D&D 5E Shield Saltiness

[Flamestrike]

Geez Louise... it's a game, not a final exam!

DnD is a resource management game. I expect my players to mange those resources and keep a neat Character sheet.

I spend a few hours each week planning encounters, statting them up, fleshing out NPCs etc, and spend the whole session running the game. It's their only job, and its an expectation at my table.

I want to be able to read the character sheet, and they can track resources used, and encumbrance and rations and arrows etc.

When I play I do just this; I have a separate sheet with each short/ long rest expendable resource listed, with circles next to each one (one circle per use). When I use that resource, I tick off the circle. When I short rest the Short rest circles get cleared in, ditto the long rest ones when I long rest.

My Hexblade 3/ Paladin 7/ Bard 5 has the following:

Short rest:
Divine Channel - 0
Warlock slots (2nd) - 0 0
Hexblades Curse - 0
Bardic Inspiration - 0 0 0 0 0
Long rest:
Lay on Hands - 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
1st level slots - 0 0 0 0
2nd level slots - 0 0 0
3rd level slots - 0 0 0
4th level slots - 0
Hit Dice d8's- 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Hit Dice d10's - 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Concentrating on [______________________]
Items:
Potions of Healing - 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

 

[Flamestrike]

If they are never attacked while in town, then why would it matter if they're using their shields or not? If they are attacked in town at least now and then, I would never play a PC that relies on armor in your campaign.

Thats cool, if that's your reason not to play such a PC then good for you.

I just want my players to try and portray actual people. I award inspiration for Players that announce they're having a bath, and reward players that actually spend money on things that actual people would spend money on (i.e. not on magic items). I reward players that have romantic involvements, actual backstories, places where they live.

I loathe murderhobos.

 

[tetrasodium]

Geez Louise... it's a game, not a final exam!

Seriously, this screams of a whiny DM going "WAAAH! the PC is good at what it's supposed to be good at! WAAAH! No fair! I want to kill him!"

Seriously, people pick Paladin to be Knights in Shiny Armour, let them. This kind of BS 'realism' argument is just a cheap way to find weakness in the PC to 'make things dangerous' because you can't design stuff that's actually interesting and dangerous without going for exploits that only penalize the martial. As you say, this kind of penalty is the fastest way to end up with a party of lithe Rogues and Casters.



Exactly!


That's a good buff to the Protection style, it's really the weakest Fighting style because the number of attacks your allies take go up in number, but not your reactions.

I mentioned earlier how some cities (ie sharn) will give you trouble trying to wear heavy armor in some places earlier so wanted to touch on this... This is why in my sharn games have glamoured armor of all types available over the over counter (possibly by special order). IME the heavy plate wearing types have way more fun "disguising" their plate armor as clothing befitting the situation being headed for than any light armor type ever seemed to do at my tables

 

[Undrave]

DnD is a resource management game. I expect my players to mange those resources and keep a neat Character sheet.

Yeah but the game is robust enough that if somebody mis-counted their arrows, or their rations, or forgot to pay one night at the inn, it's not gonna break anything. 'Audit' make it sounds like you're the IRS or something. Sheesh. Mistakes happen, and then you just take a whole session of XP away because of that?!

I mentioned earlier how some cities (ie sharn) will give you trouble trying to wear heavy armor in some places earlier so wanted to touch on this... This is why in my sharn games have glamoured armor of all types available over the over counter (possibly by special order). IM the heavy plate wearing types have way more fun "disguising" their plate armor as clothing befitting the situation being headed for than any light armor type ever seemed to do at my tables

Yeah it just depends on the setting. Stradh is just not one where I would go without armour.

 

[DND_Reborn]

DnD is a resource management game. I expect my players to mange those resources and keep a neat Character sheet.

Have you tried playing this game:

You could be an Accountant level 20 in no time!

 

[Flamestrike]

Yeah but the game is robust enough that if somebody mis-counted their arrows, or their rations, or forgot to pay one night at the inn, it's not gonna break anything. 'Audit' make it sounds like you're the IRS or something. Sheesh. Mistakes happen, and then you just take a whole session of XP away because of that?!


Yeah it just depends on the setting. Stradh is just not one where I would go without armour.

Mistakes i can handle. Neglect i can't.

 

[Oofta]

Thats cool, if that's your reason not to play such a PC then good for you.

I just want my players to try and portray actual people. I award inspiration for Players that announce they're having a bath, and reward players that actually spend money on things that actual people would spend money on (i.e. not on magic items). I reward players that have romantic involvements, actual backstories, places where they live.

I loathe murderhobos.

You're conflating two completely different things IMHO. I probably spend half the time in my game session (or more) on RP and character development. Yet people walk around in full armor. That may not be your style, but trying to make D&D "realistic" is a fools errand. Reality adjacent or action movie logic is fine, but realistic? Nah.

If you want realistic, it should be incredibly difficult to hurt someone in quality plate mail with a sword unless you wrestle them to the ground first. Meanwhile that half naked barbarian should be sliced and diced like julian fries. But that's not the game we play.

 

[TwoSix]

I just want my players to try and portray actual people. I award inspiration for Players that announce they're having a bath, and reward players that actually spend money on things that actual people would spend money on (i.e. not on magic items). I reward players that have romantic involvements, actual backstories, places where they live.

Those things are fine and good, if you're playing a game with a relatively low number of players and where the focus of the game is not on combat and exploration. In my 7 player D&D game, I appreciate the characters putting together backstory or doing non-plot oriented invocations of game color, but it will by necessity be glossed over at the table.

Fundamentally, I'm playing to generate conflict and plot rather than run a simulation of a real world, so a character's attempts to do so are extraneous to me; I'm willing to support it at the table if it makes the player happy.

 

[TheSword]

Actually, carrying shields on your back and having them ready very quickly was a thing. Ignore the two-handed stuff, just look at how quickly he flips his shield into use.

I hope you’re joking. That shield is made out of plastic. If he tried that neck swinging trick with a real shield - he’d break his neck or strangle himself. A real shield also wouldn’t have nice plastic straps to loop over his arm. If someone was shoving at you and hitting you with large metal objects, you’d want a bloody good grip on it. Not have it loosely draped over your arm like a tea cloth.

 

[Oofta]

I hope you’re joking. That shield is made out of plastic. If he tried that neck swinging trick with a real shield - he’d break his neck or strangle himself. A real shield also wouldn’t have nice plastic straps to loop over his arm. If someone was shoving at you and hitting you with large metal objects, you’d want a bloody good grip on it. Not have it loosely draped over your arm like a tea cloth.

Sadly, people have also used the video to "prove" that you could use a shield with a two-handed weapon. As if a shield is just this static thing that is magically effective and that (as you state) a full body shield weighs a pound and a half.