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  1. Hriston

    D&D General the elemental planes are trash

    I thought about this some more and didn't make many changes, but I wanted to update what I posted here with something less tentative. So the idea is the elemental planes are arranged in a tetrahedron with the following faces: Fire Air Water Earth (The other inner planes (Material, Feywild, and...
  2. Hriston

    IN REMEMBRANCE--2024 AD

    Martin R. Stolar, civil rights and criminal defense attorney, has died. He was 81 years old.
  3. Hriston

    D&D General the elemental planes are trash

    I've been thinking along these lines as well. I think the Manual of the Planes (1987) got the para- and quasi-elemental planes a little wrong, especially the quasi-elemental. They just don't make a lot of sense to me as presented. I prefer if, rather than a ring, the elemental planes are...
  4. Hriston

    D&D General the elemental planes are trash

    In the cosmological scheme to which I generally default in my games, the elemental planes have a lower placement conceptually within the Ethereal Plane than does the Material Plane and are where the elementals "fell" when they were driven out and banished from the Material Plane by the gods just...
  5. Hriston

    D&D 5E (2024) What is your preferred naming for the 2014 and 2024 versions of D&D?

    I voted for the second option with the caveat that, for everything from early 2016 forward, I prefer 5.1.
  6. Hriston

    D&D 5E (2024) WotC has called the new ruleset 5.2. Why don't we?

    According to Wikipedia, the 5th Ed. SRD was released in January 2016 and updated to SRD 5.1 in May 2016. There don't seem to be any rules changes between the two versions (the update had to do with the inclusion of certain IP and the term DM, if I recall correctly), so I think the publication of...
  7. Hriston

    D&D 5E (2024) WotC has called the new ruleset 5.2. Why don't we?

    WotC obviously doesn't want it to have its own name. They want you to call it D&D or 5E, just names that are already in use.
  8. Hriston

    D&D 5E (2024) Orogs in the 2025 Monster Manual?

    No, I don’t suppose they would be and wasn’t suggesting it as a replacement for what the OP says is the orog’s current “orc, but smarter” identity. Now that I think about it, it could hold a clue to a possible new identity for the orog as “ogre, but smarter”. And before someone says oni already...
  9. Hriston

    D&D 5E (2024) Orogs in the 2025 Monster Manual?

    I don’t understand your claim. Did TSR file the numbers off Uruk-hai, or did they totally not copy them? I don’t think they could do both?
  10. Hriston

    D&D 5E (2024) Orogs in the 2025 Monster Manual?

    I don't recall Uruk-hai being described as having been created from troll-stock?
  11. Hriston

    D&D 5E (2024) Orogs in the 2025 Monster Manual?

    You’re both right! Orogs result from breeding male orcs with female ogres, whereas ogrillons are the offspring of male ogres and female orcs. It’s like the difference between a hinny and a mule. Given the above, I think you mean Olog-hai?
  12. Hriston

    D&D General Defining "New School" Play (+)

    Agreed, and I wouldn't associate it with "old school" as I understand the term is used by the OSR. I think it seems to align with some approaches to Trad. But "old school" isn't particularly well defined in this thread, so who knows?
  13. Hriston

    D&D General Defining "New School" Play (+)

    In a recent thread about 5E, I was told I could only use my PC’s background feature if I had a detailed written backstory, approved by the DM, saying how my PC knows such and such person in such and such place. Maybe that’s the sort of thing @Chaosmancer has in mind.
  14. Hriston

    (IC) Against the Giants PBP Group 1

    Having failed to knock down her opponent, Bible takes another swing, hoping to bring the giant down this time. Waythe: 1D20+10 = [20]+10 = 30 Critical slashing damage: 8D6+6 = [1, 3, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 5]+6 = 35 Pulling Waythe free of the skewered giant's body, Bible flings its blood from her...
  15. Hriston

    (IC) Against the Giants PBP Group 1

    Bible engages the wheezing, glowing giant as it comes within range, putting her full force behind Waythe as she swings. Waythe (advantage): 2D20.HIGH(1)+10 = [7, 13]+10 = 23 Slashing damage: 4D6+6 = [6, 5, 6, 2]+6 = 25 The giant must make a DC 15 Strength saving throw or fall prone.
  16. Hriston

    D&D 5E (2024) Let's call it 5.24

    Another vote for 5.2 here, to match the naming of the SRD 5.2. Referring to D&D (2014) with the equivalent naming convention, it would be version 5/5.1.
  17. Hriston

    IN REMEMBRANCE--2024 AD

    Majed Abu Maraheel, the first Palestinian athlete to ever participate in the Olympics, died last week in Gaza’s Nuseirat refugee camp after he was unable to receive medical care for kidney failure.
  18. Hriston

    D&D General Defining "New School" Play (+)

    I’m not sure if it’s been mentioned in this thread, but I think the Six Cultures of Play article could help this discussion. As presented in the article, there are at least five play cultures that have emerged besides the Classic (and proto-) play culture which I would identify with the "Old...
  19. Hriston

    D&D General It's Session Zero! How Much Backstory Do You Give Your Character?

    Since it’s a story, I like to give it a three act structure, so I’ll generally write three or four paragraphs, although it could be as short as three sentences. Paragraph one (and two, if there are four) describes the PC’s hometown, early relationships, and circumstances of their birth and...
  20. Hriston

    D&D 5E (2014) Create a DC 20 Skill check

    Yup, that's what I follow. So, to put it in terms of the OP's question, now that what was meant by "skill check" has been clarified (which at first I wasn't sure about), I think the following tasks would qualify as "DC 20".* Deception: misleading or lying to a hostile NPC to get them to help...
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