Old-school dungeon crawl using 5e playtest rules

hey everyone; just to let you know that i shall be unable to post from now until Saturday Aug 2.

Li Shenron, perhaps yo can just place Bart on autopilot please? He suddenly becomes very agreeable...

Thanks.

[Three days late]
Welcome, Warren!

With that kind of Stealth, it's no wonder the rest of the party didn't see PenelBaris Swift GoldClass there before!

[/Three days late]

(really ought to subscribe to this thread, mutter, mutter, mutter)

I seriously didn't mean to bring the game to a screeching halt like that in the IC thread when I posted the thing about the low-number progression: 4, 3, 2, and (then what?).

Does anyone have good ideas about how we can get the game moving again? I'm thinking that any of the following might work:
(1) Have Aeiyan or Bartleby or Tock make a Wisdom (Perception) check to see how wide the gap under the locked door is, and whether a blanket could fit under it.
(2) Have Rejik or Sulannus make an Intelligence (Investigation) check to see whether they can detect any secret doors in the room with the lone coffin, where Aeiyan failed. (There's no way Sulannus could get a 1 on that with the Intelligence modifier she has.)
(3) Have Aeiyan and Rejik both try to break down the locked door with Strength, perhaps one helping the other.
(4) Put Cantrips into play to turn the key in the locked door by magical remote control without taking it out of the lock -- would Mage Hand do that, or Druidcraft?

Rejk's favoured way forward is just to barge the door down.

His impatience was also genuine, as he's learned that sitting still for too long in hostile territory is never a good idea, but in a meta sense we do all need to be careful that the game isn't bogged down in meticulous searches at the cost of whatever momentum we'd started to build.

Thanks for posting this, tuxgeo.

tuxgeo said:

I seriously didn't mean to bring the game to a screeching halt like that in the IC thread when I posted the thing about the low-number progression: 4, 3, 2, and (then what?).

Click to expand...

It's unfortunate that there were those three bad rolls. There will be a workaround, we just need to find it.

Does anyone have good ideas about how we can get the game moving again? I'm thinking that any of the following might work:
(1) Have Aeiyan or Bartleby or Tock make a Wisdom (Perception) check to see how wide the gap under the locked door is, and whether a blanket could fit under it.
(2) Have Rejik or Sulannus make an Intelligence (Investigation) check to see whether they can detect any secret doors in the room with the lone coffin, where Aeiyan failed. (There's no way Sulannus could get a 1 on that with the Intelligence modifier she has.)
(3) Have Aeiyan and Rejik both try to break down the locked door with Strength, perhaps one helping the other.
(4) Put Cantrips into play to turn the key in the locked door by magical remote control without taking it out of the lock -- would Mage Hand do that, or Druidcraft?

Click to expand...

(4) is what I was thinking. Druidcraft won't (I can make the lock work less well with Druidcraft, but not turn the key). I tried to have Bartleby suggest Mage Hand, but I guess I wasn't clear enough. I am pretty sure Sulannus has Mage hand (cf post 18 of this thread), it's just a matter of an IC post to turn the lock, or to push the ky out and then pull it under the door. If the door doesn't fit, perhaps druidcraft can make the hole a bit bigger.

wedgeski said:

Rejk's favoured way forward is just to barge the door down.

His impatience was also genuine, as he's learned that sitting still for too long in hostile territory is never a good idea, but in a meta sense we do all need to be careful that the game isn't bogged down in meticulous searches at the cost of whatever momentum we'd started to build.

Click to expand...

I too would like to move forward. It's happened each time the characters have taken a rest.

Hm. I will take another look. Perhaps the key is magic...

*throws glitter*

Edit - Okay, the key is not magic. Or rather, not magic Sulannus knows. She'd need access to 2nd level spells, and have Knock in her spellbook. A cantrip is fairly limited in what it can target and how it can be targeted.

I guess, if the GM is super generous, and Sulannus can glimpse the key in the hole, she might Mage Hand it out. But it's definitely not RAW, because a hole that small blocks line of effect by RAW.

Sorry -- I guess I am misreading or missing something; I hadn't seen/don't see a line-of-sight restriction, only a fine-motor-skills restriction and a range restriction (and a recasting restriction). My bad.

This is the paragraph I was going by, and you're right in that it doesn't specifically say line of sight...it does mention sight, but I was misremembering it a bit.

To target someone or something, you must have a clear path to it, so it can't be behind total cover. If you place an area of effect at a point that you can’t see and an obstruction is between you and that point, the point of origin comes into being on the near side of that obstruction.

My sense is that the door would constitute an obstacle for the purposes of spells being cast on things on the far side of it.

However, if the GM rules I can slip a spell through the keyhole, I certainly won't complain.

Kobold Stew said:

It's unfortunate that there were those three bad rolls. There will be a workaround, we just need to find it.

Click to expand...

There is is always a workaround

Shayuri said:

To target someone or something, you must have a clear path to it, so it can't be behind total cover. If you place an area of effect at a point that you can’t see and an obstruction is between you and that point, the point of origin comes into being on the near side of that obstruction.

My sense is that the door would constitute an obstacle for the purposes of spells being cast on things on the far side of it.

Click to expand...

I am not sure, but IMO the main problem wouldn't be to have line-of-sight to the key, but rather the precision AND torque required to turn it to unlock the door mechanism. I think Mage Hand is mostly meant as a telekinesis effect i.e. to move things rather than apply significant force/torque, but I will check it.

Some questions for the DM from the update -- more!

So in making the transition to the new druid, I asked about dropping Guidance and the background.

Kobold Stew said:

* questions:
1. drop Guidance for Poison Spray? (we've used Guidance a few times, but I'm happy to swap it out).
2. custom bkgd okay ("Investigator")? Stealth, Investigation; one language and Thieves' tools*; false background (from Charlatan).

*not part of the original bkgd, but part of the long-term character design (which was to dip into rogue to get this proficiency, which wasn't possible for a druid when we began). With this, the desire to dip goes down, but still might happen. As it happens, the character does not at present have any thieves' tools, but once he gets some...

Click to expand...

We've used Guidance, and so I understand if you'd rather I kept it; if so I'll cast it now. But I think it's a spell neither of us particularly like, and with more choice for the druid's cantrips, I'm still happy to swap it out.

The background seems legit to me RAW, but I thought I'd confirm.

I've got a third question now, that I hadn't noticed before, that has emerged because of this thread.

I see there's been a change in the Druid armour proficiency rules -- whereas i the play test, it was just select armours (light armours and hide), it now says proficiency in all light and medium armours but with the absolute proviso that no metal armours.

By my read, that's a big change, because it means that the dwarves proficiency in armours does not improve what the Druid can do. It also means that Bartleby's scale mail is no longer right. If that swaps for Studded Leather (which is apparently fine?), Bartleby's AC will go from

Scale 14 +2 (dex) +2 (shield) = 18
Stud 12 +3 (dex) +2 (shield) = 17

so that's another point off the AC. I'll make that change, if it's alright to swap studded for scale.

When the character started, there were two strengths with the Mountain Dwarf Druid that made it interesting -- the Wisdom bonus and the possibility of wearing armours. With the PHB, these are now gone.


Please let me know if you are seeing things differently, or if I'm missing something. Cheers!