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  1. Kurotowa

    Dungeons & Dragons releases Villainous Options playtest

    I voted mostly green, and gave specific feedback on the yellows. "Titan Form is too squishy for the character fantasy, is there any way to sacrifice spell slots to power it up more?" "Death Knight Path is a really cool concept, but I'd really like it to have more martial focus and less...
  2. Kurotowa

    Dungeons & Dragons releases Villainous Options playtest

    I picture it as a spectrum. At one end is modeling clay, with infinite possibilities but no direction. And the other end is an Ikea unit, where there is exactly one right way to do it. And in between you have a bucket of Lego bricks, where you're limited by the supply and model of bricks...
  3. Kurotowa

    D&D General DPR Calculations Wut?

    Advantage scales on a bell curve. When you need to roll a 10-11 to succeed, it's worth about +5. At the extreme ends where you only fail on a 1-2 or only succeed on a 19-20 it's only worth about +2. So consider the +5 another abstraction.
  4. Kurotowa

    Dungeons & Dragons releases Villainous Options playtest

    It usually is. Honestly, IMO most multiclass ideas are gimmicks that overly focus on optimizing a single stat while ignoring the lost opportunity cost to everything else. It's very rarely a net gain, especially if you're a full caster. I think the only one in 5.5e where I unambiguously nodded...
  5. Kurotowa

    Dungeons & Dragons releases Villainous Options playtest

    The problem is that the Ravenloft book isn't in the Fall. It's in mid-June, barely more than two months from now. And that means it's way too late to be circulating brand new content for it. Those books have to be in late editing and typesetting, if not already at the printer's. Maybe they could...
  6. Kurotowa

    Dungeons & Dragons releases Villainous Options playtest

    Again, I'll note that the Behemoth's Rampager ability has a "first time per turn" clause. You can trample a bunch of targets, especially if you knock them down with a Shock Wave first, but you can't tap dance back and forth over the same one. Still, I broadly agree, if not for exactly the same...
  7. Kurotowa

    Dungeons & Dragons releases Villainous Options playtest

    Again we're in "technically possible but not a good idea" territory, because Titan Druid doesn't get Extra Attack. It gets a Multiattack that only applies to Rend. So unless whatever benefit of taking a standard Attack Action is greater than making a second attack, it's a no go. As for chucking...
  8. Kurotowa

    Dungeons & Dragons releases Villainous Options playtest

    I looked at Barbarian, and found most of the features are no better. Even if you use point buy to start with Con 16, until you raise it you're only getting AC 13 + Wis mod. In other words, the same as the much cheaper Mage Armor option. It only climbs ahead at higher level, and I distrust...
  9. Kurotowa

    Dungeons & Dragons releases Villainous Options playtest

    Sure, in caster form. In Titan form? Both your Str and Dex get set equal to Wis, so using Dex instead of Str isn't a gain. I suppose you'd also get the Bonus Attack Unarmed Strike from Martial Arts, even in Titan Form. And with your Dex set higher it's not useless. But I'm still not sure it's...
  10. Kurotowa

    Dungeons & Dragons releases Villainous Options playtest

    Regarding Titan Druid AC, people are pointing out there's a work around. Since the Titan form gets its Dex set equal to Wis, if you have an alternative AC calculation available it's often going to be better. The all in route is to dip a level of Monk for Unarmored Defense. That gets you AC 20...
  11. Kurotowa

    Dungeons & Dragons releases Villainous Options playtest

    I'm seeing some corners of the Internet debate the Titan Druid's relatively weak AC. And after thinking about it and looking over the stat blocks... I think that's a case of the flavor and the mechanics being at odds. Flavor wise, the Titan Forms are giant monsters that you expect to be big and...
  12. Kurotowa

    Dungeons & Dragons releases Villainous Options playtest

    I don't know. That feels both limiting in how you can flavor your form, and minmaxable if you've got the ability to assemble the power suite you want. I kind of like how it is now. Pick from the three forms, flavor it however you want within the mechanics, done. Of the options in this UA, as...
  13. Kurotowa

    Dungeons & Dragons releases Villainous Options playtest

    No Druid combat shapeshifting subclass is going to scale properly while WotC remembers the lesson of 3e. If you take a full spellcaster and give them the ability to easily shapeshift into a combat form that can go toe to toe with a full martial, you have what's far and away the strongest class...
  14. Kurotowa

    Dungeons & Dragons releases Villainous Options playtest

    I'm going to stake a strong position for my survey feedback. The Hell Knight's Infernal Die shouldn't be tied to a limited supply. It's really not that strong, the Infernal Wound can be removed as easily as having a minion spend an Action, and nearly every subclass feature ties back into it. So...
  15. Kurotowa

    Dungeons & Dragons releases Villainous Options playtest

    It's a well established niche. When I read the Hell Knight Fighter I immediately through "Oh so you can be Ghost Rider." (Yes, I know Ghost Rider has been through multiple retcons, but I'm thinking of the original setup.) Demons though, or at least D&D demons, are pitched as agents of...
  16. Kurotowa

    D&D General How do you do smart chaotic evil?

    Really, there's two flavors of CE. On "alignment is a personality chart" there's the clinical psychopath who lacks empathy for others or respect for the law. Which like I described, they can assemble a moral code from first principles on a purely self-interested utilitarian framework. And then...
  17. Kurotowa

    D&D General How do you do smart chaotic evil?

    Totally self-centered, but aware that actions have consequences and other people have object permanence. They don't believe in the moral authority of law but will follow it when they think they'll be punished otherwise. They don't care about other people except as extensions of themselves, but...
  18. Kurotowa

    D&D General Weird "DnD Is Dead" Youtube Trend??

    I wouldn't even put it down to the fanbase fracturing due to this or that event. I haven't seen much evidence of that outside of very specific online communities. My theory is that 2020 boom was another side effect of the pandemic lockdown. You know, that massive society upending event that no...
  19. Kurotowa

    D&D General D&D 3.5 - splatbook power creep or no?

    True, but half the reason for that is that the PHB full casters got stealth buffed with every book because they kept adding new spells. New spells are a great page filler player option. And again, most of them were garbage, but a few of them were overpowered, and the overpowered ones built up...
  20. Kurotowa

    D&D General D&D 3.5 - splatbook power creep or no?

    My memory of 3.5e is that the quality control was pretty uneven. Each new supplement was packed full of player options. Of those, some would be alright, a lot would be garbage, and two or three per book would be overpowered. This meant things were fairly balanced with a limited list of allowed...
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