D&D thread
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@abarker said in D&D thread:
I'm kind of nervous about the surprise turn my campaign took this weekend.
We went to investigate a burning wreck that fell from the sky. Took out a couple carrion crawlers, a flesh golem, some gnome squidlings, and some gnome ceremorphs. Then, on our way to the town we were originally headed to, we were attacked by an invisible stalker.
We finally got to where we could take a long rest, and lucked out to get a undisturbed night's rest. As we were packing up in the morning, my cleric/warlock's sword started vibrating in it's sheath. Looking up, she saw Acererack approaching. This is problematic as he's the patron for my character's warlock husband and he doesn't like my character. Not only that, but he is currently embroiled in a patron war. As Acererack was talking to our party, my character started hearing this ringing sound. When she asked if anyone else heard it, Acererack said he did. He then ordered my character's husband to kill her. At that, my character started glowing, getting larger, growing wings, etc. The party wizard did an arcana check and determined that my character now was on par with a minor diety (the DM said my character was now effectively a CR20). As my character felt a growing urge to attack Acererack, the session ended.
I think my survival next session might depend on what my character's husband decides to do. It would probably also help if the rest of the party lends me a hand, but there's a very good chance my character will die next session.
Well, shit. Apparently, at least the end of that last session was a group dream. We're not certain how much of last session was a dream because we didn't take a long rest at any point. At least a couple people heard voices from thier dieties indicating that the dream will happen before the dream ended, so I'm still hoping to get to play out that fight.
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Where the points don't matter,.,.
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@abarker said in D&D thread:
@abarker said in D&D thread:
I'm kind of nervous about the surprise turn my campaign took this weekend.
We went to investigate a burning wreck that fell from the sky. Took out a couple carrion crawlers, a flesh golem, some gnome squidlings, and some gnome ceremorphs. Then, on our way to the town we were originally headed to, we were attacked by an invisible stalker.
We finally got to where we could take a long rest, and lucked out to get a undisturbed night's rest. As we were packing up in the morning, my cleric/warlock's sword started vibrating in it's sheath. Looking up, she saw Acererack approaching. This is problematic as he's the patron for my character's warlock husband and he doesn't like my character. Not only that, but he is currently embroiled in a patron war. As Acererack was talking to our party, my character started hearing this ringing sound. When she asked if anyone else heard it, Acererack said he did. He then ordered my character's husband to kill her. At that, my character started glowing, getting larger, growing wings, etc. The party wizard did an arcana check and determined that my character now was on par with a minor diety (the DM said my character was now effectively a CR20). As my character felt a growing urge to attack Acererack, the session ended.
I think my survival next session might depend on what my character's husband decides to do. It would probably also help if the rest of the party lends me a hand, but there's a very good chance my character will die next session.
Well, shit. Apparently, at least the end of that last session was a group dream. We're not certain how much of last session was a dream because we didn't take a long rest at any point. At least a couple people heard voices from thier dieties indicating that the dream will happen before the dream ended, so I'm still hoping to get to play out that fight.
Yeah, so much for the dream being prophetic.
We were working on clearing a group of duergar who were corrupted by some cursed chardalyn out of a fortress in the mountains. We got the first floor taken care of and moved to the lower level. Since we hadn't rested after clearing the first floor, my cleric was nearly out of spell slots, and had no slots available for AOE attacks after the first couple fights in the lower levels.
The last fight had been in a room that only had one entrance, so I asked for a long rest, making my situation clear. The group decided we could only spare a short rest. The wizard ritual cast a Tiny Hut, and we rested for an hour.
Then we made it to the forge.
In the forge were about a dozen typical duergar, and a half dozen quaggoth, plus the BBEG that we needed to take out. In the slug fest, we were able to take out the BBEG, but then our wizard dropped. Before anyone could react, a quaggoth hit her a couple times, and she was dead. In the same turn, my cleric's husband was slain. My cleric did not react well, partly due to grief and partly because she had 4 HP with 3 quaggoth in range. She got off a couple revenge shots, and then she was gone.
The remaining two team members were not actively engaged, so they were able to run, but the campaign was over. No way were we going to try and incorporate 3 brand new characters.
Afterward, I reiterated that we should have taken a long rest so I could have had my spell slots. One of the other players said he didn't realize my slots were so low. Another player pointed out that I had said I needed the long rest because my slots were low, but whatever. Next time, if I think I need a long rest, I'm staying in the Tiny Hut with the wizard
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(and the next one, for today's... might be more in the future, for time pod travellers)
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@boomzilla “My first DM didn’t have any minis” as if this is a requirement for playing RPGs …
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@Gurth said in D&D thread:
@boomzilla “My first DM didn’t have any minis” as if this is a requirement for playing RPGs …
Honestly, if the miniatures are any good, run the other way.
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A while ago, on some other thread I can no longer find (possibly the non-searchable Lounge? Or maybe search just sucks?), I mentioned that I have some D4s that are cubes, but I didn't have a picture. Well, I finally found my dice bag again (too much online RPGs, not enough in-person RPGs), so here are those 6-sided D4s. I'm not entirely sure they're fair, but they certainly bounce better than caltrop-D4s, and they're probably good enough for my purposes.
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@PotatoEngineer said in D&D thread:
A while ago, on some other thread I can no longer find (possibly the non-searchable Lounge? Or maybe search just sucks?), I mentioned that I have some D4s that are cubes, but I didn't have a picture. Well, I finally found my dice bag again (too much online RPGs, not enough in-person RPGs), so here are those 6-sided D4s. I'm not entirely sure they're fair, but they certainly bounce better than caltrop-D4s, and they're probably good enough for my purposes.
Probably not fair, since they're obviously enchanted or cursed or something.
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@PotatoEngineer I wonder why they put runes around the edges, when there’s a perfectly good other script specifically designed for being written there.
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@PotatoEngineer said in D&D thread:
A while ago, on some other thread I can no longer find (possibly the non-searchable Lounge? Or maybe search just sucks?), I mentioned that I have some D4s that are cubes, but I didn't have a picture. Well, I finally found my dice bag again (too much online RPGs, not enough in-person RPGs), so here are those 6-sided D4s. I'm not entirely sure they're fair, but they certainly bounce better than caltrop-D4s, and they're probably good enough for my purposes.
Those are awesome. Where did you get them from?
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@Jaloopa said in D&D thread:
@PotatoEngineer said in D&D thread:
A while ago, on some other thread I can no longer find (possibly the non-searchable Lounge? Or maybe search just sucks?), I mentioned that I have some D4s that are cubes, but I didn't have a picture. Well, I finally found my dice bag again (too much online RPGs, not enough in-person RPGs), so here are those 6-sided D4s. I'm not entirely sure they're fair, but they certainly bounce better than caltrop-D4s, and they're probably good enough for my purposes.
Those are awesome. Where did you get them from?
My brother found them in India somewhere.
I have absolutely no idea where to find more. Which is worrying, because I used to have more of them, but then my 4-year-old got access to my dice bag for a while, and now there are only two of them. They're guaranteed to be around the house somewhere, but damned if I know where. (Okay, I have a couple of nooks and crannies to check first, but if they're not in those places, my kid could have carried them just about anywhere.)
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@PotatoEngineer That just gave me an idea … Losing dice is pretty common, so what we need is clearly to harness the Power of the Internet! We need someone to start making dice with Bluetooth beacons in them!
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@Gurth said in D&D thread:
@PotatoEngineer That just gave me an idea … Losing dice is pretty common, so what we need is clearly to harness the Power of the Internet! We need someone to start making dice with Bluetooth beacons in them!
And a couple of small liquid reservoirs, connected with remote-control valves?
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@PleegWat said in D&D thread:
@Gurth said in D&D thread:
@PotatoEngineer That just gave me an idea … Losing dice is pretty common, so what we need is clearly to harness the Power of the Internet! We need someone to start making dice with Bluetooth beacons in them!
And a couple of small liquid reservoirs, connected with remote-control valves?
Hey, get the valve timing just right, add a piston, and you don't need separate power.
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@PleegWat said in D&D thread:
@Gurth said in D&D thread:
@PotatoEngineer That just gave me an idea … Losing dice is pretty common, so what we need is clearly to harness the Power of the Internet! We need someone to start making dice with Bluetooth beacons in them!
And a couple of small liquid reservoirs, connected with remote-control valves?
...so you can stain the carpet where they were lost?
"I can't find my D4!"
"Quick, make it spill!"
"Great, I saw a large green stain in the carpet, and now I've found my D4! ...now who's going to clean the stain?"
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@PotatoEngineer said in D&D thread:
@PleegWat said in D&D thread:
@Gurth said in D&D thread:
@PotatoEngineer That just gave me an idea … Losing dice is pretty common, so what we need is clearly to harness the Power of the Internet! We need someone to start making dice with Bluetooth beacons in them!
And a couple of small liquid reservoirs, connected with remote-control valves?
...so you can stain the carpet where they were lost?
"I can't find my D4!"
"Quick, make it spill!"
"Great, I saw a large green stain in the carpet, and now I've found my D4! ...now who's going to clean the stain?"
Just a little bit of cadmium vapor would make that die very easy to find.
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@PotatoEngineer said in D&D thread:
@Jaloopa said in D&D thread:
@PotatoEngineer said in D&D thread:
A while ago, on some other thread I can no longer find (possibly the non-searchable Lounge? Or maybe search just sucks?), I mentioned that I have some D4s that are cubes, but I didn't have a picture. Well, I finally found my dice bag again (too much online RPGs, not enough in-person RPGs), so here are those 6-sided D4s. I'm not entirely sure they're fair, but they certainly bounce better than caltrop-D4s, and they're probably good enough for my purposes.
Those are awesome. Where did you get them from?
My brother found them in India somewhere.
I have absolutely no idea where to find more. Which is worrying, because I used to have more of them, but then my 4-year-old got access to my dice bag for a while, and now there are only two of them. They're guaranteed to be around the house somewhere, but damned if I know where. (Okay, I have a couple of nooks and crannies to check first, but if they're not in those places, my kid could have carried them just about anywhere.)
Found them online! (I enlisted Reddit to find them for me.) A place called Q Workshop sells them. For some reason, they only sell them in this "runic" style and in black and white, despite them selling a variety of styles/colors for the caltrop d4s. Which is too bad, because the only thing going for the caltrops is that they're easy to identify — they're harder to roll and harder to read.
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@Gurth said in D&D thread:
We need someone to start making dice with Bluetooth beacons in them!
No, the bluetooth-enabled dice aren't for something nearly as practical as being able to find them when lost.
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@pcooper said in D&D thread:
@Gurth said in D&D thread:
We need someone to start making dice with Bluetooth beacons in them!
No, the bluetooth-enabled dice aren't for something nearly as practical as being able to find them when lost.
You can get a more permanent glow with some metal salts. The cheap ones also require a separate phosphor, but the higher grades give off a very hard-to-imitate sort of light.
The reduced forms don't shine up very nicely, but aside from some size restrictions and some other trivia, can be cast into suitable dice.
If lost, these can be found with very simple equipment. For a particularly bright d20, for instance, it wouldn't be too unlikely to show up on a phone camera. Through furniture.
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@pcooper said in D&D thread:
@Gurth said in D&D thread:
We need someone to start making dice with Bluetooth beacons in them!
No, the bluetooth-enabled dice aren't for something nearly as practical as being able to find them when lost.
Am I a shallow person if I think those are neat?
Flamboyant, almost-pointlessly Bluetoothed, they just make me squee. Kind of like my oversized D20: no reason, just wanted one that was bigger for the important rolls.
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@PotatoEngineer said in D&D thread:
@pcooper said in D&D thread:
@Gurth said in D&D thread:
We need someone to start making dice with Bluetooth beacons in them!
No, the bluetooth-enabled dice aren't for something nearly as practical as being able to find them when lost.
Am I a shallow person if I think those are neat?
Flamboyant, almost-pointlessly Bluetoothed, they just make me squee. Kind of like my oversized D20: no reason, just wanted one that was bigger for the important rolls.
You're missing out, the Cerenkov radiation off of an actinide die is really pretty.
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@Gribnit said in D&D thread:
You can get a more permanent glow with some metal salts. The cheap ones also require a separate phosphor, but the higher grades give off a very hard-to-imitate sort of light.
The very first set of gaming dice I ever bought, was glow-in-the-dark. Totally impractical to actually play with when the ambient light level is low enough that you can see the glow, but cool nonetheless.
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@Gurth said in D&D thread:
@Gribnit said in D&D thread:
You can get a more permanent glow with some metal salts. The cheap ones also require a separate phosphor, but the higher grades give off a very hard-to-imitate sort of light.
The very first set of gaming dice I ever bought, was glow-in-the-dark. Totally impractical to actually play with when the ambient light level is low enough that you can see the glow, but cool nonetheless.
Yeah, those have some stupid pigment on them that curls up around a photon and cuddles it all day, those are bullshit. You want something that kicks out its own photons. Fast enough neutrons works too.
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Artifact Dwarven sword
Oathbreaker, if it kills a target it also voids all contracts they are party to.
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Goddammit, Owlcats...
So, in the new WotR vidja after the tutorial dungeon ends, soon after that your L2 party (max. 4 at that point) is beset by L17 asshat with AC 32. Obviously impossible. If you need it spelled out, on normal difficulty you can't even land a hit if you crit, and she can one-shot you. In fact she says exactly that, except I don't pay attention, because big hams boasting like that is old news.
But it's a fight, so I wonder what I'm supposed to do. Did I skip half the game somehow? Am I maybe supposed to survive a round, then the fucker will teleport away for no good reason (happens in BG3, I might add)? Maybe the ceiling particle effects will collapse or the magical glowing sword will fuck her up like it did another demon in the tutorial dungeon? I know! It'll interact with the magical stone somehow! That would be pretty cool...
Ah, but no. Fuck you, we're not even trying. It's just supposed to be unwinnable and fuck you for thinking.
And not only that, but without any pretense. Science must be done, I said. I buffed up, dropped the difficulty to Story (-14 to AC) and went at it anyway. Which makes it entirely possible... except no, it fucking doesn't. Sike! When you get her down to 0 HP, she doesn't die and just hacks at you until your main kicks it.
What's the point here? What did I as a player learn from it? That GM is a toddler? Kick it as far as you can and he just goes "that doesn't count"?
Burn After Reading - What Did We Learn? – 00:28
— UltraMiraculousTL; DR If you want to have a bullshit unwinnable fight (which stinks to begin with), have it at least happen in a cutscene.
JFC, why is game design stuck in 1999? It's like there's a common checklist of stupid things and no production is complete if it doesn't pull a minimum of, say, 10 points.
/rant
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And now the writing has turned out to be rather... suboptimal, too. At least talking to companions and NPCs.
Not just a tad bad, but a drop with a thud compared to Kingmaker. I mean, vidja writing is not a shining example of literary qualities to begin with, but...I'm not even bothered by allegedly woke stuff others are (like one Subaru driving half-orc paladin). I dislike it, because I'm racist against greenskins with weird teeth, but that's about it.
Most conversations in the inn after the prologue feel... off. Things you can ask or comment on... the tone is all over the place. They don't mesh together. What little there is. Some solid bits squeeze through and then... off you go. It's not... finished? They're not conversations. Either there's exposition dumps or thinly veiled "my name is and I am, now fuck off, we didn't feel like fleshing out the character more". I mean, no one's asking for Pillars novels, but...
I'll let the rulebook nerds bash each other's heads with rulebooks. A CRPG is more than mechanics, but at least that part is good. I think it may be. I spent 5 hours just creating the character. CG Deliverer of Desna. Quite holy warrior looking, too. And yet... a certain NPC has their life turned 90 degrees by a temple of Desna - and I can't even comment on it! How many other lifestories are there that this slipped the writers' desks? At this point I have to wonder if a follower of Iomedae - the big deal central to the setting - is even recognized.
Ok, I haven't got anywhere in the game yet. I play tern-based, because I'm apparently mentally challenged or something, everything takes a long time. Maybe it'll all come around. It's just unfinished. Maybe. Please do.
If it won't... well, fuck. After Larian went for entirely fake-feeling bombastism, Obsidian is doing some kind of Skyrim clone 10 years too late and Inxile is doing whatever the fuck now, there's nothing to look forward to anymore. Goddamn demons are destroying everything
Maybe I should wait a year for Enhanced Edition? I have my doubts anyone will fix bad writing. Nobody has thus far whenever that's been in other games. Doubly so because apparently it's still buggy, too, which will take priority.
I don't know, maybe I'm overreacting or something. There are bits there are excellent. In fact, so far all the reading material is. Unless it was Paizo writers who did most of it long ago already?
Sorry for ranting in this thread. Pathfinder is sort of a 3.5e for the worst kind of turbonerds, though.
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@Applied-Mediocrity said in D&D thread:
Pathfinder is sort of a 3.5e for the worst kind of turbonerds, though.
So turbonerdsn, where
n >> 1.Not that I have much room to talk....
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@Applied-Mediocrity said in D&D thread:
And now the writing has turned out to be rather... suboptimal, too. At least talking to companions and NPCs.
Not just a tad bad, but a drop with a thud compared to Kingmaker. I mean, vidja writing is not a shining example of literary qualities to begin with, but...I'm not even bothered by allegedly woke stuff others are (like one Subaru driving half-orc paladin). I dislike it, because I'm racist against greenskins with weird teeth, but that's about it.
Most conversations in the inn after the prologue feel... off. Things you can ask or comment on... the tone is all over the place. They don't mesh together. What little there is. Some solid bits squeeze through and then... off you go. It's not... finished? They're not conversations. Either there's exposition dumps or thinly veiled "my name is and I am, now fuck off, we didn't feel like fleshing out the character more". I mean, no one's asking for Pillars novels, but...
I'll let the rulebook nerds bash each other's heads with rulebooks. A CRPG is more than mechanics, but at least that part is good. I think it may be. I spent 5 hours just creating the character. CG Deliverer of Desna. Quite holy warrior looking, too. And yet... a certain NPC has their life turned 90 degrees by a temple of Desna - and I can't even comment on it! How many other lifestories are there that this slipped the writers' desks? At this point I have to wonder if a follower of Iomedae - the big deal central to the setting - is even recognized.
Ok, I haven't got anywhere in the game yet. I play tern-based, because I'm apparently mentally challenged or something, everything takes a long time. Maybe it'll all come around. It's just unfinished. Maybe. Please do.
If it won't... well, fuck. After Larian went for entirely fake-feeling bombastism, Obsidian is doing some kind of Skyrim clone 10 years too late and Inxile is doing whatever the fuck now, there's nothing to look forward to anymore. Goddamn demons are destroying everything
Maybe I should wait a year for Enhanced Edition? I have my doubts anyone will fix bad writing. Nobody has thus far whenever that's been in other games. Doubly so because apparently it's still buggy, too, which will take priority.
I don't know, maybe I'm overreacting or something. There are bits there are excellent. In fact, so far all the reading material is. Unless it was Paizo writers who did most of it long ago already?
Sorry for ranting in this thread. Pathfinder is sort of a 3.5e for the worst kind of turbonerds, though.
It's fine, just don't expect it to make sense.
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@Gribnit Yes and no. Atmosphere is important. Cringy writing destroys it more quickly than any bugs or other technical shortcomings.
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@Applied-Mediocrity said in D&D thread:
Cringy writing
And you're talking to somebody who's an expert at that.
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@HardwareGeek said in D&D thread:
@Applied-Mediocrity said in D&D thread:
Cringy writing
And you're talking to somebody who's an expert at that.
Bulwer-Lytton was limited in his reach, if not his grasp, in ways which I am not.
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Entry Level Dungeon Still Requires 3-5 Years of EXP
A dungeon is insisting that entry level henchmen and guards must have three to five years of EXP before even being considered for employment.
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@Benjamin-Hall said in D&D thread:
Entry Level Dungeon Still Requires 3-5 Years of EXP
A dungeon is insisting that entry level henchmen and guards must have three to five years of EXP before even being considered for employment.
I assume that requirement is lower for actual PC class experience. Honestly, I don't see the point in even hiring Adepts
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A PC got hit with banishment. When asked to describe the view, I said it was a small padded cell with the Barney theme song and Baby Shark alternating on infinite loop.
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@Benjamin-Hall said in D&D thread:
Entry Level Dungeon Still Requires 3-5 Years of EXP
A dungeon is insisting that entry level henchmen and guards must have three to five years of EXP before even being considered for employment.
Well … way back when, in my group at one point we got to wondering why, if you got a bunch of followers at high enough level in (A)D&D, you would actually go and adventure in dungeons yourself. Just send in your private army to clear it out.
For that matter, in Shadowrun we also occasionally had the idea to hire cheaper shadowrunners to do a job we got hired for. In the end that never happened because of OOC reasons, namely, where’s the fun in that?
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@Gurth said in D&D thread:
Just send in your private army to clear it out.
They'll run off with all the magical loot and become unscrupulous demigods all by themselves?
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@Applied-Mediocrity said in D&D thread:
@Gurth said in D&D thread:
Just send in your private army to clear it out.
They'll run off with all the magical loot and become unscrupulous demigods all by themselves?
Yep. Not only do they get the dungeon XP, but backstabbing you nets them XP comparable to defeating your party.
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@Applied-Mediocrity said in D&D thread:
@Gurth said in D&D thread:
Just send in your private army to clear it out.
They'll run off with all the magical loot and become unscrupulous demigods all by themselves?
Ah, but by the time you get your followers, you’re likely high enough level to beat the lot of them if you wanted to. Especially if you enlist the help of your fellow party members. That should keep them down. All you need to do is pick the right dungeons for them to loot, so it nets a big enough amount that you can pay them and have enough left for yourself.
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@Gurth said in D&D thread:
@Applied-Mediocrity said in D&D thread:
@Gurth said in D&D thread:
Just send in your private army to clear it out.
They'll run off with all the magical loot and become unscrupulous demigods all by themselves?
Ah, but by the time you get your followers, you’re likely high enough level to beat the lot of them if you wanted to. Especially if you enlist the help of your fellow party members. That should keep them down. All you need to do is pick the right dungeons for them to loot, so it nets a big enough amount that you can pay them and have enough left for yourself.
Also, give them items that increase their CR, so they "press button to win" and you don't have to deal with them leveling up too fast. Many a plot has fallen apart when a trusted lieutenant reaches 10th level.
As necessary, port in to snipe their kills.
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@boomzilla OT but if you hang out around the supermutants in Fallout 4 long enough without murdering them a couple of them have an extended conversation a lot like this.
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@Gurth said in D&D thread:
@Applied-Mediocrity said in D&D thread:
@Gurth said in D&D thread:
Just send in your private army to clear it out.
They'll run off with all the magical loot and become unscrupulous demigods all by themselves?
Ah, but by the time you get your followers, you’re likely high enough level to beat the lot of them if you wanted to. Especially if you enlist the help of your fellow party members. That should keep them down. All you need to do is pick the right dungeons for them to loot, so it nets a big enough amount that you can pay them and have enough left for yourself.
Huh. With 5E's philosophy of "there's a lot less difference between 1st level and 20th than there used to be", I wonder if that's no longer the case? If you have enough followers, you won't be able to defeat them. (Unless, of course, you teleport away as you're getting close to dead, rest up, and come back later, as high-level characters probably have the spells/equipment to do.)
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@PotatoEngineer said in D&D thread:
Huh. With 5E's philosophy of "there's a lot less difference between 1st level and 20th than there used to be", I wonder if that's no longer the case?
I wouldn’t know, last time I played D&D it was AD&D 2nd edition (circa 2013) and I never tried 4th or later editions D&D at all. In any case when it comes to D&D I firmly believe the gamemaster should at least in part be No. 19.
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@Gurth said in D&D thread:
@PotatoEngineer said in D&D thread:
Huh. With 5E's philosophy of "there's a lot less difference between 1st level and 20th than there used to be", I wonder if that's no longer the case?
I wouldn’t know, last time I played D&D it was AD&D 2nd edition (circa 2013) and I never tried 4th or later editions D&D at all. In any case when it comes to D&D I firmly believe the gamemaster should at least in part be No. 19.
I've played 2nd (including "2.5" Skills & Powers/Combat & Tactics) through 5th. 5th has this "bounded accuracy" idea, where the best bonus to hit you can possibly get is around +15. (Equivalent to THAC0 5ish.) So with 5th, large numbers can eventually whittle down a high-level character.
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@PotatoEngineer fixing the important problems! Statistics attack was viable in 3/3.5, and now Hasbro has codified it.
How to Run a 17 person Savage Worlds Game and Live To Tell The Tale
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