The Dales and Beyond

Game Master littlehewy

GM, are you planning on awarding inspiration?

Sure thing, although it's a brand new mechanic for me, and I rarely think of it. I would encourage you guys to shout out if you think someone has done something worthy of inspiration - that'll remind me to consider it.

Also, you're all now over half way to second level (170 XP each) :)

Beerg's prayer was what made me think of it.

Yep, Beerg's prayer was great. I'm also sure that if I look back through the gameplay I could find an example of every one of you doing great roleplaying of your characters, so I'm going to award everyone inspiration. From now on, I'm going to put the onus on you folks to call out cool stuff, like heroic actions, character-based decisions that maybe aren't optimal, or great roleplaying from your party mates, and suggest that I give inspiration, just like Nilelane has done here.

You guys are a lot of fun, looking forward to seeing how the next section of this dungeon goes :)

Sorry folks, gameplay thread wasn't showing up in my focused threads... Not sure why. Just only noticed your posts, I'll be responding shortly.

Sorry for the lack of posts everyone, a very busy weekend for me. I'm glad the spider didn't get Beerg that round...

Yeah, but now Kraz needs to drop it befor it gets another attack lol.

My weekends are busy too!

Hoping that counts as dropping it..

Sure does!

Another 200 XP for the party, which takes each of you to 210 XP, 90 short of level 2.

WHOOT!!! Lets get that 90xp and move on up!!lol

Just to reassure you Kraz, this is a bit of a tough dungeon (not ToH nasty, but there is the possibility of PC death), and your rages certainly helped in those first two battles. Sorin's gone down already, and that spider needed to be smashed quickly, so don't second guess yourself too much. Like I mentioned in the gameplay thread, once you folks find a secure spot you'll be able to set the pace a bit more.

On an unrelated note, I'm thinking of using modified resurrection rules, such as the ones found here. Personally I hate stress-free resurrection. Thoughts?

I'm fine using those, as long as that undead goblin thing isn't the caretaker of my soul.

I am very pleased to announce that, as Nilelane's finding of the secret door effectively "wins" this encounter, the party receives another 450 XP, meaning that you are now all 2nd level. Woohoo! I'm quite happy for you all to level up immediately, without requiring a rest.

So how do we want to do hp? I'm happy to just roll, although I like to have a minimum of half the die. So if you're rolling a d10 and get a 3, you'll actually get 5 instead (+ Con bonus). That work for everybody?

Nice! Must've been the elven blood kicking in.

On the hp note, I can't for the life of me figure out why I have 8 hp. Should be 7 I think. Then for 2nd...

1d6 ⇒ 3 +1 = 4

Will have the rest of the updates soon.

Love the rule. Adds an edge to it.
hp: 1d10 ⇒ 10 + 2 cons= 12

Nice roll :)

Can’t complain with that Beerg. Half minimum is just fine with me.

1d8 ⇒ 1

Really glad for that rule now. 4+1 it is.
I’m assuming you want me to rest before I can cast spells? This is my first level of cleric

Def happy with the 10
with great weapon fighting. are you allowing all damaged from a 2 handed weapon top be re rolled if a 1 or 2 or just physical damage?

Ok, roll for HP

1d8 + 1 ⇒ (4) + 1 = 5

Well half it is...lol

Was also curious of the level and spell slots, is my new slot ready for use or do I need to rest first?

I'm thinking as a wizard you need to memorise your spells still, so should wait for a rest... Nothing is refreshed yet, so any powers that require rest are not available. Does that sound fair?

Absolutely, just wanted to know.

I think I can have some fun with disguise self, and I like illusory script for the map. I know I need some "standards" like alarm and identify but its not very fun to fill up my spellbook with a bunch of the same old rituals. Hopefully can find a spellbook or maybe visit the mage back in town for spell copying at some point.

I can guarantee that those standards will be accessible from NPCs, so don't feel like you need to take them. At worst you'll need to wait to get back to "town" to access those spells. You should go with spells you think are fun and useful.

Sry folks had a birthday party today of my oldest.

Will get everything updated soon.

Gains reckless attack and danger sense.

Hp Roll: 1d12 ⇒ 12 nice!!

Well our up fronters nailed it so that’s good lol.

Oh, just noticed you went cleric for your second level Sorin. Was that always your plan? Or a response to the party makeup? As for spells, yes, you'll need to rest and memorise them before you can use them. You could always rest immediately, but of course, resting has its dangers, depending on where you do it.

EDIT: Just looking over your character sheet, I can see you were always planning to take a few cleric levels.

Yeah. War cleric was always the plan. There will not be another level in it for quite a while though.

Did you see my cooment above GM? re the re rolling of 1's and 2's on damage? i had a google and saw most allow all damage dice but thought i'd check first as ill go defensive otherwise.

@Beerg I'll look into it, but first impression is that it doesn't qualify certain dice - I imagine that means any die you roll for damage gets the reroll.

My thoughts too. Perfect. Now just to remember to re roll. That’s always the problem.

Okay so I think I figured Google Slides out, actually a piece of cake. Map link at the top of the page!

Nice, yeah its a good tool. One thing that helps sometimes is the zoom, there are 2 different zooms which is confusing. Normally you control+/- to zoom webpages but that just does the interface in slides. To zoom the actual battle map you have to control alt +/-. Not sure how its done on phone.

Slides on mobile are great for reference. Don’t try any modifying though.

Quick question, has anyone used their inspiration? Just remember that you all got it. You may need it at some point, not this battle necessarily, but never go down with inspiration in the bank!

Actually, I do not recall having it lol. I’ve never put it on my stat block which I usually do.

I missed that as well. Duely noted.

So a newbie question how and what do we use inspiration for?

Any d20 roll (attack, save, check...but not damage), gives you advantage. I usually use mine instantly since you can't have more than one, but haven't had a burning need to yet. You can also give your inspiration to a fellow player if they don't have it.

Hey folks, I'm on the road again this weekend, and it's my birthday, so just checking in to say I won't be posting much till Sunday. But as for inspiration, I'm quite happy for you guys to use it, or grant it to another player, after the roll. Face to face it would be different, but pbp you often don't know what's happening till after someone rolls. So use it as you will.

Sorry for the slight delay in response time there folks, had a busy weekend out of town. Glad to see you all helped out Beerg with inspiration :)

As a GM I don't allow misses to hit allies, even on a fumble roll. That makes ranged classes even less appealing. If Wizards thought something like that needed implementing they would have it in core rules.

As a GM I don't allow misses to hit allies, even on a fumble roll. That makes ranged classes even less appealing. If Wizards thought something like that needed implementing they would have it in core rules.

This optional rule is in the DMG (Hitting Cover, p 272), and was a specific rule that I mentioned I would be using on the recruitment thread. My houserule (the one I suggested we discuss) was the one that made it less likely to hit characters, and in fact resulted in Beerg not being hit. Going by the DMG rule, Beerg was hit, even though he's well-armoured. I think that's silly, so I houseruled that it had to beat Beerg's armour as well.

I think it's important to note that this doesn't just affect ranged characters. If a character or object is providing cover from a melee attack, the same rule applies.

The rule also applies if you are attacking a creature that gains cover from its own ally, thus making it more likely for you to hit a group of enemies in some situations.

It also means that objects that provide cover can be hit and damaged if an attack roll would have hit the target but didn't because of the object providing cover, such as a door.

I will also be assiduously applying this rule to hostile NPCs.

However, if it is a serious problem, we can drop it. I don't want rules options, even ones that were stated up front as part of my original plan, to lessen anyone's enjoyment. This goes for all the other DMG optional rules I specified on the recruitment thread, including tumbling, cleaving through hordes of low-level creatures, and the possibility of lingering injuries (although that would be discussed with the player in question if it ever happened, and I'm not sure it ever will).

My 2e DM used it back in the day, if I recall it was not a variant but part of the normal ranged combat for that edition. Something like a 1 in 6 chance blanket applied...(digs out 2e rules)

edit: Ah nope, it was way more complicated of course:

When missiles are fired into a melee, the DM counts the number of figures in the immediate area of the intended target. Each Medium figure counts as 1. Small (S) figures count as ½, Large as 2, Huge as 4, and Gargantuan as 6. The total value is compared to the value of each character or creature in the target melee. Using this ratio, the DM rolls a die to determine who (or what) will be the target of the shot.
ex. Tarus Bloodheart (man-size, or 1 point) and Rath (also man-size, or 1 point) are fighting a giant (size G, 6 points) while Thule fires a long bow at the giant. The total value of all possible targets is 8 (6+1+1). There's a 1 in 8 chance that Rath is the target; a 1 in 8 chance that Tarus is hit; and a 6 in 8 chance the shot hits the giant. The DM could roll an 8-sided die to determine who gets hit, or he could reduce the ratios to a percentage (75% chance the giant is hit, etc.) and roll percentile dice.

I know were not playing 2e, just saying, its been in the game a while and I don't really have a problem with it.

Ha I remember Rath - he was in all the examples :)

Honestly, it's a rule I really like (I have even planned a scene around it!), but if people really dislike it, we can get rid of it. I don't want anyone feeling like I'm a dictator, or against the party, or anything like that, so feel free to speak up if you hate it and I'll get rid of it.

As for the battle, not looking so bad now that Beerg's reminded me of his relentless endurance - but still dicey! Roll well folks!

I personally don't feel like it's neccessary, but you are not going to hurt my feelings by using it. Just feels like it would be a shame to kill ones own party member..

Thanks for hitting the adv rolls. Some of the clarification has turned the battle slightly more in our favor. If Beerg has been down and Kraz poisoned, I was going to get VERY worried.

As to the optional rule... I have no problem with it especially since it was mentioned to start. I am very tactical in combat though and enjoy the extra complexity. What it may force Jack, Nilelane, and myself to a certain extent to be more carefull when positioning and targeting.

So just to clarify though, I had used adv from the hide roll from earlier. I had used the flanking as a descriptive term. I’m not sure of the actual wording on the optional flanking rules but I think it would severely impact Kraz’s reckless attack feature and not that I love it but it negates some monsters pack tactics ability.

Along those lines, I agree. I don't like that flanking gives advantage, its too easy. A lot of the cleric and bard stuff's only point is to give advantage, and whats the point of casting it they can just sidestep in most situations. Especially since it doesn't even provoke to walk in threatened area.

Oh okay, it didn't even occur to me to ask about flanking, although just checking the DMG, it's definitely an optional rule. I do like flanking, and the movement it encourages, but I can see where you guys are coming from. After this fight we can drop it if no one has a problem with that, and I'll probably also put a hold on hitting cover so we can discuss that further if need be.

For Kraz's reckless attack, I would think that being flanked would make it sometimes easier to decide to use it - if he's being flanked anyway, he may as well go for it, as there would be no further negative consequences. And my half-orc thug used pack tactics in this fight when flanking Beerg wasn't an option.

Please keep discussing all these rules, I think it's really important that everyone has their say, and gives all their reasons for why they think the way they do. Like any RPG ruleset, 5e makes compromises between playability, realism, and balance - I don't think there's ever one correct way to play a game, it's what we're all going to enjoy the most. Though we've only been playing together a short while, I can already tell that nobody here will be trying to game the system, so speak up and speak loud if you have an opinion on something!