Octopus Overlords

Thank you both for the feedback.

Good to know the alternate Ranger seems OK.

I knew that as playtest, there's chance for it to be overpowered (or possibly underpowered as well). Had not connected 2 & 2 that future official releases would already be out.

Thanks for sharing the story. Think I’m going to post a current AAR for my homebrew campaign where I’m the DM. Maybe it will pass the time for someone trying to kill time while at work.

Redfive wrote: ↑Sun Oct 28, 2018 7:04 pm Thanks for sharing the story. Think I’m going to post a current AAR for my homebrew campaign where I’m the DM. Maybe it will pass the time for someone trying to kill time while at work.

Not that my vote counts for anything, but I would definitely read that.

We met again yesterday. DM's daughter didn't come, other teen's boyfriend came, played the NPC that the DM's daughter normally plays (he's never played D&D before). He was goofing around silly a bit at first, but eventually got the basic idea and played well enough.

We get a new map and head out to the next island. When we get there, we see... one of the other groups that's been searching is already here. They wave us ashore and we compare notes (each map is supposed to be a unique island, the contest is set up such we should never encounter another group going to an island we are going to). We compare maps and verify they are the same, have not been modified. And get attacked from 2 sides (conveniently allowing us to pick a side and the other group to take the other - far enough apart we won't impact each others fights). We picked the rocky uphill sloped side as it sounds like a sizeable force and casters are talking about fireballs (the other side being forest).

The hill sucks, cuts our speed to 1/3 normal. Krogg now being at 40' base, gets to move 3 squares (6 if all he does is move). Very rock, outcrops, etc - if you full move - no cover, move and shoot(cast, whatever that involves you popping out of cover) - partial, stay still and shoot(whatever) - 3/4 cover, stay still and don't do anything requiring you to pop up, full cover.

Krogg double moves, rages, and next turn is in melee range with a single move. Long fight to get up here and take out some generic warriors, their lt., and the mage supporting them (who fireballed us). I get dinged up pretty bad even w/ resistance to everything (except psychic), ticking the dwarf cleric off as she's trying to catch up to heal me and I keep charging forward... (I'm raging, not really thinking about it).

After we take out the first, very tough party, we interrogate a couple prisoners, find out they were hired to ambush the force coming here (they were not expecting such a powerful force). We head down the path they came from, finding another small group (Krogg is a few feet ahead w/ his 40' move when we get to initiative so he can get to someone to melee on first turn). Turns out the 5 guys had some zombie trap, 8 or so zombies pop up out the ground. Turn 4-5 zombies, capture 2 of these guys, kill 2, one flees. Krogg runs the zombies down (they collapse to dust as he catches them), Ranger and Fighter take off after the runner, Krogg catches up eventually. Rest of the party deals w/ the prisoners/camp we just overran. Another camp of 11 or people, who are packing up w/ the guy who made it here. Krogg suggests we should whack them, Ranger says no, too many. We get the rest of the party, come back, they fled here. Party makes camp for at least a short rest with Krogg and the Ranger running ahead scouting.

We get to bluff overlooking their next camp on the beach w/ about 35 people, and we come across a lizardman (from one of the other groups searching islands). His tribe lives on this island. They have made contact w/ the other group that landed here and that group will be in position to strike in the morning, down the beach coast. The lizardmen will strike from up here and suggest we meet w/ them to attack from this angle. We go back, tell the group, camp for the night, game ends.

Amusing highlights:
For some reason, DM things the magic missile w/ 4 missiles will do a lot of damage to raging Krogg. Um, each is separate, so 1d4+1 - halved, rounded down. So... 1-2 *4. Yeah, 8 points max, not so much. He ended up doing 5. Wasn't the wizard's best move (he'd come out of invisibility to do it and was only a couple squares from Krogg who took 1 more swing at the guy he was fighting, not enough to take him down, and took an AOO to get close enough to swing at the wizard (with advantage - Krogg always uses reckless attack) - and CRIT! 3d10+7... one dead wizard (he'd already been hit by a fireball - he saved but still, that had inflicted some damage).

DM thought he was going to take me down and did get me down to 2. After the fight, realized I was nowhere near that bad. Forgot to update the scratch sheet I was tracking my HP on w/ my new total (60 instead of 48, for going up to level 5).

Druid had fun with his new "heat metal" spell on the Lt - in chain mail... that got to be VERY HOT chain mail... Then the druid become the main target of every bad guy who wasn't in melee. They got his concentration broken. So he cast heat metal again on the next turn... cooked the Lt to death (there was no way he was getting that chain mail off in the 2-3 rounds he had to do it before dieing).

Krogg kept wanting to charge ahead and slow down the runners/next group. One of the party said go ahead and nobody else stopped him for one fight, so he did. The rest of the time they reigned him in.

*********
Now I love Krogg but getting interested in the idea of trying to make a tankish Mystic. Soul Knife w/ precognition, Wu-Jen Air master and Wu-Jen Ice master. Human with alert feat. Bounty Hunter. At 5th level, will have 18 dex, 14 con/int and either 12/10/8 or all 10's for the others (Wis high, Str low). Doing this requires getting the DM to let me have a magic item that would be something like a wand of Inertial Armor (Force Discipline version of mage armor - except it's self and ac 14 instead of 13 and I think resistance to force damage). Thinking 3 charges, recharges 1-3/day. If I didn't get that, I'd have to get the force discipline for that power. 14 AC + 4 dex, +2 if I want to use a bonus action to up AC w/ the soul blade. But many uses for bonus actions, so that may not happen all the time.

Would really love a cloak of displacement, but failing that, there's an Air Mastery ability that imposes disadvantage on people attacking me (and lets me use my reaction to make them roll again against themselves). 3 Psi points (would have 27 at 5th level), concentration, lasts 1 minute. Have other uses for concentration as well. Air also gives me some movement flexibility and decent line attack.

Ice gives me a few options for attacks and for control to help slow down/stop runners (I'm a bounty hunter, don't wany my quarry getting away). Plus a 3 point ability that gives me 20 temp hp (no defined duration - which according to PHB means they last until gone or next long rest).

Precognition is mostly for advantage on initiative (from psychic focus on this ability) though it has a self only bless ability (concentration), a reaction to make someone reroll if they hit me, possibly missing the second time (3 pts, instant), and wicked idea for an 5 point, 8 hour concentration ability that gives you +10 to initiative, can't be surprised and attacks against me can't get advantage. With the +4 initiative from Dex, +5 from alert feat and advantage, probably won't need the additional +10 too much. The air ability is better for imposing disadvantage. Bless might be good if I am not concentrating on something else. This is the weakest choice, but A) Advantage on initiative! and B) getting the drop on people seems thematically appropriate for a bounty hunter.

Not nearly as many Hit Points as Krogg, no resistance, better Armor Class though - especially w/ the imposing disadvantage on attacks. The goal is rarely get hit as opposed to Krogg who will get hit tons but for lessened amount and has the HP to survive a ton of hits.

Bouncing the idea around, definitely if Krogg gets whacked, want to go w/ this as his replacement if DM will allow it (he's tentatively allowed anything from UA, but I would want to review what I'd take with him in more detail to make sure he's clear and OK w/ it since it is playtest).

The more I think about it, the more I think the precognition is just not going to be the best choice. Psionic Restoration so I can heal myself (I've been a lone traveling bounty hunter and might need my prisoners to be taken alive sometimes, this seems like a more functionally useful discipline both as a player/practical thing and for roleplaying purposes - the alert feat and 18 dex will be sufficient to get good initiative generally speaking and the other abilities besides the bless are already largely covered or not going to be used).

My son and his friends started a new campaign/session yesterday. There are 5 players and a DM, which is a great number in my opinion. His former campaign had a girl in the group, and this one does too (a different one!), which is awesome for a bunch of reasons.

When I picked him up after, he told me they were in some sort of post-apocalyptic wasteland that is magic related not nuclear. I did not recognize the setting and he's not sure if it's homebrew or what.

He's playing a dwarven monk with snakes for arms (including heads/mouths/fangs for hands) but has magical "mittens" that allow him to hold weapons and function normally when he's wearing them. His arms are always the body of a snake. So...tentacle arms.

As he was recounting a bit of the session to me, I'm fairly sure the girl's character slipped a rape drug in my son's character's drink, so that's something. When he woke up he was surrounded by a battle. He saw the girl's character and threw a dart "at a non-vital location" at her, doing 2 hp to her 9 hp life.

I freakin' hate 14 year olds. Their imaginations are ruining my childhood hobby.

Oddly, despite all this non-regulation imagination, they used the ancient stat rolling technique of 3d6 for each stat and you get what you get. My son has a 7 in intelligence.

edit: My son now tells me that a separate drinking incident occurred where his dwarf chugged a full stein of something that should only be consumed from shot glasses, resulting in him stumbling outside the tavern and vomiting from one of his snake hands and his mouth, while the other snake hand passed out from the alcohol. He thinks he's going to make a "drunken brawler" monk.

All these drink related mishaps should probably have me concerned. In any case, his snake hand was vomiting from too much alcohol. Did I mention that I hate 14 year old non-regulation imagination? Yeah, I think I did.

He says everyone is having a great time and it is super fun, so that's awesome.

We played again yesterday. Started my new Mystic tanky guy. Soul Knife (2 psychic energy blades w/ abilities to enhance them), disciplines are Wu-jen - air and ice and Psionic restoration.

Got a cloak of displacement, a crystal of force armor (has 3 charges, works like a wand with recharging every day 1-3 charges). 18 dex, no armor or weapons otherwise (unless you count the dagger that I thought he would have as a hunting/utility knife, never uses it to fight, just seemed like an appropriate piece of gear for someone who spends a lot of time traveling - outlands background - bounty hunter).

As a bonus action, I can parry for +2 AC - so I have 18 or 20 AC depending on whether I parry or not.

Frozen Sanctuary lets me spend 3 psi points for 20 temp HP (no duration specified - so it lasts until used or until next long rest).

5 psi points will enhance my psychic blades to be +2 attack/damage for 10 minutes (no concentration).

So I'm hard to hit (AC 18-20, cloak of displacement means they have disadvantage until they hit, and it resets every round so hitting one round won't help the next round), and I have 20 temp hp they have to smack through if they do hit before they can hurt me.

Psionic restoration allows me to heal.

Mastery of air gave me some flight options and a solid 30' line attack.

On to the game... played both characters as we were about to enter a fight and DM had an excuse for why new characters came along (new player and someone else switched - he missed last session so his old character wasn't there), Krogg was still around until we finished this fight and got back to town, then he got called away. For this fight though, DM wailed on Krogg (who uses reckless attack whenever possible - advantage on melee attacks - but everyone attacking him gets advantage). Our druid cast call lightening and zapped Krogg to get the 3 enemies around him (a somewhat common tactic in the party). Krogg has 60 HP. Even with nearly every enemy attack and the lightening - his resistance resulted in him only taking 45 damage in the whole fight (DM rolled way more odd damage number than even - odd rounds down - so it was more impressive that even that sounds). So, as normal, he couldn't kill Krogg. He couldn't even hit the new guy. Twice he would have critted if not for the cloak of protection.

New guy has a name - but it changes every day (quirk - mystics take 2 quirks, a class "feature"). Party decides to call him "Joe".

So we do the big fight, settle up that this island is the lizardmen's island, not an option. The other group we met up with is off to check on other things, we go back to the main island to report in and get a new map.

But when we get back, there are funeral wreaths in the bay. The town's wizard that was advising us and their leader on what's going died. My new guy took a job with the wizard to basically investigate all the parties doing this quest (the leader is a trusting guy, the wizard was not). But the wizard did not have a backup and no likely candidates for who I can report to.

The volcano is getting worse. It had been getting a little better the last time we were there.

And we spot a poorly hidden cave in the side of the volcano. We see some armored guys entering it (the armor looks like that of a dwarf party that was in this island competition). We go investigate - get to the cave and BOOM... some sort of explosion in the cave. We go in and check it out, most of the dwarves are dead, 4 live. We heal/help them get out but only if they agree to tell us what's up once we are out. Town guard drags us all off to the town leader to see what's up. He's not worried about us, just the dwarves. They think this artifact (that has been in the town leader's family for generations and they have no idea what it is/does) is a dwarven artifact that will open a portal to a trove of dwarven artifacts and demand that they be given the artifact because it is dwarven and theirs by right. They ran into a ward the town wizard had put down there to protect the artifact. There are more wards, but with the wizard dead, no one knows how to get past them.

Leader refuses but can't lock them up (if the volcano goes, that's a death sentence) - just orders them to leave the island and not come back.

We find out the town wizard was trying to cast a spell to create a small explosion in the volcano away from town to release some of the pressure. For as they can tell, he underestimated his explosion spell power, got hit by the volcano explosion (as well as a couple town guards).

Leader has an island that he believes is promising, gives us the map and we go off to explore that. Find the foundations of some village that is long since gone. Knee high stone walls are all that is left. There are piers here as well so we can tie our boat off. We go ashore and hear a small child playing. We determine she is a tiefling - she runs and screams a warning. We slowly follow in a none-threatening manner. As we near the top of a ridge, someone stands up and challenges us, with a double crossbow type device (that eventually starts charging - 1 with blue energy, 1 with yellow energy). Town leader comes up behind her and we end up with a peaceful discussion.

Discussion w/ the leader - she's somewhat shocked to learn there are still people on the island w/ the volcano - she needs to meet with them, but suggests they could live on this island at least temporarily (the disgruntled guard disagrees - they did this before, didn't work out well; leader is very amiable/charitable human - the rest of the village of tieflings not quite as much).

We picked up a disc that is related to the artifact in the competition, on a previous island of undead (we took the disc, the undead collapsed). The village leader reveals that the disc is 1 of 4 parts of an artifact. She and a group of paladins fought a demon long ago, this artifact allowed the demon to come to our world. After they defeated it and it returned to the abyss, they broke the artifact up into 4 pieces. As this artifact has been in the possession of the town we are trying to save for generations - something is off about this "human". We push on that and learn she's not really human. She's an ancient bronze dragon. She found the demon when she was a young dragon.

Having this discussion and filling her in on everything we know about the artifact and the town, she changes her mind - instead of us bringing the town leader back, she wants to come with us and meet him. She fears the demon is attempting to get someone to reassemble the artifact so he can come back into this world. It was a necromancer who did it before, she suspects the dwarves (possibly unwittingly) are working with/for a necromancer who wants to bring the demon back.

So her and the untrusting guard tiefling w/ the special crossbow come back to the main island with us... just to discover the volcano is starting to spew more ash and stuff and is going to blow any time now. The island has loaded up their fleet and is starting to move out. We finally find the leader's boat. He agrees to come with us and the dragon to try and recover the artifact from behind the wards, making his daughter get on the boat as she will have to lead the town in his absence (she's not happy).

Get to the cave, starts to set up for an encounter and we had to end there. So something's in the cave we are going to have to fight.

We found out earlier in the game day that one of the other groups (grey elves) is also believed to have one piece of the artifact (4th piece - no idea where it is).

The mystery starts to be revealed...

Zenn7 wrote: ↑Wed Jan 02, 2019 10:23 am (DM rolled way more odd damage number than even - odd rounds down - so it was more impressive that even that sounds).

Is that a house rule? It's an interesting one.

Blackhawk wrote: ↑Wed Jan 02, 2019 1:30 pm

Zenn7 wrote: ↑Wed Jan 02, 2019 10:23 am (DM rolled way more odd damage number than even - odd rounds down - so it was more impressive that even that sounds).

Is that a house rule? It's an interesting one.

I'll have to look in the books again, but I thought any time you had to round a number, you rounded down. In this case, it's bear totem barbarian raging - resistance (1/2's damage) - 11 becomes 5, 7 becomes 3, etc.

Ah, ok. I thought you were saying that your GM rounded down damage dice to even numbers as a rule. " You take (rolls 3, 2, 5, 4) 12 points of damage."

Sorry, too much short hand - just the rounding. Barbarian bear totem resistance is insane! Toss in half-orc relentless endurance (when you would go down, you instead stay up with just 1 hp (once/long rest)), adequate healing (though the dwarf priest is not at all happy w/ the raging, mindless barbarian running away from her, faster than she can move during fights... :p ), the advantage dex save for traps/spells he can see coming (that's why the party casts aoe spells on him so much)… he's nearly indestructible.

Krogg will be missed...

His rats (that he always tried to make sure there were plenty on the boat so the party never starved... ) not so much...

Grr... we played yesterday, was writing up a very long post and hit some button that wiped it all out. Couldn't undo/redo/paste to correct whatever I hit. Will try again later, too frustrated right now.

Best Correction Ever...

Big drama in the D&D streaming world last night and today.

Two of the cast of Dice Camera Action have been having an affair, and it could be the end of the series (at least as presently constituted).

It came out last night that Jared Knabenbauer (who plays Diath) and Holly Conrad (Strix) have been having a long-term affair. Jared K's wife has accused him of emotional abuse, and there are also accusations that he solicited nude pics from underage fans.

Holly C is also a big part of Penny Arcade's Acquisitions Incorporated, so this affects them too.

This is all playing out on Twitter. A search for "projared" there will get you the details.

I never thought I would see the day when D&D players became celebrities for it, but I suppose this is the next step after that.

Holman wrote: ↑Thu May 09, 2019 2:09 pm Big drama in the D&D streaming world last night and today.

Two of the cast of Dice Camera Action have been having an affair, and it could be the end of the series (at least as presently constituted).

It came out last night that Jared Knabenbauer (who plays Diath) and Holly Conrad (Strix) have been having a long-term affair. Jared K's wife has accused him of emotional abuse, and there are also accusations that he solicited nude pics from underage fans.

Holly C is also a big part of Penny Arcade's Acquisitions Incorporated, so this affects them too.

This is all playing out on Twitter. A search for "projared" there will get you the details.

I never thought I would see the day when D&D players became celebrities for it, but I suppose this is the next step after that.

Interesting. I don't follow DCA, but I am familiar with both of the characters because of their Acq Inc appearances. I enjoyed Jared as a player, but Holly never really sat well with me. She's kind of embodied everything about the "oh, my character is so quirky that they're barely functional but please put the spotlight on me so I can take up a ton of time in the game" player.

Interesting to see how this plays out. Who knew that the second D in D&D was "drama".

Every game master ever.

This is why I run Paranoia. Accusations of treason settle all grudges.

Zarathud wrote: ↑Thu May 09, 2019 3:04 pm Every game master ever.

A year later...

Mystic was fun for a while, just gave that one up and switched to a Rogue/Ranger (started at 8th level - Rogue 5, Ranger 3). I went with Rogue Assassin, though it wasn't quite what I wanted and Ranger Hunter (took the Colossal slayer).

DM is fairly Monty Haul with magic at this point. Not using the 3 item attunement rules either. Let me have the manual of dexterity (permanent +2 dex, can exceed 20), Scimitar of Speed, Studded Leather +2, Ring of Protection +1. Human with Alert feat. Took expertise in Perception and Insight.

Didn't like Assassin from a flavor stand point. This is a melee guy. Didn't envision him sneaking around, stabbing people in the back, disguise, poison. He's a fighting type who's goal is to be lethal in a fight (not lethal while his target is asleep). Found Inquisitive Rogue arch-type with Insightful Fighting - that's a perfect ability. Don't like the investigative/Sherlock Holmes feel of the Inquisitive though.

Wanted a more Insightful rogue.

I know there are better places to post this for feedback, but thought I'd start here (actually, started with my friend I've played with for a couple decades and is part of the campaign).

Thinking to mix & match some of the Rogue Arch-type abilities for this Insightful/Perceptive/quick rogue warrior.

At L3:
The ability from Assassin - advantage against any foe who has not taken a turn in combat yet.
Insightful Fighting - straight up from the Inquisitive class (Insight vs target's Deception check - win = I can sneak attack w/o having to get advantage for next 10 rounds or until I insight check another target).

At L9:
From the mastermind arch-type:
Insightful Manipulator - spend at least 1 minute chatting with someone, you can make an Insight check to determine how they compare (higher/lower/same) in 2 of the following:
Intelligence
Wisdom
Charisma
Level
DM may choose other details as well

At L13:
From the scout arch-type:
Ambush Master - Against the first target I hit in combat, I and the rest of the party have advantage until the start of my next round.

At L17:
From the Inquisitive arch-type:
Eye for weakness - against any target I am have Insightful Fighting, I get 3d6 additional sneak attack damage when I sneak attack.
**************
L3 is probably too powerful.
1 - could reduce duration of Insightful Fighting from 10 to maybe 5 rounds - but not many targets are going to live through 5 rounds of sneak attack damage.
2 - could make it only last 1 round, maybe make Insight check a free action.
3 - could make it only last 1 round, still be a bonus action for the Insight check, but you get advantage, not just to use sneak attack
4 - could make it only last 1 round, still be a bonus action for the Insight check. No advantage.

Option 4 feels like it might bring the L3 abilities into balance.

I don't like L13 as is. It's the closest to what I had in mind, but the arch-type isn't an organizer/leader/communicator who is going to set up the rest of the party. It should be something that would focus the advantage more on the character, not the whole party. Maybe only the Rogue gets advantage but it lasts until the end of his next turn rather than just the beginning or it lasts for 2-3 turns maybe? Not really sure.

Side note - character is currently 9 (Rogue 5/Ranger 4) and will ultimately go Rogue 15/Ranger 5 -so the L17 ability is just for completing the arch-type. As I doubt we'll get to L20, the L13 ability is more for completeness than actually expecting to use it. L9 has a real chance of being used. L3 is already in play.

Any thoughts/feedback (particularly from a balance perspective) is appreciated.

More than I can get into at 1 AM, but 'arch-type' is giving me the giggles.

Well last Friday we kicked off Campaign 2.0 for our D&D Fantasy Grounds group.

This time we are going to try something a little different. While I was the DM for the first campaign, we did have two others who would run things if I was out of town or couldn't for whatever reason. They either ran their own mini campaigns in my (our) world or they would run independent modules.

This time we are going to attempt to run two campaigns that are intertwined at the same time.

I'll be running the 'Southern Campaign' which takes place in the 'civilized' world (pictures below) and the other DM will be running the 'Northern Campaign' which will take place in the previously uncharted north.

My campaign will have the 'standard' D&D races but the north will have a menagerie. Humans, goliaths, satyrs, minotaurs, etc..but no elves, dwarves or gnomes.

The idea will be that the two campaigns will at some point intersect with a conflict as the northern pantheon attempts to expand its influence over the world. We'll see how it goes, kind of a work in progress.

These are the campaign maps that were produced from our first 2.5 year effort. All of it started with the main continent scratched on graph paper 20+ years ago by me (didn't we all do that at some point?).

Posting them here in case anyone is looking to kill time at work.


The world so far. Azare is the main continent and Middura is a southern polar continent (hence it's size on this made up mercator projection). MIddura, a continent of undead, was the main antagonist in the last campaign. They were all defeated when the macguffin that was keeping them alive was destroyed.



The other maps are provinces on the bigger map.

New Harbor is the biggest city in Azare. Put this together one night before a session in Inkarnate.

Also, Chult is there because way back at the beginning we were going to try to run tomb of annihilation before we all realized what a PITA it is. It needs to come off the map.

Love the maps, and love the idea of shared campaigns. That's how we played Champions back in college, we had 3 separate games all running in the same world (but separated by regions of the world...NY, Chicago, and LA.) That was a tremendous amount of fun.

In middle school, a friend and I took turns running a campaign in the same world. The DM ran a NPC and the others ran 2 characters so we had a stable of adventurers and henchmen. Whoever was running the game often made their NPC a key part of the story. it worked to incentivize each other to add to the story (and key loot for our own NPC as the story progressed).

Our D&D group last met in February, called it in March when COVID hit. We talked about getting back together in June, but 10ish people around 1 big table w/ all the snacks/drinking for 8ish hours - sounded like a bad idea once we talked it out.

We'd brought up the idea of Roll20 a while back, but no one was on it. After the real live meeting fizzled, we got traction w/ the Roll20 idea, first session is this Saturday.

We're starting new characters - one is going to be a tankish hex-blade. So I picked Circle of the Moon Druid - 1st level I won't help much as a tank (I'll be up in melee at least - we got a monk and a 2 weapon ranger - that's the front line w/ the tankish hex-blade; got druid, cleric, wizard, bard that will likely be back line).

AND...

Library D&D wife helped me find last year that I played every month can'd in March (COVID), but unknown to me, they started up on ZOOM in April. Wife found it in June (too late for me to play then), but got to play last week and signed up for next month.

They were up to 6th level so I'd made a 3 Rogue (Assassin)/3 Ranger (Hunter) - but the tank couldn't make it. So I'm doing a Circle of the Moon druid for next month to make sure we have at least 1 tank. So I'll get to see it going in. DM said I could have 1 magic item, going for cloak of displacement which he ruled I could keep in most forms I'd use for tanking. Figured that was about the best single item I could get for tanking - AC will still suck, but at least he'll have disadvantage frequently.

All and all, w/ no D&D for 3 months after several months of doing it twice/month, I'm thrilled to get some D&D in again!

Smoove_B wrote: ↑Wed Dec 17, 2014 4:46 pm There was a review on io9 earlier this week that was absolutely gushing about the book. I've read all the various DM guides and with my recent trip (still ongoing, btw) down nostalgia lane with Designers and Dragons I figured this would be a good gift from Santa. Of course there's no way I'll ever actually play the 5th edition version of D&D, but I am pretty curious to read it.

Six years and one pandemic later has turned me into a liar.

I successfully ran a 5E adventure over the weekend, using Fantasy Grounds Unity. I wish I didn't need 6+ weeks to learn 5E and how to use a fully online tool set, but old dogs, etc...

Regardless, after really taking the time to learn things, I am genuinely impressed with 5E. It absolutely reminds me of 1E/2E rules (to a degree) and is rather nimble in execution. Would recommend. Also, by waiting until now to get into it, there's an insane amount of material to help with just about anything available free online and Youtube.

Smoove_B wrote: ↑Mon Jul 20, 2020 11:40 pm

Smoove_B wrote: ↑Wed Dec 17, 2014 4:46 pm There was a review on io9 earlier this week that was absolutely gushing about the book. I've read all the various DM guides and with my recent trip (still ongoing, btw) down nostalgia lane with Designers and Dragons I figured this would be a good gift from Santa. Of course there's no way I'll ever actually play the 5th edition version of D&D, but I am pretty curious to read it.

Six years and one pandemic later has turned me into a liar.

I successfully ran a 5E adventure over the weekend, using Fantasy Grounds Unity. I wish I didn't need 6+ weeks to learn 5E and how to use a fully online tool set, but old dogs, etc...

Regardless, after really taking the time to learn things, I am genuinely impressed with 5E. It absolutely reminds me of 1E/2E rules (to a degree) and is rather nimble in execution. Would recommend. Also, by waiting until now to get into it, there's an insane amount of material to help with just about anything available free online and Youtube.

Let me know if you have any FG questions. My group has been using it almost weekly for the better part of three years.

I’ve run Roll20 twice now. Luckily two of my players have used it regularly and were able to help with initial questions and lighting settings.

There are some quirks but I feel the occasional tech delays are offset by time gained avoiding map setup and quickly rolling or checking rules. In particular, the mage is a conjuror so his go-to spells aren’t always familiar.

Redfive wrote: ↑Tue Jul 21, 2020 10:24 amLet me know if you have any FG questions. My group has been using it almost weekly for the better part of three years.

Most of my questions are related to the UI and how they clearly need an UI designer on staff.

But seriously, thanks. It's an amazing set of tools.

Anyone else following the upcoming release of Tasha's Cauldron of Everything?

Today, Wizards of the Coast lifted the lid on Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything, the next major Dungeons & Dragons sourcebook. Cut from the same cloth as Volo’s Guide to Monsters, Xanathar’s Guide to Everything, and Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes, Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything is a cohesive book filled with new spells and abilities, new creatures, “new” subclasses (more on that later!), new magical items and the aforementioned ways to roleplay your mighty adventuring hero — and additional tools for Dungeon Masters to expand the way they tell stories in the lands of the Forgotten Realms and beyond.

Cauldron of Everything will frame these new items and abilities through the lens of a powerful, iconic D&D character: the titular Tasha, one of the oldest and most potent spellcasters in D&D lore. She’s been an adventurer, an icon of Greyhawk, an enemy, and, in her guise as Iggwilv, one of the most sinister archmages in the entire D&D cosmos. Oh, and being famous for her hideous laughter, the one spell to Tasha’s name in spite of her vast power.

...

In Cauldron of Everything, players are given the framework to throw all those mandated traits and benefits out the window and build their own benefits, regardless of the race they want to choose for their character. “We provide a new rules option that allows you to take some of the traits in your character’s race — Elf, Dwarf, Half-Orc, or something else — and modify those traits so that you can better reflect the story you have in mind for your character,” Crawford said of the new process. “We even include in this book a template for creating a lineage for your character that is completely disconnected from any of the race options in the game. It’s basically just us saying ‘fill in the blanks.’”

Of note:

“Everything in this book is optional, just like Xanathar’s is a guide. This is an optional expansion to the game,” Crawford stressed of the sweeping changes. “One of the things that we have maintained throughout the life of 5th Edition is that you can always play only with the core box if you want to. Anything beyond the core books is optional. That said, we expect a lot of groups will adopt this new option to customise their character’s origin, because we know a lot of people would really love when they’re making their character to not feel like the fact that I picked a dwarf, for instance, [gives me] this feeling that it forces my hand into particular character classes. It’s going to really open up for people that they can play the type of character they want to play.”

Another major choice and source of vast player feedback that Cauldron of Everything “officially” inducts into 5th Edition is something some D&D fans will already be intimately familiar with: the Artificer class, first published in the November 2019 sourcebook Eberron: Rising from the Last War, as well as its subclasses from the online playtesting program Unearthed Arcana.

Preorder is up on Amazon.

Yeah, this will be an insta-buy to me. I loved Xanathar's Guide, and have high hopes for this one.

Everything is still new to me so I'm not sure I'm the target audience here, but I'll probably get it and read it regardless.

I'd say overall I'm still really enjoying 5E, more than I thought I would. The combat in particular feels like less of a slog than I remember it being with 2E.

This expansion will be interesting but we’re just concluding Chapter 1 of 3 in Baldur’s Gate: Descent into Avernus so I have 6 months to deal with new rules unless a character dies.



So I guess I’ll be buying it in hard copy and in Roll20.

Someday I need to invest in some more of these books (1-2 other players in my group have them so I've seen them and there are online references to the spells, subclasses, feats, magic items and subraces for most of it - the primary crunchy rules stuff so I have a good idea what's there). Maybe this is what I want for xmas this year...

Didn't even know this was in the works but I'm sure I'll pick it up.

Really looking forward to Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frost Maiden. My group made characters on Sunday and they are posting backgrounds now. Will try to have at least one 'zero' session before RotFM drops on 9/15.

New announcements. I expect most of you have seen these already:

Spelljamer

Dragonlance

Looking forward to Spelljammer. Dragonlance doesn't really fit into my homebrew but it could be good for an alternate campaign.

Spelljammer is... not my jam. I tried it back in its first incarnation and very much disliked it.

Dragonlance was my first love, clear back in the 80s. It was Dragonlance that got me into fantasy as a genre and into D&D. That said, watching that trailer, I kept expecting to see Tigtone show up.

Uhhh...I think the bigger news is D&D COLORFORMS!!!!

Hey gang, is this the OO D&D group? I'll be honest, I scrolled through but didn't read much of this thread. If a group is somewhere else, point me to that thread if you don't mind.

However, if this is the D&D group, I have questions...

I've been wanting to try out D&D for nearly 40 years and I never have. But now I want to join a group or what not and I don't know where to start. I have to manually or starter kit or whatever it is I would need to get started. So, can I join or how do I find a group. Secondly, what the heck would I need to get started?

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Need? If you are going to be playing with other people who have played before, a pencil and a set of dice. And you can usually borrow those. As a player, you'd eventually want the 5th Edition Player's Handbook.

If you are going to be playing it with people who have never played before and you will be running it, try the Starter Set. It has a very basic version of the rules, characters, dice, and a (really good) beginner adventure, plus it walks you through how to run a game.

This assumes that you will be playing in person. If you're planning on playing online (VTT - Virtual Tabletop), the needs are a little different, but I'm not the most qualified to say what they are.

If you have a group in person, what Blackhawk said.

If you don't have a group but want to try playing online there are several virtual tabletop (VTT) programs you can use. I use Fantasy Grounds Unity, but there is also Roll20, Foundry and several others available.

Do you have a group of people or are you literally by yourself and want to learn?

Redfive wrote:If you have a group in person, what Blackhawk said.

If you don't have a group but want to try playing online there are several virtual tabletop (VTT) programs you can use. I use Fantasy Grounds Unity, but there is also Roll20, Foundry and several others available.

Do you have a group of people or are you literally by yourself and want to learn?

Literally by myself and would like to learn.

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