Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Chaosmancer" data-source="post: 8249948" data-attributes="member: 6801228">If the ally is down, it is generally worth dropping your weapon. And, no, we never used flying potions mid-combat. Hence why I said "if we are going by RAW". We actually had to start homebrewing rules for potions, because they were never getting used, because the cost of an action during combat was too high.Which is why I have kept the discussion to RAW as much as I can and not dealing with our Homebrew. And you seem to have misunderstood about the lever. A lever is a big switch. I can throw a switch with my elbow while my hands are full of groceries. If it is a big switch, then I could catch the end with my shield and throw it. I don't need to drop anything, logically, to be able to do so. Just like I don't need to do so to charge and bust a door either.1) Well, that has literally never happened in our games. But, for the sake of discussion, no, we wouldn't stand there stupidly and do nothing. But, we've never had any wizard cast then run and take the time to shut the door behind him. If it did, I guess someone would open the door. Whether it was the fighter, the rogue, the cleric, the bard or whoever would determine if the shield mattered or not.2) Has never happened in our games. The DM has never split the party and had a lever to unsplit the party. Seems kind of unfun to force a player to not be able to do anything until we can reach a lever that is presumably difficult to get to3) No, we don't bother picking up enemy items until they are all defeated. Generally if they have something we want, we defeat or drive off all of the enemies, then start looting. I mean, you don't pull out sacks and start filling them with gold while the Dragon is still breathing fire on you, do you? 4) Has never happened. Usually if the DM has wagons or horses nearby when the fight starts, he moves them to the edge of the map and doesn't bother with them, because it is too much overhead to track them. A few times they have attacked civilians or the like, but no one has had this particular issue come up. 5) If by stumble upon you mean that somehow we had no idea that there was a white dragon in the area, and we had a potion of cold resistance... no, we don't. Again, that situation has never come up (we don't get a lot of potions of resistance) and if we were playing by RAW, losing an entire turn to just take half damage against a foe like a dragon is a pretty terrible idea. That is a lot of damage you are leaving on the table. I mean, I can keep telling you it doesn't come up. Because... it doesn't come up. We don't get a lot of disposable items, and if we do, we generally use them before doing things like fighting dragons, not after the fight starts.Which is covered under "magic items change the balance of the game, they are an addition of power." If the BoD DIDN'T make the monk more powerful it would be an even more worthless item. But, let me show you something else who can get better AC than the fighter who is optimized for AC with non-magical gear. A fighter who is optimized for AC with magical gear. See, they can get a +2 AC, same as the boost in power of the Monk, without attunement (UNLIKE THE MONK!!)  by getting a +2 shield, which is the same rarity and power level as the BoD. So, yes, BoD does give the monk a power boost to match a non-magical fighter. That should happen. That is the point of a magical item, to give them a power boost. But, comparing the power boosts of magical items, the monk's item is worse than the fighters item."shields don't stack with the abilities that don't let you use shields" I wouldn't have guessed. By the way, the two classes you mention, the monk and the wizard, are two of the only classes who are wanting the BoD.... because they can't use shields.Is a forever passive boost better than taking a specific action that prevents other actions? Why is that even a  question you feel the need to ask? Is taking the attack action better than wearing armor? They aren't comparable. One is an action, the other is gear that gives a passive effect.  Any character who wears armor gets zero benefit from them. They can use them for nothing. And they still have to attune to them, which is the cost. Getting nothing is not useful.Rolling for random items means it is possible for some people to get nothing, and other people to get amazing things. Even when narratively, that makes no sense. And that leads to resentment and frustration, because your actions aren't being rewarded, due entirely to poor luck.Never said it wasWrongRight, it needs to be a spell on their spell list. You be surprised how often that isn't the case where someone:1) Can use the scroll2) It can be used in combat3) We remember we even have itFor example, I think the last scroll we used was a scroll of Greater Restoration. Out of Combat. One game of mine does have a lot of scrolls in it, my 9th level warlock got scrolls of Cloud of Daggers and Witch Bolt. Guess how much I want to cast a level 1 Witch Bolt with my action as a level 9 warlock?Couldn't tell you. But it seems to me that if the DM is actively dousing torches to make lighting them in combat neccessary... then the players are going to respond with magic and lanterns that can't be doused.Potentially. But wow you had to really dig to find a scenario where you have killed one enemy, can't reach the second, have a weapon that can be thrown, and are a shield user. Do you think that comes up terribly often? Oh, by the way, a lot of players would just try and throw their sword. I've seen it happen.Well, again, if the alarm being raised is that big of a deal, then it is probably a good trade to get hit by my weapon instead of the enemy's weapon. It is likely... no difference. Unless I also somehow have a powerful magical weapon that doesn't require attunement (most of them do)Heck, you might as well be making a big deal over choosing to get hit by an arrow to prevent the death of the Queen. Sure, it is going to hurt you mildly, but it seems the scenario tells us that it is the best option.Because they aren't helping us achieve our goals. Seriously, I don't know how else to explain this to you to make it make sense to you. We don't have portcullis's cutting half the party off from the fight. We don't have this situation with one guy with low hp running for raise the alarm, while another is eyeing my sword waiting for me to drop it so he can drop his sword to pick mine up. Most potions that get used are getting used outside of combat, not in it. But, you know what does happen, every session, multiple times a session? We get attacked by enemies. Enemies who roll versus AC. And, having a higher AC makes it more likely that we survive that attack.The monk is mostly balanced against the fighter. So, if the monk + all their abilities + 2 AC is somehow more powerful than the fighter + all their abilities + 2 AC, then there is a problem. You can't have it not be a big deal, but also be a big deal.This doesn't match my experience at all. Giving the enemy free attacks is generally a terrible strategy, and relies on assuming that the enemy can reach, hit and stop a "squishier" but more dangerous target... while allowing the fighter to just wale on them from behind with impunity. Sounds good in theory, but in practice an enemy might try it once before the party just takes advantage of them blindly charging the mage.</blockquote>

Verification