Black Flag Sell Me on Tales of the Valiant

[bedir than]

They aren't the only ones doing this, but what I like about Tales of the Valiant is primarily in two points

• separation of nature and nurture
• more uniqueness in each monster

ToV specifically I think it integrates easier into 2014 WotC than a5e and I'm currently using a baseline and piecemeal approach to my 5e game (my base is going to be 2024 with elements from ToV and a5e included).

 

[zakael19]

- The GMG is an excellent book for a conventional game. It brings in a lot of the 4e DMG stuff that was missing in 2014 (significant details on how to actually, you know, run and coordinate a game of D&D from a table/social contract/etc perspective), and has thoughtful optional subsystems looking to newer trends in gaming coming out of the narrative scene and such (clocks, factions, etc), but all adjusted to work with the play loops of d20 5e.

- I prefer the classes almost across the board to the 2024 5e ones. Lots of good reinforcement of class fantasy through core abilities, decent decision space for both in and out of combat. I think there's a pretty similar amount of "power creep" or "expanded abilities" to 5.24, but the monster and challenge guidance is here at the same time. Perhaps the one "downside" is the lower amount of subclasses, but on the other hand they're mostly more interesting?

- The monster manual is very good. Between this and Flee, Mortals! I think you have a great coverage of interesting encounters to deploy. The math is a lot easier to follow, and it's full of guidance from people who clearly were thinking of how to make everything usable by DMs on teh fly.

 

[MichaelSomething]

For those of us in need of good monster building rules, which is the book to get??

 

[SteveC]

If you are looking for a basic 5E game that doesn't come from WotC and looks beautiful, this is it. It has support from Foundry, the VTT that I use and it has fantastic monsters.

The reason I don't think our group will be using it, at least as it is now, is that there's not enough character content. I look at the classes and they basically have an SRD level of content for them, rather than what we see in the PHB. But the books look amazing and they're well written. With some expansions for extra classes and player options, it might replace 5E.

 

[Chaltab]

For those of us in need of good monster building rules, which is the book to get??

Neither book seems to have rules for building monsters from scratch, just modifying existing ones (though I've only skimmed the GMG so don't quote me on that.)

 

[Chaltab]

If you are looking for a basic 5E game that doesn't come from WotC and looks beautiful, this is it. It has support from Foundry, the VTT that I use and it has fantastic monsters.

The reason I don't think our group will be using it, at least as it is now, is that there's not enough character content. I look at the classes and they basically have an SRD level of content for them, rather than what we see in the PHB. But the books look amazing and they're well written. With some expansions for extra classes and player options, it might replace 5E.

There's a free conversion guide that'll let you use any 5E subclass with Black Flag

 

[KYRON45]

Huh. To each their own.

I have a policy of never joining a game as a player if the GM won't read the GM Guide. I don't care how long they have been GMing: everyone can still learn new things, particularly new things related to new games. I have bene doing this for 30 years and I still read the GM guide for any game I am going to run, whether it is a variant of D&D or totally different game.

This is an interesting stance. It's all reference material. I've been running games on and off since the 90s and i've never read any of the manuals. I look up stuff as I need it. I'm always astonished by the absolutist (is that a word, i've never read a dictionary?) views people have with regards to gaming.

 

[Reynard]

This is an interesting stance. It's all reference material. I've been running games on and off since the 90s and i've never read any of the manuals. I look up stuff as I need it. I'm always astonished by the absolutist (is that a word, i've never read a dictionary?) views people have with regards to gaming.

How can you run a game effectively if you don't read the manual? If you only look stuff up when you need it, you have no idea what you don't know is in there.

Mind boggling.

 

[KYRON45]

How can you run a game effectively if you don't read the manual? If you only look stuff up when you need it, you have no idea what you don't know is in there.

Mind boggling.

I generate a scenario and then if any of the challenges require special rules i look them up. Play most games long enough and all the rules are pretty much the same. I wanted to drown a guy in 5e once, then I looked up the rules and that was a bummer for me. Not to mention that when you do things to players that they don't want done to them, they right quick look for something that prevents you from doing it. It's like I have my own staff of paralegals.

 

[nevin]

I've not actually played but since I've wrote homebrew subclasses and converted them 2024, TOTV, and A5E I have a semi-decent feel for the changes, at least on paper.

I think TOTV is going to feel like a lot more like a 2014 game with a moderate power boost to the baseline and a slight nerf to nova. Smite and Stunning Strike both got nerfed and the Monk's buffs are honestly pretty limited compared to 2024. Fighters, Barbarians, and Rangers get significant boosts, and everyone can take an ASI and a Feat Talent at each level. But there's nothing like Weapon Mastery where you get a rider on every hit. Weapons do get some options, including something that might actually make the sling situationally optimal, but unless you're a particular Fighter subclass you have to choose between weapon options and damage for each hit.

Niche protection is enforced a bit more strongly than 2014. Talents are siloed off into Martial, Magic, or Technical by default, though some subclasses get access to more than one list. It also has four spell lists instead of one for each class. The bad news is that spells haven't been adjusted as much, so problem spells are still pretty problematic. There are a few judicious nerfs and buffs but not as many as 2024.

Rituals is another thing I'm not sure about in actual play: each class that gets them chooses them separately from their normal spell lists. The upshot is that you will know more rituals + spells overall, which is effectively a flat buff to casters with rituals.

If I understand rituals non casters can do them as well if they choose to spend thier resources on them