with the Mobile feat, except you can get the mobile feat and stack it on top.
Nephalia humans
>variant humans with Skilled
Stensia humans
>variant human with Tough
Guys, I think I may have just broken Curse of Strahd.
...Ias a Warlock Barrister in the service of the Infernal Courts of the Nine Hells have signed Irena as a Fiend Pact Warlock with a contract she didn't even read basically signing her soul and services as a newly minted Warlock to the Court of Asmodeus. Now this was all done on the up and up to keep her safe from Strahd...but how does this affect things and would this remove her soul/the soul of Tatiana Von Zarovich from the cycle of reincarnation. More than that the GM said her name shifted on paper from Irena Koylana is to Tatiana Von Zarovich...and I'm the only one in the party with this information.
I'm not at a loss of what to do next, but I've worked hard to get to this point and net this goal of a signing...and am curious what you anons would do in the adventure with that solitary info and position?
>>48244407
>Every province is like at 3-4 days on horseback so there's enough communication between them
>Humans evolved different as fuck in each province
The fuck? this is putting several races just for the sake of putting several races, fucking stupid
>>48244407
>Inquisitor background
Aw yeah nigguh! The wait was worth it!I'm not joking, it's pretty solid.
>>48244372
Your reasoning, good anon?
>>48244551
You didn't break it, but telling you why would be spoilers and your DM clearly has some plans in the works.
>>48244407
THE FUCK IS THIS SHIT! WOTC CUSTOMER SUPPORT TOLD ME I COULD ONLY READ THE MAGAZINE ON THEIR SHITTY APP THAT WOULDN'T WORK ON MY PHONE WITHOUT CRAPPING OUT AND THAT I COULDN'T FUCKING BROWSE IT ON A WEB BROWSER JESUS FUCKING FUCK!
>>48244597
He does, I'm glad I did not, and succeed or fail/live or die/win or lose I am excited to see what happens next.
Mounted Combat feat.
It says it gives advantage on melee attacks. Does this include melee spell attacks? Such as vampiric touch?
>>48244678
It doesn't specific melee weapon attacks, so yes.
>>48244678
As far as I understand it: If you hit them with a melee attack, you get an advantage. regardless of what you hit them with.
>>48244696
Woho awesome! So getting this on my necromancer then :)
>>48244678
When you see "melee attack" without the words weapon or spell in between, it means both. The death domain cleric has a similar ability intended to function with either a weapon or spell.
>>48244696
>>48244715
YES YES YES. This is prime necromancer feat! So getting this next level!
>>48244557
>this is putting several races just for the sake of morons who doze off unless they have seven different race options to try to minmax with
FTFY.
>>48244758
Thanks :)
>>48244761
Convince your DM to let you find a version of Find Steed that summons a skeletal war horse and that works with whatever class combination you're doing.
>>48244791
Or just convince him to let you raise a skeletal warhorse
>>48244762
But you can put different races, see, vampires, werewolves and humans, making humans that shouldn't be different at all different makes no sense
>>48244762
I don't know why anyone would expect that many races from Innistrad anyway. Vampires could maybe work but it would be quite strange to have a party of humans and vampires together on Innistrad.
>>48244562
portrayal in OA, mostly. It had almost nothing to do with monk, but it had armor proficiencies, pseudo-rage, barbarian-like DR and it was focused on being tough melee fighter. IMO, it's more of a barbarian with spellcasting than paladin (who, especially in 5e, have more support abilities, auras, spells)
If I wanted to portray it as a character instead of homebrewing a subclass, I would make multiclassed frenzy barbarian with few levels of oath of devotion paladin
>>48244843
That's more realistic but Find Steed has some neat stuff to it besides just giving you a mount for a 2nd level slot.
>>48244871
Neat, thank you anon.
>>48244424
You could be subtle about it.
Scent of the deal.
I'm having trouble challenging my party.
They're 12th level, druid, cleric, rogue, barbarian. They wreck shit up. Last session they took out two Remorhaz, which the CR calculator says should be somewhere above "deadly" for them in difficulty.
I know I need to put them in disadvantageous terrain and hit them with a bunch of fights in a row to drain their resources, but is there anything else I should be doing? What CR should I actually be throwing at them?
I love my friends, and I wish to express this love through torment and pain.
>>48245031
One or two creatures, even 'deadly' will probably not be too bad. Add more creatures that can't be easily AoE'd down.
>>48245031
Did you give them a lot of magic items or starting ability scores higher than the array or point buy? Either tends to push the party's effective level a bit higher.
Also realize the CR system was made for mouth-breathing retards. You probably want to use slightly lower CR creatures that you can use more of so that team monster doesn't automatically lose due to having less actions.
>>48245031
I just want to gove you one warning. No one likes to fight uphill through shit.
>>48245031
Unless the druid is Land and the Cleric is Light, they should have few AoE options, so swarming them with a bunch of enemies that may be weaker is probably the way to go. Also I'm seeing a lack of INT here, so psychic based enemies or buffed up intellect devourers or whatnot.
>>48244870
>Vampires could maybe work but it would be quite strange to have a party of humans and vampires together on Innistrad.
Stromkirk clan says hi
Lots of vampires in Eldritch Moon say hi
>>48244407
So is there a purpose to going swashbuckler now if kessigs are allowed?
>>48245151
If you really want to run a game against the Eldritch Moon timeframe, more power to you.
>>48244407
It's interesting to see twice as powerful features, it's very rare to have singular powerful features, only other one I can think of is flight. +2 HP per level, 40 ft. movespeed, 4 skills/tools. It's lazy and I don't like it at all, but at least it's interesting I guess.Also muh hoomans still too normal to have any base ASI
I do really like this way of dealing with different flavors of classes. Bounty hunter and now inquisitor, some people love making separate classes or at least archetypes but I feel this is all that's needed.
>>48245159
Kessigs are literally variant humans with the options already chosen. You could already do this. Play past level 3 and swashbuckler will have some unique stuff.
>>48244550
>Stensia humans
>>variant human with Tough
Except better because Tough is too shit to just have that, even though the +1 to all stats is deemed good enough.
>>48245053
I've been having trouble finding the balance there. A small number of tough monsters, they gang up on and wreck. A large number of weaker monsters, they AOE and wreck. What's the most inconvenient number of critters? Four moderately tough guys?
>>48245072
They rolled stats, a couple of them got good stat lines. More of the problem is that they've been playing surprisingly well, especially in terms of conserving resources and making allies. I had initially geared the campaign for first-timers (which they are!) and I've been having to ramp up the difficulty ever since. They do have some nice toys.
>>48245219
But from how I see it the kessigs have the mobile feat plus that spring attack which is in my opinion way too strong for a race feature.
>>48245241
Don't amp things up too high if the ease of encounters is due to good play. Stay within the bounds of the CR system and try to get creative with terrain or monster tactics. Try to use 4-5 monsters at a time that are close to the deadly curve and see how that works out. It should be a little tougher just because the fight is harder to control than 2 higher CR creatures.
>>48245282
Spring Attack is one of the abilities granted by Mobile. Swashbucklers are unique for Charisma to initiative, an extra way to Sneak Attack, and that persuasion thing.
>>48245317
Oh it looks like I am an idiot who doesn't read feats properly. Somehow I missed the last part of the feat.
>>48245188
You don't need to run a game during Eldritch Moon to have nicer vampires, like I said, Stromkirk clan are very nice with humans, they protect them and defend them, in exchange they suck their blood without killing them from time to time. They are still vampires, and still think they're better than humans, but they understand the symbiosis between both races
>>48245317
>Spring Attack
Good to know 5e brought back all the shitty feats from 3.5 that did nothing. Have fun getting penalized just to move around the battlefield.
>>48245111
The druid is Moon and the cleric is Knowledge. That's a surprising amount of AOE. They tend to blow high-level spell slots on AOE spells they can maintain for the whole fight; the druid loves using up-leveled Call Lightning for round after round. I've tried armies of low-CR critters, pairs of high-CR, squads of mid-CR, and armies led by high-CR generals.
The AOE damage isn't as much of a problem for me as the AOE crowd control, which the druid is great at. I swear, I love playing with this guy, but he blows my plans all to hell. With fucking Gust of Wind! And Control Water! And now he can turn into a goddam Air Elemental and just tornado all the minions all over the place. He's a menace!
>>48245352
Is not a feat, retardo, is just a race feature with the name of an old feat
Literally EVERYBODY has old spring attack as defaut (move between attacks) in 5e
>>48245343
I played Pod during Innistrad and the second set made me give up on MtG. I guess the Zendikar vampire stats are there for you to make PCs.
>>48244550
>Stensia Human
>Bear totem barbarian
>take Tough because it stacks with the race feature
>d12+6 hp per level
>resistance to everything but psychic
Wouldn't do much aside from tanking, but god damn could that son of a bitch tank. Get a life cleric behind him and he simply will not go down.
>>48245436
Zendikar vampire stats make no sense with the actual lore
>>48245456
They don't make sense in D&D either!
>>48245411
People who actually grasp tactics will blow 5e's CR apart. You'll just have to get creative with the situations around the fights. Set things up so there's objectives than just killing the other side.
>>48245298
Things have been easy for a while (despite my attempts to gradually up the difficulty.) I don't want people getting bored, I know these guys like a challenge. Also, the campaign is coming to an end, and I feel fine about making the final battles hard as hell.
4-5 mobs might be the right move, though. I haven't done as much of that.
>>48245411
>Gust of Wind
Reminds me of the time when Gust of Wind into Cloud of Daggers ruined the poor GMs carefully crafted end-of-arc boss fight.
The thing about Druids is that all their good shit is on concentration, so just keep hitting him and forcing those CON saves. My GM has yet to grasp this, so a simple Conjure Animals blow his encounters wide open.
>>48245509
When something is supposed to be important, you might give it some legendary or lair actions even if its stat block does not normally have them. Action economy grants a lot of power.
>>48245500
I generally do. Last session had a shitload of civilians on the battlefield; trying to save them is the only reason the party took damage at all.
>>48245546
Gradually ramp things up then. Treat them as a 13th or 14th level party for CR calculations and see what they can handle.
>LOL just change names dawgg
The absolute madman
>>48245031
Longer adventuring days. A lot of GMs will have the party face only one or two encounters between long rests, just because that seems to make sense when they're traveling overland. But with higher-level parties, if you want to put the fear of death in them you need to wear them down with fight after fight. They don't even have to be particularly hard fights. In fact, a few very easy encounters or traps can be just the thing to whittle away their hit points a bit and trick them into wasting spells. Supplement a lot of encounters with CR 1/4 archers who are spread out just enough to take another bite out of the party's health before going down. Make adventures have a time limit or other factors that keep them from resting. A party at 11th level or above can take on pretty much anything of any CR - if they're fresh. Do not let them enter a climactic battle while they're fresh.
>>48245421
So then the spring attack ability does nothing at all? LOL I bet it's like Quick Draw and does literally nothing.
>>48245570
Oh, wait, I can use the CR calculation backwards! I know what I threw at them, and I know how much difficulty they had, so I can use that to find their effective level and plan encounters from there!
Let's see, the two Remorhaz (with the 1.5 times multiplier for two enemies) divided by the four players comes out to 5,400 xp. And that fight was easy for them. But they had some fire support and it was the only fight so far that day, so let's call it medium. My party's effective level is....
Somewhere between 19 and 20. Hm.
>>48245638
It prevents opportunity attacks from anything you swing against. It's part of a feat that does 2 other things. All are tactically useful.
So guys I posted in the last thread about how there was this girl at my AL group who died but came back to life while playing Curse of Strahd. I was just curious if the Dark Gifts were exclusive to the Curse of Strahd game? I am asking because she might not do the Curse of Strahd campaign anymore because she doesn't really like her deformity. So she might join one of the other AL games they are running at the store with different adventures, which are not Curse of Strahd. So I was curious if I followed her and her character happened to die, would it be permanent, or would these "Dark Gifts" still be in effect?
>>48244407
>actually includes substitutions for Curse of Innistrahd
neat
Would it be horribly unbalancing to force Eldritch Knights to learn spells that are of a different school than those currently known (of that spell level)?
I really want to play a Loremaster type of character, but the EKs Evocation/Abjuration restriction is annoying as fuck.
>>48245668
5e is balanced against 6 encounters a day with 2 short rests. They will destroy the first encounter they come against when they have all their resources. Also you gave them support, so that wasn't really 4 players against the fight. It was 4 plus the supporters.
>>48245689
how about you stop being a major faggot?
>>48245515
>The thing about Druids is that all their good shit is on concentration, so just keep hitting him and forcing those CON saves.
Someday I will run a druid with war caster and resilient(con).
>>48245590
>Longer adventuring days.
This. Daily reminder that 5e was balanced around 6-8 encounters in an adventuring day. That's not so hard to achieve if you're doing a dungeon.
>>48245689
There's only one way to find out anon. Kill yourself, and if you come back with gills or blindsight we'll know.
>>48245590
This is what I've been trying to do, but I have trouble coming up with logical ways to do it. With 12th-level characters, it's mostly
>use skills and a spell or two to sneak to the objective
>have one fight
>use spells to escape
They're rarely in a series of fights; once the alarm is raised, they're in one big fight.
>>48245708
Nah, I played an EK up to level 5 and was just meh in terms of power. I didn't get to where I could cast blur at level 7. I was pretty much saving my spells to use Shield and Chromatic Orb and nothing else.
I would say no but use caution cause it might be too powerful. But probably won't.
>>48245759
I plan campaigns by my factions. Factions have rival groups, so it's nearly impossible to befriend every faction without making an enemy. The factions don't all work together, so they won't all attack at the same time.
>>48245509
For what it's worth, one of the more recent episodes of Critical Role had a similar situation occur (party of 7 fights a big bad and a horde of Goliath barbarians) and they very nearly had a TPK in it.
It was only thanks to some lucky roles and a bit of roleplay that lead to them winning the fight without anyone dying.
Overall I think it was 7 vs. 20 or so, and even after the initial surprise round and dropping a few of them, most had like 10 hp or less at the end of the fight, and the party was mostly between levels 11-14.
>>48244407
So absolutely nothing it hurts, Zendikar had more stuff
>>48245708
>Would it be horribly unbalancing to force Eldritch Knights to learn spells that are of a different school than those currently known (of that spell level)?
Nope. My group opened up the whole wizard list to them and it's worked out perfectly fine.
>>48245708
And to clarify, the proposed change to EK would mean that they cannot know two spells from the same school and spell level. So, for example, a lvl 3 EK that knows Magic Missile (lvl1, E) would be unable to learn Chromatic Orb (lvl 1, E).
>>48245739
>That's not so hard to achieve if you're doing a dungeon.
I'm starting to see this as a major limitation of the system. I've had a couple of dungeons in the campaign, but also a bunch of politics and warfare and exploration and character-focused drama. But the game is only balanced for dungeons. There are only so many other situations I can force into a 6-encounters-per-day format. The PCs are too powerful if I try to do anything but dungeon crawl, and just dungeon crawling is boring.
Well, different system for the next game, and in the meantime I'll plan a 6-encounter dungeon for the finale of this campaign. Treating the party as level 15 or so should work.
>>48245759
I've wrestled with this problem. I've found that very often the solution is there if you look for it.
>My level 13 party is adventuring in the Shadowfell
>They decide to skip all the way through the city and the enemy stronghold to the objective room by casting Wind Walk
>Wind Walk doesn't make you invisible or impervious to damage, and it takes a while for you to solidify if you need to take action
>some enemy spellcasters notice the party and have Dispel Magic prepared
>It sticks for one party member
>now it's become a desperate rescue mission, even more difficult than if they'd just run the dungeon normally
>>48245708
Probably not. Eldritch knights can already pick up a handful of spells from whatever school they want, so anything gamebreaking they already have access to. Mainly that would serve to make them much better at utility
>>48244407
Seems pretty neat. Some good details and fluff. I wasn't expecting too much though. The Zendikar supplement felt cooler overall though
>>48245880
I run those kinds of games and don't have the same issues. All the players in the political games have their pawns, and the pawns don't always work together and they don't all strike the same way. You should have tried to kill them in their sleep at least once so far. Political backstabbing and treachery is a perfect excuse for them to constantly deal with assaults.
>>48245710
>>48245758
Wow why the hostility? I am just asking a simple question about the rules. And I don't want to kill myself in Curse of Strahd because I'm pretty sure even character suicide is against their shitty-ass rules, and why would I do that when I already know I'll just be revived by dark gifts?
I want to know if the OTHER adventures have similar rules, because I know AL is pussified to make it "easy" for new players, even though removing the risk of actual death destroys like 90% of the tension in the game.
>>48245708
I would consider a Cleric with the Arcane domain. At level 8 you'd add WIS modifier to your GFB/BB and you get much more potent spellcasting than an EK.
Only niggle is that you don't get proficiency in Greatswords.
New DM here,
I'm having a bit of trouble convincing my players (They are all first time players) what their characters should and should not know. As well as what their characters would and wouldn't do. Seems there is a bit of a disconnect between their character and them.
For example, one of the first encounters they decide to fight alongside some guards who are currently in a battle. Our trusty player, the dwarf fighter from a noble family. He has had his training already in the militia and is now out to travel. Now he has been playing lots of ESO lately so his mindset is all about the loot. Not too long into the battle, two of the guardsmen fall. The other guards push on because more pressing matters. He decides to pull out from the fight to loot the dead guards from behind their back. He changes into their armour right behind them and everything. It doesn't seem like something a noble, let alone a soldier would do.
There has been some other occurences but this stood out. So back to the point i guess; How do i get my players to be more in tune with their character and their motives. like some kind of an exercise to get them into that playstyle.
Also for reference, during these times i do ask them "is this really what your character would do?". I usually get a forced answer.
>>48245758
You guys keep failing for it, if you stop giving him attention he will go away.
How do you deal with a split party in a sandbox /tg/?
>>48245966
Groan and try to give each split part an equal amount of time, while encouraging them to get back together.
>>48245937
They don't, but being resurrected by some random cleric is pretty easy.
>>48245921
Even in the most decadent court, 6-8 assassination attempts per day is a little silly. How often do your players wind up in combat?
>>48245963
So he took 6-10+ minutes in the middle of a fight to remove someone's armor and then don it?
I just found out that Paizo makes a -perfect-Eldritch Knight mini.
>>48245963
Kick his ass.
>>48246016
yup. Rest of the guards and players pushed on a did shit while he was still armouring up.
>>48246023
>Staff
>No sword
Fucking why.
>>48246007
But if you piss off 3 nobles and each of them pays 3 groups of assassins, who all use different strategies, you don't even have to have the same groups attack each day when you also factor in monsters.
>>48246040
Rest of the party should abandon a character that just ditches them in the middle of a fight.
>>48245863
That limitation seems a bit unnecessary considering the small amount of spells an EK can learn. In turn, the EK seems unsuited for a Loremaster since it's unlikely he would know a spell from every school at every level (that he can cast); the Loremaster's shtick is that they know spells from every Wind, but only novice-intermediate ones.
>>48245352
Nothing changes because of it. Attacks of opportunity were already a thing.
>>48245963
My DM has me confronted with people I would have known from the backstory. I used to be all about the loot myself, but good DMs who throw people in from my backstory take me out of it, as I want to keep up the story that I have made for my character. Maybe throw in a fellow noble to be with them for a moment, and have him question why the dwarf is scrounging supplies like a vulture.
And those guards better have been dwarves as well, cause it wouldn't have fit otherwise.
>>48246097
To add to your reply anon, maybe the loremaster should be a Fighter with a homebrewed bard. Throw in 1 Bardic Inspiration, spells, and throw level 1 limitations but pick spells from any class.
>>48246094
I'm sure some kind of internal conflict will occur, at least two of the characters were "all for myself" types. which is one of the other why-would-you-do-that things.
>>48246136
the dwarf decided to do a connected backstory with one of the other players, we're not far enough for them to explain their connection to each other to everyone but im sure it will be some brother bond. I have a feeling he will confront him about it when he gets a chance. Also, when I told him the armour wouldn't fit, he said he would tie it to himself with the rope he had. I was going to give him disadvantage for it, but he hasn't had the chance to find that out.
>>48246055
I kinda like it, but it does suck because I'm pretty sure EKs can't attune to staves the way wizards and clerics and shit can. They're restricted to wands and weapons.
>>48246237
I wouldn't even give him the rope tie but disadvantage is better than nothing. Then hopefully the other player can reign him kn
>>48246091
>9 different groups of assassins
Like I said, a little silly.
I'm really starting to feel like 6-8 encounters per day is just goofy. How many fights per day does a soldier get into? How many daily encounters are there in a fantasy novel? Do even the most frenetic action movies have 6-8 fights with the same characters on the same day? I mean, do what you want with your game, but that's not a pacing I like.
I think the solution isn't to twist the plot until the players can't take a dump without fighting an otyugh, but to adjust the mechanics to allow for a more reasonable combat frequency. Has anyone tried the "short rest overnight, long rest once a week" optional rules?
>>48246237
Your player sounds completely nuts. Let him know this is not some MMO and that there are consequences. The guards would probably rough him up.
>>48246385
I run Eberron. At any time, there are several nations scheming, as well as the Lords of Dust, the Dreaming Dark, the Aurum, the dragonmarked houses, and so on. It's really not hard to have lots of factions all doing stuff at the same time.
>>48246389
Guards haven't noticed yet they got really messed, but I do plan to have them notice and do something about it. Not quite sure what an appropriate punishment is yet.
>>48245739
>>48245880
This is why the default rule should be 1 day short rests, 7 day long rests.
Running 6-8 encounters in what is basically a row almost never makes narrative sense.
99% of dungeons are retarded.
>>48246459
Hey, if it works for you, great. But 6 encounters per day does not work for me. It doesn't happen in real life, or in the books or movies I'm aiming to replicate the pacing of.
>>48246494
He is a noble. They might ask for it back, send some letters, and generally make the public perception of him worse, but they probably won't outright attack him unless he starts stuff.
>>48246566
My point is it's not impossible outside of dungeon scenarios if you have enough actors in the world. You don't even need them to be assassination attempts and they don't have to be guaranteed combat. It gives you as a DM lots of chances at interactions with the potential for violence. You just need actors in the world who have motivations and goals that the PCs can run up against. DMs should not make the mistake of having the PCs be the only group of people in their world trying to accomplish something. Don't use just one villain.
>>48244550
Actually it says right the Human entry that they can't gain feats that replicate their racial features.
>>48246678
All of that is how I already run my game. Lots of different factions and people, good, evil, and neutral, trying to do their things.
But even with half a dozen factions, it's rare for multiple schemes to go off on the same day. And even rarer for the PCs to be involved in all of them. The duke tries to have them assassinated on Tuesday, and the Lord of Locusts is trying to finish his ritual by Friday night, and the Greenskin Horde has been rampaging around the Sundering Shore for a couple of weeks now... I never wind up with 6 encounters on the same day.
In a pseudo-renaissance setting, life doesn't move all that fast. It takes days to send a letter and get a reply. It takes years to orchestrate a coup. Eberron speeds things up a little, but 6-8 encounters per day seems like an insanely frenetic pace to me. Is it always like that? Are there 14 evil schemes per week all year?
>>48245455
>Wouldn't do much aside from tanking, but god damn could that son of a bitch tank. Get a life cleric behind him and he simply will not go down.
So a heavy with a pocket medic?
>>48246635
> *Stabs the noble little cunt
> Back on the castle
> "I'm sorry, my liege, but your son was killed by thieves. It was a terrible attack, we lost some good men."
Done.
Done.
>>48246834
My campaigns usually have 5 or so schemes at the start along with random monsters, and then sometimes more develop because of PC actions. Some of those plots don't carry through the entire campaign. 6 encounters per day makes sense to me when you're dealing with dangerous, volatile situations that will change for the worse if the PCs ignore them.
>>48246834
>>48246932
Also, have you ever done a chase encounter? PCs recognize someone from a rival group, see he has something they want or suspect he knows something they want to find out, expend resources trying to keep the guy from getting away. It might not be immediately deadly, but letting the guy get away has consequences for later, but stopping him costs you something for later encounters that are deadly fights.
>>48245880
>Dungeons and Dragons
>But the game is only balanced for dungeons
I suppose we could have seen this coming
>>48247066
See, I would like if it were also balanced for dragons. But a dragon is too easy, unless it is preceded by a dungeon.
I guess the game I want is "Dungeons and/or Dragons."
>>48246556
The extended long rest rules make no sense either. Is shit gonna stop happening for a whole week while you rest? No. You solve one problem, another problem usually arises soon thereafter, usually the very next day. And this means that rather than long rests being seven days, you just never have a long rest, ever. That's just the truth of it, and to be honest, shit's not gonna stop long enough for players to get a whole day for a short rest either, so that's also retarded.
>>48247286
I think "rest" is a misleading term here.
Ideally a "one day short rest" is just a day living your life doing day-to-day things. No fights, no dungeon diving. get up, make a living, eat, etc.
Its a much better pacing for those games where you dont get assassinated 6-8 times a day
Thoughts?
Shit on my dick.
>>48246556
>1 day short rests, 7 day long rests.
>stay up late once, get an exhaustion level
>have to call out from work for an entire week make up for it
Okay
>>48247355
It's shit on your dick.
So I know it was brought up that the MtG pdfs would make for bad settings by themselves since they lack any real info on the world other than the basics. I was wondering though. If we are going to continue to get more and more pdfs for MtG, would it be possible to craft an inhabited planet and just use the different pdfs as different nations or areas to explore fora campaign setting.
Added material from Plane Shift: Innistrad.
>>48247286
When the shit doesn't stop happening, that's when things get intense. Read every novel ever. The only books that feature 6-8 encounters in a 24 hour period are tom clancy books. Which isn't the right fit for most campaigns (though it can be fun). Most stories have ample opportunity for down time.
>>48247355
You do realize that a wizard with the Necromancy Arcane School is a "Necromancer", right?
Also
>Whether through an odd birth or the 'blessing' of a dark
cleric, you were infused with negative energy and
necromantic power at some point in your life, infusing you
with arcane magic.
So why is his modifier intelligence? It's an innate ability, so why is this not just a Sorcerous Origin.
>Necromancer’s are fueled by dark energy in the same way a
Sorcerer might be fueled by raw magic or the elements,
wielding these forces as if by second nature.
Dude, that's because it's a sorcerer.
>>48247502
I don't disagree, but one week long rests are still stupid. Why not eight hour short rests and one day long rests? Everybody needs to sleep sometimes.
>>48247370
see >>48247336
Also, pic related.
>A long rest is a period of extended downtime, at least 8 hours long, during which a character sleeps or performs light activity: reading, talking, eating, or standing watch for no more than 2 hours. If the rest is interrupted by a
period of strenuous activity-at least 1 hour of walking, fighting, casting spells, or similar adventuring activity the characters must begin the rest again to gain any benefit from it.
You don't have to sleep the entire long/short rest to gain the benefits of it.
Anyways, this rule is basically: you have to take a day off from adventuring to regain short rest features, and you have to take a week off adventuring to regain long rest features.
>>48247580
Those work too, at least to slow down the obnoxious encounter pace of vanilla 5e. I just find the balance is more fun with 1 day/1 week. It really makes time a consideration, and in my opinion makes resource conservation hit the sweet spot: Just after serious concern, but just before the point where it gets unfun.
>>48247355
did you steal Guild Wars Grenth art and just run it through a bunch of filters in GIMP? lol
>>48247355
> Necromancer
> Life Force
>>48245890
"Dispel Magic" and "Counterspell" are such game-changers in 5e that I don't think a lot of DMs realize just how much they've changed the scope of magic usage yet.
>>48247592
Yeah just like you can do light activity for 2 hours there, assuming higher level of activity overall you can do work-outs and so on for about the same time I'd say so 40 hours or something total. 1 hour can be anything so you can have an entire day not resting of those 7 and still get the benefit. I wouldn't actually do this, I'd just have it as downtime, but it shows that it doesn't have to be just that either and things can happen without invalidating the rest.
Can werewolves hurt each other? By the book it seems they can't.
>>48247355
>level 20 necromancers have to spend 79 minutes at the start of every day meditating.
>>48247777
hail quads.
I concur, to the point that I made an entire archetype for a homebrew class based on those two spells. Successful dispels or counters regain spell uses. It seems to be working out okay in playtesting, a solid anticaster archetype.
>>48247847
If that doesn't work with your campaign, you could always reduce their damage immunity to a damage resistance, and adjust their CR down accordingly.
>>48247847
>Can werewolves hurt each other? By the book it seems they can't.
Back in the olden days of 3.5, we had a rule saying that monsters' attacks can overcome their own damage-resistances and immunities.
Although I think lycans should never have gotten immunity to non-silvered/non-magical weapons. My DM houseruled it down to resistance, and everything works great.
>>48247869
If you are retarded and change every single spell you prepare every day.
>>48247909
I actually think it's cool. I can see a badass alpha having some kind of silver claw weapon hidden somewhere in case he needs to deal with problematic pack members.
>>48246556
>This is why the default rule should be 1 day short rests, 7 day long rests.
It should only be the default rule for heavy intrigue over dungeon crawl games. You'd have to be pretty cruel to make your party traverse the average dungeon with the longer rest variants.
>roll three arrays of 3d6 down the line
>pick one array
>reduce any value above 15 to 15, use the reduced amount to bump the lowest value
>swap any two values
Anyone else like rolling?
>>48248034
Eh, it depends. You could make a solid dungeon out of 3-4 encounters, and as long as that's all they do in the day, it won't be much different than the party that fought a punch of extra encounters and then took a short rest outside.
1 week for a long rest is a bit crazy though, but I think it's more the need to just have it be something that it's clear you can't do in the field.
>>48248034
In my experience only official modules actually adhere to the 6-8 rule.
>>48248081
If your rolling system is trying to closely imitate the balance of point buy, why not just use point buy?
>>48248165
Because rolling dice is funand I might have a problem.
>>48246834
I understand your point. You're the guy who's having trouble balancing encounters for their party, right? Well, take into consideration that those 6-8 encounters are supposed to be medium-hard. If you want less fights and still keep them challenging, you have to make them deadly and tweak the monsters to fit. Have at least 1 monster per PC, but know that by now they can handle armies of low CR creatures. Give the monsters more HP, maybe a slightly bigger bonus to hit.
>>48247355
Necromancy involves negative energy, not "life force" (positive energy). This shit is like matter and antimatter, not hot matter and cold matter.
>>48248165
The point is that you end up with stats in places where you might not have put them. It cuts down on character optimization and enables more organic characters.
>>48248203
>want to play a specific class
>roll up some stats
>no amount of shifting the numbers around makes this guy good
>create a PC who got into a lifestyle he is clearly not suited for and whose lifetime of training to get to that point ran him in the opposite fucking direction or built him up from being criminally weak in one area to merely average
it's shit
>>48248109
>6-8 rule.
Hours or days?
>>48248250
Encounters per day.
Posted this in pathfinder general too.
Anyone have a good recommendation for a tabletop/d&d deals compendium website? I like having miniatures and things for my physical games, rather than just making my own paper figures, and recently during coolstuffinc's july 4th sale bought a bunch of the Skull and Shekles booster packs for less than half MSRP. The booster packs are generally way too expensive for what you get in my opinion, plus gambling for figures is bullshit, but for half price I was really happy with what I got. $1.75 for a mini with 1/4 being a large mini is pretty decent, and the quality on many of the large ones is better than say reaper bones or even many reaper metal figures. Had I not been randomly browsing that site I'd have missed that.
Anyways, anyone know a good site like slickdeals or dealzon, but for tabletop rpg/pathfinder/d&d stuff?
>>48248109
I've only played one official module, Out of the Abyss. In my experience short rests were essentially non-existent, with one or two combats a day. And walking. Months and months of walking.
>>48248202
> Comparing Magic to Physics
>>48248237
What part of
>swap any two values
and
>three arrays
are you unable to understand?
The possibility of not getting a single stat that with a racial bonus is 14 or higher is exceedingly low.In fact, that possibility lies around 0.4-5%. In which case, sure, roll a new damn array and buy a lottery ticket while you're at it.
>>48248327
>Months and months
Jeez, how did the drow not catch you guys? My party's only been walking for about a month now and we're almost to the end of the first part. Did you get lost a lot or something?
>>48247897
That is an awesome idea for a class
>>48248327
I've only played the first parts of OotA and we were usually hounded by Drow to the point where a short rest was almost unthinkable.
>>48244715
I want you to know I'm thinking about a rogue sneak attacking with a rapier from horseback now. STEALTH HORSE
>>48248203
I don't really feel much more organic because my barbarian has an 11 in INT instead of 8. With that Anon's system I'm going to end up with a 15 or 14 in all the stats I care about and slightly higher stats in places I don't really care about.
My DM insists I use 4d6 drop lowest anyway so I get good stats across the board.
>>48248342
It's an analogy, twit.
>>48248360
>>48248370
Were the drow really supposed to be that threatening? Really early on the party turned around and wiped them out, then never heard from them again.
>>48246834
>>48248186
cont.
Take Critical Role, for example. They don't usually have more than 2 or 3 encounters per day, and the party is composed of 6 to 7 high level powerful PCs with lots of magic items. The DM adjusts the creatures to the challenge, boss monsters especially. The BBEG Beholder had about 360 HP, which is double what they have on the MM. An adult white dragon had 630 HP (!!), while the standard MM version has 200 HP. Ancient black had 825 whereas they normally have 367, etc.
>point buy
>start at level 3
>max health on all levels
>throwing an orc at another orc is more than 1d4 damage
would you play at my table
>>48248432
How early are we talking? If your party managed to keep a lot of the NPCs alive and reach level, let's say, 4, then sure, they might be able to take the drow out. But a level 2 party, even with NPC help, shouldn't stand much of a chance.
>>48248380
>all stats I care about
You get to swap two stats with each other, so unless both of those are "stats I care about" (in which case, why the fuck are you swapping them in the first place) you're likely to end up with a ~15 in the one stat you really need to function.
>>48248459
I would stay at your table if I had fun
>>48248459
Sound good, specially for the start at level 3 part, I'm so tired of starting at 1st level
>>48248459
>max health
That can only lead to bad things, especially if you give NPCs max health too. Unless you enjoy meat bag combat, I suppose.
>>48248368
I tried it, but it feels too gimmicky. The major class feature doesnt come online until 5th level at minimum, after that point its essentially just a spellthief.
>>48248459
Probably. How challenging is your game? In the campaign I'm playing in right now I've had three characters die, including one in a party wipe, over the course of a couple months, and honestly it's a bit much for me.
>>48248455
Yeah, but they're having to balance around what looks good on TV, not what balances well. It's pretty much the tabletop version of professional wrestling. Well, except for actual professional wrestling games.
>>48245966
If they want a TPK, give it to them.
>>48248570
Monsters are given HP fitting for the level and challenge, not what's in their block. Intelligent creatures occasionally flee, so it's not necessary to reduce everything to 0.
>>48248581
Players go down, but almost never out. I try to avoid killing PCs. Tactical retreats happen more than I'd expect of the average game. There's no accounting for people who press their luck when it's both obviously and demonstrably a bad idea, though.
>>48248459
Maybe, but I would be wary about the max hp at all levels thing.
>>48248459
I'd rather just continue to DM at my own table. Those are generally the guidelines I follow anyway, aside from Max HP. I've played 4th edition, I know what that shit does to combat.
>>48248651
It seems to balance very well either way. The players feel like they could die any fight, all encounters are challenging, and they all have fun.
>>48246055
Staff is superior to sword if you have Polearm master
>>48248895
They're actors. The fights go exactly as they're scripted to.
>start a new campaign
>warn players of a super dungeon in-game, filled with horrible traps
>players immediately set out to go there
>ignore all the skeletons and mangled corpses
>get torn apart by traps and devils
>they get mad
>>48248946
... Right. All the dice rolls are scripted, too.
>>48248966
Did you give them any alternatives? Did you present this like it was something they were supposed to be doing?
If the DM says 'hey, there's a super-dungeon nearby' then that sounds like we're supposed to go there. If an NPC mentions the lost labyrinth of Erezon that is hard to find and impossible to solve, that sounds like something to do later.
If there was a super dungeon, filled with that many traps, I wouldn't expect low-level characters to even be able to get in the door.
>>48248906
This is a lot less true when you're playing a class that wants to actually utilize it's bonus actions. Eldritch Knights, between spells and warcaster, have bonus actions that Polearm Master will compete with.
>>48249011
>even be able to get in the door
They rolled up and couldn't find the entrance, Rogue reached into the statue's mouth and disappeared. Rest of the party thought that was the entrance and did the same.>mfw I put a sphere of annihilation in the statue's mouthAt least, that is how I envision it to have played out.
>Creatures that can rip horses apart with their arms, lift carts, destroy walls, cut thick trees with one arm, etc have str 15
Kek
>>48249093
>Muh simulations
>>48249093
That's what I let the martials in my campaign do.
>>48244551
Asmodeus has zero authority to remove her soul from Barovia, anon. Ravenloft is squarely outside of his jurisdiction. She's definitely still in the cycle of reincarnation.
>>48245966
I love split the party as a theme, always have both as player and GM. Fights become much more interesting when you have to improvise situations, the Cleric, Barbarian and Fighter getting accosted from a ramshackle wooden tower above with no reliable ranged offense leads to them trying things like toppling the tower or trying to use a wooden cart as cover, wheras normally they would just have the rogue snipe them with his shortbow. The Rogue and Wizard are stuck elsewhere might come across an encounter that would have been trivial if they had the muscle, but without it they have to be inventive.
I think my favourite "Split the party" involved a Dark Heresy campaign where the party were travelling a demon infested space hulk and got split apart. Three of them managed to stumble across a small cultist library alongside a mysterious figure who smiled as they approached. He claimed that he was the seer of X obscure demon, a rival of the demon that they were currently hunting. He offered them a small blessing from his lord no strings attached since "It has been seen that you will destroy Y, this pleases me." The players discussed, and took the blessing. A buff to agility, a small amount of corruption and a bonus one use fate-point, but most importantly, a dark secret to hide from the other three acolytes.
Likewise the other three managed to stumble into a servitor research lab, and managed to release a highly aggressive and agile murder-servitor which tracked onto one of the players and was a pain in the ass to defeat due to being as tough as it was fast. When they eventually met up, they continued on as normal but it lead to a great part later where during a fire-fight, the servitor assassin drops down from the gantry above with only moderate wounds having tracked the player across the space-hulk. Lead to a fantastic "Oh shit oh fuck" moment from half the party while the other half were just "Oh, wait what is that thing?".
>>48244551
Any time you think you're dealing with an entity outside of Ravenloft, like your god or your pact-buddy Asmodeus, it's actually just a Dark Power emulating it all while the real entity is powerless to do anything for you (and may even be ignorant of your predicament to begin with).
>>48249164
I like your first point, but I think that's more of a matter why I prefer small parties in general. Having only 3 players means that people have to really diversify or else leave roles uncovered, which means more improvising and different tactics.
I don't like party splits though. It's difficult to juggle, and just leads to half the table being bored. If it ever happens, I usually try and hurry things along and avoid any combat happening.
>>48248651
Whoa. Are you saying that balancing your narrative story telling so it would make a good story could increase its entertainment value?
>>48245966
I run separate sessions until everyone realizes they'd rather play in one big group again and stick together.
>>48247355
its ok could use some work
>pcs have been captured by faeries (dick kind, not tinkerbell kind)
>taken to the faerie realm where they are expected to serve their new masters
>entire campaign is them escaping.>when they finally do escape, hand them the sourcebook to changeling the lost and tell them to get ready for the next session.
y/n?
>>48249286
Of course not, you fucking moron. If those people signed up to play D&D, they want to play D&D.
>>48249286
>subjecting your players to Fey
Let me stop you right there.
>>48249286
Nah.
Starting in slavery is always a bummer. An entire campaign about escaping is just dragging it out further. It's also going to be insanely difficult, as Fae have a bunch of charms, illusions, and other spells that would foil most escape plans.
>>48249286
>Hand them the sourcebook to Changling:
Oh hey this sounds
>The Lost
Goddamnit.
>>48249398
sorry, i'm a neophyte to wod. Which is the good one?
>>48249344
>>48249335
>>48249334
You're telling me a rollicking campaign through alien landscapes wouldn't be fun?
It made bioshock fun!
>>48249451
C:tL is the one that's thematically appropriate for the whole "escaped fey slaves" idea you're running with.
Changeling: The Dreaming is the better game in general.But we're getting off topic for /5eg/ here.
>>48248081
I like rolling. My players like rolling.
I roll with 4d6d1, make two separate arrays, and then each player picks the one they want; if neither of those have total modifiers of at least +2, they get to reroll both.
I encourage heroics, though.
>>48248377
Get Skulker and you can use the horse for cover to hide too.
>>48249451
There's a difference between having a campaign in the Feywild, and having a prisoner/slave campaign in the Feywild.
If you do it, start them off just having escaped whoever was bringing them there. They got their equipment, they have some disguises, they have a cart, but they have no idea where they are.
Still give them things they can handle. Have them meet locals who might be more friendly. Don't just throw them in some Fey-lord's mansion and have them wait until they can escape.
>>48249510
>tfw you've run a feywild conversion of OotA
>>48249510
That was the plan actually.
>>48249558
>tfw my group is so savvy that at the first HINT of anything fey-related they begin brandishing unworked iron ore, rolling to disbelieve, and making voorish signs
wouldn't have it any other way desu
>>48249565
Well, you didn't phrase it like that. 'Entire campaign is escaping' implies they're going to be slaves for the entire campaign.
>>48246932
LotR fits the 6-8 encounters/long rest model decently, if you're more liberal with what's short and long rest. Basically, if you consider only extended stay in a safe place long rest, it fits almost perfectly.
The adventure starts in the Shire, you've got the Old Man Willow, barrow wraiths, overland trek (not all encounters needs to be combat!) and encounters with Ringwraiths, with battle at (don't remember the name of the ruin) and escape to Rivendell as a big finale.
Long Rest in Rivendell. Travel through Morie has a overland travel, puzzle, escape from the Watcher, some battles with orcs and troll, and Gandalf's boss fight with Balrog.
Lothlorien is the next Long Rest. Battle of Amon Hen (possibly multiple encounters) followed by splitting the group.
Frodo and Sam have fewest encounters, their next LR is with Faramir's rangers. From there, it's a stealth mission to Mount Doom, including boss fight with Shelob, Frodo's capture and battle with orcs, and sneaking through Mordor. Gollum is their final encounter.
Merry and Pipin are captured, escape, encounter Treebeard... LR at entmoot, then siege of Isengard. Not much for them to do, they'll join the next group after that.
Gimli, Legolas and Aragorn track the goblins, encounter Rohirimm, regroup with Gandalf and after some diplomacy, take LR in Edoras. Battle of Helm's Deep has more than recommended encounters, but they manage to avoid TPK. Isengard, LR, Dunharrow to grab undead army, corsairs, way to Minas Tirith for another LR. Pellenor Fields have a lot of encounters, but most of the orcs aren't much of a threat to our heroes, so it's OK. Boss fights are worse, but everyone is still alive, even if (Pippin?) needs some healing. Another LR, Black Gate, campaign ends.
>>48249620
Sorry. I basically meant the entire campaign is going from the point where they've busted out of the chains that confine them, only to find that they're still stuck in the feywild. They've got to somehow survive without being caught again, and also find a way back home. Or not. maybe they'll grow to like it.
>>48249510
Not the guy asking, but why is that a bad thing? That's how OotA begins and everyone seems to like it.
>>48249451
I'm starting something in the feywild as well. What fun ideas you came up with? I want my players to encounter a feylord hunting party gone wrong. Displacer beasts galore.
I also wanted to put them in a regular-kobold-lair dungeon (something relevant to my campaign), but one door would take them to a feylord's tea party instead. A mix of Sheogorath and Alice in the Wonderlands. Not 100% sure yet.
>>48249613
That sounds incredibly out of character unless if they are hardened adventurers that have had dozens of run ins with the fae.
>>48249647
>That's how OotA begins
>begins
Key word there. It was mostly a misunderstanding on my part anyway, as I thought he meant the entire game was going to be escaping. >>48249641
>>48249634
Turning all the scenes where nothing happens except overland travel seems disingenous, especially in the context of the discussion being had.
Frodo isn't fending for his life 6-8 times a day. Or even once a day. Yes, I know encounters don't have to be combat, but you can't even say frodo does something worth writing about every day of his journey. That's why tolkien didn't write much about them besides "and then they traveled there, and ate some elf bread, which was better than any bread any mortal had ever made." LotR much more accurately fits the 1 day short rests, 7 days long rest idea.
>>48249662
I've never met a vampire in reality but you can bet your sweet bippy that if one appeared in front of me, I'd start throwing garlic, holy water, crosses, any other religious symbols, silver, and running to the nearest river while praying for dawn.
What kind of adventurer doesn't read a fucking book or talk to other adventurers before setting out?
>wow that thing looks like a corpse with all the flesh and muscles removed
>like a.. a... a skeleton or something, but it's clearly moving on its own
>i wonder what it's called and what it's doing
>oh well, better stab it with my rapier
>>48249647
I like the idea of body horror, but beautiful body horror. There will be power available to the players, but at great physical costs. I'm taking a lot of inspiration from the Dark Eldar, and the Snakes and Foxes in Wheel of Time, both factions heavily inspired themselves by gaelic myth.
The city they find themselves in will be non euclidean, and may even feature non linear time, though I'm having a hard time thinking of ways to express that in simple, desirable rules.
>>48249689
Of course. That's pretty much what I said in the first two sentences:
>LotR fits the 6-8 encounters/long rest model decently, if you're more liberal with what's short and long rest. Basically, if you consider only extended stay in a safe place long rest, it fits almost perfectly.
>>48249709
Books, stories and songs are rarely accurate information for adventuring.
>>48249751
You'd think, but we're basing that idea off the real world where people wind up with wildly different ideas of what works against things that don't actually exist to begin with. Those creatures are REAL in D&D, people can see them, kill them, put them in a wack-ass crystal prison, whatever. There are so many little cultural quirks that we insert into fantasy games because they're all we're familiar with in reality and assume they must hold equally true there, but it's not the case.
>>48249796
Whatever excuse you need to metagame, buddy. Just keep the fuck away from my games.
Is there a simple rule of thumb I'm missing for "does critical damage apply if ....?" Class abilities like the Rogue's Sneak Attack are given this, but things like the Ranger's Colossus Slayer are contested.
For rare and magical items and weapons such as, for instance, the Oathbow (which deals an extra 3d6 on the wielder's specified "sworn enemy") I'm similarly unclear. Is every source of damage good to go as long as it involves rolling a die for damage (as opposed to just a static bonus)?
So I've got to run a short, 8-12 hour campaign (broken up over the course of two weeks) to about 5-7 teenagers to teach them the basics of D&D and - to a lesser extent - tabletop RPGs in general.
Was thinking that I'd set them up on a "frontier town" of sorts where adventurers have come to upon hearing rumors of a large dungeon located in the side of a mountain.
My first thought (after helping them create their characters) was to have them do a quick quest outside of town to get a feel for combat and dice rolls before sending them into the first few rooms of the dungeon itself.
Any ideas of how to improve upon this idea, make it something fun for them to enjoy and make them want to continue playing tabletop games?
>>48249872
All dice. Flat bonuses (your Strength modifier, a weapon that always does +5 Fire damage, Sharpshooter/Greatweaponmaster) are ignored.
>>48249872
All the attack's damage dice get multiplied on a crit. If it would apply simply because the attack hits, it gets multiplied. This is contrast to some poisons that are behind saving throws, which aren't multiplied.
>>48249873
This depends on your group, but I. What you just described sounds good. In a campaign that's only going to be a few sessions of basic primer, I'd say you're be good to just send them off into the dungeon. If you want a suggestion, you could say that this is a dungeon that has various "floors", progressively increasing in danger and threat. Incorporate your "basics" session into this, getting their feet wet, so to speak, in the dungeon as well as in tabletop games in general. After a few sessions of clearing and running through a few chambers or floors of your dungeon, I think it'd leave them looking for more, and might make it more likely that they'll stay involved in D&D and /tg/ in general.
Aside from mechanics, and this really depends on the group, try to get a feel for what your players are interested in. Do they just want to run and gun it or are they interested in roleplaying? Is it an even split, or is your group more polarized, or do they generally appreciate both equally? If you think it might be rewarding for this group, try to encourage and reward roleplaying and creative solutions outside of pure combat. Maybe they do just want to have fun whacking this and slinging spells though, just something to think about while you're trying to lure them into this madness.
>>48249243
Usually we run 6-8hour sessions at our group since we all make it our "Biweekly Sunday Thing" so saying "Okay, you three go grab some food or play the Xbox for an hour while we do this bit, then we'll swap." is often fine.
Additionally, currently we're rather lucky that we have a 6-7 players so we have two GM for most things, one to run the main thing and another for assistance. Generally keeping track of numbers, playing DMPC's, helping during bogged down combats, handling some NPC interactions, adding a second voice or just keeping the party busy with a random encounter while GM gets everything ready for the next important bit. While also being a second person for the GM to share ideas with and come up with interesting things for the party to encounter. So when we split the party we can just split the DM's too.
>>48249873
If you're not scared of old stuff, this module is incredible for first timers. They can fight a few spooked cultists or the troglodytes in the village to teach them combat, and then enter the temple. That should be about enough for 8-12 hours.
If they want to continue their adventure you can easily have them chase down the reptile god's lair, which would probably last them another 8-12 hours or more.
>>48248946
please stop
How do I build Bladesinger? Should I go single class? Dip a fighter? Embrace the MAD and dip monk or paladin?
>>48249821
My background is being tutored by an experienced ranger adventurer, who has taught me the weaknesses to every rare and unusual monster I could possibly come across!
>>48249821
>he doesn't attend the Elminster Correspondence School
>>48250204
That's still an Intelligence (Arcana) check to remember information about the fey. Now if you're not here to roll dice, please step outside, we can talk about this later.
>>48250255
Gonna need an Intelligence (Swording) check for you to remember how to use that Battlemaster maneuver, champ.
>>48250198
I would just go pure wizard unless you really want more hp. Because of the number of spell slots available you will almost always be able to cast shield except at very low levels and one of the only classes that can really out AC you is an eldritch knight with a shield and the spell shield. Later on you end up having more base AC than anything I can think of so the hp is negligible.
>>48250127
To this day, that cover and introductory text still gets me pumped like nothing else.
>>48250304
Gonna need a SAN save to not fall for that bai.. I failed it, didn't I? Crap.
