Bodacious presents: Red Hand of Doom (A5E) (Inactive)

Game Master BodaciousGaming

Wow, damn speech-to-text... It turned A5E (which it translated earlier in the post) into HIV. I am so sorry if that caused offense to anyone, that was absolutely not intentional.

Hehe i wondered about it but automatically assumed it was some sort of input mistake from a mobile phone^^

I have some similar quarrels like you wanderer82, there's some stuff i really liked in 5e, but AE5 changes that up a lot it seems and now the options seem to be a bit meh in parts, or very niche.
Possibly interaction with the maneuvers outbalances that again, but don't have enough oversight to say so yet.

Hi BodaciousGaming, I am still here, working my way slowly through the a5e rules. I've had minimal experience with basic 5e, so it's taking me a bit to wrap my mind around everything. Should hopefully today have submitted a human berserker, Though I'm still working out the archetype. I have been going back and forth between using a heavy, two-handed weapon, a weapon and shield, or two weapons, and trying to piece together all the differences. It looked like Great Weapon Master in 5E was a pretty awesome feat, but with its replacement in HIV giving disadvantage on the attack role, not sure it is really worth it. Any thoughts?

Great weapon master was a very powerful feat for 5e, and it’s A5E iteration IMO isn’t the most elegant replacement with regards to the second bulleted point.

In 5e the -5/+10 got pretty ridiculous when you had builds that were centered around maximizing DPR. Barbarians dipping fighter for action surge and possibly paladin for divine smite resulted in one or two round fights against the BBEG’s. Sharpshooter was arguably the more powerful feat because the archery fighting style offset part of the feat penalty. Neither one scaled amazingly well because taken at 4th level the to-hit was grueling, and at later levels with magic items it was almost universally an “auto-on” feature.

Disadvantage in my mind isn’t the most elegant replacement to the -5 to hit because there are so many features in the game that let you get advantage and cancel it out. It isn’t as prevalent as in 5e, so that’s probably their rationale. Things like flanking that in 5e would give advantage have been replaced to a large degree with expertise die. Disadvantage is also better or worse at the extremes. It’s almost not a penalty against lower AC enemies and against higher AC enemies it’s super punishing, even though Adv/DisAdv is normally abstracted to be ~ +/-5 on a die roll.

In past 5e games I’ve houserule fixed the penalty to hit and bonus damage to proficiency bonus. That way it scales with level to an extent. For example a character of our starting level would take a -3 to hit and gain a +6 to damage. I really don’t see where it would break the system to make that change here, as it worked well enough in 5e. I might regret that decision if there is a bunch of unintended ways to increase your to-hit through expertise dice stacking and such, but we can cross that bridge when we get there.

Wow that's wildly different from my play experience with 5e.

** spoiler omitted **

** spoiler omitted **...

Welcome to the party. I’ll be throwing the intro post up tonight. The only thing I saw on your profile is that I’m giving every a free starting feat, so feel free to take one. Details are a little further up in the thread, or the synopsis in in the general campaign information.

oops I forgot to get a feat....will add now!

So apparently I "broke" the gameplay thread by "dotting in" and deleting the first post. Until customer service can help I've created a new gameplay thread HERE. Let's not let the technical glitching slow us down. I've posted a little scene for now and will hook everyone in. My long term hope is that customer service can unset the broken thread from the campaign and let me set the new thread to it. Right now it won't let me unpair the thread from the campaign like it will let me do with discussion thread or recruitment thread. I'll be troubleshooting it for now, but there are a number of places I've placed the link.

I'll be additionally linking everyone the new thread in their PM's.

Not yet finished, but getting somewhere.
There's really a lot of moving parts with this character.
Need to get some more maneuvers, equipment etc. and all the skill stuff.

What good are the deceptive stance and painful pickpocket maneuvers in combat or overall?

When and for what do you make a deception or sleight of hand check in combat?

What good are the deceptive stance and painful pickpocket maneuvers in combat or overall?

When and for what do you make a deception or sleight of hand check in combat?

Mist and shade more than the others is a pretty situational and fiat based tradition. I’m willing to work to make what you find fairly interesting, so long as it’s understood that the majority of what you’d pilfer is going to be relatively mundane, with enough of it being interesting or powerful to make it worth the attempt or exertion spend.

The bestiary fortunately provides loot recommendations so there’s at least some guidance in what enemies might carry.

Not yet finished, but getting somewhere.

There's really a lot of moving parts with this character.
Need to get some more maneuvers, equipment etc. and all the skill stuff.

I was looking through the equipment you’ve selected under your profile, and perhaps it’s a function of it still being a work in progress, but I noticed you had selected padded leather +1 as well as a cloak of protection. The cost of those two magic items exceeds the 700 gp starting wealth. Can you adjust it to have only one of those two items purchased?

Sure! Gonna go with the cloak.
Magic weapon is too expensive as well then right?

Another thing i have to ask:
What exactly is the (dis)advantage of being small?
Besides the thing with heavy weapons.

Also, does the Point Blank Shot maneuver overrule the disengage action?

Sure! Gonna go with the cloak.

Magic weapon is too expensive as well then right?

You can start with a +1 weapon OR a +1 spellcasting focus for free at creation. The rest needs to be bought with your 700 gp starting allowance.

Keep in mind anything you’d like to purchase or discover throughout the adventure.

Kana Cherryblossom wrote:

Sure! Gonna go with the cloak.

Magic weapon is too expensive as well then right?

You can start with a +1 weapon OR a +1 spellcasting focus for free at creation. The rest needs to be bought with your 700 gp starting allowance.

Keep in mind anything you’d like to purchase or discover throughout the adventure.

That's cool!

Could you say something to the above questions about size and Point Blank Shot though?
The character is somewhat experimental, relying on trip for sneak attack.
Can also sneak and hide i guess, that's why i want to know about size.

Also, is there something like a returning dagger? That could be kind of crucial in the long run.

Speaker of the Vale wrote:

Kana Cherryblossom wrote:

Sure! Gonna go with the cloak.

Magic weapon is too expensive as well then right?

You can start with a +1 weapon OR a +1 spellcasting focus for free at creation. The rest needs to be bought with your 700 gp starting allowance.

Keep in mind anything you’d like to purchase or discover throughout the adventure.

That's cool!

Could you say something to the above questions about size and Point Blank Shot though?
The character is somewhat experimental, relying on trip for sneak attack.
Can also sneak and hide i guess, that's why i want to know about size.

Also, is there something like a returning dagger? That could be kind of crucial in the long run.

So with regards to size, there doesn’t seem to be any blanket list of things that small creatures suffer or benefit from over medium or large creatures. The rules I’ve managed to come across in their respective sections are disadvantage on wielding heavy weapons, as well as specific benefits the halfling and gnome heritages gain as a trade off for their speed penalty. There are rules for creature sizes in relation to each other, which are too numerous to list out in a post. It would simply be too tedious to compile and be a real bore of a read. When they come up I’ll try and highlight them and let you potentially retcon a decision the first time it comes up.

For point blank shot, I can’t see as written where the disengage action precludes the shot from happening. It’s not described as an opportunity attack, so it point blank shot isn’t affected by disengaging.

I don’t see a returning dagger available as a magic item, although I’ll keep an eye out for other items or ideas that you can encounter for purchase.

Hayato I’m going to start moving things along, let me know when your character is complete and I’ll work her in organically.

Yes please go ahead. I think it's only minor things left. Most is finished

Had a number of players that seem to have given up the campaign. Opening up recruitment for a few more if there’s interest.

What is missing from the current incarnation of the party.

Stats: 2d6 + 6 ⇒ (1, 5) + 6 = 12
Stats: 2d6 + 6 ⇒ (2, 6) + 6 = 14
Stats: 2d6 + 6 ⇒ (5, 4) + 6 = 15
Stats: 2d6 + 6 ⇒ (4, 5) + 6 = 15
Stats: 2d6 + 6 ⇒ (3, 3) + 6 = 12
Stats: 2d6 + 6 ⇒ (6, 3) + 6 = 15