Shadow Over the Dales (Inactive)

Game Master dickie

Welcome to the SOtD Discussion thread!

Just to give some background on how I am looking to run things, I am using existing modules, true, however I will be altering plenty about them. I'm also taking encounters and situations from other modules and accessories. I want to keep my own tinkering to a minimum, because life is busy, lol.

One way I will be setting this up is by using a sort of video-game style semi-sandbox. There will be a main quest line, but rumors and wandering into certain places will trigger side quests.

I want you to have as much agency as possible. The only real buy-in is that the characters have decided to be involved in helping Daggerdale and/or fighting the Zhentarim for now. The starting post is going to make an assumption along those lines, and will begin with the characters already on the road in pursuit of a minor task. Blame the dragon for the in media res, just seemed the best way to make sure everyone was there from the start! This mission is being undertaken on behalf of a bard, and is supposed to be a courier run to Shadowdale.

If you have any character storylines you want me to work in, make sure I'm aware! You can choose to know or not know anyone else before the start, hammer that out below.

When you post in combat or other round-based scenes, be sure to add the following information to your post:

Declare your action as a player using the out of combat tag. On the next line display your Weapon or casting speed. Below that roll your initiative modified normally, and any rolls you need to make for your action (attack, damage if attack hits, proficiency check, etc.).

+/- Weapon/casting speed
Initiative: 1d10 + 1 ⇒ (5) + 1 = 6
Any other rolls.

Recommended format for classes/levels line:

AL Gender Race Class (Kit) 1 | HP X/Y | AC 10 | DA -1 MDA +1 | PPD 20 RSW 20 PP 20 BW 20 MS 20 | Reaction Adj +1 | Vision XX’ | [spoiler =Status]None.[/ spoiler]

If anyone has a format for aliases that's clean to read they feel like sharing, feel free. I will be putting up links to things over the next few days as well as other useful information in the campaign page. Sorry for the wall of text!

Oh, right, nearly forgot. The GM for an Al Qadim game I'm in uses a smart method for attack rolls I want to use in this game. You roll your THAC0 - 1d20 - bonuses + penalties. The result ends up being the best AC you could hit for the roll.

For example, a character with a THAC0 of 18 and a +2 to hit would roll:

Attack: 18 - 1d20 - 2 ⇒ 18 - (8) - 2 = 8

That character's attack will hit an AC of 8, 9, or 10. Just a handy shortcut that will make things easier all around.

I also didn't mention the "dead turn" problem. Sometimes with declare/resolve combats you end up trying to attack someone your teammate already incapacitated, or a portal is closed before you can fire an arrow, or a dozen other problems. When that happens, you can take either a +1 to AC or a +1 to any d20 roll you take in the following round.

First! :D

Hi, you said to discuss here, further, so I will.

Things I still need to know before I can finish my character:

- Do you have a harper kit you'd like me to use?
- I'm assuming you don't want altered classes, amirite?
- Is my martial art OK?
- If you direly need a mage for the party, I could multiclass. Same goes for thief. Do you want me to?
- do things go wrong if I don't have a ranged weapon?

You can ignore the stats on this PC for the moment. I'm recycling an account from another game. I'll have stats up and running by tonight, I think.

@Viindar - yeah, it will be fine once you swap the dim mak out for weapon breaker. Feels more guerrilla to me that way. Deny your opponents resources so they're easier to harm. Plus it's like the only offensive manuever that isn't weapon based. And that Movement 5 is the one that seems OP AF, so, yeah, no, lol. Cross that one off the list.

I like it overall, but want to remind you that further training will be difficult. Very, very difficult considering how the sylvan are so isolationist. The training factor is actually one of the reasons I'm willing to work with it. It provides possible story opportunity and gives me a certain level of management over how fast you can pick them up.

I need to do a little more work reading the stuff and figuring out which manuevers may be available to you at the start.

I will skim thru the Harpers book and see if anything jumps out at me.

Edit/Update - There actually are not any kits. There is a base class (warrior subclass) that I wasn't previously aware of (or simply forgot about) in the Warriors and Priests of the Realms book.

What really matters is that they arrived in your community a couple of years earlier in response to the Time of Troubles, called in a favor and walked off with a guerrilla warrior as a recruit to help them in their campaign against the Zhentarim in the Dales. You're not a full member yet (no pin), but they're hoping to keep you on the path.

I should clarify, I'm not telling you to take that class, just noting it's existence, lol.

Other folks could use help punching up their characters and we have some experts here to help, so don't be shy about figuring out ways to really get the most out of your choices!

Mechanically speaking, and with the exception of some gear, I think my character is finished.

EDIT:In fact, I sitll have to choose the languages. What are the languages avaliable?

So i take it we are all good to post here, are we also using discord to help update each other an stuff? Its generally faster. That said, im gonna need some help on making the proper character sheet. And do i need a kit? What comes on a dwarf?

Kits are like archetypes for PF. You don't need them, you can play the base class.

Dwarves are quite sturdy with bonuses in their saving throw depending on their constitution score, but they are limited in their class selection and have a harder time activating some magical items.

You can find a 2e character sheet in myth weavers (click on the link under my alias). Just try to fill everything there. In comparison to PF or 3.5, 2e characters sheets have fewer things to fill.

I'll use this alias for my thief, will get profile and short background later today.

what is thac0?

To Hit Armor Class 0

Base to hit, before BAB existed. It works the same, but is written differently.

For example, fighters still gain a +1/level, however it is expressed in the rules as THAC0 19, 18, 17, etc.

Iterative attacks are based on level, weapon, and weapon proficiencies like weapon expertise or specialization.

I don't usually use Discord for my PBPs, I'd be willing to if folks really considered it needed.

Here is a comprehensive (and huge) list of languages in the Realms.

Its a remnant from a time when lookup tables were a thing for attacks. Thac0 is a reference point on how to slide the table. For example, a fighter with 19 thac0 would look like this:

10 9
9 10
8 11
7 12
6 13
5 14
4 15
3 16
2 17
1 18
0 19 <---thac0
-1 20
-2 --

...and could know at a glance they need a 16 to hit AC 3, a 20 to hit AC -1, a 10 to hit AC 9, etc. Bonuses to hit slide the right column down, penalties slide it up.

The table can be put in formula form as:

Thac0-target AC=roll required+bonus

or equivalently (and conveniently for these boards)

Thac0-roll-bonus=AC hit

DM, would you mind opening up the gameplay thread so we can dot it? It makes it so much easier to track changes from our campaign pages.

Ok, great!

I'm adding weapon breaker to the style, and removing movement 5. I also need to remove... Ehh... Dim mak?? I assume that's a typo. What was it?

For kit, I'm probably going for Wilderness Warrior (fighter's handbook), which means I'll have to switch dex and con. A shame, because it'll lose me a -1 AC bonus. Luckily, the Flowing Canopy style provides. I know kits are optional, but I like them.

I'm ok with training difficulties, and I like the notion of being a harper novice. It reflects my player knowledge of the Harpers.

For thac0, I find it easier to subtract all bonuses from thac0 before rolling, so, with example thac0 18 and +2 bonus, instead of rolling 18-(d20+2), I just roll 16-d20.

Lastly... I'm completely new to PBP. All mentions of character in profile and discord and stat lines need a little extra info for me. And I'll need some time to adjust. About that. I'm quite busy until march 1st (a deadline). I can definitely make the character complete before that, but please bear with me if I do things a little different.

Ok, at least I came as far as to create an Alias :D

(Viondar, here)

Opened up a gameplay, please only dot in for now. Probably not super active today on my end, but will check in and address anything I'm needed for when I can.

So on these boards folks typically use the classes/levels line to display some critical character info. It displays under the alias' name. Usually it contains the sort of information a GM needs to see at a glance like AC, initiative modifiers, hps, saves, etc. See Davin's post above in this thread for an example.

Dim Mak is the legendary nerve point where a martial artist could strike and instantly (or in some legends, after a specific time has passed) slay their opponent. I was slanging up the top tier vital power (which actually references the Dim Mak in the text). It isn't really that powerful, but it just doesn't fit as well as everything else in my mind.

Discord is a chat service that gets a ton of use from gamers of all sorts (and for some reason some extremist political groups). Pretty robust app, I use it for Star Trek Fleet Command, lol, but have also used it as a backup audio/text chat when Roll20's native A/V is sucking.

Thanks! I'll creata a stat block!
And thanks for the Dim Mak explanation and the discord stuff. I'll look into discord and see if I'll need to make my political viewpoint more extreme, to properly use it ;) .

Equipment isn't finished yet. Just put down the real basics. Still need food and stuff.

Also, I'll work on a short background.

CG female sylvan elf fighter (Wilderness Warrior) 1 | HP 10/10 | AC 2 | DA ? MDA ? | PPD 14 RSW 16 PP 15 BW 17 S 17 | Reaction Adj +0 | Vision 60’ infravision | [spoiler =Status]None.[/ spoiler]

Got this stat block.

But what's DA and MDA?
I read that as defence adjustment and magical defence adjustment. But the first could be incorporated into AC and the second makes no sense.

So... What is it?

No, you're correct, defense adjustment and magical DA. DA doesn't apply to rear attacks, situations where movement is severely restricted, and a few other situations, so it can be helpful to parse any bonus from AC.

I guess MDA isn't needed by a GM much, but could help a player remember to take them into account when they apply (mind-affecting spells). It wouldn't be the end of the world to leave it out.

Actual gameplay is now open.

@Alyna - some simple conventions we use on these boards, "We typically bold dialogue to draw attention to it." While inner monologues and thoughts are often italicized. Also, you don't need to copy/paste the stat line. If you click on the alias, you can edit the class/level line itself to display. Let's see... anything else helpful folks can think of?

Posting to get the character in here, I know I need weapons and armor... but after that I'm lost on how to get thac0

There are advancement tables for the 4 main groups of classes in the PHB, but since we're level 1 everyone has a base thac0 of 20. As a fighter, this will reduce by 1 every level (kind of like how BAB in pathfinder increases by 1 every level).

Posting to get the character in here, I know I need weapons and armor... but after that I'm lost on how to get thac0

You might want to read through the first chapters of the player's handbook. Text-only versions of the book are quite easy to find by just googling.

In short. We all start at thac0 20. Then we advance:
Warrior classes: 1 per level
Priest classes: 2 per 3 levels (so at level 3, they go from 20 to 18)
Rogue classes: 1 per 2 levels
Wizard classes: 1 per 3 levels

Some classes or kits specifically deviate from this list. For example:
Crusader (faiths and avatars) is a priest class with warrior advancement.
Swashbuckler (thieve's handbook) is a thief (rogue class) with warrior advancement in certain weapons
Shinobi thief (ninja handbook) is a thief with wizard advancement.

Etc.

so starting money would be 5d4 ⇒ (2, 2, 3, 4, 1) = 12 times 10

So I would get chainmail, a medium shield, a broadsword, and a battle axe for 93 out of my 120, so what should I get next? And even reading the book im still a bit lost how or if I even add anything to my attack

The gameplay say it's only dotting, but I'm not sure if the actual game already begun.

Beau, with 16 strength you don't have a strength modifier to your attack roll. (but it does give +1 damage)

As dwarf race, you get a +1 bonus attack against orc, half-orc, goblins, and hobgoblins.

If you prefer battleaxe, you could spend 2 of your weapon proficiencies to get a special fighter thing called 'weapon specialization' which would give you a +1 to hit (and +2 to damage). You would have 2 slots leftover for backup weapons.

So, assuming you do that, your thac0 is 20 and for battleaxe you would get a +1 against everything, but a +2 against those listed goblinoids. Your rolls would look like:

Attack: 20 - 1d20 - 1 ⇒ 20 - (8) - 1 = 11
Damage: 1d8 + 3 ⇒ (3) + 3 = 6

My result here means I would only hit something with AC 11.

Specialization also gives you an extra attack every other round. 1 in the first, 2 in the next, 1 in the next, etc

So would that even hit anything? at 11?

No, that would be a pretty bad roll (an 8 on the dice). High rolls for attacks are better. AC starts at 10 for monsters and gets lower. Stuff you fight at level 1 is in the 5-10 range usually. A goblin has AC 6, a zombie has AC 8.

Yeah, the gameplay is officially live.

I knew I was forgetting an obvious convention in the Buick post above, languages are typically kept behind a spoiler tag. Usually more important on my end, hut some players like being in the dark and relying on translation. Sometimes folks will even slip a different language than English in altogether (I used Mongolian for the gith in my Dark Sun game, yay Google Translate!).

Giving folks time to chime in before I judge forward on my end.

I only just now saw this thread!

Wow, all this forum downtime hit at just the right time. :(

Will do from now on in the languages department.

Ehm, I could do a different language, if that makes people happy. I speak Dutch (native), German, and a bit of Spanish and French. However, if it were up to me, I'd just put English behind a spoiler tab :D

Also... Who is actually in the party now?
I read something about another bladesinger (a fighter/mage) but I don't see them...

I see
A crystal dragon psionicist
A high elf thief
A dwarf fighter
A human priest of Helm
Myself... (wood elf bladesinger single class fighter)

Am I missing anyone??

Quick recap on combat posting!

Combat follows a declare then resolve flow in this edition. So player's declare what they're going to do, then roll initiative for the turn, then the actions are resolved in initiative order. Note their are some odd rules for multiple attacks. The first in a series from the same source (a bow for example) happens in initiative order, the rest after basically everyone has acted. Attacks from multiple sources (usually monsters with claw, claw, bite for example) happen all at once.

When you post in combat or other round-based scenes, be sure to add the following information to your post:

Declare your action as a player using the out of combat tag. On the next line display your Weapon or casting speed. Below that roll your initiative modified normally, and any rolls you need to make for your action (attack, damage if attack hits, proficiency check, etc.).

+/- Weapon/casting speed
Initiative: 1d10 + 1 ⇒ (5) + 1 = 6
Any other rolls.

Remember that attack rolls should be THAC0-1D20 minus positive modifiers, plus negative ones.

Ernie the Example has a THAC0 of 19 with a +1 to hit with a longsword because Ernie the Example is an elf. He has no damage bonus. The sword has a speed of 5.

Ernie will move 20 yards forward and attack a goblin with his longsword.

Speed 5
Init: 1d10 + 5 ⇒ (8) + 5 = 13
Longsword: 19 - 1d20 - 1 ⇒ 19 - (19) - 1 = -1
Damage: 1d8 ⇒ 7

Ernie would hit the goblin assuming it has an AC -1 or worse (if the gobbo has a -1 AC, he must be a nasty one!) inflicting 7 damage to it on initiative count 13.

I know two weapon fighting attacks occur simultaneously, but how does it work with initiative? I have a broadsword +5 and shortsword +3.

I thought there was an official rule, but I cannot find it. In the past I've had them added together. For now operate that way, I'll see if I can find an official answer when I have some free time.

What we used to do, was add additional attacks by adding the weapon speed once more.

So broad sword and short sword (speed 5 and 3) would be:
First attack: 1d10 + 5 ⇒ (1) + 5 = 6
Second attack: 6+3 = 9
So you would hit people at initiatives 6 and 9

But I'm not sure if that's official or just the way my group used to do it.

Thanks! I'll creata a stat block!

And thanks for the Dim Mak explanation and the discord stuff. I'll look into discord and see if I'll need to make my political viewpoint more extreme, to properly use it ;) .

** spoiler omitted **

Equipment isn't finished yet. Just put down the real basics. Still need food and stuff.

Also, I'll work on a short background.

I set down to write a small background, but... most of it we've already decided...
She's a sylvan elf noble. She's never been out of the forest before the Harpers came to ask for help. The Sylvan council thought it was being very generous by granting them one elf: Alyna Nym.
For some reason the Harpers asked her to be in this region to mingle with the humanfolk, which is why she took on this job of delivering a message for gold.

About those rules (replying to the recruitment thread)

The rules don't say anything about the Bladesinger kit preventing you from taking the fighting style. I understand the quoted section, but the kit doesn't mention any mechanical style, per se. I guess that's in case the DM isn't using the optional proficiency rules from Combat and Tactics. Adding the proficiency rules should make the fighting style available to anyone who wants to take them, unless they're prohibited by RAW, which I don't see.

The part of Bladesong fighting style that says it's a total of 3 slots says that's including the weapon proficiency slot, for a total of 3. "This cost does not include the initial slot devoted to learning rudimentary use of the weapon, so the total cost is three weapon slots." My reading of it is that it's a slot for the fighting style and another slot for an extra +1, which puts it in line with the other fighting styles (one handed, two weapons, etc.).

You're right about the attacks per round. I took the 3/2 from the table and added 1 per round. 3/2 is total.

I didn't know play had already started! I thought we were awaiting approval. I need to make a profile for this guy.

Fair enough, it doesn't say that you can't take the style, it just has some weird wording. And I don't begrudge you the style one bit. I'm happy you're there, because that means we can train together to improve ourselves :D

but... unfortunately you seem to be wrong on the slot thing. I wish you were right, because it would be better for me, too. The rules say (emphasis by me)

The way I read that... Is that with 2 slots (or three, if you include the weapon), you get +1 att, +1 AC, or you may pay an attack to parry while attacking with your other attacks.
With 3 slots devoted to the style, you get +2 att, +2 AC, or the parry thing (which doesn't get specifically better).

Now... If the DM wishes to see it your way, I'm perfectly fine with that, but I'd like to know, because it'd improve my skills as well.

Hey all, just a quick update: I will be able to check up on things and resolve the current round in the next 24 hrs. Real life is being busy, bleh.

24? no
48? no
72? Let's try that! :D

Internet has been down from a storm. I think the thing gets flooded sometimes. Working at the moment to get caught up.

Map is fixed so it should be editable and yes, I did push a few folks forward from where they were.

Two folks haven't posted so they're not really relevant to this first round. If they check in before the combat is over entirely, cool, other wise they'll fade away...lol.

Hey, DM, my AC should be 0. SO I'm not sure how I got hit. Did my AC take a penalty I didn't account for?

I think I was just looking at the wrong thing at the wrong time, looking at the wrong roll or AC. You're correct, ignore that damage.

I think I was just looking at the wrong thing at the wrong time, looking at the wrong roll or AC. You're correct, ignore that damage.

Ah, OK. I am still learning about the system. So I was unsure if I missed something or not. Thanks for hearing me out.