Going by the book for an animal companion is what you do when the Beastmaster can't get a companion any other way - it is a class feature under player control.
Normally as you say, you can just Awaken/Animal Friendship, buy or otherwise treat your pet as an NPC. But then your Ranger Beastmaster features don't kick in and ultimately it is under the DMs control even if it normally gets directed by the player.
My issue with many Beastmaster fixes is that the player wants the DPR of the Hunter subclass (which is nearly all the Hunter gets) and then ignores the added exploration and versatility that the companion adds.
The Designers usually describe the ranger options as Attack power (Hunter) or Versatility (Beastmaster).
It also helps if the DM doesn't get hung up on 0 HP = Dead, because nothing in the rules requires that. They get Death Saves, HD short rest healing, and overnight full recovery plus reactions and OAs.
The main situations I see a 'Vital Strike' option as being advantageous are in ranged attacks with the Loading descriptor and with Thrown weapons where ammunition is a concern, or when you have Advantage on a single attack and want to maximize it's effectiveness.
It meshes with my house rules because I want to buff Thrown weapons slightly and remove the Crossbow Expert feat. I also remove the -5/+10 part of SS and GWM which brings this more into a viable option for all attacks.
I was wondering whether it would be okay balance wise to allow players with the extra attack feature some sort of focus attack, that allows them to forgo their second attack to deal damage with one attack as though they hit twice.
So a STR 18 lv 5 fighter with a greatsword can announce using this before rolling to attack, and if she hits deals 4d6+8 damage. On a crit all 4 dice get doubled.
Statistically it wouldn't change their damage output as far as I know, but it would be a flavorful option.
It worked that way at one point in the playtest and I include it as an option in my house rules. Basically, Vital Strike for free.
Although I don't allow the bonuses to stack as a trade-off for the 'Advantage on your next/or single attack' abilities.
1) State your action
2) The DM determines how to resolve it (in 3.x/PF or 4e the skill rules determine how to resolve it):
2a) If the result is not in doubt then it auto-fails or auto-succeeds.
2b) If the result is in doubt then make a roll - with 3 types: normal, advantage, and disadvantage.
3) Resolved
4) Drink
.....
Basically any situation where the dice may give a result against "common sense" the arbiter just skips the dice. By RAW.
I don't remember reading this. For reasons not limited to this discussion, could you point me to what part of the 5E rules you got this from? I'm very interested in re-reading it.
In addition to the 'How to Play' section the clearest statement is DMG p236-37 under "The Role of the Dice".
The options being: 1) The dice decide - 'Rolling with It' (3.x/4e), 2) The DM decides - 'Ignoring the Dice' (probably most like OD&D and AD&D), and 3) Mixing the Two - 'The Middle Ground'.
My above methodology most closely matches the third option. Not to say that the 'Roll for it' method can't work, but if you don't like how it works then you have other options within 'The Rules'.
Regarding simulating a world with the skill system:
The basis of the skill system is --
1) State your action
2) The DM determines how to resolve it (in 3.x/PF or 4e the skill rules determine how to resolve it):
2a) If the result is not in doubt then it auto-fails or auto-succeeds.
2b) If the result is in doubt then make a roll - with 3 types: normal, advantage, and disadvantage.
3) Resolved
4) Drink
So for the hypothetical Archery contest it could go any number of ways depending on how the DM determines.
Master vs. Newb? Master wins - done. Or maybe roll off with advantage to the Master.
Arm wrestling? Higher strength wins - done.
I also use this method in combat for corner cases (such as extreme cases of disadvantage or advantage stacking).
i.e. Blind, engaged in melee, poisoned commoners shooting at long range - auto-fail.
i.e. Attacking an unconsious, prone, restrained target out of 'combat' - auto-success.
Basically any situation where the dice may give a result against "common sense" the arbiter just skips the dice. By RAW.
I'd just leave followers and cohorts as a roleplay thing under DM guidance.
Feats feel like player entitlements.
I'm pro followers, mounts, familiars, animals companions, and henchmen but I measure it against the number of players and the scope of the campaign. Small group allows more room for extra party members.
Basically 1e/2e style plus scaling mechanisms from the more recent editions.
First off, I think Thor: Ragnarok is going to be the next best D&D film.
Dudes with hammers, swords, and axes. Giants. Magic. Illusions. Trolls.
If the next D&D film gets critiqued as a Thor rip-off then that's what I'm hoping to see.
Characters like Sif, Brothers Three, Enchantress, Loki, fire giants, trolls, and Starlord. People flying around, crazy action. Maybe a Sharn that looks like Asgard and jungles of Xendrik looking like King Kong's skull island.
Start as heroes with full super-hero magic items and power - then try to sell the zero-to-hero backstory in the later movies.
A bunch of SCA re-enactors running around in the woods killing orcs isn't going to cut it.
Save the mission-impossible dungeon crawling for the TV series.
Thor meets Guardians of the Galaxy meets King Kong meets Hellboy.
With Tiamat instead of Fin Fang Foom and Venger instead of Ronin.
1. Buri is correct.
2. Finesse weapons, use both two weapon fighting and range (bows) depending on the situation.
3. Assassin is best for stealth and the first round kill. It's very assassin-like. Advantage on foes who haven't acted and auto-crit against surprised opponents is strong unless you never surprise and always get surprised.
4. Generally speaking you want the high hp characters to get into the action before you unless you can one-shot them with assassinate or a first round sneak. First into the action is also first to get beat on.
Cunning action lets you Dash which gives a huge move boost.
5. Assassin gets poison, but the rules are vague enough that you may want to discuss it with your DM.
One change that I'm hoping for in the DMG is an alternate xp system that moves away from xp for killing monsters. D&D is one of the only systems that awards xp nearly entirely for killing things.
Unless the encounter is with non-negotiables (skeletons, beasts, high morale warriors) the XP rewards are usually spelled out as defeated rather than slain.
XP is granted for detecting or surviving traps, at least one encounter doubles XP for a capture.
Some give less XP for a peaceful solution but in those cases a few deaths in the party are likely (or a TPK) if they opt for deathmatches.
Some of the encounters are RP only, and fighting is not possible.
Given the general threat level especially early in the game, diplomacy, trickery, and intimidation are excellent low cost alternatives.
The knockout rules make capturing enemies an easy option for melee types.
I bought it Thursday and ran it at the store Saturday. I read the first 2 chapters.
4 players; 2 were playtesters, and 2 3.x/PF players.
We completed the first chapter in 3.5 hours with roughly 6 encounters and 3 traps. One short rest and then took a long rest after the small dungeon was completed.
That was sufficient to reach Level 2 which is the default progression.
Everyone had character built from the Basic rules instead of pre-gens.
The only rules mix-up I noticed was the rogue had rapier-dagger instead of short sword-dagger (two weapon fighting with 2 light weapons is free).
And one character died to a double crit against Disadvantage in the last room. We had some weird die rolls.
I bought Murder in BG but didn't play it for Encounters. My Encounters group wasn't really up for that particular style.
We are playing Scourge of the Sword Coast and have been enjoying it. 2 or 3 2-hour sessions per area with approximately 6 areas to explore.
About halfway done and it's going well. It is very reminicent of Keep on the Borderlands but spread out.
Dead in Thay looks to be a dungeon crawl. Should be out in 4 weeks.
I'd like to get Legacy of the Crystal Shard but it hasn't been in stock and I'm not in a hurry. I could see running it someday, but I also have a 10 AP backlog I want to run in Next.
What we played of Ghosts of Dragonspear Castle (not Sundering) was fun. We may go back to that at some point.
If I had time in the future I'd start with Dragonspear Episode 1, then SotSC, then Dragonspear ep2, then LotCS (scaled up), then Dragonspear ep3, then the political intrigue of MiBG (scaled up), then finish up with Dragonspear ep4, and possibly Dead in Thay or Tyranny of Dragons.
From the current vantage point of nearly 40 years into this wonderful fun of D&D (and I consider PF and OSR D&D), each edition/game variant is a subset of what individuals and groups want the feel or style of their D&D to be.
Personally, I'd been looking for a lot of the stuff 4e enables since 1982. So I'm glad it was made.
Many others, and I suspect the largest subgroup, was looking more for what 3.x (3.0,3.5,PF) brought to the gamespace of D&D.
For some, B/X or 1e, even 2e or BECMI had already mostly hit what they really wanted from the game 20+ years ago.
It looks like 5e will provide yet another default style somewhere between all of them.
I think the hardest part about finding the right game for you and your group is agreeing on what you want from the game. For starters I'd go with the PF Beginner Box or maybe get PDFs of the B/X rules (Basic by Moldvay and Expert by Cook from RPGNow).
I cross-reference Cost, number of sculpts available, number appearing, and actual numbers in adventures I'm intending to run, and then buy everything I like.
If I like a sculpt, I'll find a way to use it.
Seriously, if something can proxy as multiple things I'll get more and if it is hyper-specific 1 is max.
If I were starting today, I'd get 1 sculpt of everything I liked and them buy up Pawns for the multiples. But it is too late for that.
I have 83 14"x14" drawers of large or smaller, and 11 large bins of huge or larger. Each humanoid type is only allowed 1 drawer max.
As a 4e DM I love adding broken to the game. We level 2 at a time and I give out the big 3 for the tier toward the beginning of the tier. We just did 6 encounters in 3.5 hours at 24th level -- 9 encounters between long rests. Happy with 4e; happy with Paizo; looking forward to 5e.
And I've played in games of 3.x where there was no crafting and no magic shops. This has always been a DM issue - the main shift in 2000 was changing it from a 'yes' from the DM to a 'no' on whether they existed.
I think the levels only matter once the goal is met to differentiate the stretch goals rewards.
The Reaper KS only had Level 1 (below Vampire) and level 2 (Vampire and above).
Any time a stretch goal hit for adding minis to Vampire, only the "level 2" folks at Vampire plus received them free.
I assume there will be extras based on donation level added to the Stretch goals but we don't know what they are yet.
A guess would be options on alternative paint jobs based on Level.
Now Level 2 --> alternative painted Dame
Level 3 --> Dame and Ruffian
Level 4 --> Dame, Ruffian, Deckhand, and Pirate
Level 5 --> Jellyroom, Ghost Hound, Dame, Ruffian, Deckhand, and Pirate
Level 6 --> Full set of alternative paint jobs
So it is fairly likely that if you want lots of alternative paints then you'll want to up to Level 5 or 6 as the stretch goals hit (which I would do anyway since I want 3 sets of the first set and likely multiples of the stretch goal sets as they become available).
As is the existing content is a good deal.
The PPM credits are worth a set for every 2 credits now.
The assumption is that some sets would cost 1 credit (say a 4 figure set) and some might cost more.
I'm done until at least November with the Dungeon Command Undead set.
Not done in by the Reaper Kickstarter, but by Rise of the Runelords PPM, Dungeon Crawler set 2 & 3 PPM, and Fantasy Flight's Arkham Horror Wave 4 PPM all coming at the same time.
The nature of the Savage disease is that these creatures don't just bite and leave but are so viscious that they fight to the death (and it will usually be their own.) Basically what Cthulhu Waits said.
Just because the description of the effect needs to have a certain level of lethality for PCs that doesn't need everything about it needs to logically flow from the exact description. In the case of the savage tide there is at least a reason why it wouldn't engulf the world. If something like the Shadow's ability to create spawn hasn't buried the world in shadows (since they can't kill something without it turning into a shadow and are immune to non-magical attacks) I don't see how the savage tide in it's minor form would.
The key difference between the Savage Tide and a 28 Days/zombie plague scenario is that in order to get the Savage tide you need to get bit and survive until the ability damage completes the process.
The classic zombie scenario is get bit/scratched and live or die (both result in a zombie).
The vast majority of creatures they bite, they will also kill. That's a net increase of no savage creatures.
Given the way the Savage virus spreads initially they will certainly kill the majority of things they attack. The loses on the Savage creature side may be replaced by Death throes attacks but with a decreasing frequency as they miss and the target creatures make their saves.
Among the second generation humans, most will get cured before they fall victim or at worst will be quickly slain if they do.
Based on prior history (the fall of the olmans and Kraken Cove) while the Savage Tide is devastating it is a process that starts with a huge impact on the area and then slowly wanes as the Savage population suffers attrition as they kill their potential replacements.
While a Savage T-Rex for example might be a terror, it is very unlikely to pass it on since any creature powerful enough to take it out would probably makes their save or be able to cure it (the party).
I have some of the issues listing character flaws but I'm looking for the rest so I don't favor some classes over others (I'll skip the April flaws for Commoners article).
Generally speaking when do the issues tick off under the My Subsciptions feature?
I was hoping that 116 would be my first issue but if my first issue will actually be 117 then I don't want to miss getting the last AP adventure from the store.
Ansha is a tall, slender elven maiden who looks to be no older than a human girl of eighteen or nineteen winters, with long legs and an hourglass figure. Her long hair is a strikingly pale blond bordering on platinum, brushed meticulously and often bound into a long, elegant ponytail by a simple blue hair-ribbon; when unbound, her hair cascades over her shoulders like a cloak reaching just past her butt. Her almond eyes are a deep emerald, bright with intelligence and often twinkling with amusement. Her voice is charmingly soft and velvety, with the melodic sound common to all elven voices.
She is achingly beautiful and her features, much like her frame, are delicate, with a small, perfectly formed nose and lips that are quick to curve into a disarming smile full of unspoken promises. Her skin is smooth porcelain, and is barren of tattoos or other markings. She walks with the grace and poise of a noble debutante, and has a confident air about her, as if she is used to getting what she wants.
She most commonly dresses in a green bodice and underbust corset, with a matching side-slit skirt. Black fingerless gloves that end just beneath her elbows cover her arms and she wears similarly-dyed leather boots that end just beneath the knee. Her pointed ears are pierced with a pair of platinum studs through each arch, each holding a small jade carving of a camellia flower; and pendant earrings of gold dangle from each ear, clasping a small emerald in their raindrop-shaped frames. She wears an intricate choker at her throat, silver chains holding in place a gold frame inset with a larger emerald; additional silver chains drape across her bare neck; dangling among the chains is a small gold disc etched with the elven rune for the first two letters of her given name. A larger gold disc inset with three small teal tourmalines hangs from a chain connected to the smaller disc, and another chain falls from that disc into her cleavage. She wears three gold bracelets on her right arm, two of them loose hoops and the other worn tighter against her wrist; and several gold and platinum rings adorn the fingers of her right hand.
Personality and motivations:
Ansha is a flirt who uses physical and magical charms to get what she wants out of life. She is flighty, impulsive, inquisitive and loves being the center of attention. A true hedonist, she is extremely open to new experiences and is willing to try almost anything at least once.
In the wake of her adoptive parents' deaths, she has slowly had her memories return, and she realizes that in addition to the fact that she can never go home again, she has been living a lie for years. Although her primary motivations are pleasure and power (and the pleasure that comes from having power over others--particularly their minds), she is also aware of the numerous enemies she has, and has found it in her best interest to surround herself with people willing and able to aid her should any of those enemies catch up to her.
Background:
Ansha is the only daughter of Lord Elroth and Lady Elizaera Saeralyan of the noble House Saeralyan, native to Iadara in Kyonin. The House was rather inconsequential in matters of politics, though it does manage to maintain a level of wealth suitable to their station, and it was precisely this inconsequentiality that lead the morally-bankrupt enchantress Elizaera to form a pact with Our Lady in Shadow, Nocticula, the patron of succubi: in return for increased powers of seduction and enchantment, Elizaera would bring the entirety of the House under the demonlord's sway. She succeeded, the whole family came to worship Nocticula secretly and the family's fortunes rose. For her part, Elizaera became the mastermind behind the family, and she was granted a measure of a succubus's power: an otherworldly beauty that could cause those around her to stare in fascination without regard for their surroundings.
When Ansha was born, she shared this same otherworldly power as her mother, but it was decided that she would not be told about the family's pact with Nocticula until she was older, for fear that she might accidentally let something slip, as only a child might. So she was raised as a master manipulator in her own right, and she grew up to be a young elven debutante who knew how to get what she wanted from most anyone. Despite this, she never quite shared the moral degeneration of her mother--probably in large part due to the friendships she formed with other more goodly aristocratic elven children, like her friend Inari Gloamingdusk. At the same time, Ansha developed a reputation for her silver tongue and ability to get what she wanted, and gathered a clique of similarly-minded (or at least impressionable) elven youth to her, including a young girl with some magical talent named Selena. The two became fast friends, experimenting together and enjoying the power they seemed to wield over others as their childhood progressed and the two girls blossomed into young women.
The end of her childhood came early for the young Lady Ansha when her parents decided that she was old enough to reveal the family's dark secret and to include her in the pact with Nocticula. But Ansha stumbled upon them in the midst of a profane ritual several days before her parents were ready to reveal the family's secret to her, and she fled home. Pursued by a summoned succubus, the young Lady Saeralyan was captured and subjected to defilements that shattered her mind and left her with a form of trauma-induced amnesia called dissociative fugue.
But before she could be returned to her family, she was rescued by the married elven adventurers Baelyth and Sahtara. The married pair, for their part, took the elf in and cared for her much as if she were their own daughter. The trio travelled for years, wandering and adventuring across the continent of Avistan. Years later, Baelyth and Sahtara died on an expedition south into the lands near the Mwangi Expanse at the hands of smugglers, and Ansha herself was taken prisoner by these smugglers, who took her to Crown's End.
She found in herself a burning desire for revenge, but she had learned the value of patience from her adoptive parents. So she charmed and seduced the ringleader, taking a place at his side as his mistress. She played the part of a harmless and helpless girl well, bolstered by vague glimpses and unsettling, foggy recollections of a life she didn't recognize, a life before she left Kyonin. Though it took years, she planned her revenge. Only at the proper time did she act.
She quietly arranged for passage to Eleder aboard a ship passing through. Then, the night that it left, Ansha murdered the ringleader, her lover, in black widow fashion, leaving a note on their bed beside his corpse that read "I stab thee with my heart," (NSFW) a Calistrian aphorism used at the culmination of a particularly satisfying act of revenge. She was gone well before anyone realized what had happened, and the power vacuum her ex-lover's death caused meant that the other smugglers were too busy vying for his place to pursue her.
It was during the voyage to Eleder that she found a pool of fine greenish cloth among a pile of clothing, buried at the bottom of the chest which stored her belongings. She lifted the pool up, and it flowed down into the shape of an evening gown...and her vision began to swim as forgotten memories surged up from her unconscious mind.
She re-lived the entirety of her life in Kyonin in a moment, right up to the night that a summoned succubus had subjected her to such defilements of mind and body. She remembered who she had been, and what had been done to her. Baelyth and Sahtara were not her parents--she was not their daughter. She was Ansha Saeralyan, and her mother consorted with succubi. Shaken, and her very identity in crisis, Ansha stayed in Sargava for some months, adventuring and capitalizing on her enchantments to make waves in Sargavan society.
Eventually, though, Ansha increasingly felt drawn to understand who she had been. Mindful of the dangers returning to Kyonin would pose, she turned to the ancient past instead, and tales she remembered of long-lost holds in what humans called the Stolen Lands. Booking passage to Absalom and then to Oppara on merchant ships, she traveled with a trade caravan through through Galt and into the River Kingdoms, finally arriving in the town of Mivon.
Ansha spent a short time in Mivon, eventually skipping town ahead of some very angry townsfolk (and their wives) when her lovers and benefactors realized that she had been using magic to seduce them. She charmed her way onto a caravan heading to Restov.
Languages: Common (Taldane), Elvish, Draconic, Sylvan, Gnomish, Goblin, Abyssal
HP 40
AC 12 Touch 12 Flat-footed 10
BAB +3 CMB +0 CMD 12
Initiative +1 Concentration +9
School specialization abilities:
Beguiling Touch (Sp): With a simple caress, Ansha is able to win friends--in the short term. She can affect those she touches as with Charm Monster 3 + INT modifier times per day, though it does not affect creatures with more Hit Dice than she has wizard levels. The save DC for this ability is 10 + 1/2 wizard level + INT modifier. This ability lasts for a number of rounds equal to half her wizard level, rounded down (minimum 1) and does not work on creatures that are in combat or are hostile towards her. This is a mind-affecting effect.
Enchanting Smile (Su): Possessed of an otherworldly beauty, Ansha is able to entice others to see her way. She gains a +2 enhancement bonus to Bluff, Diplomacy and Intimidate skill checks.
Traits:
Charming: Ansha was taught the value of suggestion from a young age, and knows how to use her appearance, words and body language to her advantage. She gains a +1 trait bonus to Bluff, Diplomacy and language-dependent spell DCs against those that are (or could be) sexually attracted to her.
Domineering: When she was younger, Ansha was the center of her social world, and the experience inspired in her a powerful self-assurance and air of superiority that remained with her even when her memories did not. Her confidence is so strong that others feel naturally compelled to follow her commands. As a result, the DC of Charm Person spells she casts is increased by 1.
Unlikely Pioneer: Ansha has spent the past several years in the River Kingdoms, where even most larger towns bear a frontier feel. Since her memory has returned, she has recalled that her family claims holdings in the area, having heard stories of an ancestral hold in the Stolen Lands lost since the days before the elves' return from Sovyrian. Though somewhat insulated from the worst hardships by life in the frontier town of Mivon, Ansha has nonetheless faced trials and hardships on the frontier--many of them her own doing as she has manipulated her way into the good graces of various merchants, trappers, traders and guardsmen. She receives a +1 trait bonus to Perception rolls as a result of the vigilance her schemes on the frontier have required. She also starts play with a light riding horse named Asfaloth.
Master Manipulator: Ansha was raised in an aristocratic elven family headed by her mother, the elven enchantress Lady Elizaera Saeralyan. She gains Bluff and Diplomacy as class skills to reflect her upbringing and her family's pact with the demonic patron of succubi, Nocticula. Her family is aware that she is a loose end if she still lives, and may send agents (demonic or otherwise) to find her. Nocticula herself may also take an interest in her with similar results, given her mother's pact with the Lady of Shadows. (Based off of the feat Hermean Blood.)
Skills:
Appraise +5 (0 ranks, +5 INT)
Bluff +14 (4 ranks, +3 class, +3 CHA, +2 enhancement, +2 consummate liar; + 1 trait vs those who are or could be sexually attracted to her)
Diplomacy +13 (4 ranks, +3 class, +3 CHA, +2 enhancement, +1 trait vs those who are or could be sexually attracted to her)
Knowledge (arcana) +12 (4 ranks, +3 class, +5 INT)
Knowledge (nature) +12 (4 ranks, +3 class, +5 INT)
Knowledge (local) +12 (4 ranks, +3 class, +5 INT)
Knowledge (the planes) +12 (4 ranks, +3 class, +5 INT)
Perception +6 (4 ranks, -1 WIS, +2 racial, +1 trait)
Perform (act) +5 (2 ranks, +3 CHA)
[I]Perform (dance) +5 (2 ranks, +3 CHA)
Profession (courtesan) +3 (4 ranks, -1 WIS)
Sense Motive +3 (2 ranks, -1 WIS)
Sleight of Hand +5 (4 ranks, +1 DEX)
Spellcraft +12 (4 ranks, +3 class, +5 INT)
Spells Known: 0--all known
1--Charm Person, Sleep, Magic Missile, Burning Hands, Mage Armor, Color Spray, Identify, Summon Monster I, Sleep, Hypnotism
2--Hideous Laughter, Mirror Image, Invisibility, Hidden Presence, Acid Arrow
"Most elves have four names: a personal or given name, a hidden or intimate name (usually known only to close family), an everyday name chosen by the elf, and a family name...An elf rarely bothers mentioning more than his or her everyday name at informal introductions."--Elves of Golarion
Ansha's personal or given name is Ansha, her hidden or intimate name is Anwë, and her family name is Saeralyan. Given circumstances in her life, she has never chosen an everyday name, in effect using her given name, Ansha, as her everyday name.
