D&D 5E Tasha's Mind Sliver and Shadow Sorcerer. The most efficient spellcaster?

[Hohige]

Again (because you ignored it) having TWO T-rex's on the battlefield will provide cover to any foe, particularly one you're grappling. You already polymorphed your fighter-types (because you wouldn't want to polymorph your spellcasters unless they were injured) so the remaining PCs likely are trying to cast spells at the guy you're not providing cover to, and possibly blocking line of sight to.

And please, do not try to tell me your spellcaster PCs are wanting to be a T-Rex for 600 rounds every game. Because that's when I know this is white room without having been played in real life.

Just how many melee front liners do you think are in your party if you're going to polymorph two of them and expect there will be more of them running up to attack in melee who are not already polymorphed? Doesn't range combat play a role in your games, and don't you have issues with cover and line of sight in your games when you grapple a foe with two huge creatures?

That wrong. Creatures cant provide total cover(Gargantuan or Tiny), following The rules.

 

[FarBeyondC]

Magic items is not DM Fiat. This is expected and this most of them will be acquired through reknown.

Adventurers League Player’s Guide v.10.06APPENDIX 2:
RENOWN
All characters accrue renown based on their level/tier.RENOWN TITLES BY TIERTierTitle1Novice2Adept3Veteran4HeroicRENOWN

BENEFITS
Your character starts a new adventure or chapter, they gain inspiration and one renown benefit associated with their current rank or lower. Renown benefits can’t be sold and are lost at the end of the adventure or hardcover chapter, whichever happens first.

RENOWN BENEFITS BY TITLE
Rank Benefit
Novice: Potion of healing
Adept: Potion of greater healing, a silvered weapon, or 10 pieces of silvered ammunition
Veteran: Potion of superior healing,an adamantine weapon, or 10 pieces of adamantine ammunition
Hero: Potion of supreme healing or a spell scroll valued at 2,500 gp or less (see Buying Potions and Scrolls)

RENOWN MAGIC ITEMS
At Adept and higher rank, your character gain access to basic magic items—specifically bags of holding, +1 weapons, +1 shields, +1 rods of the pact keeper, and +1 wands of the war mage—and can choose as many of them as their Magic Item Limit permits. While they can’t be sold or traded, they can replace and be replaced by other items between sessions.These items are thematically linked to your background. For example, a Folk Hero might be given an old +1 longsword and a +1 shield from a retired adventurer back home, while a Sage may find a +1 wand of the war mage hidden in a library and use an old, dusty bag of holding on their adventures.

And the magic item tier limit is
Tier 1 = 1
Tier 2= 3
Tier 3= 6
Tier 4 = 10.

So either you find your magic items or your patrons/organisation will provide you some. These items are supposed to be given to you or the DM is putting them in addition to what you can find. It is highly unfortunate that this is not written anywhere but in the adventurer's league.

Here is the full link: https://media.wizards.com/2020/dnd/downloads/AL_PGv10_0.pdf

Edit: And notes that this is for RotM. And this document is the usual stuff for each adventure that has been released so far. The items you find are in addition to what a faction will give you or make available to you. Sometimes, 5ed feels a bit like 1ed. You need to look everywhere to find the relevant information that you need.

Using the rules for what's probably the second or third most disliked (or at least, negatively received) season of AL at the moment doesn't exactly help your case, especially since the reason you can get the QOL magic items (+1 weapons, shields, arcane foci) so easily is more to help close a gap between those able to get them quickly and those who somehow end up in T4(!) games without them.

 

[Hohige]

Magic items is not DM Fiat. This is expected and this most of them will be acquired through reknown.

Adventurers League Player’s Guide v.10.06APPENDIX 2:
RENOWN
All characters accrue renown based on their level/tier.RENOWN TITLES BY TIERTierTitle1Novice2Adept3Veteran4HeroicRENOWN

BENEFITS
Your character starts a new adventure or chapter, they gain inspiration and one renown benefit associated with their current rank or lower. Renown benefits can’t be sold and are lost at the end of the adventure or hardcover chapter, whichever happens first.

RENOWN BENEFITS BY TITLE
Rank Benefit
Novice: Potion of healing
Adept: Potion of greater healing, a silvered weapon, or 10 pieces of silvered ammunition
Veteran: Potion of superior healing,an adamantine weapon, or 10 pieces of adamantine ammunition
Hero: Potion of supreme healing or a spell scroll valued at 2,500 gp or less (see Buying Potions and Scrolls)

RENOWN MAGIC ITEMS
At Adept and higher rank, your character gain access to basic magic items—specifically bags of holding, +1 weapons, +1 shields, +1 rods of the pact keeper, and +1 wands of the war mage—and can choose as many of them as their Magic Item Limit permits. While they can’t be sold or traded, they can replace and be replaced by other items between sessions.These items are thematically linked to your background. For example, a Folk Hero might be given an old +1 longsword and a +1 shield from a retired adventurer back home, while a Sage may find a +1 wand of the war mage hidden in a library and use an old, dusty bag of holding on their adventures.

And the magic item tier limit is
Tier 1 = 1
Tier 2= 3
Tier 3= 6
Tier 4 = 10.

So either you find your magic items or your patrons/organisation will provide you some. These items are supposed to be given to you or the DM is putting them in addition to what you can find. It is highly unfortunate that this is not written anywhere but in the adventurer's league.

Here is the full link: https://media.wizards.com/2020/dnd/downloads/AL_PGv10_0.pdf

Edit: And notes that this is for RotM. And this document is the usual stuff for each adventure that has been released so far. The items you find are in addition to what a faction will give you or make available to you. Sometimes, 5ed feels a bit like 1ed. You need to look everywhere to find the relevant information that you need.

... Magical Items are not DM Fiat. Its too much to me.

 

[Guest User]

Well, there's no reason you would have the instinctive or socialized behavior. You could certainly feel fear, rage, or sadness... but you're not going to react like a real animal because you've never been the real animal.

D&D rules and reality often have little overlap, but from an anthropological perspective, a giant ape and a human are going to have, (essentially), the same behaviors.

Orangs, Chimpanzees, Bonobos, and Gorillas, share the same behaviors as
Homo Sapiens Sapiens.

In D&D terms, elves, dwarves, halflings, and orcs fill similar niches as Denisovans and Neanderthals, (can often interbreed with Homo Sapiens Sapiens and have similar though nor exact anatomical structure and cultural expressions).

I'm not a paleontologist, so I can't speak about being a T-Rex...but I think my
"reptilian brain" controls my power gamer drive...so a 2 INT T-Rex might just be an uncontrollable optimizer.

As a Holiday aside, I hope all are well and staying safe. Mistwell, if I remember correctly you are in the Los Angeles area...I hope you and your family are doing all right.
(I've seen the Covid Field tents set up at hospitals in the SFV...scary times).

 

[Iry]

D&D rules and reality often have little overlap, but from an anthropological perspective, a giant ape and a human are going to have, (essentially), the same behaviors.

Oh, I definitely agree! My point is that you're not a Giant Ape or a T-Rex, you just have the shape of one. That includes having a much "smaller" brain, but not the experiences and reactions of someone who has lived with a "tiny" brain all their life. Or even living wild or in captivity. What that means for any given character is pretty much between the player and the DM, but I personally like the Animal Handling method of teaching characters Tricks.

 

[Guest User]

LoL, a Bard PC in one of the games I am in has a 8 INT...so a Giant Ape isn't much of a downgrade for that PC.

Now, being a rat bastard DM, I had one group in an Eberron game use Polymorph excessively and predictably. The group was at odds with a splinter branch of House Vadalis, that was secretly ruling Sharn, (Druids make surprisingly good Thieves Guilds).

Earlier in the day, the Sorcerer failed their save against a Suggestion:
"Do not stop Concentrating on any Polymorph spell you cast, and tell no one about this". The splinter faction, later that day, provoked a combat with the group on a Skybridge in Sharn. True to form the Sorcerer turned someone into a giant ape, whom was subsequently subjected to a Dominate Beast spell.

So the cautionary tale is, using the same tactics, over and over again, against intelligent and sagaciously magical foes, can and may be used against you, by wicked, wicked DMs.

 

[Helldritch]

Using the rules for what's probably the second or third most disliked (or at least, negatively received) season of AL at the moment doesn't exactly help your case, especially since the reason you can get the QOL magic items (+1 weapons, shields, arcane foci) so easily is more to help close a gap between those able to get them quickly and those who somehow end up in T4(!) games without them.

Or simply that these magical items are simply assumed to be available for these adventures. AL stuff is official ruling. Whether we like it or not. Factions are in the Rime of the Frost Maiden adventure itself so...

 

[Mistwell]

That wrong. Creatures cant provide total cover(Gargantuan or Tiny), following The rules.

I didn't say total cover I just said cover. Which they do provide for sure. Any size creature even partly in the way is half cover, and a huge creature blocking multiple squares is very likely three quarters cover ("thick tree trunk" level cover). A huge creature is a 15 by 15 ft. square, and includes specifically such things as a Treant (which is "a thick tree trunk" so is specifically an example of three quarters cover). You have TWO of those on the battlefield in melee combat with foes. They will almost certainly provide some degree of cover and if it's three quarters that is +5 to their AC...roughly the same as advantage to attack them.

And then you have the problem of even being able to GET to the target. How many feet will someone need to travel to move around the two 15 x 15 squares full of angry stupid dinosaur?

I again ask, have you tried this in an actual game?

 

[Benjamin Olson]

That wrong. Creatures cant provide total cover(Gargantuan or Tiny), following The rules.

Big ones can if they swallow you. It's not generally an optimal strategy in most situations though.

 

[Hohige]

I didn't say total cover I just said cover. Which they do provide for sure. Any size creature even partly in the way is half cover, and a huge creature blocking multiple squares is very likely three quarters cover ("thick tree trunk" level cover). A huge creature is a 15 by 15 ft. square, and includes specifically such things as a Treant (which is "a thick tree trunk" so is specifically an example of three quarters cover). You have TWO of those on the battlefield in melee combat with foes. They will almost certainly provide some degree of cover and if it's three quarters that is +5 to their AC...roughly the same as advantage to attack them.

And then you have the problem of even being able to GET to the target. How many feet will someone need to travel to move around the two 15 x 15 squares full of angry stupid dinosaur?

I again ask, have you tried this in an actual game?

Half cover is always situational, PCs can move around the T Rex.

Yes Im playing a Shadow Sorcerer level 9 , Twin Polymorph + The Hound Works Very well.
Or
Careful Fear/Hypnotic Pattern + The Hound is too scary