D&D 5E Boop

[Garthanos]

I am not people. I am me.

so you are. Do tell me about the wonderful support for totm... compare it to 13A.

 

[Garthanos]

Should captain abilities be worded similarly to spell areas of effect? This way, if 2-3 enemies would be hit by a 15ft cone, 2-3 allies would be affected by theCaptains chargingbattle cry or whatever because it’s a 15ft cone?

it is magically less complex that way

 

[lowkey13]

*Deleted by user*

 

[Tony Vargas]

. abilities be worded similarly to spell areas of effect? This way, if 2-3 enemies would be hit by a 15ft cone, 2-3 allies would be affected by thechargingbattle cry or whatever because it’s a 15ft cone?

That'd be consistent with existing mechanics.

It might be better for TotM, and more-limiting/flow-from-concept to use something other than fixed distances.

For instance, an inspiring effect might work for "allies who can see or hear you," while a tactical one might affect "one ally you can see who can understand you."

 

[Fenris-77]

Sure, like if it mattered which allies were w/in 10', which other allies & enemies are w/in 30', and which allies had been w/in 30 in a previous round, that might be a bit much, right?

If you're suggesting that there are other sources of this kind of problem you'd be correct. I'm suggesting we try to avoid designing a class that presents the same issue every single round of every single combat starting at 1st level. If we can mitigate the issue why not go that route?

@ lowkey13 - that 30' range is indeed a sweet spot, and the word grok fits what I'm indexing rather precisely and is way quicker to type than cognitive load. Nice.

 

[Tony Vargas]

If you're suggesting that there are other sources of this kind of problem you'd be correct.

I'm suggesting it's not that much of a problem.

 

[Fenris-77]

I'm suggesting it's not that much of a problem.

We can agree to disagree then. Cool. Moving on then....

 

[Garthanos]

I'm suggesting it's not that much of a problem.

I was suggesting that not only are there other sources but they are accepted without so much as a blink because some classes are allowed to be complex and have longer turns

 

[doctorbadwolf]

It's not just the aura though, there are other abilities in play that target a single ally. Plus potentially targeting enemies as well. In addition, and I can't stress this enough, it's also every single turn, including the messy melee part of a fight. Asking a DM to know how many allies are within X aura, plus how many enemies are within X aura, plus how many allies and enemies are within X targeted distance every turn is a lot of tracking that normally isn't the case without a grid, and all that equals increased cognitive load on the DM.

And do you know who expects hyper accurate location information? Players do, especially when they have a whole mess of short range powers that require accurate distance information to a wide range of targets. It sounds like an enormous pain in the ass. Your comment about being picky isn't helpful either, because the model we have puts the entire onus on the DM to figure all this out. It would be a pain even if I weren't being picky, and I'm not a picky DM.

Why you can't take my reservations about this at face value baffles me. So I guess we're both baffled.

It’s tough to read comments like this when you don’t quote the person you are replying to, tbh.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

As a general rule, it's not so much concerns about specific distances. And different people run TOTM in different ways.

But for me, I think that it is more important to make sure that there is a delineation between things that are fairly easy to grok and adjudicate for the table, as opposed to things that aren't when running narrative.

I don't view it in terms of spell equivalents so much as what is useful. For example, A presence of 30' (as opposed to 10' or 100') is easy to understand; a presence of 105' as opposed to 100' will not be nearly as useful; cf. mobile.

That’s fair, I was just think of the dmg or whatever advice where certain types of AoEs hit certain numbers.

I actually worry a bit about the distance scaling of the Marshal’s Presence we came up with. I wonder if maybe it should scale by 10ft each time, even if that sets back the scaling a little.