Hey folks, check in once you've got your account and alias set up
Hello, Belac93 here.
Hey folks! Once you get your alias up, please include the following in your profile's status bar somewhere:
AC, HP current/total, Passive Perception, saving throw DC for your spell effects
You can include other details as well, but these are musts.
This is Bookrat. I think this character is ready.
Rolling for starting trinket:
Welcome both. One thing I wanted to encourage, was the use of meta-ing this discussion thread. To keep the gameplay pace at the very least going at a slow crawl, Feel free to abuse the discussion thread.
Got and idea but don't have the IC time to discuss it? Have an idea, but it doesn't fit your character to think of it? Discuss it here, OOC, and if there is a topic another character suggests the party takes ooc, you can be the IC person that suggests it/acts on it. Hopefully this will save us some time.
I'm going to get a tentative gameplay post going here briefly, where you are riding into town. Feel free to chat IC until everyone has created their characters and are in the gameplay thread (your characters will awaken from the long ride as your characters are ready to play), and once we're all here, I'll bring you into town.
Do we know each other? Have we been traveling with each other for some time or are we all just happenstance to be traveling to the same destination at the same time?
Who are you people, anyways? Who am I, for that matter?
Do we know each other? Have we been traveling with each other for some time or are we all just happenstance to be traveling to the same destination at the same time?
Who are you people, anyways? Who am I, for that matter?
I was assuming that we have been traveling together for a few days, maybe a couple of up know each other. If anyone wants to link their backstory to mine, I'm cool with that.
I think you are a paranoid human warlock. Or maybe that's me. Who knows?
Well, I hope that was a good intro. Tried to tie in Sharla and Galenus together as friends. Hope you don't mind, Sharla!
It will be interesting to play this character; I've never played a mad character before. I've GM'd them, but that's a bit different than a full character.
The original thought behind this character was a person reaearching into the realities of lovecraftian lore and finding that it truly exists. And then being overjoyed by it. It fits in many settings.
How'd the rest of you come up with your characters?
Well, I hope that was a good intro. Tried to tie in Sharla and Galenus together as friends. Hope you don't mind, Sharla!
Its cool. All my previous 5e characters have been dark, anti-social jerks, so this is a nice change. Having friends is good.
How'd the rest of you come up with your characters?
I haven't played a bard, I like changelings, and I wanted to play a happy, charismatic character. Also most of my characters are LN, so a CN is pretty much the opposite of that.
EDIT: Also, the other option was a CN lightfoot halfling wild magic sorcerer with 8 wisdom, but I don't feel like any DM, or player, that I've played with deserves that.
I haven't played a warlock and none of my players have, either, and I wanted to understand the mechanics behind it. But also, I tend to play characters with strong tactical awareness and good leadership abilities. Even though this character is ripe for that with a high int and cha, I'm roleplaying him as more aloof and unimpressive. His high Cha is a reflection of his ability to force his patron to give him powers, rather than dealing with others.
Warlocks are fun. Probably my favorite class. I think, that with the combination of invocations, patrons, and pact boons, they have the highest number of builds. Even if you only count the boon and patron, thats still 9 builds in the players handbook, 12 with SCAG, and an extra 8 with the different UA's.
How you guys know each other up to you. You can either have been friends for a while, or met each other the previous night at the Inn before setting out this morning to Wyatt Peak. The choice is yours!
Yeah; we've kind of already established a relationship between the two of us. Still curious to what others are going to bring in.
I was thinking longer friends (like a couple of years), but just met up again after a few weeks or months.
I'm happy with that!
Varus, there are some inconsistencies I'm seeing in your character sheet. Are you still building it? For example, your gear doesnt seem to align with what a first level cleric or acolyte would have.
Yeah, that's fine. I totally understand for those that wish to do the standard 27 point buy, but I'll leave the rolling system for any additional re-rolls, when a player wishes to risk it! I think that randomization is a lot of fun, especially in a campaign where a character's life is potentially very brief.
As for the rest of your build, I plan on doing full reviews of everyone soon, but as we still have a forth person waiting before we get going, I have some time before I need to get all of that done.
At a glance, however, I don't think you should have 100 GP (Acolyte background gives 15 starting, and I don't think classes themselves give any starting coin, just gear). Additionally, please list your domain you chose near your class (life is it?), for ease of reference. I'd also like to chose your deity.
To all: I'm using the forgotten realms pantheon, even though the area of Wyatt Peak doesn't exist there. You may all pick a patron deity, or you may chose to skip it. Divine classes may only very rarely (and with much justification) omit having a patron deity. If you are unsure what fits your character due to lack of familiarity with the setting, tell me what sort of god you could see your character belonging to, and I'll suggest some that fit.
All that said, I'm excited, folks. We're just getting going, but I very much enjoy your interactions so far. Hopefully none of you die, but I expect those odds to be very low.
As for what to expect from me for this homebrew module, I have a pretty good idea what is going on here, but I have yet to hammer out fine details. This gameplay is giving me the motivation to hammer these points out. I do plan on having a much better idea as we go, so I'm not making a dungeon on the fly, but the entire module won't be built by the time you start going through it. I'll be trying to keep 'a few pages ahead', as it were. This is one reason why I'm searching for people who are cool with less active posting, to give me the time to dungeon build without having a ton of pressure to get it done for daily posting.
Re: 100 GP. Maybe from random starting gold taken in lieu of starting equipment from the class? Or it's from a previous character and he forgot to change it.
We tend to resuse aliases, which is a lot like reusing a character sheet.
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Okay, fair 'nuff. I may have just used 100 as a placeholder and didn't update it. (I'm still learning 5e. ^_^) I also put in all the domain features into the "special abilities" slot we I know just what the hell I'm supposed to be doing. (It seems like the inclusion of Cure makes Life pretty important, otherwise your first level cleric is stuck with Healing Word...but with everyone getting full hp after a long rest, that might not play as big a role. )
Anyway, YES! All manner if looking forward to it!!
GM Grey, you mentioned something about town-building? Or, something about what we do will affect our replacement characters? Just so you know, I'm the kind of macro gamer that is going to be ALL over whatever mechanics you have for that! =D
*hee* The party may actually have to prod their cleric along:
"Ya, okay, I know you want to spend another three weeks digging an irrigation trench so you can maximize your ROI on the agrarian economic system, but, um, remember the dungeon? Big bad evil? Fate of the world? Free gold?"
"Free gold? Why didn't you say so?"
=)
Varus, if you would like to use my template for a character sheet, I can provide a blank copy for your profile. It's a lot simpler format than the typical PF template.
Also, if I can request that you also put your race and class so it shows up in the header by your name? Makes it easier for the rest of us to remember some details. If not, that's ok, too. :)
I'm still around. Just been very busy with work this week.
Hey GM Grey, how do you feel if my characters are often a little weird or silly? I've often wanted to make oddballs (think dwarven acrobats and halfling cooks), but most games don't feel right for that, and this seems like it would be a good time to try.
Unless you have reason not to, please post with your character alias in this discussion. It's easier than checking who is which character to every message.
That said, sure! Go for it! I'm trying to not be very limiting in your character decisions. Just know that being silly at the wrong time might not be very advantageous (though it potentially could earn inspiration).
Cool! Thank you.
I'm looking forward to seeing who else joins. This will be interesting.
High mortality rate games are some of my favorites. Sticking with 1 character is hard when I have so many ideas I want to try out.
Switching to this discussion thread to continue the ongoing sock-ruling-debate.
I accidentally omitted a word, that might have cause some of the disagreement with my hypothetical ruling. When I said that Sharla would be doing an attack roll, AND Varus getting a reflex save, I meant to say that the attack roll would be setting the DC for that reflex save, not that Sharla would have two chances to fail. Basically said, the more accurate her throw, the easier it would be for Varus to get out of the way.
It isn't a perfect solution to this hypothetical problem, but I do see alternatives. I could rule it the way I originally did (Attack + Dex versus AC with advantage), which has its own failings. Or I could treat it like a dex-save provoking spell, where 8+dex mod sets the DC for a reflex save, and Sharla doesn't roll *anything* (But dex saves like this are generally AoE, and not simply a lineally projected object). I could also just say its an attack versus Varus's 10+dex mod, improvising a touch AC for this unique circumstance even though the rules don't necessarily work that way.
I think this is an interested point of discussion, but I doubt it'll be a pertinent one. The "tossed sock" is a threat not likely encountered in the oncoming campaign, and the stakes are low enough that a clear and well-discussed ruling on this might be inappropriate. That said, I'm curious on what any of your opinions on these options would be.
It certainly is interesting - but not for the subject which brought it about. It's more interesting for considerations of future rulings for similar situations. For example, what if I wanted to make a loud PING by bouncing a small rock off of Varus' armor? I think the ruling would be the same - it's at times when you're targeting the armor while not caring that it bypasses the armor's defense.
I like your idea of having the attack roll set the DC for a save, but at the same time it does increase the complexity of the action, which goes against the design philosophy of the system.
Socks, causing the longest discussions in D&D since 2016!
I like the DM's interpretation of the sock throw, but I would say a simple thing like a rock or sock, not meant to hurt but just to hit, would give the target an effective AC of 10 + dexterity modifier (up to a maximum of normal armor restrictions). So he would be hit on a 10, or a 12 if he was wearing any non-heavy armor.
Oh totally, and I'm really into handling those kinds of creative ideas, and encourage their use, and I plan on doing my best at fairly ruling those to the best of my GM abilities.
Thinking about it like the way you just described, it is almost unfair to even consider it a proper attack. Thinking about your tossing a rock examplem, the difference between simply hitting a persons armor harmlessly with something, and trying to do the same with a stationary object. The only real difference is that the armor, if worn, gets a chance to move if it is so inclined.
I may rule this as a simply dex-ability check, a roll against a certain DC from the "Typical Task DCs" (already listed on the campaign info tab). Trying to hit a specific thing would be more difficult the smaller the object is, and some things may be easy, and some might be very hard tasks.
If you want to hit something that cannot move, it is the dex check against the DC I've picked based on the size of the object. If the object would get a chance to dodge (such as it being worn/held by another creature) and wishes to take advantage of that chance, that DC is increased by the opponent's dex mod.
So if Sharla is trying to throw her sock to hit any part of Varus at that range, it would be DC 5+2 if he wishes to dodge. If she was aiming for his face, it would be 10+2 or so.
Seems good.
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Varus looks around cautiously, wondering why everyone is looking at him as if they're considering what kinds of things they can throw at him...
*chuckle* Mind you, this illustrates the reason why 3.5 and PFS had the 'touch attack' condition, in that sometimes you just need to strike the person at all, vs. striking them with a penetrating blow. 5E has a lot going for it, but if it has any resistance, it seems to be that the rules simply don't allow for advantages by degree.
(Um, is gameplay waiting on our fourth, yeah? Or am I supposed to throw the sock back? I can throw the sock back if it's an important sock. I know socks can be important like that. =)
Were mostly just roleplaying until our fourth arrives. Once that happens, we'll likely do a small bit of one last intro and then roll into town.
It is an important sock. I only have 2 pairs.
Aye, that's the plan all. RP your hearts out until our fourth "wakes up". Then we'll roll into town.
It shouldn't be too much longer before we have a fourth, I don't think. The wait has mainly been because we've had one person who was originally interested change their minds one after another, and I'm trying to give each an opportunity to play in the order they originally posted. The guy at the end of our list seems pretty enthusiastic though, so if the current guy I'm waiting on doesn't get back by this afternoon, hopefully Anders will be ready/able to take the spot.
Re-Sock/5th edition: One thing cool about 5th is that the rules are simple enough to be improvised fairly cleanly, something that I've had difficulty doing with other systems (players depending, of course). There are many solutions to this question of how to rule the sock throw that I find satisfactory. Maybe one isn't the 'perfect' call, but still gets the job done in a pinch and lets us continue. That's a rather big strength for 5th.
That said, advantage by degree is an issue, but I think I'm willing to sacrifice that for simplicity. I've played Shadowrun some, there's nothing as disruptive as calculating your dice and your target number when 5 different factors are influencing the check. In 5th adv, it's basically give adv or disadv and move on already.
Ok...I am all set...although, it seems we could do 27 point buy. I will need to change abilities from standard array to that. Otherwise Anders is all set.
As for the socks debate, I have always been in favor of GM setting creatibve DCs for creative situations outside of the rules. 5E allows for a great deal of that. I will awakien in the Gameplay thread soon enough.
I have bern gaming for 20+ years, and I am involved in several 5E PbPs on this site and my weekly tabletop game is 5E in Greyhawk.
Cool, welcome. Anders, you may either do dice rolling, or do that standard point by. Please PM me your choice before making a post on the board, so I have a timestamp showing me your decision so you are committed to any bad rolls made if that is the method you chose. Rolling is 4d6, drop the lowest, six times. Assign as desired.
In case anyone is curious about your GM, I've been playing D&D for probably 15 years, and DMing for most of that. I've done 3.0, 3.5, just finished a 4e campaign that I DMed for 4 years, and of course 5e. I've got several campaign on PbP's, and this is one of the two I'm actively GMing. I've played off D&D tabletop as well, Shadowrun, BESM, Pathfinder, Vampire... I've even been eyeing a professional wrestling tabletop system because why not.
I've played as a player and a DM with both players I've gotten along with, and those I have clashed with horribly. I have earned lessons of mediating players who disagree with each other, and reaching compromise with players who disagree with me.
I'm not used to playing high-fatality games, so this will be a learning experience. I tend to get too wrapped up with the particular characters being vital to the story being told, which isn't at all what I'm going for. I think I'm a better GM when I allow a player's mistake to get them killed, instead of fudging, so that is going to be my philosophy here. I will act neutral, you as players will need to figure out a way through this campaign, and my hints will be limited, but fairly given when earned. In an effort to show impartiality, I plan on doing all of my GM rolls in spoilers that can be reviewed. This will prevent me from fudging any rolls, either in or against the player's favor.
I am still designing this, so forgive me if there are some things that appear unpolished, as they most certainly will be from time to time.
I'm very excited to see how this all plays out, and more than anything I hope we can all have a good time!
I'll begin character sheet audits tonight, if I have the time, and then hopefully by early next week we'll all roll into town and begin the adventure.
Small test for GM experience with 5e: what would DCs would you rate as Very Easy, Easy, Moderate, Challenging, Difficult, and Extremely Difficult?
For example, in Pathfinder, I would rate 1-10 as very easy, 11-15 as easy, 16-22 as moderate, 23-34 as challenging, 35-50 as difficult, and 51+ as extremely difficult. It's not hard-set numbers, just ballpark figures.
Hes got all the DCs written down in campaign info. I think he knows what hes doing.
Well look at that! Right on target with what I'd place, too!
I was having a conversation on it with some friends, thought I'd try it here, too. But our dear GM preempted me!
Also, I feel like a jerk for not remembering that.
Mwa haha! I didn't even invent these DC's, so maybe a hollow victory. I pulled them (from somewhere... DMG maybe?) and have been using them as a guide for another campaign I run here. I just copied them from there, to here.
The real challenge is trying to come up with a fair assignment of what counts as "easy" or "hard", and giving the task the proper DC.
If you ever translate DCs from PF to 5e, I've been using the 1/2 +4 guideline. Works pretty well.
One point of procedure for a 5e play-by-post campaign is saving time with reactions, saving throws, inspiration, and the like.
When I affect a person with an effect that would prompt a saving throw, it would be convenient if I could roll for you. This gets tricky when a player is able to influence that roll, such as inspiration (bardic or normal). The same goes with attack rolls and certain reactions, it is difficult to know if something HITS or not until the player gets their say.
Since pbp is usually slow-going, this campaign probably even more-so, I would like to come up with a simply way to speed this along.
How would people feel about declaring potential reactions/off-turn-choices in advance?
Example:
My wizard Grellik possesses the Shield spell, which as a reaction can give me an AC bonus. When going into a dungeon, I let me GM know that my priority reaction will be to use Shield if I am hit, unless I have only 1 first level spell slot left. Otherwise, I'll use my reactions on opportunity attacks.
or...
My fighter has inspiration. I would like to automatically use it off-turn if I roll less than a 13 on any damage-dealing/mind-affecting seeming saving throws. Additionally, since I specialize in shields, I would like to use my reaction to automatically impose disadvantage when an adjacent ally is attacked...
Thoughts on this? The alternative to NOT doing something like this would be for me to declare a possible trigger, wait for a player to respond, and then resolve the action. This would require more back-and-forth posting than being able to resolve it in a single post.
I'd be perfectly ok with that - so long as I remember. I'm also ok with you rolling a save for me if you have to.
Looks mostly good! Just a few small things.
First, your entertainers pack, please break it up into its individual components for ease of referencing.
(copied from the PHB)
backpack, a bedroll, 2 costumes (please define), 5 candles, 5 days of rations, a waterskin, and a disguise kit.
Second, include a non-skill proficiencies area on your character sheet. There, include Disguise kit, and the four musical instruments you are proficient in (this can be singing).
Make another area where you can track current/total spell slots, and hit dice, for ease of tracking their use as we begin the crawl.
Out of curiosity, what did you spend 1 sp on?
Just a few things. Generally speaking, I like the format of your sheet, how you have a spoiler for each catagory of character creation, describing your chosen skills/languages.
-Shouldn't your initiative be only +1? And your AC only 12? I'm guessing you were playing around with what you wanted your dex to be, and forgot to change some details.
-You didn't update your con to 16 from the feat, on the left-hand array of stats (everything else using con is correctly calculated).
-Make another area where you can track current/total spell slots, and hit dice, for ease of tracking their use as we begin the crawl.
All finished.
The sp. was on a set of common clothes. If I need to shift to someone, I can't just be wearing tights.
Hmmm, I thought up an intimidation tactic. I can wear my tights, and shift into a very hairy dwarf.
Ah! In that case, spend 4sp more. Common clothes cost 5sp.
That tactic is terrifying.
All finished...went with the 27 point buy. Audit away, GM Grey.