I have somewhat mixed feelings about our wounds system. I appreciate that it makes it riskier to just get knocked down, healed by life spirits to refresh your death saves, and get knocked down again. But the majority of the wounds are just eliminated by any magical healing at all and those that aren't can be rather nasty and hard to remove.
What do you guys think of changing it to one level of exhaustion when you get knocked down and healed back? We could also say that short rests eliminate one level of exhaustion. I think that's a little more middle-of-the road since a level of exhaustion isn't easy to remove quickly but is very easy to remove given any amount of time. I do think this would be a little harder on you guys than the current system, though simpler since you wouldn't roll on the table, so I am prepared to consider bribing you if we want to go this route.
Oh and since this encounter is all but mopped up, I went ahead and calculated your XP reward. It's big. This was a 14000 xp encounter so I already added 3500 xp to everyone who was here for most of it. And I'm of course starting Uki at your same level of xp. Another one like that and you guys will be level 6. Which would be great as I can think of several game-changing boosts various builds get at level 6, e.g. every ally within 10 ft of SAM will get to add his cha to all saves. One of the best features in the game, imo. Uki will get magical secrets, which is also very, very good.
Even though it limits the number of times you can go down in a fight by the natural entropy of the exhaustion mechanic, I would prefer it to losing an appendage. So I am in favor of it.
It’s a good thing SAM saved against that venom or he would be dead.
I feel like I should note that I've decided healing in combat isn't really a good use of spell slots unless it's bringing people back to consciousness. Given how much damage enemies do, it's probably more useful to make an attack for 4d6 damage to try to kill them sooner than it is to heal 1d4+4, which their next attack will just blast through anyway (or if you want to scale that up, 6d6 vs 3d4+4). As such, I'm probably going to try casting more offensive spells from now on. Though I'm also planning to start every day with a 3rd level Aid spell on myself + SAM and Horat.
Also, welcome Uki!
The best debuff we can put on an enemy is "Dead", as the adage goes...
I'm fine with the exhaustion change.
I have no great issue with the change, but I'm still shaky enough on 5e rules that I can't really see any possible consequences.
I currently have an earache so my response time might be affected.
Ooh sorry to hear that! I had a ton of those growing up. Horrible.
So personally, I'm not sure I agree with the statement that the combined spirit is better. It's probably better than the Water or Sun spirits but the Wind and Earth spirits have different uses. Specifically, the Wind spirit is useful because it doesn't have a range limit and the Earth spirit is useful for slowing down the enemy's approach. I'm still honestly leaning towards a Wind spirit. And then seeing if we can dismiss the Water spirit and replace it with a combined spirit. If I'm in the minority, I'll go with the combined spirit though.
I think that approach hinges on whether we can swap out a water spirit or not.
I mean, even if we can't, I'm still leaning towards a Wind spirit.
You can spend inspiration to pull any spirit off the map and replace it with something you think will be better, either in the same location or somewhere else.
Regardless of what you choose, I think you'd benefit from wearing fiends down with more of a gauntlet before they get to your choke-point made of PCs. Now the easiest way for that to happen would be if I gave you a bunch more spirits. XD Not yet.
I find the idea of wearing them down over time compelling, but the fact of the matter is that they are rarely more than one turn's movement away from immediately engaging us in melee.
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Yeah another earth spirit might be the key for that. Healing forever isn't going to work. They will decide to just shove or grapple you out of the way eventually.
I am going to change aoe damage spirits to deal damage to a fiend who starts their turn or enters the area. It's a little simpler and avoids them just rushing past an aoe spirit with their short range.
PSA, I'm open to the use of homebrew spells from DnD Beyond's compilation. But some of them are horribly overpowered while others are just pointless or very under-described so I would have to specifically ok one you are interested in picking up. And then I might have to ask you to swap it back out later if it got out of control.
Also, you guys are going to have a short rest before the next wave so keep talking and/or planning and reset abilities that operate on a short rest.
Are there any spells that you think would suit this group's mission?
Haha. There are SOOO many and I have only looked at a few so my answer is the same as when you asked in our other 5e pbp game. But I decided to research an answer this time and I think Holy Canon would be well-suited here, though I might nerf it a little bit if someone wanted to use it in our game.
GM: how about the home-brew cantrip entitled "Black/Holy fire"? I'm interested in "Holy Canon" too but I currently don't deal enough radiant damage to make it worthwhile.
Holy Canon is very nice but you do already have to be causing radiant or necrotic damage to get that bonus. Not every attack will have that.
The extra damage on a divine smite is radiant.
Blacky/holy fire seems poorly written and, if I understand it correctly, overpowerd. A cantrip that grants bonus damage on all weapon attacks for a minute without taking your concentration? Plus resistance to a damage type?
Fair point!
Yeah another earth spirit might be the key for that. Healing forever isn't going to work. They will decide to just shove or grapple you out of the way eventually.
I am going to change aoe damage spirits to deal damage to a fiend who starts their turn or enters the area. It's a little simpler and avoids them just rushing past an aoe spirit with their short range.
Just to confirm, is it okay to change the text in the map descriptions to reflect this?
To avoid any possible confusion later.
Yes! Please do.
I added this to the description of the Earth and Sun spirits:
"Deals damage to a fiend who starts their turn within this radius or enters the area."
Thanks Horat.
Good luck with this, fellows. I think you might not having the force spirit that can deal aoe damage to grounded or flying enemies alike but we'll see. Always better to be suspicious! XD
Perhaps!
I take it that the centaurs are getting hurt entering the earth spirit AOEs before they get to us?
Yes indeed. 1 damage marked off. ;)
It's a start!
Will post tomorrow.
@GM: does SAM’s Devil’s Sight Invocation allow him to see through the homebrew spell?
Devil's Sight
You can see normally in darkness, both magical and nonmagical, to a distance of 120 feet.
Family emergency. Will update tomorrow.
@S.A.M.: I hope things work out well.
So sorry to hear that. Certainly no rush or pressure to do PBP when there are important things like family matters going on.
Just a heads up, I'm going to be doing a virtual con from this Saturday through Monday. I except I will not have time to update any of my games during it, so bot me as necessary.
@Olivia: Cheers for the heads up and enjoy.
Shall I pop down another 4 Elements Spirit, or would even more healing be good? Or another plan?
Another 4 elements spirit? You don't have one yet. My point of view, these demons are really going to pile up on you guys if you don't have serious aoe damage whittling them down.
Darn, I thought someone had popped one down for some reason. Force Spirit does sound like the next big thing, though.
I think it will be needed. Not many enemies resist force damage either.
I don't know of any! Inspiration for anyone who can find a monster who does!
A quick google search suggests that unless something has changed in the past year, there's nothing that resists force damage and one creature that's immune to force damage. There do seem to be some items that grant resistance to force damage.
Hello everyone, barring objections, tonight I will create a force spirit.
It's fine, I did it. You're more useful hitting things I suspect.
So what is immune to force damage then?
So what is immune to force damage then?
The Helmed Horror. I believe it's a type of construct.
Interesting! Thanks for that.
Inspiration to Olivia for finding something immune to force!
My impression was that the charm effect was a special ability, not a spell, and therefore not something that could be Counterspelled. Is this accurate? Doesn't matter so much for Horat, but it would be relevant if they try to use that ability of Liv.
FWIW, if Horat doesn't use the bardic inspiration (or if he does and still fails), my plan is to blast him to provoke another save.
I spent that bardic inspiration...to no avail.
Liv, blast away as you see fit.