#ace plays 5e

[probablyacerpgideas]

"I'm- I'm gonna try and hit him with the hilt of my sword cause killing the other guy was an uh-oh!"

-the fighter

[notetakers-blog-of-holding]

D&D Tip:

A shield only gives a measly +2 to AC

But a HUMAN shield can give you up to +5 AC

[dykebeckett]

new tav alert

this is dadani she’s an eldritch knight and her goals are to collect huge weapons and peg gale

[dailyadventureprompts]

Tinkering With Torches, AKA how to use darkness as an actual mechanic

artist

Recently I've been running a lot of dungeons and nighttime combat in my games and as it turns out, I think illumination might be one of the most unterutilized and/or neglected mechanics in the game.

As a reminder for the class: 5e has three grades of illumination that matter: bright light, low light (where humans are at disadvantage on perception checks), and darkness (where humans are considered blind).

Thing is, darkvision or even a single torch trivializes those penalties: making the mechanic so easy to overcome most DMs I know don't even really bother with it any more. However, I think the core conceit of darkness is a REALLY useful thing to play with when we're engaging in the tactical combat side of gameplay: everyone wants their targets illuminated, but holding up a light to let your allies hit things makes you a target in return. It encourages repositioning, interaction with the environment, and even provides secondary objectives to combat.

With that in mind, here are a few tweaks that I'm going to be trying out:

Halving the distance of all forms of (player accessible) darkvision, and the illumination provided by all sources.

Being lightly obscured grants a +2 bonus to AC, and being heavily obscured grants +5, stacking with cover. Everyone should want their enemies lit up well. If you're playing with stress as a mechanic, I'd add these bonuses to the DC of saves vs fear and other effects to represent the safety that light provides. (This also fixes the weird rules interaction where two creatures who couldn't see eachother while fighting were just as accurate as two who could)

Reintroducing the idea of low light vision. 3.0/5 had the idea that there were sliding scales of being able to see in the dark, and I see no reason not to keep it. Rather than amending every character sheet that gets put in front of me, creatures that live underground and in deep shadow (dwarves, orcs, drow, shardar-kai) get to shift the light levels by 2, rather than by 1.

Stockpiling "Advanced Darkness" Spongebob memes for when I introduce this system for new players.

[utilitycaster]

Daggerheart Character Build thoughts!

I am actually out at work and haven't checked the version that's since come out, but I did participate in the character build beta, and the NDA is officially lifted, so here's my thoughts from that! It's definitely limited since I just made a L1 character and didn't go through gameplay, though I surmise about some aspects of gameplay.

Overall, it clearly seems to be made by people who love a lot of things about D&D 5e but wanted both more flexibility and more simplicity, which is difficult. I think they succeed.

To that end, it takes away some of the crunchier aspects (precise positioning, exact amounts of gold) and I think for some people that will be a problem, and that's valid, but ultimately this game wants to both allow for interesting mechanics in and out of combat while also not being terribly math/map/resource management heavy. It is a hard line to walk; most systems either go hard crunch or go entirely gooey.

The dice mechanic (2d12, Hope and Fear system) is fantastic; look it up but I think it handles mixed successes more gracefully and interestingly than a lot of games.

The playtest was not super clear on armor and evasion choices (or indeed what evasion means; it seems to be sort of initiative but sort of dex save, or maybe more like the Pathfinder/old school D&D varying ACs by scenario?). It was much, MUCH clearer than D&D on weapon choices (part of why I play casters? Weapon rules in D&D are annoying and poorly explained and many people rightfully ignore them) so I'm hoping this becomes clear when there's a full guide rather than just the character creation info.

The character creation questions by class were fantastic and in general, and this is a theme, this feels like it guides people towards collaboration. FWIW I feel like D&D has that information, but the way it's presented is very much as flavor text rather than a thing you should be doing. Daggerheart makes this a much more core part of creation. The Experience mechanic is particularly clear: you better be working with your GM and really thinking about background, rather than slapping it on as a mechanic.

The other side of character creation questions is that it really encourages engagement with the class, which is something I've talked about. I think either subversion for the sake of subversion, or picking a class for the mechanics and aesthetic but not the fundamental concept, will be much harder to justify in Daggerheart, and I think that's a good thing because when people do that, their characters tend to be weaker.

The downtime is designed for you to write hurt/comfort fanfic about and this is a compliment. There are a number of mechanics that reward RP, particularly one of the healing mechanics under the Splendor track. I feel like a weakness of D&D is that when you try to reward RP it's really nebulous because there's not actually a ton of space to put that - you can give inspiration, but, for example, the empathy domain Matt homebrewed actually feels kind of off because it's based on such fuzzy concepts amid mechanics that are usually more rigid. Daggerheart comes off as much cleaner yet still RP-focused, and I'm excited to see it in action.

A judgement of Candela and I suppose Daggerheart might be that it's designed for actual play. I've mentioned before that I know people who are super into the crunch and combat and numbers of TTRPGs and are less story-oriented, and again, that's valid, but actual play is just storytelling using a ttrpg and so yes, a game that encourages RP while also having mechanics to support that and influence it is an extremely good goal. I am not an actual player, but I do like D&D games with a good plot and not just Go Kill Monsters, and I want to play this. (I also have some real salty thoughts about how if you modify an existing game for AP purposes that's staggering genius apparently, but if you make your own game how dare you but that's another post).

And now, the classes/subclasses. I am going to sort of use D&D language to describe them because that's a point of reference most people reading this will understand, but they are not one-to-one. A couple notes: everyone can use weapons and armor. HP is not totally clear to me but it seems to be threshold based - everyone has the same HP to start but people have different thresholds and armor, so the tank classes have the same amount of HP but are much harder to actually do damage to.

All classes are built on a combination of a subclass and two domains. There are 9 classes and 9 domains. This technically means that if you wanted to fuck around and homebrew you could make up to 36 classes (27 additional) by just grabbing two domains that weren't otherwise combined, which is fun to consider for the potential. Anyway I cover the classes and briefly describe domains within them. You can take any domain card within your domain, regardless of subclass.

There are six stats. Presence, Instinct, Knowledge, and Strength map roughly to Charisma, Wisdom, Intelligence, and Strength. Dex is split into Agility and Finesse; Agility covers gross motor skills (jumping, most ranged weapons, "maneuvering") and Finesse finer ones (lockpicking and tinkering, though also it does cover hiding). The really big wins are first, no CON score, so you don't need to sink stat points into something that grants no skills but keeps you alive. The second one is that the "hybrid" classes spellcast from their physical stat. This is fucking fantastic. The thing about ranger or paladin or the spellcasting subclasses of rogue and fighter in D&D is that if you don't roll pretty well you're locked into the core stats and CON and nothing else. (This also doesn't have rolling for stats: you assign +2 to one stat, presumably your main, and then distribute two +1s, two 0s, and one -1.)

Your HP, Evasion, and Thresholds are set by class, and there's a core ability; the rest is all from the cards you take for subclass and domain.

Leveling up is very much based on taking more domain cards (abilities) but has a certain degree of flexibility. It's by chunks: in leveling up anywhere levels 2-4, you can, for example, increase your proficiency by +1 once, so if you wanted to do that at level 2 but your fellow player wanted to wait until level 4 and take something else at level 2 instead, they could. It allows for more min-maxing, but also everyone has the same level up rules and differs only in the abilities on the cards, which is very cool.

Bard: Grace (enchantment spells) and Codex (learned spellcaster stuff; the spells available are definitely arcane in vibes) based, Presence is your main stat. The two subclasses map roughly to lore-style stuff and eloquence. Core class ability is sort of like inspiration but not entirely. It's a bard; I like bards a lot, and this is very similar vibes-wise to your D&D bards. If you like D&D bards you will like this.

Druid: Sage (nature spells) and Arcana (raw magical power spellcaster stuff), Instinct is your spellcasting/main stat. The two subclasses are elemental but frankly cooler than circle of the moon, and a more healing/tranquility of nature focused one. I really think Marisha probably gave feedback on this one, because the elemental version is really strong. You do get beastform; it is quite similar to a D&D druid under a different system, as the bard, but the beastform options are, frankly, better and easier to understand.

Guardian: Valor (melee tank/damager) and Blade (damage). Strength based for the most part (Valor mechanics assume strength) though you could go for like, +2 Agility +1 Strength to start. This is barbarian but like. 20 times better. It is, fundamentally, a tank class, and it is very good at it, with one even more tank-focused subclass and one that is more about retaliatory damage. You do have a damage-halving ability once per day, but really guardian's questions are incredible. I think Travis and Ashley likely gave feedback. Also rage doesn't render you incapable of concentration as that doesn't seem to be a thing, so multiclassing seems way more possible (you are, I think, only allowed to do one multiclass, and not until you reach level 5 minimum, which I am in favor of). Yes, you can be a Bardian.

Ranger: This is what I built! It is based on Sage and Bone (movement around the field/dodging stuff) and it is Agility-based, including for spellcasting, which is a MASSIVE help (as is, again, the fact that CON isn't a thing.) The subclasses are basically being really good at navigation, or animal companion. Most importantly to me you can be a ranger with a longsword and you are not penalized; Bone works with either ranged weapons or melee.

Rogue: Midnight (stealth/disguise/assassination spells and skills) and Grace-based. Yes, rogue is by default a spellcaster, which does help a LOT with the vibes for me. One subclass is basically about having lots of connections (as a spy or criminal might) and the other is about magical slinking about. Hiding/sneak attack are also streamlined. I will admit I'm still more interested in…almost everything else, but I think it evened out a lot of rogue weaknesses.

Seraph: Splendor (healing/divine magic) and Valor. This is your Paladin equivalent. It is strength-based for casting, again making hybrid classes way less stressful. Questions for this area also incredible; you do have something not unlike a lay on hands pool as well. Your subclasses are being able to fly and do extra damage; or being able to make your melee weapon do ranged attacks and also some extra healing stuff, the latter of which is my favorite. Yasha vibes from this, honestly. Single downside is this is the only class where they recommend you dump Knowledge. I will not, and I never will. Now that I don't have to make sure CON is high? I am for REAL never giving myself less than a +1 Knowledge in this game.

Sorcerer: Arcana (raw nature of magic/elemental vibes) and Midnight based. Yes, sorcerers and rogues now share a vibe, for your convenient….less enthused feelings. Instinct-based, which intrigues me, and the core features are in fact really good. The two subclasses are either one that focuses on metamagic abilities, or one that is elemental based. I would play this for a long-running game, though it's not my favorite, and I can't say that for D&D sorcerer (except divine soul).

Warrior: Blade and Bone, and the recommended build is Agility but you could do a strength build. Fighter! One subclass is about doing damage and one is about the hope/fear mechanics core to the game that I have NOT talked much about. I will admit, the hybrid martials and Guardian are more interesting to me but you do have good battle knowledge.

Wizard: Codex and Splendor. Wizards can heal in this system; farewell, I will be doing nothing else (jk). Knowledge-based, and you can either go hardcore expertise in knowledge, or be a battle wizard.

Other scattered thoughts: healing is not as big a deal here; there is no pure cleric class! There is also no monk, warlock, or artificer. There is not a way to do monk as a weaponless class really though you might be able to flavor the glowing rings as a monk weapon and play a warrior. Wizard, meanwhile, with the right experiences and high finesse, would allow for some artificer flavor. Cleric and Warlock are the two tough ones and I will admit those are tricky; I feel like you'd have to multiclass (which you cannot do until level 5) between perhaps seraph and a caster class and you're still going to come off very paladin.

[thydungeongal]

I think that 5E having fanbase that mostly doesn't want to play it is good, actually.

If they really outnumber people who want dungeon combat game, wotc can allow themselves to do a total reboot - make 6E a basically different game, keeping only six stats and foundational systems like d20+stat modifier and AC and HP and classes, but otherwise make a very lite-weight game suited for recreating actual play experience with found family or whatever 5E players want (I don't play 5E).

It's a decision that would benefit everyone. Wotc will profit off new players because they are already trapped in their ecosystem, and even if already avid 5E players don't want to buy new books, newcomers will. 5E players will get a game they actually want. Oldies who don't like it can just move to Pathfinder or OSR, so they won't be deprived of games. Hell, wotc may even start their official line of OSR with new settings and adventures and easily get a share of that market as well!

Like, D&D as it is already suffers from incompatible legacy that can't be thrown out without enraging fans, and if this continues for too long it will collapse. But this way it can survive by transforming into a game that 2020s fandom wants.

Games Workshop pulled way riskier move with Warhammer and ultimately succeeded, I think hasbro can do this as well

Thing is, I don't think WotC will ever do it, because they have pretty much managed to cultivate an audience that is so incurious about game design that they think D&D not supporting the type of gameplay they want isn't a bug, it's a feature.

Ultimately, as I have said before, D&D held hostage to nostalgia because it has to adhere to a certain shape of what D&D "has to be," and even though it's actually one of the worst games for supporting plucky found family heroic narratives people will insist it's good for that because the people in question don't think of D&D's rules in terms of incentive structures and genre emulation, but instead as just "stuff" that the game has which means that the game can do the "stuff." Basically, many of these people think of RPG rules in terms of the shape of dice being rolled, instead of the behaviors that RPG mechanics can actually incentivise and how rules actually shape narrative.

I do agree that D&D not being the game most of its players want it to be is good in some way, but not because I think WotC is ever going to address that contradiction: it means that the aforementioned incurious players who genuinely don't care about game design are kept captured within WotC's walled garden, but at the same time those people who do genuinely care about games producing specific narratives will have to look to reconcile that contradiction elsewhere. We just have to keep throwing Molotov cocktails inside of WotC's walled garden to make people aware of the fact that they live in a false paradise.

[acedormouse]

DnD 5e Character Sheet for Stanford Pines

You know, in case you ever wanted to play the most mid Warlock whose only magical items are a boundless coffee thermas and a fancy lantern.

Under the cut is the transcript of all the text as well as a descriptor for what each spell does.

I don't have any particular verbal commands but when a spell requires a Somatic omponent, Ford needs both hands to make a triangle shape with his fingers

Character Name: Stanford Pines

Class: Warlock Race: Tiefling Background: The Haunted One Alignment: Chaotic Neutral Level: 10

Passive Perception: 12 Proficiency Bonus: +4

Speed: 30 ft AC: 14 Initiative: +3

Current HP: 88/88 Hit Dice: d8

Strength: 13 (+1) Intelligence: 19 (+4) Dexterity: 17 (+3) Wisdom: 13 (+1) Constitution: 15 (+2) Charisma: 13 (+1)

Saving Throws: +1 Wisdom, +1 Charisma

Skills: Arcana (+4), Deception (+1), Investigation (+4), Nature (+4), Religion (+4), Stealth (+3)

Other Profiencies and Languages

Languages Spoken: Common, Infernal, Elvish, Sylvan, Gnomish, Giant, Dwarvish Linguist: you have the ability to create ciphers that others cannot decipher unless they are taught how, succeed an Intelligence check, or use magic Dark Vision: you can see in dim light within 60 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light

Features and Traits

*Otherworldly Patron: you have struck a bargain with an otherworldly being known as the Great Old One, a mysterious entity whose nature is utterly foreign to the fabric of reality. The entity is a voice in the mind- its identity unclean but its boon to you is concrete: the ability to cast spells *Magical Cunning: you can perform an esoteric rite to regain expended Pact Magic spell slots, but no more than a number equal to half your maximum (round up). *Contact Patron: you always have the Contact Other Place spell prepared. You can cast the spell without spending a spell slot to contact your patron *Awakened Mind: your alien knowledge gives you the ability to telepathically speak to any creature you can see within 30 feet of you *Entropic Ward: when a creature makes an attack against you, you can use your reaction to impose disadvantage. If a creature tries to attack you this way, it will take the same amount of damage as you *Bloodline of Asmodeus: bloodline commanded by the power of fire and darkness and guided by keen intellect

Inventory

*Arcana Focus: a crystal pyramid that colorfully gleams in the light *Journal: I keep my thoughts and discoveries here. My journal is my legacy. *Scholar's Pack: backpack, book, ink, ink pen, lantern, 10 flasks of oil, 10 sheets of parchment, and a tinderbox *Bottle of Boundless Coffee: a metal bottle that carries delicious, warm coffee. Each time you drink the coffee, roll a d20; on a 1, the bottle refuses to dispense until the next hour *Lantern of Tracking: this hooded lantern is designed to track monstrosities. It will burn for 6 hours on 1 flask of oil and light a 30 foot radius. When the lantern is within 300 feet of its target, its flame turns bright green

Attacks and Spellcasting:

Name: Crossbow (light) Attack Bonus: +7 Damage/ Type: 1d8, piercing

Patron: The Great Old One

Pact Boon: Pact of the Tome: your Patron gives you a grimoire called the Book of Shadows. You can choose three cantrips from any class's spell list. They don't count against your number of cantrips known.

Eldritch Invocations

*Eldritch Mind: you have advantage on Constitution saving throws that you make to maintain your concentration on a spell. *Book of the Ancient: you can now inscribe magical rituals in your Book of Shadows. Choose two 1st-level spells that have the ritual tag from any class's spell list. The spells appear in the book and don't count against the number of spells you know. *Maddening Hex: as a bonus action, you cause a psychic disturbance around the target cursed by your Hex spell. When you do so, you deal psychic damage to the cursed target and each creature of your choice within 5 feet of it. The psychic damage equals your Charisma modifier. *Aspect of the Moon: you no longer need to sleep and can't be forced to sleep by any means. To gain the benefits of a long rest, you can spend all 8 hours doing light activity, such as reading your Book of Shadows and keeping watch. *Caiphon's Beacon: the purple star Caiphon is the doom of inexperienced mariners. Those who use its deceptive light to guide their travels invariably come to ruin. You gain proficiency in the Deception and Stealth skills, and you have advantage on attack rolls against charmed creatures.

Cantrips

*Eldritch Blast: Range: 120 ft Save/ Attack: 2d10 Time: 1 action Concentration: No Duration: Instantaneous Components: Verbal, Somatic

A beam of crackling energy streaks toward a creature within range.

*Mind Sliver: Range: 60 ft Save/ Attack: Intelligence/ 2d6 Time: 1 action Concentration: No Duration: 1 round Components: Verbal

You drive a disorienting spike of psychic energy into the mind of one creature you can see within range.

*Minor Illusion: Range: 30 ft Save/ Attack: Intelligence Time: 1 action Concentration: No Duration: 1 minute Components: Somatic, Material

You create a sound or an image of an object within range that lasts for the duration.

*Mage Hand: Range: 30 ft Save/ Attack: None Time: 1 action Concentration: No Duration: 1 minute Components: Verbal, Somatic

A spectral, floating hand appears at a point you choose within range. You can use your action to control the hand. You can use the hand to manipulate an object, open an unlocked door or container, stow or retrieve an item from an open container, or pour the contents out of a vial.

*Fire Bolt: Range: 120 ft Save/ Attack: 2d10 Time: 1 action Concentration: No Duration: Instantaneous Components: Verbal, Somatic

You hurl a mote of fire at a creature or object within range. A flammable object hit by this spell ignites if it isn’t being worn or carried.

*Prestidigitation: Range: 10 ft Save/ Attack: None Time: 1 action Concentration: No Duration: Up to 1 hour Components: Verbal, Somatic

This spell is a minor magical trick that novice spellcasters use for practice.

*Vicious Mockery: Range: 60 ft Save/ Attack: 2d4 Time: 1 action Concentration: No Duration: Instantaneous Components: Verbal

You unleash a string of insults laced with subtle enchantments at a creature you can see within range.

1st Level

*Dissonant Whispers: Range: 60 ft Save/ Attack: Wisdom/ 3d6 Time: 1 action Concentration: No Duration: Instantaneous Components: Verbal

You whisper a discordant melody that only one creature of your choice within range can hear, wracking it with terrible pain.

*Hex: Range: 90 ft Save/ Attack: 1d6 necrotic Time: 1 bonus action Concentration: Yes Duration: 1 hour Components: Verbal, Somatic, Material

You place a curse on a creature that you can see within range. Until the spell ends, you deal an extra 1d6 necrotic damage to the target whenever you hit it with an attack. Also, choose one ability when you cast the spell. The target has disadvantage on ability checks made with the chosen ability.

*Tasha's Hideous Laughter: Range: 30 ft Save/ Attack: Wisdom Time: 1 action Concentration: Yes Duration: 1 minute Components: Verbal, Somatic, Material

A creature of your choice that you can see within range perceives everything as hilariously funny and falls into fits of laughter if this spell affects it.

*Illusory Script: Range: Touch Save/ Attack: None Time: 1 minute Concentration: No Duration: 10 days Components: Somatic, Material

You write on parchment, paper, or some other suitable writing material and imbue it with a potent illusion that lasts for the duration. To you and any creatures you designate when you cast the spell, the writing appears normal, written in your hand, and conveys whatever meaning you intended when you wrote the text. To all others, the writing appears as if it were written in an unknown or magical script that is unintelligible.

*Identify: Range: Touch Save/ Attack: None Time: 1 minute Concentration: No Duration: Instantaneous Components: Verbal, Somatic, Material

You choose one object that you must touch throughout the casting of the spell. If it is a magic item or some other magic-imbued object, you learn its properties and how to use them, whether it requires attunement to use, and how many charges it has, if any. You learn whether any spells are affecting the item and what they are.

2nd Level

*Phantasmal Force: Range: 60 ft Save/ Attack: Intelligence/ 1d6 Time: 1 action Concentration: Yes Duration: 1 minute Components: Verbal, Somatic, Material

You craft an illusion that takes root in the mind of a creature that you can see within range. While a target is affected by the spell, the target treats the phantasm as if it were real. The target rationalizes any illogical outcomes from interacting with the phantasm.

*Darkness: Range: 60 ft Save/ Attack: None Time: 1 action Concentration: Yes Duration: 10 minutes Components: Verbal, Material

Magical darkness spreads from a point you choose within range to fill a 15-foot radius sphere for the duration. The darkness spreads around corners. A creature with darkvision can’t see through this darkness, and nonmagical light can’t illuminate it.

3rd Level

*Enemies Abound: Range: 120 ft Save/ Attack: Intelligence Time: 1 action Concentration: Yes Duration: 1 minute Components: Verbal, Somatic

You reach into the mind of one creature you can see and force it to make an Intelligence saving throw. On a failed save, the target loses the ability to distinguish friend from foe, regarding all creatures it can see as enemies until the spell ends. Each time the target takes damage, it can repeat the saving throw, ending the effect on itself on a success.

*Clairvoyance: Range: 1 mile Save/ Attack: None Time: 10 minutes Concentration: Yes Duration: 10 minutes Components: Verbal, Somatic, Material

You create an invisible sensor within range in a location familiar to you (a place you have visited or seen before) or in an obvious location that is unfamiliar to you (such as behind a door, around a corner, or in a grove of trees). The sensor remains in place for the duration, and it can’t be attacked or otherwise interacted with. When you cast the spell, you choose seeing or hearing. You can use the chosen sense through the sensor as if you were in its space.

4th Level

*Evard's Black Tentacles: Range: 90 ft Save/ Attack: Dexterity/ 3d6 Time: 1 action Concentration: Yes Duration: 1 minute Compoents: Verbal, Somatic, Material

Squirming, ebony tentacles fill a 20-foot square on ground that you can see within range. For the duration, these tentacles turn the ground in the area into difficult terrain.

When a creature enters the affected area for the first time on a turn or starts its turn there, the creature must succeed on a Dexterity saving throw or take 3d6 bludgeoning damage and be restrained by the tentacles until the spell ends.

*Banishment: Range: 60 ft Save/ Attack: Charisma Time: 1 action Concentration: Yes Duration: 1 minute Components: Verbal, Somatic, Material

You attempt to send one creature that you can see within range to another place of existence.

If the target is native to the plane of existence you’re on, you banish the target to a harmless demiplane. While there, the target is incapacitated. The target remains there until the spell ends, at which point the target reappears in the space it left or in the nearest unoccupied space if that space is occupied. If the target is native to a different plane of existence that the one you’re on, the target is banished with a faint popping noise, returning to its home plane.

5th Level

*Synaptic Static: Range: 120 ft Save/ Attack: Intelligence/ 8d6 Time: 1 action Concentration: No Duration: Instantaneous Components: Verbal, Somatic

You choose a point within range and cause psychic energy to explode there. Each creature in a 20-foot-radius sphere centered on that point must make an Intelligence saving throw.

After a failed save, a target has muddled thoughts for 1 minute. During that time, it rolls a d6 and subtracts the number rolled from all its attack rolls and ability checks, as well as its Constitution saving throws to maintain concentration.

[teecupangel]

Yes public answering is allowed.

Take your time, I know I am not the only one with asks.

Desmond Miles, Malik Al-Sayf, Kadar Al-Sayf, Altaïr ibn-La'Ahad, Leonardo Da Vinci and Ezio Auditore all playing Dungeons and Dragons pre canon (pre AC.) Desmond has no idea who his friends are cause he didn't pay attention to history lessons and drowned out his father after awhile of his bloodline importance speeches. Kadar is the Dungeon Master/Storyteller. Malik and Altaïr play Paladin and Cleric respectively. Ezio pretty much plays himself, charming flirt. Leonardo, plays powerful characters since he feels powerless often. His friends enjoy Desmond's company that when he goes missing they step up to find him. And Desmond's mind is blown after viewing Altaïr's memories that he figures out who the other two are.

Once again take your time.

Okay.

What if Altaïr is in a forced sabbatical?

Maybe it’s similar to what happened in 1191 where Altaïr’s actions led to the death of someone. Maybe it’s because he deliberately got between their team and the Brotherhood under William Miles.

If you want to keep Clay alive, maybe he saved Clay and that led the Templars and the Assassins into almost recognizing him so they’re all lying low.

Altaïr being not allowed to leave the house is his punishment XD

Malik is an inch away from actually strangling the man with the lan cable for his computer because a bored Altaïr is an annoying one and Kadar took a part time job because he’s that bored.

Kadar met Desmond because his part time job is a delivery man for a specific brand of alcohol that Bad Weather keeps on stock.

Kadar recognized him immediately as William miles’ runaway son and befriended him because he’s curious.

Their friendship leads to Desmond admitting he’s curious about DnD but doesn’t have friends to play with. Kadar invites him because he has online friends that he actually plays DnD with (one of those friends being Rebecca and, if you want a watch_dog reference, Wrench) so he gets the others to play DnD as well because they’re all varying degrees of noobs.

Also, this way, Altaïr would actually have something to do XD

Before Desmond gets there, Kadar makes them promise not to talk about anything Assassin related because Desmond is the first actual offline friend Kadar has made that wasn’t part of the whole ‘we sorta got reincarnated/transmigrated into the future but we’re not gonna talk about that I guess’ thing.

(I’m using http://dnd5e.wikidot.com/ for character info and I am absolutely not sure if they’re already available by 4e XD)

Unorganized Notes:

Kadar uses 4e rules but is fast and loose with them (because I wish to give them 5e but 5e was relased in 2014 TTATT). Leonardo makes the minis but Kadar makes the maps (he does check online for references). It’s his own campaign but his online DnD group helps him (he actually plays a Rogue online named ‘Altair’ without the ‘ï’ because he’s still a fanboy)

Everyone agreed Rogue is off-limits because they might all choose Rogue and also to not tip Desmond off so no one is a Rogue. Desmond screws this up by actually picking Rogue. Desmond actually goes for Assassin Rogue because he loves irony XD His backstory is that he left a cult of assassins as a child and is trying the adventurer life. Everyone just feels a bit awkward when he told them that backstory but Desmond just breezed through that so it was just for a moment XD

Malik is an Oath of Vengeance Paladin who share the same deity as Altaïr. In-game, this is because Altaïr is a Cleric on a mission to appease their god and Malik is there to keep him in check. Out of game, Malik wants to be the one to finally annoy Altaïr this time around and this backstory gives him an excuse to do it.

Altaïr is an Arcana Domain Cleric who is on a mission of redemption as ordered by his deity. The reason why he’s in a road of redemption is unclear and it’s clear that Altaïr has no respect for his deity. In-game, everyone who worship the same deity call him their god’s ‘Chosen’ and he hates it (Kadar absolutely loves to ham out the worshipping of the 'Chosen' XD). Out of everyone, he’s the player who is absolutely min-maxing his character.

Let’s be honest, we’re all expecting Ezio to be the Bard and he is. He even plays the guitar because, according to him, it’s better than a minstrel's lute, whatever that means. Absolutely a School of Swords Bard that has the highest Charisma stat among all of them. He’s the designated leader and the one who pulled everyone together into this weird group of adventurers. He may or may not be a noble who ran away from home.

Leonardo is an Artificer. While Artificers are already available as a class in 4e, their specialties were officially created for 5e but fuck it, let’s say it’s a modified Artificer class because Leonardo should be an Artillerist Artificer. If you don’t want the Artificer class because of how questionable it is possible for 4e, my alternate suggestion is Draconic Bloodline Sorcerer for pure magic destruction or Great Old One Warlock (unli Eldritch Blast). He plays Ezio’s character’s long suffering childhood best friend who joined the group because Ezio ‘begged’.

The campaign may or may not be a chosen one absolutely not wanting to do his mission as said chosen one and being dragged along by his god approved babysitter and a misfit company (the twist is Altaïr's mission is to actually find their god's child that is supposed to save the world... it's Desmond. Desmond's the god's child. The cult he's from is worshipping the same god as Altaïr but Desmond, Altaïr and Malik don't know it. Kadar thinks he's made such a good plot twist XD)

(I left their races ambiguous for you to play with. I personally would suggest making Altaïr a kenku for the lols XD)

[su-35bm-flanker-e]

Starter planes of AC games: (I might forget a thing or two and I haven't played every AC installment)

AC2: A-4 Skyhawk, F-4E Phantom II AC3: EF-2000E Typhoon II (+ MiG-33 Fulcrum SS for JP) AC4: F-4E Phantom || AC5: F-5E Tiger II AC0: F-5E Tiger II, J35J Draken, Mitsubishi F-1 AC7: F-16C Falcon ACX: F-4E Phantom II ACJA: F-4E Phantom II

[adainesfroggieboggy]

i want to post the homebrew mechanics i made for my apocalypse au so bad. i don't know or care if they'd work in a campaign, i've never played bc i have no friends to play with, but it's very fun to run battles for this fic.

i'd like to preface this with the fact that there is no magic in this world. no area of affect spells, no greater restoration.

the characters are not low-level in these combats, so the swarm was something like 250 zombies in the first one, and they didn't really have a set hp. Instead, if they hit, the damage was halved, and that many were killed. (ex: 10 damage kills 5 zombies, most characters here have weapons with longer reach, so it didn't matter if they weren't within 5 feet) official rules give zombies an ac of 8, but i eaised it to 13. i had a barbarian, ranger, and a rogue in this, and raising the ac was great because my guys were rolling extremely well. i wanted the swarm to be effectively endless because the goal here is not to kill every zombie, it's to get. out. there were three zombies per five-foot square, so every attack would increase movement.

the zombies acted on the same initiative and could only move five feet per round. they attacked every character within reach. upon a hit, the character makes a dex saving throw to avoid/redirect the bite and if they fail, a con save to resist being turned. if they fail both saves, they have until their next long rest to remove the infected limb.

i got some of this "Scarier Zombies in D&D 5E" on youtube from Zee Bashew and the rest is mostly homebrew. it wasn't meant to be a session in a game, so i really fucked around with it. i'd use his rules with their hp max if actually running a game, which is 22. obviously, i started them all with 2 hp, just didn't deal with having injured zombies because in no world was it possible for me to keep track of it with so many on the board.

and there it is! i'd love to attempt this in an actual game, but i think there are some things i'd make more true to d&d rules if i did. reach would matter more, so the damage halving would have a max, but for range weapons? you wanna shoot through five zombies at once? so sick. badass. i think i'd come up with a mechanic for that, maybe surpassing the ac in increments of one or two per zombie.

[onslaughtsixdotcom]

Heartbreaker vs. Craphack

The difference between a heartbreaker and a craphack is, you think a heartbreaker will be finished.

I started using the word "craphack" a few months ago to talk about my in-progress fantasy d20 elfgame. (This is a separate project from CRAWL, which has entered a process of hibernation. Its no longer in active development.)

I had a lot of names for this thing. It really started when the OGL shit hit the fan and I was already seeing how affordable low-run booklet prints were. The idea of creating a booklet with a bunch of my house rules and favourite tables, and getting it printed, became a kind of cool idea. Simultaneously, WotC quickly jettisoned a bunch of the coolest ideas for 5e 2024. Initially I was like: well, let's compile those ideas and I'll make a home game out of what I liked.

I called this document 5e Killer. This stems from a phrase I said in early 2023: If you are a major TTRPG publisher and you aren't already working on your 5e Killer for release in Fall 2024, you're fucking up.

I am not a major TTRPG publisher. But why not do my own? At least for my home game.

Somewhere I got pissed at the limitations of "sticking to 5e." I also realized I was just tinkering with it. I did finish a version of this doc. We are playing my 5e game with it now. (I do not like the changes 2024 5e, or any other base ruleset, has implemented. I like this setup enough.)

But, this wasn't "done." Many core problems I had with 5e were still sort of there. Unsure of how to solve them, I backburnered it and began looking at other systems. Perhaps I would find someone else's heartbreaker and be able to modify that, or find a perfect beginning point I could launch out of.

I spent most of 2024 experimenting with other ideas and doing other projects, including converting my Dungeon23 megadungeon to OSE, writing it up, and running the Kickstarter. I spent a month and a half making an OSE house rules document and compilation in anticipation of printing that out, both for home use and convention play. While doing this I actually started to solidify some more ideas about what I liked and what I wanted out of...all of this.

While doing this, little bits and pieces have always come into focus. I now have a canonical equipment list for basically all fantasy games going forward. I have a d100 magic item list and I'm slowly working on d100 spells (although Skerples may yet beat me to the punch). And, I found Outcast Silver Raiders, a game I initially called my "forever game," about three weeks after I made my first document compiling info for the latest version of my craphack.

The craphack doesn't exist except in my head. There are like 8 versions of half formed thoughts, in Discord self-messages and Affinity Publisher projects and Google Docs. They are, if anything, a dialogue with myself, wherein I repeatedly ask: What do I want out of the game?

I like the idea of hit die as damage die; weapons shouldnt have variable damage.

I like the idea of saving throws existing separately from skill checks, existing separately from attack rolls.

I like having lots and lots of classes and ancestries. About 10 each is a sweet spot for me.

I like games where you always roll high to succeed. I am not a fan of roll under.

Likewise, I like the DM being able to set a difficulty class/target number for the player to hit, even on skill checks. Some doors are harder to open than others, some locks are harder to pick than others. (The Advantage/Disadvantage mechanic exists and is brilliant, but I prefer to use it for situational bonuses: this is an objectively DC15 check but if you do a thing you can have advantage to maybe do it easier.)

I like monsters having simpler statblocks than players do, with their primary stats being hit die and number, AC, and what they can do on their combat turn. I can make them do anything I want outside of that. I'm the DM.

Somewhere I have a table of every monster "type" and their average 5e stats and I want to expand on that to create basically a monster Rosetta stone for this game, combined with established and working power sets, so that I could easily create monsters on the fly during sessions without having to prep them.

I don't mind even the most mundane classes (like fighter and thief) having a few "special abilities," like 5e Action Surge or whatever. But IMO 5e gives you far too many of these, and worse, has too many options. (For my "forever game," I don't think I want subclasses.)

I like OSR vibes for mechanics, but people played heroic games with these same systems for 15 years, and anyone who says otherwise is fucking kidding themselves.

I like and use miniatures but also sometimes use theater of the mind for some encounters, especially against solo non-boss monsters. The system should easily support both.

I like individual initiative. I think there's still some improvement on my "everyone rolls a d6, if the monster beats any players they roll first, btw lower is better" system. I also wish I could use the Initiative Clock but I think it's a little too fiddly.

We don't need bonus actions or minor actions or anything like that. Too much design. You can move and do one other thing.

I like having a defined list of spells and at least semi-Vancian magic with spell slots. I am open to not having spell slots, but spellcasters should still pick from a list of pre-defined spells. No Knave, Cairn, bastards.-style "combine these random words to make a vague spell and work with the DM to figure out what it does" nonsense.

It's REALLY easy to see where all of these ideas sort of overlap and become relevant to how I imagine playing the game and the flow state that I desire. It's rules that don't get in the way and give all players an equal amount of cool shit they can do on their turn besides attacking. It's also easy to see how many games are outright thrown out by what I am imagining: no Cairn, Knave, OSE, Shadowdark, 5e, Five Torches Deep, etc. etc. (The only one that actually does hit the mark is, appropriately, Outcast Silver Raiders.)

So, where does this all coalesce? As I move around pieces and think about this, it might never coalesce. When I was on Take Flight, Cat and I talked about the idea that you might never finish The System, and That's Okay. It can be the old car that your dad tinkers with in the garage every other weekend and says, one day I'll get it all fixed up, I swear. It's his hobby, the same way game design can be your hobby--even if you are also a professional game designer with other projects that definitely are moving forward, being published, that you're doing the work on.

But my craphack exists and I swear one day I'm definitely gonna finish it, for sure.

[monstersdownthepath]

Not monsters, but spells.

As a person who loves to play spellcasters - especially wizards - I wanted to ask your opinion on the offensive cantrip spells, acid splash and ray of frost, specifically.

They just seem so … useless. I get that unlike manufactured weapons, they use touch AC to hit, but 1d3 damage that never changes or increases at all? Seems rather weak. Low-level wizards who run out of spells are effectively reduced to walking encyclopaedias. 5e cantrips scale with level, but naturally 5e monsters are also generally tougher.

What’s your thoughts? Are those cantrips useful? Could they be stronger without being game-breaking for spellcasters?

------

If they seem useless in battle, that's because they are! Most of the time, attacking a creature with cantrips is strictly worse than just using a crossbow or similar.

Operative word: "Creature."

Now, say, if you wanted to freeze a drink or a small amount of hazardous fluid (such as a vial of poison), burn a rope, clear out a patch of hazardous mold, burn off a leech, clear out webbing, or do something similar to that, you'll be glad you had them. There's also niche uses against monster abilities, such as an entanglement being destroyed by "any amount of Fire damage" or a bloodsucking creature being forced to let go if it takes any Acid damage, in which case suddenly your useless cantrips are saving you time, effort, and bigger spell slots.

Cantrips are also... well, training wheels for low-level caster, both in and out of story. By the time your Wizard or Witch reaches 8th to 10th level, their spells should be changing the tides of encounters with singular casts. If they ever get anywhere close to the point where offensive cantrips are starting to look good, you know things are getting bad. Getting to that point reveals the trade the caster has made when they selected their class; their candle slowly burns down over the course of the day, but the martials are still going strong. It's the balancing factor, really; 5e's cantrips are stronger because spells are less numerous.

also, there's something to be said about cantrip damage needing to be low because of the specific interaction it has with Arcane Tricksters Sneak Attacks...

[grailfinders]

Grailfinders Viewers' Choice Poll: Second Chance Grail War Part III!

It's been another seven-ish months already, so it's time once again to find out who is the best of the worst who'll get a second chance at their very own D&D build! Without further ado:

Bios under the cut!

Duryodhana is Arjuna and Karna's cousin who just. cannot stop being cartoonishly evil for even five seconds. it is just fucking constant with this man. he tried to assassinate Arjuna's family, then he invited them over and burned down his own guest house to try and kill them, he rigged a bet to win their kingdom, refused to accept when they won the counter bet, and assaulted their wife in front of them. the man is a menace to society, and he's getting a build eventually either way, but if you want it early now's your chance.

Tokugawa Ieyasu runs on gag manga logic- literally, he's from Koha-Ace- so he's allowed to break the rules on the regular. his Noble Phantasms let him become each of the seven main classes at will. he's the kind of guy who's never necessarily "strong", but he can always put himself in a strong position.

Red Arcueid is Arcueid, but red! she's a what-if evil version of the nekoless neko arc made by the night of wallachia. you've seen the archetype earth build, you've hopefully played her game by now, you know how this goes.

Delightful Rider is a mysterious film director who specializes in illusions and special effects. her abilities force those around her to say dramatic one-liners, and her noble phantasm can be altered using footage of other servants' NPs.

Koschei the Deathless is the stereotypical boogeyman of russian folklore, the evil king who has kidnapped [insert damsel here] and can only be destroyed through an extremely convoluted process or his magic can only be defeated by specific macguffins, et cetera.

Delightful Assassin, aka Hoover in drag, is less about sneaking around killing people than she is about collecting information on everyone around her, able to gather a full file of information on a foe's weaknesses and blackmail opportunities instantly through the use of her noble phantasm.

Adrian Carton de Wiart is, along with Koschei, one of the two people on this list not from a fate franchise, and the only real person in this poll at all. I say that mostly to put everything else about the man in even more batshit context. During world war I, he got shot in so many places it would be easier to list body parts without lead in them, survived two plane crashes, and tore off his own fingers when he couldn't get them amputated. and if his own quotes are to be believed, he had fun doing it.

[thepleasuregoblin]

Thinking about the Bladesinger wizard from 5e. What a cool concept with a terrible execution.

Ok so first off you don't get your wizard specialty until 2nd level so at first level you're just a normal wizard. At 2nd level you get light armor proficiency and proficiency with one one-handed weapon. You also get a Bladesinging sort of stance you can go into, more on that in a sec.

Now naturally since the high concept of Bladesinger is a front-line(ish) wizard, you're gonna try to maximize your AC. You're still a wizard after all, so your best bet is not to get hit. The light armor proficiency helps with this a little, studded leather gives you 12 + dex. However the Mage Armor spell gives you 13 + dex, so I guess you're saving a spell slot at least. You also get to add your int bonus as long as you're Bladesinging. Assuming a very lucky character generation with 18 int and 18 dex you can have up to a 21 AC at 2nd level. Pretty dang good, but unlikely that you'll pull that off.

Now on to Bladesinging itself. If you're smart you went with a rapier and prioritized dex (after int) so you can actually hit something. It works basically like a barbarian rage without the crash, and has the restrictions you'd expect: can't wear medium+ armor or shields, ends if you're knocked out. Also it ends if you make a two-handed attack, which is frankly wack. The bonuses you get are: add int bonus to AC (pretty good), add 10ft to your speed (not bad), advantage on acrobatics checks (cool I guess but why), and add your int bonus to concentration checks (you're gonna need it).

All these seems very neat at first, your wizard can hop up and chill with the fighters, you know, save some spell slots and do... Less damage than you would with cantrips, and die in a couple rounds cause you still have d6 hit dice and even 21 AC isn't going to stop you from getting hit like. 5-10% of the time at least.

The later features are barely worth mentioning. Extra attack at 6th level, at 10th level you can use a reaction burn a spell slot to reduce the damage by 5 x the slot level, and that one could actually be pretty handy, but kind of a hefty cost, especially since some spells will do better at defending you than this feature. Finally at 14 you get to add your Int bonus to melee damage while in Bladesong. That does let you put out some pretty solid damage with your weapon, but you still have to be in melee, and your 20+ AC is gonna do you even less good at 14th level than at 1st.

Overall, just play war wizard. Or eldritch knight. Or multiclass wizard/fighter. Or, preferably, drop 5e entirely and make a magus or something in pathfinder.

[dailyadventureprompts]

Simpler Monsters = Faster Combat

Been thinking a lot about different ways to tune 5e the way I want it, and I was inspired by a recent chat about how bullshit CR is as a mechanic to ponder over how d&d does its monsters in comparison to other games.

What fundamentally slows combat down (both at the table and during prep) is the mechanical assumption that the monsters/baddies/npcs controlled by the DM have to function on the same mechanical framework as player characters: standard/move/bonus/reaction action economy, HP, AC, Damage numbers etc. While some of this is in the name of game balance, we can all admit that it's clunky as hell and could stand to be overhauled.

In a lot of ways d&d monsters are the way they are (huge stat blocks, a pain to modify/homebrew) because of the old wargaming/competitive/adversarial days of play, specifically in that every monster had to have a canon range of stats so that the DM coudn't "cheat" in the party's favour or against it. I think the pursuit of good gameplay has largely evolved past this obsessive need for objectivity over the past 50 years.

Once you run enough d&d you realize that monster stats don't actually matter. The baddies need enough offence to threaten the party and enough defence to hang on long enough to make the combat interesting, with the actual spice of the combat being tactics, goals, and special abilities. For several levels during an ongoing campaign (lvls 6-9) I swapped out traditional monster HP for gnomestew's "10 good hits" system. None of my players noticed the change, and suddenly my prep/running the session became 1000% easier because there were way less numbers to take care of.

Over the past couple years I've branched out into games using the PbtA and FitD systems, which run the combat encounters through the same gameplay framework as they do skill resolution. Fighting a demon to the death is mechanically the same as escaping away from an avalanche, and while this game design is quite elegant, I want to preserve d&d combat as the tactical miniature skirmish minigame that it is.

I think I'm going to start work on a combat hack, something that will let you port in any vanilla or 3rd party monster you'd like for theoretically any CR range. I'm going to wrap in some of the developments made by the 5e successors (daggerheart, mcdmrpg etc) along with my own ideas about how to make the system run smoother.

[utilitycaster]

speaking of jasmine bhullar, she and brennan had a great convo about min-maxers and i was wondering what your own thoughts on min-maxing were? i'm new-ish to actually playing dnd and i still worry about making myself a problem to the dm as opposed to an asset.

First off as someone who enjoys Adventuring Academy but never has the time to watch the full episodes, thank you for bringing this up - I watched just the debate, and it was incredible and hilarious.

This is a good question. I am 100% in agreement with Jasmine here and she said it better than I could: min-maxing simply means that you read the rules to D&D and decided to use them to your advantage. Reading the rules to D&D is great and everyone should do it (in fact, this a reliable way to be an asset to the DM: know how your character's abilities work). There are a few cases where it sucks but most of those aren't actually due to min-maxing so much as shitty player behaviors that can occur in min-maxers.

I think one reason people dislike min-maxers is that the stereotypical min-maxer builds a character who truly can't do anything except for massive damage, and that does kind of suck, but I also think that that is really hard to build in 5e. You're going to have some other abilities. I think it was much easier to truly min-max in 3.5e, and perhaps in older editions you could really break things (in fact, having listened to some pathfinder 1e actual plays, I know you could).

There is also, as Jasmine points out, a false assumption that min-maxers aren't interested in RP or won't do it. This is very clearly untrue and a few examples off the top of my head from Actual Play that are debatably min-maxed are: Deadeye Cybin (played by Brennan, natch) in NADDPod (damage dealer); Laerryn Coramar-Seelie of EXU Calamity (optimized for survival, especially against non-magical foes); Caduceus Clay and Deanna Leimert of Critical Role (both optimized to be healers, incidentally); Orym and Vex, also of Critical Role (optimized to have a stupidly high perception score), Theo Gumbar of A Crown of Candy (optimized to tank and have a stupidly high AC). These are all fantastic characters with profound RP scenes who happen to also be really, really good at a narrow band of things, but they're also not just good at that. Many of them also can serve as the brains or the face of their party; many have utility spells far beyond their area of specialization.

Another reason people dislike min-maxers is they have a reputation for being ungenerous - for swooping in and stealing the spotlight. The above characters, played by some of the most generous people in actual play, show that's clearly not the case. Also, to be honest, a spotlight hog doesn't have to be min-maxed. It's just a shitty "hey, hey look at me" player. I think attention hogs might be a bit more inclined to try to build a character who is really really good at something (again, usually damage more than say, healing) but that doesn't mean that everyone who builds a gunslinger is here to steal all the glory.

Specialization also isn't bad! The reason D&D is a game where people are in a party is because not everyone can do everything! There are a small handful of characters who are a utility knife who can basically do a little bit of almost everything (Keyleth, Fjord, Moonshine) but they are the exception rather than the rule. Barbarians, for example, are a class that usually is structured around tanking and doing damage. This is fine! You probably don't want a party that's all barbarians because it is useful to have healers and ranged attackers and people who can sink all their high stat rolls into the mental side of things because they don't live and die quite so much by their physical stats, but it sure is nice to have a barbarian in the mix to balance out the glass cannon wizard, isn't it?

If you show up to a table where there is a clear gap in party composition (eg: healing) or there's a clear story the GM wants to tell (eg: very social, requires a lot of diplomacy) and you decide not to fill it because you are too busy building Guy With Stealth Bonus of +20, then that's a problem, but that's ultimately a failure to collaborate. Min-maxing for something that doesn't really help the party is simply the way in which you happened to fail that compromise.

I'm sure there are edge-case, dark corners of D&D Reddit builds that do suck, but honestly most of them suck in that they are actually not good (eg: coffeelock). Your typical case of dumping one stat to max out on another? totally normal, totally cool.

Anyway to get to the part of your question regarding not being a problem: you probably aren't! You're thinking about how to not be a problem to your DM, which people who are problems tend not to do. However, the big takeaways of the above are 1. read the rules of your character and 2. build a character who fits into the world. In the session zero, build a character who has a reason to be doing the things the DM outlines in broad strokes, and who complements the other PCs. If you do that, then it doesn't matter if you min-max or not.