#Dungeons and Dragons Tactics

[g4zdtechtv]

THE PILE PRESENTS: X-Play - Ha Ha, You Bought A Card Game | 8/14/07

Creepy guys with shadowy, metaphysical tentacles are not to be messed with.

[thefugitivesaint]

D&D Ad, ''Galileo'', #7, 1978 Source

[christiansorrell]

Tacticians of Ahm is itchfunding NOW!

For the last year or so, I've been designing and playtesting Tacticians of Ahm, a game inspired by tactical combat roleplaying designs meant to keep classic grid-n-minis TTRPG combat but to reinvent it in a way that keeps it fast and exciting without slowing your entire session down to a crawl!

Pick up the rulebook and get all future updates for free HERE!

Tacticians of Ahm is a tactical combat-focused tabletop roleplaying game in the corrupt3d fantasy world of Ahm. A bit-rotten blight has appeared in the Northern Sea and from it flows the Corrupt1on, fractured light and shattered shapes sowing chaos across the realm. As Tacticians, you alone are prepared to face the darkness spreading across the lands and reunite the scattered peoples of Ahm.

Unique Elements of Tacticians of Ahm:

Always-hit, set-damage grid-based combat!

Class-specific attack patterns, abilities, and more!

Easy-to-use weapon and ability diagrams!

Rules light out-of-combat play using a single d20!

A digital fantasy world corrupting with age!

You know it's a video game, but your characters don't!

If videos are more your speed, check out this intro to the game:

Inspired by video games like Into the Breach, Final Fantasy Tactics and Fire Emblem, Tacticians of Ahm was created out of a desire to maintain the rewarding tactical choices and big dramatic moments of traditional grid-n-minis TTRPG combat without slowing the pace of play by removing as many of the frustrating aspects of play as possible and streamlining the rest. Combat is fast and furious! You can always easily read your abilities, know the damage you will do (and when you can do it), and more.

Check the Itch page for more info and pick up the game!

[vladyslavdembik]

Mustadio Bunansa Fan Art/ Character Design | Commission

| 🟢 Commissions Open

| Prices/ Order Form: https://forms.gle/d8fdndS38KfjXoM17

| YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@VladyslavDembik/videos

| LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/vladyslav_dembik

| I share my sketches mostly on Twitter: https://twitter.com/VladyslavDembik

[matty-from-megalos]

Didn't think I'd get it done tonight, but here we go!

The public playtest for my new game Arma Fantasia Tactics is live. It's pwyw right now, but it's a very unpolished playtest atm, so don't feel compelled to chuck in anything unless you wanna. Store link is at the bottom of this post if you feel like checking it out. :3

Current features/state of the game: 63 page playtest, probably about 50ish% of the way done in terms of core bedrock features.

Currently 9 jobs, 14 paradigms (a bit like your character's narrative role in the story & background), 10 kiths with an easy option for building mixed characters. Game's built around a mix-n-match main job/sub job system for getting exactly the powers you want for your build. More of everything coming eventually.

Get the playtest files here!

[lzarts]

An awesome little TTRPG-inspired game I got to freelance for is out for Steam early access today!! "Tales & Tactics" was my first dive into a major UI role, and probably the most freedom I ever had with a project in my life. More little peeks to come, but here's just a wee bit of my iconography. (And the logo I got to design for the team!)

[goshyesvintageads]

TSR Hobbies Inc, 1982

[3d34-2]

"We shall fight for freedom! We shall fight for honor! We shall fight for the motherland—whoa guys, hold on. Hold on. When I suited up for this battle, I forgot my leg armor. This is so embarrassing. I mean, here I am, covered in plate, except not my thighs. I'll tell you what, I'm going to KILL my squire. I am SO humiliated. And none of you said anything! Here I was, just standing here, bellowing my inspiring speech, and you're what? Laughing at my bare legs? Thanks a lot guys. You know, I'm not even up for this battle anymore. No, no, I'm going home. Good work, guys. Good work.

[haaaaaaaaaaaaave-you-met-ted]

Player's Option - Combat and Tactics Cover Art by Jeff Easley

[educationaldm]

TTRPG Question: What do you argue most about with your group?

Rules? Metagaming? Roleplaying? Tactics? Behavior?

[nealflitherland]

For folks who’ve been wondering when I was going to finally release my own RPG, wait no longer! Take up arms in the name of the Plastos Federation (or one of its member nations), and hold the line against the dangers that threaten your fellow resinous peoples! Whether you’re in the trenches fighting the colossal insectoid creatures known as the Vespoids, or you’re ferreting out graft and sabotage within your own organization, there are all sorts of genres and styles one can bring to the table... and you can get your minis by the bucket!

[dungeonmalcontent]

Pro-wizard tactic: cast mislead and scatter caltrops around behind you as you make a run for it. For optimal efficiency, take two levels in monk so that you have increased movement speed and can dash as a bonus action.

[calextheneko]

So anyway... I enjoy Baldur's Gate, but as someone who is primarily a Pathfinder player who... is not a fan of 5e DnD, I find myself... At odds with the game at times when I feel like I should be able to do things I can't... And weirded out what the game considers big numbers. Like, I felt like it took every resource I had to break 30 AC on a character... And like I had to trick the game to get a character's strength stat up to 22.

Meanwhile, in the latest Pathfinder video game

Yeah.... Meet my Chaotic Neutral Trickster Barbarian and what I consider normal stats. My dump stat intelligence at 28.

And if you think this is hideous you should see the things I put together in actual pen and paper table top when I get to actually play. I'm normally a forever GM but every generation the stars eventually align and I get to be a player.

Anyway, I made a psychic in the Iron Gods adventure path. A catfolk named Tau. Psychics are basically a lot like wizards just instead of specialized school abilities they gain special abilities called Phrenic Amplifications. Anyway, that's not important the important takeaway is that Tau was a very VERY squishy caster.

His AC was 40. Or 46 when he decided to cast Form of the Alien Dragon. Yes, Form of the Alien Dragon, not normal dragon, because I can't be normal with anything. Also Form of the Alien Dragon is the only dragon transformation psychics can learn and even then they're limited on which ones they can turn into based on which ones fit the occult psionic power theme. Anyway, he routinely walked around in dragon form, but also invisible, but also with mirror image which somehow still works even when invisible, and mind blank on meaning that spells like see invisibility and true sight automatically fail on him so you have no way to force him to become visible.

But what was really fun, is the bizarre combination of feats and abilities he took to just do strange things. The party almost TPKed in the first dungeon. Until he used Charm Person on the Juju Zombie that was killing them. Now you may go, wait a second, undead are immune to all mind and compulsion effect. Yeah, Tau doesn't care. He had a spell called Will of the Dead that allowed all of mind affecting spells to work on undead as normal. This was taken to hilarious levels later when in book 3 we encountered a ghost who was supposed to be the arc villain and constantly sneak attack us with cloud kill by coming through the walls and leaving for the entire dungeon. Charmed him on his first appearance. And now that he was my best friend, agreed to get him to disable all his traps and get rid of all the monsters so he could give his new best buddy a tour of his lair.

Then I lured him into the basement where the rest of the party was all waiting with readied actions to bust out their best ghost killing abilities and just delete him from existence. And then after he was dead exercised his spirit from the tower so he couldn't come back and we're like. Wow, we have a fully stocked tower with robot guards programmed to see us as allies. Looks like we have a new home base!

Then later he charmed a hologram and pulled the exact same stunt. I'm going to be honest. Even I'm not 100% how that worked but the GM after reading through the rules several times eventually declared that sentient holograms per the rules had no natural protection against magical effects.

He also charmed a Plasma Ooze, kept it as a pet and made it his best friend and fed his enemies to it. Through another combination of feats I could now use mind effects on vermin and oozes. I also picked up a spell to dominate constructs. The only thing I couldn't charm or mind control by the end of the campaign were plant creatures. It was just... Kind of hilarious because... It's the GM is like.

"Wait, you made a psychic, a class that specializes in mind effect spells in a campaign about fighting robots which are immune to mind effects."

"Yeup."

"Well it's your choice."

If only he had known what was to come. Other highlights include a spell that lets me lift one enemy up with telekinetic power and throw them at another enemy. Mind Crush, I mean Mind Thrust, which dealt severe damage and left people with debilitating status effects even when they made their save. And Ego Whip, which gave them a -10 to Wisdom, Charisma, or Intelligence, Even if they made their save. Saving only made it temporary.

Oh you're a cleric, so you have a high will save and think you don't have to fear me. Well take a -10 to your wisdom stat. Your will save just went down by 5 as did the DC for all your spells. What now?

Then there was the time he trapped a dragon in a giant telekinetic hamster ball, pushed it over an edge into an endless voice and just caused the dragon to be deleted from existence.

... There's probably a reason I'm always a GM and never a player. XD

So anyway... The level of customization I get in Pathfinder and the ability to just pull these completely insane builds out that no one expects that are completely unique is why I love it so much. But anyway, as much as I prefer Pathfinder to 5e, I very rarely get to be a player, so kind of eat up table top video games to get my urges and crazy builds out. I have over 1000 hours of gametime in Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous, and it's one of like only 4 games in existence I got every achievement for because you put that many hours in you eventually find and achieve everything. Though... Forgot the name of it... The secret boss in the Midnight Isles DLC. Screw that thing. That is the absolute worst achievement to get because it's entirely RNG on if you're going to get the items needed to unlock it or encounter the island types needed to unlock things and you could play for months nonstop and not get the first key needed after you get the pirate map and holy symbol because the right island/undertow effect never spawned. Or it did spawn but you finished a voyage so were forced to start with a new crew again and none of your casters were high enough levels to have the spell you need to activate the item that has a random chance on spawning on the correct item combination. Oh right you can get the right item combination and then the item you need to cast the right spell on might not even spawn. And you have to get three keys this way. Yeah, that was terrible and I totally cheated and force spawned the keys into my inventory because after several days of trying I was done.

Still, I'm having fun with Baldur's Gate 3... and what I've learned is that... 5e is... surprisingly fragile and easy to break. Aheh heh heh. Maybe I won't get a 62 AC anytime soon, but I have figured out how to build a tactical nuclear strike on Raphael's bedroom. That's my plan for how to beat him on my hard mode run. Sadly the plan will require the sacrifice of a party member to trigger cutscenes and activate the bomb but... bringing people back is only a level 3 spell or 200 gold so you know... Nuking the devil in his own home and ending a fight before it starts... I think I can spare a level 3 spell slot or 200 gold to make that happen.

Aheheheheheheheheheh.

If I have any explosives left over when I'm done I'm gonna go visit dear old Auntie Ethel next. I feel her lair would look better if the entire thing was on fire.

But hey, sometimes I build elaborate nukes... Sometimes I do things the simple way. Those poor idiot guards patrolling the docks while wearing heavy armor. One shove and then I just stand on the shore and watch then drown.

Good thing I'm pretty sure 5e did away with the alignment. Not that I'm evil. I swear I'm good aligned. Just... Chaotic good.

Very... Very... Very... Very... VERY chaotic. But still good.

Side note, just had a thought after posting this, since I am a forever GM, maybe I should post a weekly session recap on Tumblr of my games. That a thing people would be interested in reading?

[incoherentmuses]

it is once again Time For OSHA posting because no-one can stop me. i have so many stories from The Shattering it’s frankly ridiculous, so here’s another, from early in the campaign, an event the players christened:

Reverse Vore-ing The Purple Worm

picture it. you’ve sent your players into a Cool Underground Dwarven Complex. It’s half mines of moria and half strip mall. one of the dwarven ladies has taken to hero-worshipping the paladin, and you’ve successfully stripped the party of a significant amount of their funds via shitpost magic items in the giftshop.

(those cheap ass stones of farspeech became integral to the game and it was my own fault so now they can send gifs and get drunk texts from their IC wives so this is the life i live)

however, Plot Must Be Found, but before the dwarves will be of any help, they want the party to do something for them. part of the lower levels of the complex—Dul Kidrak, by the way, one of the cooler names I’ve invented over the years—is infested with goblins. please could the PC’s clear them out so the dwarves can get on with some rebuilding?

sure! goblins, schmoblins, this is zero problem for the budding OSHA guild, at this time iirc a whopping level 3. maybe four. it’s been a minute, and i levelled them too fast in campaign one. mistakes were made.

they venture down to the lower levels, and quickly find themselves embroiled in combat with a collection of goblins. they are, naturally, stunningly overpowered already and chew through them at speed. however, i was prepared for this and had outfitted the goblins with a secret weapon: a reduced-threat purple worm. partially because the monk has Purple Worm Trauma in his backstory, and partly because the idea of a goblin having a pet baby purple worm was very appealing.

so the worm shows up and the party go ‘hm, well, that’s a problem.’ but dnd parties are nothing if not Improbable Solution Factories, and so a Solution they did find. the solution first involved Draghull getting partially eaten by the worm so. you know. strong start.

was this on purpose? it’s been a few years, i can’t remember. knowing OSHA, probably it was. at any rate, the paladin being eaten is something of an issue, but never fear, Owyn is here!

‘i cast enlarge on Draghull’ says Owyn, proceeding to turn the gold dragonborn paladin into Baby Godzilla.

said Pacific Rim knockoff then proceeds to hack and slash his way through the purple worm from the inside out, eventually emerging from its tail like the worlds shiniest chestburster, covered in goo and screaming.

this kills the purple worm. naturally.

success all around, the dwarves are happy (the goblins less so) and the PCs get the help they want.

‘but muses!’ i hear you cry ‘none of that was vore at all! i am sorely disappointed by the lack of eating-based fetish in this overwrought dungeons and dragons story!’

now here is where you’re wrong, i reply, taking your face gently in my hands. there was vore. Draghull got eaten. and then he came out of the worm, instead of being digested by it, and because my players are my players, this phenomenon is called Reverse Vore and it is a firmly enshrined, Patented OSHA Tactic™ that they will use given half a chance.

so go ahead and take that one to your table. Reverse Vore your way out of anything your DM has eat you—they’ll thank you for it, i promise.

(once again tagging @controlledchaosetc and @itusebastian, lmk if you wanna be untagged, and anyone else who wants OSHA updates, lmk if you want to be tagged for them!)

[homebrewstims]

My manual, spring-assisted Buck folder with a liner lock

Please visit my terms of use (https://homebrewstims.tumblr.com/tou) BEFORE you reupload! ^^

[tea-with-eleni]

I have now tricked my party into acquiring a Strahd von Zarovich disguised as Doru Donovich.

I think the Sheer Awkward of Ludmilla declaring "Here, have a pet vampire spawn! I ordered him not to eat you. You can use him to poke traps for you :3" convinced them not to think about it too closely. Also the part where they were they were just relieved it wasn't Strahd himself.

(I think I may have found ways to actually squick my party out a little. It's kinda hard to do. I'm quite proud.)

...they did get directions to the Amber Temple from an old guy living in a hidden indigenous village in the mountains who only agreed to tell them anything if they promised they wouldn't use the sealed evil in a can that is the Amber Temple. They immediately joked that Ireena should do exactly that.

Which is exactly what Strahd is thinking, figuring that if all else fails at least he'll be in a prime position to kill them all. The cleric is already considering the merits of trying to free Doru by killing/revivifying him. I mean. He can certainly try.

That'd be funny.