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Regarding the mistake, it's likely written in to enhance their racial superiority complex.

True in combats that feature both. Not so true when the only "opponent" is an 80-point lightning bolt ripping through the party once per round (and huge props if you can pull where that particular little gem is found - hint, it's a classic module). Last one decade maybe; in 3.x there were still huge disparities: I had an 11th-level Wizard with about 38 h.p. running in a party that had two (I...

I'm not sure what work you intend "probably aren't going to" above. Are you working under some sort of internal causality of the local biome? Are working under genre logic? I guess the primary reason I'm not sure is because I'm certain that I've run enough journey conflict in 4e, Mouse Guard, Cortex+ Heroic Fantasy Exploration, Apocalypse World (where AUF, RaS, OYB and class playbooks do the...

If it's Spock then we're probably talking Red Matter, so Kelvinverse.

Here’s what I’m doing re lethality. 1.) If you’re not wearing armor of some kind, you take double damage when damaged. 2.) Called Shot: you can attack at disadvantage to bypass armor (thereby dealing double damage). Enemies can do this too. 3.) Any attack that deals damage in excess of a creature’s constitution score forces that creature to make a death saving throw. If they fail, they are...

First off, 18 Con gives +4 per level; and for most of his career he's been Con 19 (a mostly-Orc Part-Orc) which in our system gives +5*. He's 12th level, and got I think 11 full rolls as that's what our system allows; only at 12th did he hit the slowdown. He'd have got a d6 - no bonus for Con but high Con sets a floor) for body points at 1st level; I think he has 5. Those never change. ...

Not the answer I was hoping for, but the one I expected. Thanks.

Hmm. Some stuff to unpack, here. Firstly, your characterization of SYORTD leaves out some important context, namely that if the GM doesn't say yes and instead goes to the mechanics, this still means that the player's action declaration comes true on a successful resolution of the mechanics. The GM cannot substitute a check for a different outcome as the Roll The Dice option, they must...

Oddly Tilly wasn't on SYFY's list. I could see it being her. My money is on Spock. In the movie he still needed a ship to travel in time. So it must be an even more future Spock than the one in the movie. I know, I know, the movie and series are not connected.

Better than the classes that don't get heals. Bards typically heal better after a certain point (assuming they are building towards it, to a degree), druids heal better (out of combat, at least) pretty much from 1 to 20. Druids and rangers are so great at out of combat healing DMs often complain about it and want to nerf healing spirit. But even without healing spirit, using yesterday's spell...

Then you should have just said I’m tiering classes by power and not by versatility. I think tiering by power is a lot more subjective and campaign dependent than tiering by versatility. Does you see why I was trying to avoid tiers by power and instead want to focus on tiers by versatility. Also there is the historical approach that 3.5e also tiered by versatility and not power.

Well, it is the Red Angel. My second guess after Burnham would be Tilly. Third would be Spock.

Depends on one's definition of "abused", maybe; or whether one sees a minority as "far too many" (which it probably is, but it's still the minority). It also depends on what importance the GM and-or players - particularly the players - put on internal consistency and-or logic within the setting. I think you're a bit over the top on this one; never mind that it's just as true (if not more so)...

Sure. It bears some similarities to the Hackmaster system of old, but with less formality. The reality is, once you understand how D&D combat works, then consider how things like wrestling, boxing, (American) football, rugby, and similar sports work, then you don't really need much of a formal system around the order of actions. That leaves the combat system to address the resolution of the...

Tommi raced down the hall. When he got to the T-intersection, he realised that he wasn't actually sure which way the Wizard had gone. Looking back, he saw a look of concern and disapproval on the face of Angis. At least, I assume, seeing as he just said to leave it. Anyway, Tommi can roll dc12 Perception if he wants to keep after the Wizard. (Though he may get himself killed!)

You can make the other PCs take a few levels of fighter to add more tankiness to the group. I was first thinking that a couple more levels of fighter gives you 2nd wind and you can critical on 19/20 which is cool and adds to offense. Then I was like, a few more levels gives you another attack. Next thing you may be asking about not having enough healing in the group. I find that as you start...

The face guns made me cringe, and I don't do that often. I'd rather forearm blasters or a shoulder gun. When they were landing I was picturing Dromand Kas from Star Wars The Old Republic. Funny how I thought about Cybermen when I saw them all walking around. Star Wars, Doctor Who, some of us are seeing the same influences. Keeping the crew alive seems like a tactical error they would not...

Bad DMs abuse all systems. So what. If you find a bad DM, leave the game and find a better one.

We've had a few different errors reported with image uploads of various kinds. Right now we're working on an upgrade to a new platform, which will fix everything.

That sounds like the most likely explanation.

1. I was thinking of something similar to this. Every group of enemies (4 goblins in one group, the 2 orcs in the second group, and the ogre in the third group for example) have a static Init score= DEX mod + proficiency mod + 10. Players roll their initiative normally each round. Any that beat the static score(s) can declare actions and proceed. Then group one goes, then any PC if they lost...

Honestly, I struggle between complexity and simplicity. I would like something random and non-repeating, quick but not turn-based. I would settle for a happy middle ground, but so far I am not finding anything I like. Again, thanks for all the suggestions. It is all giving me stuff to think about.

Question for dnd version 3.5: what prestige classes would you recommend?

And here's the write-up for the second scenario, "Soldiers of Fortune." https://d20pirates.blogspot.com/2019/02/adventure-soldiers-of-fortune.html -Nate

My first thought was the suit seemed to be feminine in shape. SYFY Wire had a list of it might be. Kirk, Picard, future Spock, Pike, Thelonians (sp) The aliens from The Cage, Lorca. Last on the list was Burnham. I hope it's not her either. I think the title could be a foreshadowing. Choices made now will be revisited later after the effects are felt. I still found the over all episode was...

I didn't care for the 5e (aka D&D Next) playtest. I was one of those who took issue with the "halfling rogue solo killing the red dragon" feel of it. (Even now 5e doesn't provide a real challenge, IMO.) But the PF2 Playtest was awful in its own league. I can't imagine a world where the game is ready to go by this year.

I am sorry but this is a ridiculous position. Yes, obviously, bad GMs exist. But there isn't a systemic problem of GMs abusing their authority. Perhaps when we were in grade school, this was something of a problem. I honestly can say I haven't had this issue the entire time I've played with other adults. I think people are projecting their own bad experiences onto posters here who are clearly...

Any homebrew life-shaped items out there?

Come now. It's not as if "Saying No" somehow represents an oppressed, pariah position in gaming. If it was really so unpopular as you woefully bemoan then there would be little need for a trifling handful of people to defend it. So "Saying No" has hardly become unpopular, given its continued hegemony in most games, but, rather, that some games outside of your self-imposed bubble have adopted...

A little of both actually & what sort of escapy artist prestige classes would be appropriate for such a character?

Thanks for the quick response!

As written, yes it does. I would agree as a GM that it makes more sense to limit it to physical attacks though.

If only we had a mass Compel Duel.

Lots of good advice here, but one piece I’ve seen missing is to keep the basic three steps of the game in mind while playing. 1. DM describes the scene 2. You describe what your character does in response. 3. The DM narrates the results of your action, and may ask for a dice roll if the result is uncertain. Everything on your character sheet is there to help resolve uncertainty...

Unwavering mark only affects one creature, at least until you hit 5th level where you can hit two. And it definitely encourages the creature to move away from you even more than spirit guardians does, as you only get your bonus attacks if the creature is within 5' of you. Sentinel's 'you can't move' ability similarly only affects one creature, as you only get one reaction attack, and that doesn't...

Its why I put it ahead of the other fighters. Tier 1 for example (lvl 1-5) I would put it tier 1 or 2.

Here’s something I’m playing with. Every monster group and each player rolls a d8 at the start of combat. That’s your starting position. The person with the highest roll goes first, then resets their d8 to a 1. Each time anyone takes an action, everyone advances their d8 by 1. When your d8 reaches 8, it’s your turn. After your turn, it rolls back to 1. You can go again when your d8 reaches 8....

I'd just stick cleric. You can wear heavy armor already. You have a minor self-heal with Second Wind. If you are in the front line you will probably be taking damage so your 6th level ability will heal you as well. So, yeah, stay cleric. At 6th level even a simple spell like healing word is useful if cast on a friend. 1d4+4 (if Wisdom is 18) +3 (Disciple of Life) +3 (Blessed Healer) for an...

An undervalued skill in players is the ability to get your time in the spotlight, make the most of it, and then get off the stage so someone else can get their time to shine. At the same time, dialogue and RP are important, and I've no patience for a player that tries to rush the rest of the table through good role-playing just so they can get back to combat as quickly as possible. But really,...

You could use the weather to indicate if the water is calm or not, causing the sea to be normal or difficult terrain. A failed piloting check could mean the guns cannot be fired as the shot would hit the waves.

I was just discussing this with another player and suggested 5e needs a version of baleful polymorph. A night hag coven definitely needs something better than regular old polymorph.

You don’t need Rakanian, but Warlord seems appropriate. I am going to use magic weapons to up the challenge. I will give the players the equipment from Pitch Blade if they demand it as compensation for blatant rules violation if the RP well. Instead of badger I will use a dire tiger or something. Give them all the mounted combat feature from Cavalier should work.

Because for nearly the entire history of RPGs, the authority to say "No" has been abused by far too many GMs, in far too many games, producing far too much un-fun, un-interesting, Mother-May-I? kinds of gameplay. Heavy-handed, railroad-y, "My way or the highway," selfishly-motivated GM-ing has done more damage to the tabletop RPG hobby than literally anything else. No other single...

Arrow of Slaying 16 Berserker Axe 20 Dagger of Venom 18 Dwarven Thrower 24 Giant Slayer 20 Hammer of Thunderbolts 21 +1 = 22 Javelin of Lightning 20 Mace of Disruption 26 Mace of Smiting 20 Mace of Terror 20

Yeah, as a GM I don't require a full-blown monologue. I don't even need dialogue, as such. As Flexor says, just give me the gist. "I give a rousing speech about the power of friendship!" is perfectly fine to get the point of what your character is doing across. I don't need anybody to parrot a Kingdom Hearts cutscene at me; that's what Youtube is for.

...almost forgot: 6) The two gnolls with Joren (his "Halberdiers") - it feels like Gnoll Pack Lord or even a Gnoll Fang of Yeenoghu could be used for them?

I always ask them to give me the gist. The issue they miss is that often no check will be required if they used a bit of the info I've given out to make the appropriate inquiry, speech, etc. But when I ran 5e if you go, "well I'll make a diplomacy check and I have a...3!" Well you are going to get the results of that 3 pretty much regardless. But if you lead off with "well I know the king is...

Updating the Khalk'ru Working Draft. Yup!

Action: if the Fairie Fire gives advantage..

http://i66.tinypic.com/29l0o4x.jpg Seeing the warlord as the greatest threat, Ilvellios charged forward and launched a hail of blows at him. Move adjacent to the warlord please.. Action: Bonus action: Dodge, cost 1 ki

3d8+15 works for me! I can agree to SR 35 also (to go with CR 25). So I guess we need to move to the description and flavor.

Six months later, we're starting the Champion's Belt, so (of course) I've got more conversion questions... 1) There's no conversion for Loris Raknian or Okoral. I'm thinking Warlord from Volo's (CR13) and maybe Assassin. And give them some items. 2) Page numbers are missing in the "Raknian's Security" section of the conversion notes (there ## placeholders) 3) For the gladiators, you...

I'm not even sure what that means to "fire" a player. It's not a job. It's a game. (Then again, I've never dived into the "DM flaw" thread from which this one spawned, either, for a similar reason. Just because a DM has stylistic/aesthetic preferences that are different from my own doesn't make theirs a "flaw".) But if the question is, "Under what circumstances have you had to let a player...

As a sort of clarification, I don't care how people say things, because the dice are the true translators between our world and the game world. As Celebrim says above, bad IRL words are likely to go over well when a character has high social skills, while good IRL words may not be received well if he character has low social skills. I've run into too many people who attempt to game the system...

So?

Unwavering Mark, when pared with Sentinel, is better than something that only costs then 10 extra feet to move out of. Of course the best "tank" is the Conquest Paladin.

Exactly what fighter abilities are going to make opponents stay with you and away from 'squishies' better than sticking them in difficult terrain while constantly damaging them as they try to approach the 'squishies' not in difficult terrain?

In my opinion, it's fine if the fireball or dragonbreath that can threaten a mage is not also a threat to the fighter, because the fighter still needs to deal with melee combat on top of anything else that happens. Deal 30 damage to both of them, and the wizard might drop, but the fighter still has to hold the line. The question of whether the AoE drops the fighter is irrelevant, because the...

I generally try to remember that the world doesn't level up with the PCs. In one scenario, it was winter in the northlands, which meant snow and sub-zero temperatures. The party were among the very few travelers on the frozen roads (world without snow plows, you know) when they spotted some poor sap trying to hide behind a leafless bush. Turns out he was a bandit, hoping to prey upon...

So can I take that as meaning you're game to work on a conversion? I can see a fair few synchronicities with what I was thinking about for their stats in there, but I'm more inclined to build them from scratch.

Well, maybe this could help kick start things? I did not write this up. I believe I pulled this from an old WotC conversion thread back in the 3.5 days. I only have the mechanical effects and this was sort of my cliff notes version that I used years ago when I ran some of these guys in an encounter. I don't know how accurate this draft is, but here you go... Reave Medium Monstrous Humanoid ...

I suspect some of the problem with traits being underused has to do with the fact that some are just much weaker than others, mechanically speaking. I rated the different traits in a previous thread: http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?655070-WOIN-Trait-Tier-List In our game together we have one character who does Ambidextrous shooting to good effect, and one who does lots of Reckless...

Make opponents go away from you, maybe. It does absolutely nothing to keep them with you and away from the squishies (except the half speed bit).

All pubs should be dark and dank.

There isn't really such thing as a 'main tank' in D&D, that's a concept from MMOs with aggro mechanics that force enemies to act in a really dumb way. Define exactly what it is that you expect a main tank to do, and you'll probably do it better by taking more cleric than more fighter. If you want to wade in with a high AC, you've already got that. If you want to hurt enemies enough to make them...

Morrus's answer is entirely correct. I will also note that the sort of hack you describe is quite common in gaming communities, legally dubious or not. For example, you might see someone hack the Mouse Guard RPG as a system for running 'Star Trek' or 'Harry Potter', and say, "Look, what do you think of this a write up for the TOS bridge staff?" Whether you'd get a cease and desist over...

I have an opposite story that people might find amusing: Years ago, a friend recommended a homebrew 1e (or 1eish) D&D game during the summer when our regular group wasn't active, so myself and a friend showed up to it. The people playing were a family, it was something like a father running the game, mother and a kid or two plus an uncle and cousin. Seemed a decent bunch, they put tables all in...

This. Except unless the bad guys are a huge mob, every participant gets their own card. No modifiers for high dex. If you have the Alert feat you get advantage on init (an extra card). Everyone likes the unpredictability and there is no metagaming where people (among other things) can plan to help a fallen comrade or not because they know exactly when everyone acts in a round. "I'll attack...

I feel that I would allow the picking up of a trait every 3-4 grades possibly without a cost. I have experienced traits as being underused. If your group loves and uses the trait all the time, there may be no need at all to get a new one. Whatever fits the group I think

Here's a thing I was working on, although I've put this project on hold until the upcoming nautical book comes out. Pirates & Privateers The main gist of it is: 1) Each ship stat block shows the two basic actions you can take in ship combat -- piloting the ship, and commanding the cannon crews to fire. 2) The "Naval Combat" section has a variety of extra (optional) actions that you might...

As the blooded orc enters the fray I mark and fire an arrow at the bastard, hoping for some pay back. Atk: 1d20+8 27 : 2d8+1d6+4 18

I'm starting to go with user scores over reviews these days. Theres some big disconects out there now, Orville being a prime example.

BM is front loaded compared with the other 2 fighters.

The legal answer to your question: there's no way to legally distribute it without infringing on IP laws, unless you have permission from the IP holder.

So, apparently, during the Cold War, the Soviets thought extraordinarily highly of Canada's spy service because they never could catch us in the act. Turns out, of course, that we were just playing hockey.

I'm noticing that a lot of those deities also overlap with Planeswalkers (which feels legit - considering what the player is capable of doing in the actual card game), so that's something else to keep in mind.

Thanks for the detailed response. Traveller is one of those games we had bought in the 80's but never really played back then. Re: Say Yes or Roll Seems like there a basic misunderstandig. To me SYOR regards only action declaration by players in the present situation, and in case the Gm does not agree, the table resorts to dice rolling to resolve it. Nothing to do with creating new fiction,...

Arrow of Slaying 16 Berserker Axe 20 Dagger of Venom 18 Dwarven Thrower 24 Giant Slayer 20 Hammer of Thunderbolts 21 Javelin of Lightning 20 Mace of Disruption 26 Mace of Smiting 20 Mace of Terror 20

Honestly? This probably won't be a popular opinion... As a GM, they would not be allowed to do that. They would have to give some sort of speech, however stuttering and bad, and then roll the dice. The reason is that though the dice may govern how the speech is received, the content of the speech matters. If the character has 'Oratory +100' it may be the speech will be received as the...

The first thing that comes to mind is that there’s only one post on that page and it’s by a poster that you’ve blocked (or who has blocked you).

Sounds simple enough. After all there's two ways to disable a ship: Shoot the :):):):) out of it, or disable the crew. Make the ships the map, but don't forget to give them AC and HP like other objects. That way players can choose to board the opposition's ship, shoot the opposition's crew, or just shoot the other ship, be it with cannon or spell.

You could try making the actual ship battle a narrative background element while the PCs themselves do something important in the battle. Maybe they have to board the enemy ship and get something while the cannonballs rain down and enemy sailors battle them in the lower decks.

Arrow of Slaying 18 Berserker Axe 20 Dagger of Venom 18 Dwarven Thrower 23 Giant Slayer 20 Hammer of Thunderbolts 21 Javelin of Lightning 20 Mace of Disruption 25+1=26 Mace of Smiting 20 Mace of Terror 20

Yeah the lich was above the suggested CR for the party, but at the same time they had a Red Wizard (who himself aspired to be a lich) helping them. It was a challenging fight to be certain, and the PCs had a fun time with it all. Years later I'm still proud of the atmosphere I was able to build into the great barrow just based on the slender details in the 3e FR book that covered it in like a...

One idea I’ve been playing around with is the idea of making an adventure toyetic – that is to say, it encourages my players to well, play with it. I try to look at my adventure setpieces like playsets when I was a kid. I never had it, but look at Castle Grayskull – it’s got that lockable drawbridge that only Skeletor and He-Man’s swords combined can open (pro-tip, so can Mer-man’s), a laser...