Recent content by F5

Agreed. Echohawk, your posts were really thorough. Worth bookmarking, because it's clearer than anything I've seen formally from DDB. I think this is the key thing: Maps is easy to use if you're already using DDB for other things. If you already have your campaign, the players' sheets, NPCs...

Full disclosure, it's been a while since I ran any encounters in Maps, but I have been able to make it do all of what you're looking for. Lately, I've been using the Owlbear Rodeo VTT, which is a 3rd party barebones VTT which does most of what I need it to. Much lower-tech than Roll20 or...

I really don't want to sound like I'm dumping on this starter set, because I think it looks brilliant, well-designed, and like it will be a ton of fun. I think the comparisons to Gloomhaven or HeroQuest are spot on, and I'm here for it. BUT... I think it's a bad "starter set". It is...

Given that NPCs are monsters, and the NPC statblocks are meant to represent the stat blocks for NPC versions of different species, there IS the section of the DMG on creating new creatures, which kind of applies. On page 57 of the DMG they talk about adding Traits to a statblock "to...

I was only mildly interested in the new Monster Manual, inasmuch as it would round out the new set, but after some of the previews that are floating around this week, I have to say I'm legitimately excited for this one now.

This is my main question about this change; we already have a game mechanic where an action happens in response to some other criteria. Why aren't these spells Reactions, instead of weirdly-phrased bonus actions? Reactions already work this way. The wording of the smites could say "Casting...

I'm glad to see the that the encounter challenges here don't stop the party from progressing. It's "you take X penalty if you fail your athletics check to cross the rickety bridge" not "you fail to cross the bridge". The latter method can grind a session to a halt, while the way you did this...

Is there going to be any kind of setting detail to go along with the crunch? Maybe the name can be tied into the implied world setting, if there is one. And maybe that name can obliquely reference "5" in some clever way. Use the prefix quint for a world or character name? "The Secret Codex...

For what it's worth, and in full knowledge of the fact that it's largely what brought down the TSR business model, I actually really miss the settings from 2E. The setting books we've got for 5E are nothing compared to the 2E setting boxed sets. Not sustainable, as history showed, but they...

Thanks for the reply. It seems to make the most sense RAI, but I couldn't find it RAW anywhere in the online SRD. I don't think it is explicitly spelled out anywhere. The kicker is the line in Command Undead that says intelligent undead revert to their usual behavior when the effect ends...

So, I'm looking for some feedback on how to handle an issue that's come up with my brand-new necromancy-based death cleric. When a necromancer has a standing horde, it will stay under the necromancer's control as long as they are unintelligent, and save to break free once-per-day if they are...

I had a thought that the cantrips themselves should be minor, useful effects that do not scale, but that they could be applied to some other spell/ability, that would deal the actual damage, and that is what would scale. Something like a 1st-level "Magefire Orb" spell, that creates a floating...

In my experience, my gaming group tends to do MORE joking around in CoC than on other systems. Since you know that a CoC game will ultimately end up with your character dying in some horrible way, or going hopelessly insane (and these are the GOOD outcomes...), it's best faced with a healthy...

Or, they could have just sort of had him magically resurrect himself, like they did last season. You know, when he rose from the dead and had a never-explained, born-again religious conversion? For two episodes, before it was forgotten about? Feh. You know what I'd do to save heroes? Start...

It's definitely one of those comedy central series that makes you laugh...but you feel slightly guilty for thinking it's funny. I did like the way it played with some pretty standared Sword and Sorcery fantasy tropes. "My father inscribed the runes on my scabbard" "Voshod Doth Nesath...