The D&D thread

bigmark268 said:

So this past weekend my group got to do some dinosaur races in chult. So two party members ended up killing another party members mount. And I have never seen such a salty sad 40yr old in my life lol

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Are you running Tomb of Annihilation? I'm considering running it set in Exandria as a pre-cursor to another DM running the new Vecna book. Then we'll replace one of the realms in that with Exandria. Not sure how we'll make it work, since we're online running through Fantasy Grounds, but the idea is that the main DM will handle most of it, but the guy that ran Curse of Strahd will DM the Barovia stuff and I'll run the chapter we set in Exandria.

I won't get to TOA for awhile, though...we just started Dungeon of the Mad Mage, then the other DM is doing Tyranny of Dragons. So I'm slowly reading through it and trying to figure out how to make all the factions/NPCs work in Exandria. There's an overwhelming amount of homebrew built around the campaign and I need to figure out which pieces I want to use, if any.

So yes and no. I'm using some pieces from it for the paladin arc I'm writing for my friend.

We are on year 12 or 13 of these chars. And he's finally reach lvl 22.

So I used the dinosaur race. And I'm going to be a doing a big jungle navigation thing. Then move into doing a few of the highlights in the jungle. Maybe a thing with being hunted by red wizards. Maybe something with doing with being surprise attacked by dinosaurs in our sleep. Ala that trex scene from the first jurassic park.

Then I'd like to move into letting them traverse the entire city of Ohm. Which I'd like to see if I can make into a double layer dwarven forge dungeon. Like maybe a 2x3 or 2x4.

Oh and then we are also on a time crunch quest. We're being forced to find a a certain somthing for a certain someone evil as well. Which I'll just tuck into the temple someplace maybe.

Dr.Retarded said:

Did 5th edition ever put out epic levels like 3.5 had for post 20, or did you home brew that?

Grabbit Allworth you probably know, or was it a side dealer aftermarket type thing?

I just don't think officially they ever did anything unless I missed it.

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Oh I don't play 5e. Were still playing our old 4e characters.

I'm not particularly a fan of 5e. I felt it was a step back for non casters. More like the old 3.5 melee which was very one note to me.

Dr.Retarded said:

Did 5th edition ever put out epic levels like 3.5 had for post 20, or did you home brew that?

Grabbit Allworth you probably know, or was it a side dealer aftermarket type thing?

I just don't think officially they ever did anything unless I missed it.

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You're correct. There's no official post-20 content for 5e.

Dr.Retarded said:

Ahhhhhh, I never played for e because I heard it tried to make it too much like world of Warcraft MMO type BS.

3.5 is pretty hefty with all of the wombo combo stuff, fifth edition is wonderful though. I'm guessing 4th edition is kind of streamlined in a similar fashion? I just remember in all my 3.5 books there's a section maybe in the main guide or player's handbook about epic levels going from 20 to 30, and I think there may have been the skill progressions and epic skills or spells and stuff you did unlock.

It's been a long time since I looked at it and I don't even know where my books are floating around at. Think they're in a box in the garage somewhere.

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4e also really resonated with my group if friends.

We all played 3.5 for a few years. Then 4e came out. And we all wanted to try it. I've been DMing 4e for bout 14yrs now. I still don't see the "mmo" aspect people speak of.

But I mean right off the bat melee have somthing to actually do besides just roll to hit.

My crew was never the most out of the box thinkers. So if the book didn't say it. They couldn't fathom doing it. But 4e gives you sooooo many options to do all sorts of fun cool stuff that just casters have.

Dr.Retarded said:

I got ever read the 4th edition rules but from what I remember somebody saying, when you level up you just get different types of skills kind of like you would unlock and an MMO, or maybe you spend points in a different trees. I guess that's how I always heard it was built.

Hey if it's fun, and you got a group of people to enjoy it with, who cares. Just have a great with your buddies.

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Oh totally dude. Yeah each level you get new spells or attacks. And you have your choice of 5 to 10 or more per level. So you can really build yourself however you want.

So what I'm planning in doing is. Sino races > few spots to discover in the jungle > we find the city of ohm > puzzle shrines in the city > then we give chase to ras nsi into the old necropolis city below > face him and uncover magic keys to open the vault of a dead yuan-ti price that has a nether scroll in his sarcophagus > then trek further into the city to the eventually find acrereaks new toy > then fight the atropal

And during this larloch has cursed us and is forcing us to find a netherscroll for him. He also maimed our paladin and left him with a purple spectral arm. Which I'll be cleansing when he pulls a holy sword from the dead god's corpse that housed the atropal. Then he'll have a radiant arm of divine energy that also i a merged with his sword

We had a game where some undead fiend touched our paladins arm, and the flesh just melted away. From about his shoulder down he just had a working skeletal arm, and it always caused him a mild pain and felt as he needed to scratch skin that was no longer there. Our DM expected this to be a horrible curse our zealous undead hating pally would revolt at, hiding it while we searched for a cure, maybe questioning his faith. Our pally player was clearly upset about it, and shortly thereafter the session ended. Our DM talked to me after people had left and said he felt shitty, he wanted it to be an impactful thing from an RP perspective, but also wanted to not fuck our buddy by maiming his character, and he had thought this was a good story thread.

Well, the next session, after a week or two of thinking about it, the pally comes back to the table and surprises us all. His character ends up spending days locked in the church, praying to his God for answers while refusing food, drink, or rest. He comes out exhausted but resolute - and announces that what had happened was his Gods will. His arm would be a symbol of the dangers of his hubris, and the evils of Necromancy, etc etc. Totally embraces it.

We played that campaign for like 2 years and his Char basically removed all the armor on his right arm to ensure everyone saw his skeletal arm, and used it drive home what we were willing to lose to fight this evil. It ended up being this super fucking epic thing, and at one point we had rallied this town to make a last stand at a fort with us, near the climax of the game, and right before the battle the townspeople start draping these sheets down all sides of the fort. Banners that had a skeletal arm on a golden shield. It was bad fucking ass. Probably one of the only games I have ever played in where I was more invested in my friends character than my own to be honest haha.

You're purple phantom arm bit reminded me about that Thought I would share!

Oh shit yeah dude. That's awesome. Yeah that's pretty much where I wanted this to go. To really knock jim down a peg for a while. Then to give him someone thing awesome out of it.

I didn't get that far yet. But I want to do so.thing along the lines of. Getting him like a radiant spectral arm that grants him another power or two. And the arm will absorb the sword and it'll become part of the arm. And he can just will it into his hand when need be.

My daughter is still loving her D&D class at summer camp. She had a cold last week, and my wife asked if she was going to stay home, and she said no because she would miss D&D.
I'm thinking she would like playing it after she's done with camp, but I have no idea where to find younger kids that also play and it feels like it would be a trap if I search online.

Try your local ymca. Also local game stores/comic shops sometimes have adds looking for players. You might have to consider playing with her in some of these groups or even dming for her and some of her friends.

Hoss said:

Got a question about initiative. One of the members of our party recently paid for DNDbeyond and realized they could create a campaign and let us all create characters using all the paid content.

Anyway, I moved my character over last night and for some reason it's showing me to have +4 to initiative. I only have a +3 dex. Any idea where the other + is coming from? I can't find a way to make it tell me why the number is what it is or a way to manually override it.

I'm a half elf creation bard. I don't know of any abilities or traits giving me an initiative bonus unless Jack of all trades apply to initiative. Are there items that can do that?

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It’s almost certainly Jack of All Trades. Most agree that bonus also applies to dispel magic and counterspell.

Xarpolis said:

My daughter is still loving her D&D class at summer camp. She had a cold last week, and my wife asked if she was going to stay home, and she said no because she would miss D&D.
I'm thinking she would like playing it after she's done with camp, but I have no idea where to find younger kids that also play and it feels like it would be a trap if I search online.

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That's awesome dude. I try to play with my kids. But it's real hit or miss still. They are 5 n 7 though. Last few times we played I do a thing where we are in bikini bottom running quests for Mr krabs