D&D 5E Keep on the Borderlands - OOC (Filled UP)

[Radaceus]

it would appear that the link to @jonathonhawke did not work in the EB's KotB: (Group 2) Soul of the Lions IC thread.

Busy today, will try to get a post in later tonight may not be likely though. If I do not get a chance to RP this before arriving, Üngar tell the others he can ask the forest creatures for information, and will ritual cast speak with animals (takes 10 minutes and lasts 10 minutes) upon arrival to learn any info.

Question here for @EarlyBird, since Animal Handling applies to 'domesticated animals', and Nature applies to 'Lore' regarding plants and animals (weather, and natural cycles)...will Üngar be required to cast animal friendship as well 'to persuade the beast to perform a small favor' (Speak with Animals), could will this require a Persuasion check to work without animal friendship? #rulings

thanks!

(Cringes at his -1 CHA checks... )

 

[Charwoman Gene]

Fleshed out Aurelius in the RG

 

[jonathonhawke]

I have the separate games up and running, but by no means should you stop RPing in the Lion's Den thread till you are finished.

I don't wish to waste any good RP, people might have. Just put your character to bed when you are done RPing in that thread plz.

Erevan has asked a question of Kordo Vos in the Lion's Den thread.

 

[EarlyBird]

roger that?

 

[EarlyBird]

Not sure why my mention for jonathonhawke didn't go through? Mystery's of pbp.

As to animal friendship/speak with animals/animal handling and all that recourse...

Use animal friendship when you want the best chance for success and for a longer lasting effect (24 hrs)
Use speak with animals and the following rolls with advantage:
- Persuasion, non-predators (squirrels, rabbits, some birds, etc.)
- Intimidation, for predators (wolves, bears, mountain lions, etc.)
To make "friends", but only last for a couple minutes, couple questions, or a task.

You can gain advantage to Animal Handling rolls (on domesticated animals), if you have speak with animals active. Otherwise that may just be normal.

Could look into getting another skill later on, or maybe a rep in the forest like Tarzan has. King o' Beast may give you a +5 to all your Persuasion and Intimidation checks vs beasts and animals of the wilds.

 

[Radaceus]

awesome, thanks for that, just helps me going forward rather than assuming how I would handle it

I do like the Tarzan rep thing, with his feral background, but do not want to push the issue, I'm sure it will happen organically (in a natural fashion? )

here is Üngar's Persuasion roll for his Speak with Animals:

[roll0]

 

[Radaceus]

woohoo..crit success!

 

[EarlyBird]

Aurelius check in:
-Speed is 40'
-GP 500?? that was not to carry over (sorry) were you saving it for something??
-Don't see your ASI listed, guessing it was a +2 to CON??
Equipment please add
- whiskey flask
- bear claw necklace (druidic totem)
- whetstone
- belt pouch w/ [roll0] GP

 

[TallIan]

I've updated Rorik slightly - mostly I've added the backgrounds for the retainers that was missing.

 

[Radaceus]

can not post til later today/tonight. Ungar will take last action if possible.
[MENTION=6899077]EarlyBird[/MENTION] is the elf messenger dead or dying?
[roll0]

 

[Radaceus]

oops +3 wis to that roll is perception=15

 

[EarlyBird]

He's dead, Ungar notices the fatal wound to his belly.

 

[EarlyBird]

Group 1:

Tassarion to finish the round.

Already 24 dmg to the thing and it may be prone to boot.

Everyone:

As these were to be fun test campaigns a question for all out there.

Given an average CR (lvl equal to party STR), are one big creature encounters more challenging than a bunch of smaller monsters to you as a player. I know there are a bunch of factors in how you would play it, but I thinking overall, have you found overwhelming numbers more or less of a challenge than say the big bady with a bunch of attacks.

This encounter could have easily been a group of harpies, and I wonder now if that wouldn't have been a bit more of a challenge, especially with the day about to end and the group at full strength.

 

[tglassy]

A group is almost always harder than a single baddie, because of the Action Economy. We go five or six times to his one. So unless that one can kill us in one hit, one baddie isn't that bad.

My opinion, if you're going to make it one baddie, make it a powerhouse. Make us use tactics to bring it down, not "we all run in and attack'. Because A, that's boring, and B, taking down something ten CR's above us is freaking epic.

 

[Radaceus]

that would be Group 2!


I agree, and echo, with tglassy on all points.

also, I took into account difficult terrain for my movement ( i contemplated asking you but i didn't want to interrupt immersion, and I felt (read: meta) that it should be ...swamp= difficult), as that is a factor to make a single BBEG encounter challenging for a party. It's part of our toolkit as DMs and we must use them (< I know I learn this lesson all to often lol)

I am on my 4th campaign for 5e as DM since 2014, and I've learned that single mob single attack gets eaten alive, even if my PCs dont work cohesively they still have upper hand with numbers, so i often ramp up the CR on single mob encounters ( if they are to be challenging...nto all encounters need ot be challenging , nor do they need to be melee...but that is another discussion for the 6 or 7 per long rest...). Sometimes its just adding terrain and view obstructions, often i variant spell casting into the creature if able. That being said, I still incorporate the easy and medium encounters into the mix. It's fun when the suspect some random non threatening creature is an illusion or something more to it.

Flip side, to many enemies becomes bulky, especially at levels 5+ since your melees are now into the 2 attacks per round. 20+ kobolds are difficult maintain (I do keep enemies on a single initiative, but i will give each type of enemy its own, so that helps when rolling 20+ attacks ), but certainly challenging when utilized as per Tucker's scenario. I imagine that miniature management can be trickier in PbP?

And on the aside, you know we all thought it was a shambling mound, that could have been an interesting scenario as well if we had befriended it, though looking at their ecology I am not sure they are befriend-able

 

[Charwoman Gene]

And while all this happened group 1 talked to a farmer.

 

[tglassy]

Yes, too many enemies are horrible. Making that mistake now. In one of the games I DMd that I’m getting back under way, they’re in the middle of a seaborne battle against two undead pirate ships. Lots and lots of high level baddies. It really does get hard to keep track.

 

[EarlyBird]

Group 2: My fault good catch, I need something more than a number and when the real adventures begin I shall indeed have a better title for the threads and groups.

Thanks for the feedback I have been playing D&D a while, but 5e only 14 months. I remember back in the day when are 2e group faught a bunch of orcs and goblins 20+ the combat was extensive, then we'd fight a solo giant and it took half as long and was half as exciting.

I don't know the intelligence of a shambling mound, but am not above tweaking the rules should Ungar had charmed it and Lorelei beguiled it with her beauty, haha

 

[jmucchiello]

Curious, are players reading the IC of both groups? Should they? I haven't looked at the IC for the other group as I figured we might role play "So what happened to you" in the "base" IC.

 

[Radaceus]

I catch a glimpse only when scrolling through the 'What's New' column, but otherwise no. Was thinking the swamp thing... er same thing...