Connecting Thread...
Lathander, the Morning Lord, is alive and well at this time. He is a popular deity, and you could certainly choose far worse. I encourage everyone to check up on the Wiki and brush up your knowledge. Just keep in mind the timeline and make sure your info is not out of date or after the Spellplague...stupid spellplage...grumble grumble...
Lathandar is indeed a good choice. I was sad to see him go with the Spell Plague, if only because it rolls off the tongue so much easier than Amaunator.
And, hey, it's good to be picked!
I think I'm going to go ahead and give Rasp about 3 months in Candlekeep. And I figured I'd start this by failing to rob one of the PCs. So who here wants to stomp me into paste and then grudgingly accept me as a friend! Come on, guys. Free butt-whooping!
Dagoliir has essentially lived in Candlekeep his whole life - 98 years. His parents had established a home there when he was born, although Dagoliir spends the majority of his time now in the surrounding woodlands. I'm looking forward to trying the new system!
The only person I would really have taken note of is the wonderful Dragonborn as he came into the city, and offered to escort him.
Kemek reporting in. Busy until later tonight.... Will post then.
Glad to see everybody here!
Hooray! I'll have to make sure to brush up on the setting more. I don't know the Realms too well.
Wow. Advantage/Disadvantage look like a lot of fun.
Eor example: If I take the Dodge action, all attacks against me (except those with advantage) are at a Disadvantage, and I have advantage on Dexterity saving throws...
When you take the dodge action, you focus entirely on avoiding attacks. Until your next turn, attack rolls against you have disadvantage, and you make Dexterity saving throws with advantage. You lose this benefit if you cannot move or take actions, such as if you become paralyzed by a monster’s attack or stuck in quicksand.
Though Charge looks underwhelming:
To charge, you choose a target that is at least 10 feet away from you. You move up to half your speed to a position where that target is within your reach, and then you make a melee attack against it. After the attack, your turn ends.
How is that any good?
I like Hinder, but is it only for one attack? Feels like it should be against all the opponents activity...
You distract or otherwise hinder another creature within 5 feet of you. When you hinder a creature, describe the manner in which you do so. The creature has disadvantage on the next relevant ability check or attack roll it makes before your next turn.
Knockdown!!! Been missin' you...
What does Versatile refer to for spears....?
What does Versatile refer to for spears....?
Spear 1gp, 1d6 piercing, 4 lb., Thrown (range 20/60), versatile (1d8)
A versatile weapon can be used one-handed or two-handed. In the case of the spear, if you use it two-handed, you roll a 1d8 for damage instead of 1d6.
Charge is underwhelming. The best way to understand it is that Charge is an Action. So you can spend your move to get into position for the charge and then you use charge to move half your speed and hit a guy. There's not much more to it than that.
D&D Next's big thing is simplifying math. And here a +1 bonus such as you get in Pathfinder would be a bit much. So now charge is a bit meh. Its only real use is getting a bit more movement with your attack.
Maybe they'll fix it by the time the game comes out.
Charge is underwhelming. The best way to understand it is that Charge is an Action. So you can spend your move to get into position for the charge and then you use charge to move half your speed and hit a guy. There's not much more to it than that.
D&D Next's big thing is simplifying math. And here a +1 bonus such as you get in Pathfinder would be a bit much. So now charge is a bit meh. Its only real use is getting a bit more movement with your attack.
Maybe they'll fix it by the time the game comes out.
Hopefully they add in some feats to balance that out given how much more powerful feats are now. :s
Torrin has been in Candlekeep for about two months, pouring over whatever lore he can to find 'the right quest' or one worth his considerably (in)valuable time. If any character wants to already know him because he is, of course, performing when he gets the chance then feel free to let me know. The singing dragonborn is probably a hard to miss sight if you come across it.
Dagoliir has essentially lived in Candlekeep his whole life - 98 years. His parents had established a home there when he was born, although Dagoliir spends the majority of his time now in the surrounding woodlands. I'm looking forward to trying the new system!
The only person I would really have taken note of is the wonderful Dragonborn as he came into the city, and offered to escort him.
I just noticed this and I feel like this is definitely what happened. Torren would, of course, accept the escort and possibly pester Dagoliir about the place between bouts of storytelling.
Kemek has Elvish as a language, either learned from Gorion, Dagoliir or his parents or other Elves in Candlekeep.
Kemek has likely accompanied Dagoliir into the surrounding woodlands on his own recognizance or under express orders from Gorion to fetch raw materials for poultices, compresses and other healing salves/extracts for his own use and the 'Keeps physicks.
He can sometimes be seen staring in mute appreciation at Torrinaraxis. The diametric opposition between the two in terms of personality and Charisma is the key - Kemek seeks to improve his impersonal nature, and Torrinaraxis definitely has the wit and verve.
I think I'm going to go ahead and give Rasp about 3 months in Candlekeep. And I figured I'd start this by failing to rob one of the PCs. So who here wants to stomp me into paste and then grudgingly accept me as a friend! Come on, guys. Free butt-whooping!
I'm up for this. Rasp saw Kemek as an extraordinarily easy mark - he was surprised when the Gondsman merely handed his coins over without any thought or fear. Kemek decided that Rasp did not deserve physical violence but the benefit of compassion and a bond of friendship.
Kemek only had 8 sp on him at the time, but consider it yours Rasp!
Lol. Oh, don't worry you can keep the sp. Flavor doesn't necessarily have to bleed into mechanics. But, sure an attempted robbery gone awry. Now we have a character link. :-)
Just out of curiosity, where's everyone located? In real life that is. South Carolina here. (It's always intriguing when you find that one person from Greenland =D)
Puerto Rico. Currently at an anime convention. Teaching kids tabletop board games and rpgs. Busy day.
Ooh, sounds fun. Do you live there or are you just visiting Puerto Rico
Oztralia.
Nebraska
Tennessee. And I will have a big update in a few, gonna have something for each of you.
Rasp, would you have attempted to find or contact Gorion in your time back at Candlekeep?
Dagoliir, I may have missed it, but other than living in Candlekeep and probably hearing his name as a noted scholar, have you had any interaction with Gorion?
Garrick, has your mother already passed away, or is she still ill?
Rasp, would you have attempted to find or contact Gorion in your time back at Candlekeep?
Realistically, I think Rasp would have tried to contact Gorian. Whether or not he was successful I'll leave up to the DM.
Ooh, sounds fun. Do you live there or are you just visiting Puerto Rico
Oh, I've lived in Puerto Rico for about 16 years now. And the convention went great. My friend gave Dragon Age, while I played Fluxx with some kids. Later I got to DM a group for D&D Next. Three of the kids there were under 10 years old. Lots of fun. Going back tomorrow.
Rasp, so far Gorion has been strangely distant. When you first arrived he greeted you warmly, and would have spent a few days catching up with you. However he has since seemed preoccupied, and what few visits you have had with him have been tense, with Gorion obviously keeping something back, something that weighs heavily on his mind. The day before the game begins he would have summoned you, as well as some others...
Which I will cover later when the others respond...
Garrick, has your mother already passed away, or is she still ill?
She passed a few weeks prior.
Ahh ok. Does anyone have any further questions, or are we ready to start?
Good to go.
If no one objects, I will post up the first Gameplay Post tomorrow evening or morning, my time. Eastern Standard Time, so approximately 12 hours from now or so I should be posting.
My connection to Gorion would only be through my parents, who work with him on occasion for research and discussions on more scholarly manners. I've met him a few times and get the impression he is a man of great status. My parents hold him in high regard, which in turn warrants a deal of respect from me.
Ahh ok. Does anyone have any further questions, or are we ready to start?
Ready to go. I'm sure I'll have some gameplay/mechanics questions as we go, but that's all part of the fun and partly why I wanted to play this!!!
I'm good.
Just waiting on Qorin to check in.
Just out of curiosity, where's everyone located? In real life that is. South Carolina here. (It's always intriguing when you find that one person from Greenland =D)
Texas here.
I'm good to go as well. No questions or anything though I'll probably have some along the way.
Hopefully we have not already lost Qorin. Im going to give it a few more hours and then put up the gameplay thread.
Hey ... look in the other thread.
Sorry about my absence. Things got hectic.
As far as how long I've been in Candlekeep & connections to other players, I think I've been there off and on for a year or so, mostly out in the wilds hunting things down for the law or the mage, and only staying in town long enough to pick up a new job or two.
Mmmk. Gameplay thread up in 6 or 7 hours when I get off.
So just a rules question:
These are my skills:
Athletics (Strength), Nature (Intelligence), Survival (Wisdom).
Do I apply my ability modifier and Proficiency bonus to each?
And any other skills - I just add Ability modifier?
What about untrained skills?
If you are proficient in the skill or tool, you add both your ability mod and your attribute bonus.
Example given, 18 str, lvl 1, proficient with athletics. You would add 4 for str, 1 for prof bonus, for a total plus of 5.
And im typing the gameplay update now, so except it in a few minutes.
Checks will always default to the ability check. So, for example, if you need to use stealth, but it's not a skill for you, then you would roll 1d20 + Dex Mod.
The proficiency bonus just gets added once.
To GM: I forgot to buy another pack of arrows. Can I retcon doing that now? Or should I wait until after dinner?
To everyone else: There are rumors that D&D Next will have a new OGL. What do you guys think about that?
Ogl would be great! And go ahead and buy the arrows.
I would love the OGL and I think it would be fantastic move on their part.
Well obviously an OGL is of paramount importance. As a fledgling 3PP I'd love to create stuff for 5e/Next.
What I actually think will re/build the community for DND though is a messageboard/forum much like this one. From all my time on the DnD site I get a very top-down, less user-friendly, here's how it's going to be or get lost kinda vibe. The playtests have been welcome, but how much the community voice is taken inyo consideration post-feedback/in development wil remain to be seen...
Kemek I was looking at the damage for your weapons. I think you're calculating strength damage for two-handed weapons (strength * 1.5). It's always just the strength modifier in Next.
So your spear, for example, when wielded two-handed will deal (1d8+2).
Ok. Fixed that - all my weapons use strength (spear when thrown uses strength).
My strength modifier is +2 so:
Greatclub +2 [1d8+2] or Spear +2 [1d6+2/1d8+2] or Dagger +2 [1d6+2]
RIght now?
Thanks Rasp.
Rasp thanks for catching that
What I actually think will re/build the community for DND though is a messageboard/forum much like this one. From all my time on the DnD site I get a very top-down, less user-friendly, here's how it's going to be or get lost kinda vibe. The playtests have been welcome, but how much the community voice is taken inyo consideration post-feedback/in development wil remain to be seen...
Yeah, the WOTC D&D forum is not the best designed thing in the world. Especially if you're trying to view it Mobile. Not that Paizo is particularly great on a Mobile, but it's still leagues better than WOTC.
As far as I can tell, Mike Mearls has been pretty vocal behind the opening up of the Playtest, and he was apparently a big supporter of the old 3.5 OGL. Ad according to the development podcasts, they've been addressing a lot of the feedback from the play test.
A lot of the old guard has left WOTC as well. And the newer generation seems much more sympathetic to 3PP support, and more embracing of open source in general. Or at least that's the impression I'm getting. A lot of them were hired through being 3PP, after all.
Don't get me wrong, there's still plenty of time for WOTC to screw the pooch, but at least they seem to be heading in the right direction.