Recent content by evilbob

I've seen your comments on Tasha's in other threads and I agree it's gotten a lot better. Comparing Tasha's and Hypnotic Pattern, it seems like - other than the prone condition - Hypnotic is generally better. But I guess the prone is really the point?

Overall: I like it! It's interesting that they specifically called out how Truestrike absolutely does not work as an attack action. Except that one of the biggest uses of Truestrike is the exception to this rule: Valor bard level 6. You can attack twice instead of once whenever you take the...

Dear god you're right. I feel like the paralyze condition isn't given out much these days... Looks like it's exclusively hold person/monster now, spell-wise. Anywhere else? Unconscious is slightly easier and has the same auto-crit benefit.

I know I'm on the short list of people who don't know, but can you explain how you're getting 9d6 with a 2nd level slot on scorching ray? I'm counting 6d6 from the ray itself + 1d6 from hex. Are you saying that twinned spell applies to scorching ray, because it can technically target another...

I would call what you're describing a soft move: the character succeeds, but there is a consequence. (This definition does not take severity into account for the "softness.") The thing you're doing that's different is allowing the player to chose when to apply it, as opposed to the DM...

ChatGPT works well. They have it very locked down, from my limited playing with it, including from things like copywrited characters. And yes, it's because of the images they've been trained on. Which means the "It's bad" was more an indictment of most fantasy art than the AI...

In my limited experience, some AIs tend to especially draw women with scantily clad "armor" - even when you put in prompts like "woman wearing heavy plate mail." It's pretty bad. Absolutely had to share this though, which is what one of my players spat out for a harengone bard for the Vecna...

The key difference is that instead of restrictions, you're giving them options - and they can respond with whatever tools they want. Functionality similar but oh so different in perspective. Great post.

Very cool. Great idea for facing Tiamat (or similar). Re: players getting stunned, I learned back in 3.5 that stunning the party was just a bad time for everyone. People want agency, and losing a turn just feels bad. I like legendary actions that do AOE instead. What thresholds did you use for...

I really like this thread because it's a great reminder that some of us grognards need to check our assumptions when it comes to 5.5. One of the biggest surprises of 5.5 that is emerging is how different it actually is in practice from 5.0 - especially outside of tier 1. Besides the straight-up...

This is a good question. I apologize in advance for the book-length response you probably didn't ask for. The overall vibe was a major part, of course. Just a great, classic story, dripping with gothic horror. It's the only game where we put together a playlist, and it was so easy to do. I...

And as long as I'm necroing this thread (get it) I'd like to roll a knowledge (high level campaigns) by @ECMO3 for advice. Sidebar: I actually read through all 49 pages of this thread: D&D (2024) - Wrapping up first 2-20 2024 campaign this week, some of my thoughts and what I saw was the...

One more thought: the whole "secrets" thing is just so weird. They had a great opportunity to create an allegory about how keeping secrets can rot us from the inside, and working through them gives you strength. I mean he's literally the god of dysfunctional communication! :) But instead you...

I am particularly fond of Curse of Strahd, and have commented on this a lot over the years. It's still probably my favorite adventure, and I've run it 3 times: once as a 3.5 game, once as a reskinned Vampire the Masquerade game, and once as a 5.0 game. I think it got better each time. Eventually...