D&D 5E [OOC] A Light Hearted Princes of Elemental Evil Hack and Slash

[Shayuri]

I'm happy with the game...I am a bit less happy with my contribution to it. Happily, that is something I have power over, so I'm working to change it.

I'm still not entirely sure how Aridha's working for me. I'm gently preparing a narrative exit clause, in case I decide to try something else. She feels a little bit of an ill fit for this gang to me. I'm not sure if that's a real thing, or just me fumbling a bit on the 5e druid and its multi-role capabilities.

 

[CanadienneBacon]

I left a draft of a post hanging while I did a slew of hearings, and submitted it before I saw others' responses in the IC. Creamsteak, can you please have Dent activate his armor now before combat rounds start, and then use my stated action in the IC when we're ready to go? When combat begins, Dent will enter the fracas immediately and will go on a killing spree. He'll aim for killing all the foes before he checks on the KC. There's a post in the IC to guide you.

I'm outta here for my bench trial this afternoon. Have fun, all!

 

[Creamsteak]

Yeah that is all fine. I usually intentionally plan for weekends to be light for this game. I only promised updates Monday to Thursday as a thing.

I'm home today, following this game and whatever else, with an odd headache that has not subsided in like a week.

 

[Creamsteak]

I'm happy with the game...I am a bit less happy with my contribution to it. Happily, that is something I have power over, so I'm working to change it.

I'm still not entirely sure how Aridha's working for me. I'm gently preparing a narrative exit clause, in case I decide to try something else. She feels a little bit of an ill fit for this gang to me. I'm not sure if that's a real thing, or just me fumbling a bit on the 5e druid and its multi-role capabilities.

If you do end up wanting to change anything up let me know. This game is mostly a learning experience for me. I'm willing to try multiple things till I get some idea of what works.

 

[Creamsteak]

In a whole sense, I'm pretty happy with this game so-far. I'm still learning.

I was not happy with the duergar encounter. It's in the book, which I adjusted to fit 6 PCs instead of 4 (by increasing the number of duergar by 1.5x), but that was just a boring menial encounter for encounter's sake. It's very much like a "tax". At the end of the day it didn't advance the plot or the game in any way, and it was just a matter of how many resources were spent. I think I could ham it up a bit to make it mean something more, but as I ran it it did not feel particularly interesting or rewarding.

That's not necessarily bad. 5e seems to be designed around a long-term encounter-day. In PbP as a medium though you spend a large amount of time to get through slog encounters. I might intentionally adjust some of that going forward. I'll try to use my intuitions to focus on encounters that are actually technically interesting.

 

[Shayuri]

I am thinking about it. The Circle of the Moon is a really cool ability, cuz I've always liked shapeshifters, but I find that in this party it's kind of diluting my role a lot. A Circle of Land druid would mean in most circumstances I'm always better off hanging back, focusing on ranged spells, ranged attacks and supporting my party.

The Circle of the Moon always has this temptation to turn into a Fiendish Dire Werescorpion (or whatever) and attack in melee. But really, Tolan and Dent have that covered most of the time.

As a concept, Aridha really hinges on the Circle of the Moon. It's very central to who she is. So if I change up, it will probably be either a Bard (who is SUPER good at party support) or a Land Druid with a longbow.

I am mulling it over. I haven't yet decided to change.

 

[CanadienneBacon]

I love Ari's shapeshifting. And we've counted on her being able to do that a number of times. She's saved our bacon doing it. ..the encounter with Qarbo would've turned out differently without her shifting. As would the encounter with Grimmjaw.

That said, if you wanna go ranged, I'll give you Dent's longbow and ammo. I think you should play whatever's most fun for you!

And, Creamsteak, yup, the duergar were boring. I think your instinct to focus on meaningful encounters is a good one. I'm all for you mixing it up by adding surprise traps, monsters, and magic. Or turning an encounter away from pure combat more toward roleplay. Or, if your gut tells you so, excluding a potential battle sequence. We've been extraordinarily focused on slaughtering everything in sight...I could throttle back Dent's bloodthirst if that's what we want (though, to be fair, it's not been just Dent thirsting for violence). Tolan's pacifism and Carradoc's use of sleep are good examples of non-violent rp that maybe mesh well with what Shayuri envisions for Ari?

 

[Kobold Stew]

My 2cents:

Aridah's shape changing has been really helpful! I'm grateful for it.

I think the problem with the Dueregar wasn't that it was boring in itself, but that it was in a bottleneck. If there had been more space, it would have gone quicker (with a much more challenging opposition) and there'd have been more overall participation; if we'd had fireball (which is a sleep away), it would have been quick. It just happened to come at a transition point. There is nothing to beat oneself up over with it, IMO.

 

[Shayuri]

Don't get me wrong, I've no complaints that Aridha is useless. I just feel like the party dynamic is one that needs a support caster/ranged combatant more than it needs another melee tank. Circle of the Moon moves resources useful to support casting into resources useful to melee tanks. I could cast more spells per encounter and per day if I was Circle of the Land.

And characterwise, Aridha is this sort of gruff, stoic sort that isn't really popping for me in this bunch. I can adjust that balance of course, so it's not a damning indictment. Just one more piece of the puzzle.

That said, I'm not giving up on her out of hand. I'm giving careful thought to it.

 

[Forged Fury]

OK, just to confirm what we're doing...

Thaliss is going to psychically clue the Knight-Captain that we're about to rescue him. Damien goes in there and try to Fletch his way close enough to the Knight-Captain and convince them to let him just take the dude. If that doesn't work, he casts Darkness on himself and tries to grab him?