Parmandur
Book-Friend
The Drow in the new PHB don't have Sunligjt Senaitivity, and normalizing non-evil Drow is probably important to WotC right now.
D&D 5E A playthrough of The Shattered Obelisk (spoilers)
- Thread starter MerricB
- Start date
Paul Farquhar
Legend
Frankly, sunlight sensitivity never made sense. Sunglasses are well within Sword Coast technology level.
Grumpy Merric: I hate “Just handwave it” - Merric's Musings
I'll get to the fuller session report tomorrow. I'm just feeling grumpy this evening.
Cheers,
Merric
I'll get to the fuller session report tomorrow. I'm just feeling grumpy this evening.
Cheers,
Merric
Nothing wrong with disliking what you dislike, nor speaking on what it is you dislike. But of course being that critic of a product often results in the defenders of the product that is being criticized rushing forward in attempts to "clean up" the potential mess the critique is causing... usually because they don't want a product they like/love "sullied" by negative critique. So by saying "Just handwave it!"... they are trying to offset the negative critique by backdoor suggesting it's not actually an issue if you just change how you play or what you like. It's not "really" a mistake... if (general) you just play differently. But of course... that's not how people actually think or play, and more often than not the product itself doesn't actually need that "defense" or "protection". The product is the product and usually can hold up to scrutiny. It is only the truly bad product that will collapse under the weight of bad critique.
So that push/pull between criticism and defense is always going to be there in every review. And while a review has the privilege of being able to get the reviewer's opinions out for mass consumption... the downside for the reviewer is the potential discovery of whether or not the designers of a product happen to care about the same sort of things the reviewer does-- and often they don't. Which I think sometimes can bother potential critics-- as though the things they find are important are not shared by the people who can actually fix the issue. If the designers for whatever reason put (for instance) the combat strength of the encounter ahead of the ability or logic to place the tokens correctly... then they will end up falling on the side of the "Just handwave it!" folks and just accept the criticism as it comes. The designers know they will make some people happy with their choices to put in the number of enemies that they do, while end up irritating others who are more concerned with something different. And that just ends up being the cost of doing business-- knowing you can't make everyone happy all the time.
So that push/pull between criticism and defense is always going to be there in every review. And while a review has the privilege of being able to get the reviewer's opinions out for mass consumption... the downside for the reviewer is the potential discovery of whether or not the designers of a product happen to care about the same sort of things the reviewer does-- and often they don't. Which I think sometimes can bother potential critics-- as though the things they find are important are not shared by the people who can actually fix the issue. If the designers for whatever reason put (for instance) the combat strength of the encounter ahead of the ability or logic to place the tokens correctly... then they will end up falling on the side of the "Just handwave it!" folks and just accept the criticism as it comes. The designers know they will make some people happy with their choices to put in the number of enemies that they do, while end up irritating others who are more concerned with something different. And that just ends up being the cost of doing business-- knowing you can't make everyone happy all the time.
Paul Farquhar
Legend
Whilst I have no problem with handwaving things in favour of narrative logic over RAW, in this case, there is no need to do so:
"A creature can squeeze through a space that is large enough for a creature one size smaller than it. Thus, a Large creature can squeeze through a passage that's only 5 feet wide. While squeezing through a space, a creature must spend 1 extra foot for every foot it moves there, and it has disadvantage on attack rolls and Dexterity saving throws. Attack rolls against the creature have advantage while it's in the smaller space."
So a human can, completely RAW, occupy a 2.5 ft. grid square.
"A creature can squeeze through a space that is large enough for a creature one size smaller than it. Thus, a Large creature can squeeze through a passage that's only 5 feet wide. While squeezing through a space, a creature must spend 1 extra foot for every foot it moves there, and it has disadvantage on attack rolls and Dexterity saving throws. Attack rolls against the creature have advantage while it's in the smaller space."
-PHB
So a human can, completely RAW, occupy a 2.5 ft. grid square.
I should have blogged in long form about my second session by now, but I keep getting distracted by Cyberpunk 2077, patch 2.0. (It's awesome!) I'm likely to get even more distracted when Phantom Liberty drops in a few hours.
However, we ran our third session tonight. Missing one of our players, who hasn't got enough sleep, apparently. I didn't tone down the encounters, thinking it would be interesting to see how it went.
Interesting is certainly one word for it!
So, session began with the characters with Halia, explaining what they'd discovered so far. No sign of the Glasstaff, so she urged them to go back in - and that she'd care for the family they'd rescued. (We're the Zhentarim! We're here to help... and you now owe us! - not that she said that to the PCs).
As the area the party had explored was distinct from the main lair of the Redbrands, I ruled that - given it was only a couple of hours later - that the Redbrands hadn't determined that they'd been attacked. And so, the party had to discover where to go next - there was only one door remaining. It was locked, and no-one could pick the lock or bash it down!
Searching for secret doors was the trick. They missed one, but found the one down south. In they went, and met the Nothic (after our cleric managed to fall down into the chasm after using the rigged bridge). And I decided to have some fun, role-playing the Nothic as Kiefer Sutherland in Dark City.
Here's a note: The nothic in this adventure communicates via telepathy (it did in Lost Mine as well). Nothics aren't telepathic in their statblock! I think it's something that got removed from their playtest version to the printed version; this little feature wasn't caught for this adventure, but it fits so perfectly I'm very glad they left it in (and, with any luck, nothics will be telepathic in 5E-2024).
In previous playthroughs, I've often used the nothic purely as an adversary. This time around, it was more willing to talk - and accept bribes. You know how in our first session we had the question about whether you could cast purify food and drink on a PC to heal poison? Well, that yuan-ti PC, who still saw humanoids as food, was more than happy to bargain the bodies of the Redbrands they'd kill for safe passage. The nothic happily accepted, and told them that the rest of the Redbrands were to the west.
Cue a couple of fights. The first against some gambling Redbrands - this is another changed encounter, 4 Redbrands -> 2 Redbrands + 2 Bandits. It's easier! (Good change). The Redbrands are described as intoxicated (another rule that didn't make it out of the D&D Next playtest). In LMoP, they're considered poisoned. No condition on them in TSO. This one easily went in the player's favour.
The fight against the bugbears? Much less well. Especially after both the cleric and the fighter were subject to critical hits. (25 damage on the fighter in the first round!) Yeah, this was really a fight they shouldn't have been in. Being only at three characters? Nah. The artificer created a fog cloud to allow the cleric to drag away the unconscious fighter, but another incredible roll from the bugbears flattened her. The artificer fled - the bugbears never saw him, due to the fog and where he was placed in the combat.
Okay. Not a TPK, but close. What now?
I quickly determined that the bugbears would capture and interrogate the PCs. Which gave the yuan-ti artificer a chance to rescue them - assuming he got some support. For now, he needed sleep.
The next morning, he awoke to a couple of Redbrands being very angry with the innkeeper, and basically saying that he should allow guests from out of town. (Slightly unreasonable, I thought!) The innkeeper was very worried for his family, but the artificer calmed him down; explaining he had already rescued one family from the Redbrands, and that they'd soon be dealt with. Assuming that they could rescue his... associates.
That's the point when Sildren arrived from his room in the inn. He volunteered (one rescue deserves another), and soon enough the party of two tried recruiting Daran, the retired adventurer. He was too old, but suggested that Sister Garaele might help. She did (bit more role-playing here). And so the three returned to the hideout, the artificer leading them to the Redbrand prison, just in case.
Indeed, that's where they were - two bugbears interrogating them. This combat went a lot better. (The party having spell slots left made a difference!) After the first bugbear was dropped, the second surrendered. (I use Morale checks, per Moldvay D&D Basic to help determine monster actions). The bugbear went into the cage, the PCs came out. They learned a few details about the Spider from the bugbear, but naught of immediate use - it did not tell them where Cragmaw Castle was, for instance. It did tell them where the weakling Glassstaff was, though!
So off the party went - but the Glasstaff was alerted to their coming, and fled through a secret door. The party followed, with the satyr cleric in the lead. And when she came to a second secret door, a roll of 20 meant it hardly slowed her down. They caught the Glasstaff in the room, as he fished something out of the cistern. (The yuan-ti was very disappointed - they'd searched everywhere else!)
The human fighter ran up and grabbed the Glassstaff, and the others began to try to knock him out. Unfortunately for the party, the Glasstaff has the ability to teleport twice as a bonus action (this is a revision to the stat block; the original was an evil mage with the misty step spell). And he used it to teleport to the top of the stairs and run for it, drinking a potion of invisibility as he did.
They found the empty vial, but not the Glassstaff. He had escaped - I wonder if he'll return?
We ended the session with them looting the Glassstaff's chambers, gaining a few clues in the process (but not the magic). The nothic was well fed, the bugbears decided to abandon the Redbrands to their fate, and we'll see next session what happens to the Redbrands. (Hint: Halia Thornton will be offering a "helping" hand).
A good split between combat and role-playing this session, and we also recovered from the near TPK (enhancing the story in the process). I look forward to our next session.
Cheers,
Merric
However, we ran our third session tonight. Missing one of our players, who hasn't got enough sleep, apparently. I didn't tone down the encounters, thinking it would be interesting to see how it went.
Interesting is certainly one word for it!
So, session began with the characters with Halia, explaining what they'd discovered so far. No sign of the Glasstaff, so she urged them to go back in - and that she'd care for the family they'd rescued. (We're the Zhentarim! We're here to help... and you now owe us! - not that she said that to the PCs).
As the area the party had explored was distinct from the main lair of the Redbrands, I ruled that - given it was only a couple of hours later - that the Redbrands hadn't determined that they'd been attacked. And so, the party had to discover where to go next - there was only one door remaining. It was locked, and no-one could pick the lock or bash it down!
Searching for secret doors was the trick. They missed one, but found the one down south. In they went, and met the Nothic (after our cleric managed to fall down into the chasm after using the rigged bridge). And I decided to have some fun, role-playing the Nothic as Kiefer Sutherland in Dark City.
Here's a note: The nothic in this adventure communicates via telepathy (it did in Lost Mine as well). Nothics aren't telepathic in their statblock! I think it's something that got removed from their playtest version to the printed version; this little feature wasn't caught for this adventure, but it fits so perfectly I'm very glad they left it in (and, with any luck, nothics will be telepathic in 5E-2024).
In previous playthroughs, I've often used the nothic purely as an adversary. This time around, it was more willing to talk - and accept bribes. You know how in our first session we had the question about whether you could cast purify food and drink on a PC to heal poison? Well, that yuan-ti PC, who still saw humanoids as food, was more than happy to bargain the bodies of the Redbrands they'd kill for safe passage. The nothic happily accepted, and told them that the rest of the Redbrands were to the west.
Cue a couple of fights. The first against some gambling Redbrands - this is another changed encounter, 4 Redbrands -> 2 Redbrands + 2 Bandits. It's easier! (Good change). The Redbrands are described as intoxicated (another rule that didn't make it out of the D&D Next playtest). In LMoP, they're considered poisoned. No condition on them in TSO. This one easily went in the player's favour.
The fight against the bugbears? Much less well. Especially after both the cleric and the fighter were subject to critical hits. (25 damage on the fighter in the first round!) Yeah, this was really a fight they shouldn't have been in. Being only at three characters? Nah. The artificer created a fog cloud to allow the cleric to drag away the unconscious fighter, but another incredible roll from the bugbears flattened her. The artificer fled - the bugbears never saw him, due to the fog and where he was placed in the combat.
Okay. Not a TPK, but close. What now?
I quickly determined that the bugbears would capture and interrogate the PCs. Which gave the yuan-ti artificer a chance to rescue them - assuming he got some support. For now, he needed sleep.
The next morning, he awoke to a couple of Redbrands being very angry with the innkeeper, and basically saying that he should allow guests from out of town. (Slightly unreasonable, I thought!) The innkeeper was very worried for his family, but the artificer calmed him down; explaining he had already rescued one family from the Redbrands, and that they'd soon be dealt with. Assuming that they could rescue his... associates.
That's the point when Sildren arrived from his room in the inn. He volunteered (one rescue deserves another), and soon enough the party of two tried recruiting Daran, the retired adventurer. He was too old, but suggested that Sister Garaele might help. She did (bit more role-playing here). And so the three returned to the hideout, the artificer leading them to the Redbrand prison, just in case.
Indeed, that's where they were - two bugbears interrogating them. This combat went a lot better. (The party having spell slots left made a difference!) After the first bugbear was dropped, the second surrendered. (I use Morale checks, per Moldvay D&D Basic to help determine monster actions). The bugbear went into the cage, the PCs came out. They learned a few details about the Spider from the bugbear, but naught of immediate use - it did not tell them where Cragmaw Castle was, for instance. It did tell them where the weakling Glassstaff was, though!
So off the party went - but the Glasstaff was alerted to their coming, and fled through a secret door. The party followed, with the satyr cleric in the lead. And when she came to a second secret door, a roll of 20 meant it hardly slowed her down. They caught the Glasstaff in the room, as he fished something out of the cistern. (The yuan-ti was very disappointed - they'd searched everywhere else!)
The human fighter ran up and grabbed the Glassstaff, and the others began to try to knock him out. Unfortunately for the party, the Glasstaff has the ability to teleport twice as a bonus action (this is a revision to the stat block; the original was an evil mage with the misty step spell). And he used it to teleport to the top of the stairs and run for it, drinking a potion of invisibility as he did.
They found the empty vial, but not the Glassstaff. He had escaped - I wonder if he'll return?
We ended the session with them looting the Glassstaff's chambers, gaining a few clues in the process (but not the magic). The nothic was well fed, the bugbears decided to abandon the Redbrands to their fate, and we'll see next session what happens to the Redbrands. (Hint: Halia Thornton will be offering a "helping" hand).
A good split between combat and role-playing this session, and we also recovered from the near TPK (enhancing the story in the process). I look forward to our next session.
Cheers,
Merric
Well, I think actually a 2.5 ft x 5 ft space.
But not when it's actually a 5 foot square with another creature in it!
The solution is hand-wavey rather than RAW.Cheers,
Merric
jasper
Rotten DM
Sunglasses blocking sunlight sensitivity never made sense to me. SS to me was going out and getting too much sunlight and get a wicked sunburn even through sunscreen.
Paul Farquhar
Legend
I'm pretty sure drow wear hoods, not sunscreen. Much more effective. Sunscreen is a product of modern culture, where people do not cover-up in the sun.
Our fourth session tonight! (Monday 2 October, 2023).
* This looked like it would be a challenging battle - bugbears, an ogre, and an orc against a 3rd level party!
Next session: Cragmaw Castle!
This is one of my favourite sections of the adventure - it can go in so many ways. As it turned out, they got the random encounter with the Cragmaw goblins and were able to negotiate with the one survivor for the location. In other playthroughs, the parties I've run have used other means. I've never had the hobgoblin bounty hunter encounter before - that was a lot of fun.
Cheers,
Merric
- Began the session talking with Sildar and Sister Garaele, following them rescuing most of the party last week. Learnt a few rumours, and agreed to help Garaele with her quest to find a lost spellbook. She offered to research where Cragmaw Castle was. Sildar was eager to have the party find his dwarven friend, and the Townmaster was offering a reward to any who defeated the bandits in Wyvern Tor.
- On the road to Conybery, they were found by a group of hobgoblins! (people with the fist have their shield out; the grenade is no shield and longbow).
- The hobgoblin critically hits the Satyr for 17 damage! "I'm down!" Alchemist: "Already? That was the first time you were hit!" Satyr: "Oh sorry - forgot I was level 3!"
- The hobgoblins had a picture of Simeon, with a bounty of 25 gp. Syzoth, our Yuan-Ti, was interested in handing Simeon in. Alas, if they only knew where Cragmaw Castle was!
- "Why did the artist only picture Simeon?" "Obviously the sketch artist only knew how to draw human - rather than people with scales or horns!"
- The party reached Conybery and then went to the lair of Agatha the Banshee. Negotiating with her went smoothly (incredibly, the group just flattered her and didn't insult her!). They learnt about the spellbook for Sister Garaele.
- Now, they went south to Wyvern Tor. A cave hideout! There, they tried sneaking up on a bugbear. This is not a naturally sneaky party! (totals of 3, 9, 6, 0).
* This looked like it would be a challenging battle - bugbears, an ogre, and an orc against a 3rd level party!
- However, the Yuan-Ti Alchemist has a construct that gives all within 10 feet 1d6+4 temporary hit points at the beginning of each round. He kept rolling well (Minimum was nine!)
- Simeon was critically hit by the Ogre - but the yuan-ti's construct kept him alive. The ogre and orc soon fell.
- The remaining bugbears surrendered. Alas, they did not know where Cragmaw Castle was, but a strange goblin had visited and drawn a picture of a goblin with a crystal in its head! (More foreshadowing).
- They let the bugbears go. Just as long as they went far away and didn't prey on people here. Somewhere far to the north, like around Luskan. (Because causing trouble for the Hosttower is always fun).
- Back to Phandalin, but on the way, a goblin ambush!
- A very funny interaction where a shatter spell cast by our tempest cleric caught a couple of hiding goblins, killing them, along with the non-hidden goblins.
- When the goblin boss was the only one left (though still hidden), he surrendered. The party would only accept his surrender if he told them where Cragmaw Castle was. Amazingly, he knew!
- The party returned to Phandalin to report their successes to Sildar, Garaele and the townmaster. They got their rewards (100 gp and 3 potions of healing).
Next session: Cragmaw Castle!
This is one of my favourite sections of the adventure - it can go in so many ways. As it turned out, they got the random encounter with the Cragmaw goblins and were able to negotiate with the one survivor for the location. In other playthroughs, the parties I've run have used other means. I've never had the hobgoblin bounty hunter encounter before - that was a lot of fun.
Cheers,
Merric
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