#last-ditch method of spellcasting

[kyofsonder]

Find the Word

I was tagged by @on-noon to find a specific set of words in my WIPs, and tag others to keep the game going. Thank you for the tag, the more times I play this game the more fun I have and the more I enjoy the perspective it gives me on my own writing.

My Words: grow, worse, wind, snow, and wake.

I’ll tag @aohendo, @junypr-camus, @starlightscribe, @did-i-do-this-write, and @marinesocks this time. It's also an open tag for anyone else who wants to join, as always!

Your Words: voice, equal, second, purpose, and greed.

I found grow(s) in an original short story WIP, titled “Kiyo”:

Kiyo herself is pretty small, also like me, but her leaves are strong. They're bright red and her vines are a soft orange, so it's less that she grows like a regular plant and more that she spreads like a flame. She's a little wizened, with some crunchy edges of brown on some of her older leaves and a lot of black in her veins, but her roots keep pushing their way down through the soil. Reaching for water or more soil or whatever it is they find for her. The guy selling all those half-neglected plants hadn't acted like there was anything special about this one in particular, but I haven't heard of plants that look like Kiyo... pretty much anywhere.

I found worse in my novel WIP “To Be Honest”, although it does show up in a scene where there’s (magic-related) self-injury and mentions of blood:

The feeling from earlier is practically screaming at him now, rattling his bones until he thinks the vibration might knock him out. The way David had greeted him. The way his voice has been changing. The fact that Micah hasn't been able to see his face this whole time. The repeated circles when he'd tried to walk. Something is wrong. Micah can feel the magic in his own blood, warning him that if he takes too long to figure this out he'll end up trapped here. Not just here in the woods, but somewhere much worse. He can't control his breathing anymore and every spell he knows is gone from his mind. Alright. Fine. Screw patience, then. The witch takes as deep and steady of a breath as he can manage, wincing each time it catches on the way down to his lungs. Without sparing a second more to think, he brings the knife down on his arm at whatever angle fate decides. If he's lucky, it won't catch any major arteries and he'll be able to bandage himself up later.

I found wind in a draft of a Given oneshot fic “Present Tense”:

He steps toward the water, bracing himself against the wind. It isn't cold, somehow, but he still feels like he should be wearing a jacket of some kind. The sound of the ocean makes it feel like Winter, steady and calm. Rolling like the sand, only stronger. Moving steadily. Making itself known. White noise, washing away the feelings of early afternoon sunlight that had been so vivid just a few moments ago. He finds himself sinking into a crouch, closing his eyes again and holding his knees close to himself. He buries his face into his arms. Ah. He wants to sink into this sound. Let it wash him away, too. Out toward the sunset. The gradually darkening blue and fading light pink of nightfall. The warped yellow and orange of a sun saying its goodbyes for the night. He wants to fall into these soft colors like a fluffy bed and rest.

I found snow in a Sk8 the Infinity fic “True or False”, although it shows up in a scene where Langa is experiencing a type of unreality that might affect some readers:

It's quiet for a while, then Langa adjusts himself so he can speak -- still holding as tight as possible, "Sometimes... I have dreams. They aren't like normal dreams. When I wake up, I can't tell if they were real or not. If I was remembering things that really happened, or dreaming things that never did. It feels like I'm awake and just thinking about real memories, but it also feels like I'm asleep and dreaming. That doesn't make sense, but... the dreams don't make sense. They get... it happened for the first time after I got lost on a mountain as a kid. I was out in the snow all night. I kept thinking that I remembered the way back -- then I'd realize that it was the wrong way. The path I remembered was from a dream. No matter where I walked, it didn't get me home. It got... really confusing. Ever since then, I'll get that way again sometimes. Confused from dreams like that, I mean."

I found wake in my novel WIP “Apricots” when the main character is talking about how long it’s been since his girlfriend died:

Noah doesn't let him get away that easily, "The beginning is the day Jess died, whatever day or month or year it was when that happened. I think you know that much."

"Kade's lost track of time since then, too. More than usual. It feels like he started talking to her ghost months before she died, every time he was at her bedside, like he'd already known it was coming. I guess... when her condition... that's probably why you got mad at me. You knew she would die so much earlier than I did. I still don't think you should have blamed me for not knowing. I did the best I could to take care of her. It's been two months and I still wake up thinking I'll take the bus to her place to... I think I'm still not convinced that she's even gone at all."

Thank you again for the tag – there was a little more original content mixed in with the fanfiction this time! I'm learning to balance how much I write between original and fandom projects, which is encouraging to see when I play this game.

[theworldbrewery]

multiclass your...  MONK!!

patient defense. stunning strike. stillness of mind. deflect missiles. Monks are pretty dang badass all on their own. but you’re here because you want to take your badassery to the Next Level, am I right?

Monks tend to put their highest ability scores in dexterity and wisdom, wear no armor to get their bonuses to AC and movement, and get two attacks when they take the Attack action. You don’t get spellcasting (except the Way of the Four Elements does, kind of, and so does Way of Shadow, kind of) but why would you if you can cast fist? Let’s actually find out.

Monk + Barbarian

Unfortunately, one of your two first-level perks from this multiclass is useless to you, because Unarmored Defense doesn’t double-up. However, you’d still get to Rage. If you have a high strength and a high dex, this can work really well! You can apply Rage Damage to your monk weapon attacks (including unarmed strikes) as long as you used your Strength ability score to attack, not Dexterity. If you put your heart and soul into maxing out Dex and let strength fall by the wayside, this won’t work great. Extra perks include advantage on Dex saves against effects you can see and the classic Reckless Attack feature.

Monk + Bard

Knowing your class, it makes the best sense to opt for several strikes, including your bonus action unarmed strike, instead of casting a spell. Now, there are certainly times when a spell wouldn’t go amiss, but the trade-off costs are higher because you can cast 1 spell as an action, or you can make two attacks. And when you get to your use of Flurry of Blows, a single bonus action cantrip or spell... it just doesn’t pack the same punch. Most of the bard’s coolest features at early levels pale in comparison to what you can use your turn for.

Monk + Cleric

Here’s a caster combo I could see working out, but it all relies on your Divine Domain. A trickery cleric/monk combo can gain advantage on attacks using their duplicate, while a tempest cleric/monk can deal damage as a reaction to getting hit, and a death cleric can deal extra damage. Now, of course you can take a domain like Arcana or Knowledge that offers more roleplay benefits than combat ones, saving your spells for utility only. 

Monk + Druid

This one is fine, but only fine. If your DM rules that your unarmed strikes aren’t possible while Wild-Shaped, it’s barely worth trying. Your spellcasting is utility at best, so you’d really rely on your wild shape. Now, two attacks while in wolf form is nothing to sneeze at--or three if it counts as a bonus action unarmed strike--but it’s starting to drift from the monk specialty, enough so that you’ll be trapped between two very different classes.

Monk + Fighter

*Chef’s kiss* perfect. A high level monk dipping into fighter is excellent, because you’ll snag a fighting style (I recommend archery if your monk does darts/throwing stars/etc. or dueling if you wield a single melee weapon) and Second Wind, which lets you regain HP. But at second level, things go wild. Because you’re a monk with 2 attacks per Attack Action plus Flurry of Blows to attack twice more, you can use the fighter’s Action Surge and make a total of six attacks on your turn. It’s a sweet deal.

Monk + Paladin

This could be almost as clutch as Monk + Fighter... if not for the tiny detail of monks having a 13 or higher in dex and wisdom, and a pally needs a 13 or higher in strength and charisma. If you miraculously pulled it off and had the stats you needed, congrats! You can use Lay on Hands as a last-ditch heal effort, adopt a fighting style (dueling is your only valid option here, unfortunately), and cast spells (and i’ll admit, the smites would be pretty cool as a monk). The problem here is actually that Monk and Paladin are two sides of a very cool coin, but their abilities overlap and diverge too much at the same time. A monk/paladin fusion would most likely get...confused.

Monk + Rogue

This is more like it! You’re dextrous, rogues are dextrous, it’s a win-win. And early-levels sneak attack might not be, like, insanely powerful, but imagine successfully Stunning an opponent on your first strike and dealing Sneak Attack on your second. The only shame is that if you pursue Cunning Actions, a few of your ki point options become redundant, but for you that’s sort of a perk? Because now you can save your ki points for more stunning strikes, more flurry of blows action, deflecting missiles, and using your monk order abilities. 

Monk + Ranger

This combination is really a shoutout to monks who want to be better at non-combat stuff. Rangers will get you extra proficiencies and languages, bonuses to things like tracking enemies, and spellcasting you can use as new bonus actions in combat or as utility spells plus a fighting style (see my tips on the fighter entry above). It’s not perfect--spellcasting takes focus away from your ki point methods--but if you were going for a nature vibe but druid won’t work for you, ranger is a great option!

Monk + Sorcerer

The sorcerous origins are going to do right by you, trust me. Draconic Resilience ups your AC by three (and since it’s not technically Unarmored Defense, it should stack with your existing AC bonus); Divine Soul lets you add a bonus when you miss with an attack to improve your roll; Storm Sorcery gives you the ability to fly ten feet without provoking opportunity attacks. Spells might help you out a bit, but I’ll level with you--they’re not as beneficial to you as your ki points, and the sorcery points you receive at 2nd level won’t help you do your monk thing.

Monk + Warlock

The nice thing about the warlock is that you’re not going to struggle with whether or not to use a spell slot. Blow it on a nice Hex right up front and start attacking as normal. Use a ranged cantrip to deal damage (eldritch blast or toll the dead) when you have an enemy out of melee range and/or don’t want to provoke an opportunity attack. If you pursue eldritch invocations, use them to either amp up that eldritch blast or employ them in non-combat scenarios.

Monk + Wizard

I’ve said it before, Wizard is the toughest one to multiclass. You likely won’t gain many benefits from this except to use Absorb Elements and Shield (both of which are reactions that will help you out in battle without detracting from your attacks). Still, if you’re committed to it, there’s nothing actively wrong with this multiclass--it’s just way, way outside the typical Monk skillset, and can lead to some issues keeping up with your powerhouse of a party later on.

That’s it for the Monk multiclass tips! Next up, we’ll be discussing Sorcerers, those most flexible of casters. 

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[romera-rp]

Not long after The Vigil for the Lost is held in Hegaehend, a set of bounties goes up in Runswick. This is not abnormal in itself as Runsick is known as a beacon for bounty hunters, mercenaries, and adventurers alike thanks to its location in a monster infested forest. There are always great sums of money to be made in Runswick, though it is not a city for the faint of heart. These specific bounties, however, are not like any of the others listed by the city authorities. These bounties offer rewards for either the capture or death of wanted war criminals.  

While King Rolland focuses his forces on Ivana’s invasion of Llyn, his brother, Nickolas, sent a team of special operatives across the border with orders to destroy as much of Hegaehend’s infrastructure without being noticed as possible. They razed the fields and farms of those contracted to provide food for Rolland’s army, captured and killed family members of well-regarded generals and political figures, and contaminated the water supply of large cities. With the general public so distracted by the news of the tragedy in Llyn, it took weeks to discover the team and their crimes. Soon there won’t be a single person in Hegaehend who doesn’t fear that their town will be the next on the group’s tour of destruction.

Currently there are rewards for the live capture, proof of death, or information regarding the whereabouts or actions of any of the members of the squad sent by King Nickolas. The highest individual bounty is that of the group’s leader, a half elf named Willumin. As tensions build and panic begins to flourish within King Rolland’s borders, it is of utmost importance that these special operatives be stopped by any means necessary and at any cost.

IN CHARACTER DETAILS:

This event will last for exactly 3 weeks in and out of game, meaning your threads can be set any time between 26th June to the 17th July 3508 AT. Although the bounties have drawn a lot of attention to Runswick, the search for the operatives can take place all across Romera. If you are interested in becoming a headhunter for the King, all the information on the bounties and the currently known clues are listed below.

The Leader - 2,300g NAME: Willumin RACE: Half-Moon Elf GENDER: Male ESTIMATED AGE: 43 DETAILS: Long silver-white hair, black tattooed markings over face, and blue eyes. The Leader is highly intelligent and dangerous. With a history of extremely successful missions, he has worked closely with Nickolas for years and should not be underestimated. We strongly advise not to threaten the target and instead bring any information of location to the appropriate authorities.

The Muscle - 1,600g NAME: Zaodak RACE: Half-Orc GENDER: Male ESTIMATED AGE: 29 DETAILS: A massive 6’5, bald, half-orc marked by scars across his torso and arms, one cutting down his face and taking a chunk out of his nose. The Muscle served in King Nickolas’s slave army, evident from the times he’s taken the whip, before he managed to prove himself worthy. Whatever he went through at the hands of Nickolas’s slavers has turned him cruel and unforgiving. If attacked, attempt to kill on site or run.

The Assassin - 1,850g NAME: Isatrix RACE: Halfling GENDER: Female ESTIMATED AGE: 32 DETAILS: With no significant features making her stand out, The Assassin is an expert at blending both into crowds and the shadows. The surviving staff of the political figures she killed describe her as having mousy brown hair and always wrapped in a cloke. As a living ghost, approach her head on and do not allow her to slip away and get the drop on you.

The Distraction - 1,750g NAME: Expert RACE: Tiefling GENDER: Female ESTIMATED AGE: 24 DETAILS: A light grey tiefling recognisable for her dual horns that curve slightly around her head and her bright red hair. A spellcaster of some sort, she specialises in illusions and explosions, depending on which is necessary for the job. Despite her obvious and loud nature, The Distraction is yet to be caught and has proven to have cunning methods of averting people’s attention.

The Informant - 2,200g NAME: ??? RACE: Possible changeling GENDER: ??? ESTIMATED AGE: ??? DETAILS: At each sighting of the group, a different fifth person has been seen each time. Since no information could be found on any of these people, it is believed it is a single person either using the spell Disguise Self or be a possible changeling. Very little information is known due to their nature, however there are rumours that The Informant has been in Hegaehend for much longer and has been feeding intel to King Nickolas.

CLUES

The criminals have mainly been active in the south of the nation, near the Eowesoa border, and making their way north.

Emall, a farming town, was the first place to be hit, having all their crops, produced for the front line of the army, burnt.

Since then Whitmond has had cargo coming in on ships destroyed in port, The Assassin has been spotted in Myrefall killing political figures, and Crowmire’s water supplies have been contaminated.

Each member of the squad is known to never stray too far from the rest, meaning they are moving from town to town as a group. To be able to travel such distances so quickly between incidences, they must be using teleportation magic. The nation has increased the security on their network of teleportation circles and the group have not yet been caught using them.

With Crowmire being their latest hit, the next targets may possibly be Aeredale, a logging town, or The Crossroads or Arx.

FURTHER TIMELINE:

FESTIVAL OF VENGEANCE - Festival of Tiamat (26th June) The followers of Tiamat already have a reputation for battling with other clergy of the pantheon, however on the day of celebration for their goddess they only up the ante. The King has advised his people to stay indoors for the festival and has increased the number of guards patrolling the streets. See worldbuilding post.

GREAT MOON’S GLORY - Festival of Celestian (2nd July) This years festivities will take place north of Alverton, serving as the best location for a view of the twin moons. See worldbuilding post.

THE ASSASSIN’S DEATH (5th July) On the 5th July The Assassin’s bounty is claimed by a group of adventurers who managed to corner her in a tricky situation which resulted in her death.

THE INFORMANT’S CAPTURE (13th July) Despite being the hardest bounty to track, through the right people making use of the right connections the targets identity and location was found. Their capture went rather easily without much of a fight and The Informant is now in the King’s custody.

THE FINAL ATTACK (15th July) As what many see as a last ditch effort to cause mayhem as their numbers dwindle, the remaining members of the operative group attack The Crossroads. The majority of the nation’s merchandise is sold from the town and the group aimed to destroy as much of the supplies as well as the shantytown as possible. If your character happens to be in the town at the time of the attack they will be forced to fight or flee in the chaos. Despite the mass hysteria, the situation is back under control rather quickly as both The Muscle and The Distraction are killed and The Leader flees.

THE LEADER’S CAPTURE (17th July) Due to the sloppy nature of the groups attack on The Crossroads, The Leader is easily tracked from the scene. Jesrina Druulraak, the general of the army, will take it upon herself to lead a group of soldiers, which you may be a part of, to a hideout they have found within a cave a couple of days out from The Crossroads. Being heavily outnumbered, The Leader will be forced to surrender.

OOC DETAILS:

In pairs, or groups, you may be the team to complete any of these bounties/events, including being the ones to kill The Muscle or The Distraction in the attack at The Crossroads. However, to stop contradicting threads I am making it that only one group may complete each one. If a pair is interested in fulfilling one of these bounties please @admin in the discord group or DM Lottie or Eavan who will approve it. The bounty threads will be given out on a first come, first serve basis and players can be involved in only one bounty to make sure everyone has an opportunity to participate.

The following list will be updated as the bounties are taken up: THE ASSASSIN: THE INFORMANT: Arthenni & Thalra THE MUSCLE: Efrain & Jyndora THE DISTRACTION: THE LEADER:

This event will last 21 days and will officially come to an end on the 17th July, at which point any activities should be coming to an end.

Alternatively from the war criminal bounties other activities will be posted within the worldbuilding post for you to base your threads around. These include locations within Runswick and other bounties available from the city.

If you take on one of the main bounties please tag them accordingly for each one.

And as always, no godmodding!

[o-hybridity]

how would you make a tabletop system like D&D that's crunchy for players, but not a huge pain in the ass for the DM to make monsters?

This is the Eternal Question, and it cuts pretty close to the core of my basic principles of design philosophy! I don’t know if I have a definitive answer but I can springboard into a meandering explanation of the things I’ve done to wrangle with this exact problem. Here goes:

for a while I thought there was a game that answered that question perfectly, and it was called Dungeon Crawl Classics. I don’t hold that belief now (Zocchi dice…), but we can loot an important principle from its couple of good design decisions:

1. Every player gets one really good toy. DCC’s chief virtue is that it found a way to make Fighters a fun choice, not just the choice that’s less mentally taxing than being a spellcaster, and the way they make that work is by giving the role an inherently textured core mechanic called Mighty Deeds of Arms. Instead of giving them a flat ascending to-hit bonus that’s just numerically better than the other classes get, Fighters in DCC roll a separate Deed die that scales with level alongside the attack roll and add the Deed die to the to-hit roll and damage, and if the Deed die comes up 3 or higher they also pull off a maneuver that improves their immediate tactical situation.

Swashbuckling chandelier swings, disarms, feints, coating your foe in lamp oil, and basically anything Jackie Chan has ever done besides just hit guys count as Deeds, and the only things you need to make them happen are your own imagination, GM fiat, and the will of the dice—just so long as the effect isn’t “do more damage.”

Altogether, the method requires even less bookkeeping than your standard D&D fighter, while being way more versatile and giving the player something to actively play with and find new implementations for every time their class role is relevant.

Spellcasters in DCC similarly put some wrinkles in the Vancian procedures by getting rid of conventional spell levels, turning each spell into a range of effects keyed to the results of a casting check, and letting casters burn their physical stats temporarily to pump up a single casting attempt—and that’s before we get into mutations and faustian pacts. The role falls into some of the same pitfalls it always has: spellcaster players have to juggle a lot more functions than fighters or thieves and at the top of their game they’re still going to make wilder shit happen than the other classes, though it balances out a bit by making casting itself a higher-risk affair.

The trouble with DCC’s classes is it tries to spread about 2.75 really good player toys across five classes, and when it comes to thief stuff it can’t really come up with anything all that good.

So Digression 1: What makes a really good player toy? How do we fill out those empty spaces in the party roster with cool stuff for players to use that isn’t a headache to keep track of?

In my humble onion, a good player toy needs to be flexible, haptically engaging, low-bookkeeping, and freely usable but not strictly predictable. To be flexible, a player needs to be able to apply the toy in a range of play situations—getting too attached to pre-defined mechanical effects is toxic to flexibility. A haptically engaging toy prompts the player to engage with something physically at the table to use it; die rolls are the most obvious but there’s lots of options ranging from the nifty to the balls-out bizarre.

There’s also some mechanics that I think are inherently more satisfying because the things they make you do with numbers has kind of an inherent pleasure that feels kinesthetic—I get warm, kind of stimmy feelings thinking about roll-high-but-not-too-high dice pool systems.

Low-bookkeeping toys are pretty self-explanatory; if it requires resource management or tracking multiple modifiers across different locations on the character sheet, those elements need to be doing extra work to make themselves memorable. The Goblin Laws of Gaming’s spellcasting system introduces a bookkeeping element in that you have to track your caster’s accumulated Dooms, but any caster only ever gets 3, the last one is pretty final, and they all translate into memorable moments of play.

When I say that a good toy is freely usable but unpredictable, I mean that the mechanic should tempt the player to use it often—because it’s powerful, because the results are exciting or cool—and temper that eagerness to toy with it less with anxiety over whether they’re going to blow one of their limited uses on a whiff or a no-sell when they could need it later and more with the question of whether it might blow up in their faces this time. Spellcasters in DCC or GLOG are way more equipped to cast all day long compared to their D&D brethren, and that leaves caster players in a position to have more fun with their role, but there’s always the lingering possibility a spell might pop off wrong and now you’ve got a lobster hand. Even when a PC gimmick doesn’t work in the player’s favor, it should make the next moment more exciting. Non-events are poison to gameplay.

Something to keep in mind in reference to player toys: nothing obligates you to make these toys all fit into a single coherent reference frame or “preserve game balance.” What you’re looking to do here is create what game devs over on the digital side of things call Incomparables—play elements that you can’t meaningfully “balance” because you can’t meaningfully convert one into the terms of another.

All of this is building up to point 2. Monsters are self-contained toys for the GM to play with. Like how you’re not obligated to have player toys all fit together neatly into a balanced and 100% shared language of play, monsters can and should operate on their own distinct mechanical plane, and not every monster will be able to fit within the same framework of rules matter.

By that token, I strongly encourage anyone looking to break out of the framework of play you’ll find in a WotC book to ditch as much of the content  in your statblock that carries over into the character sheet as you can. Give ‘em hit dice and hp totals, sure, give ‘em an AC rating and I won’t complain, to-hit bonuses even if you’re feeling nasty, but skip the ability scores and saving throws and proficiencies, and remember that there’s a special circle in hell for designers who give monsters big piles of feats that you have to dig back and forth through the damn book to find and make spot play decisions around (admittedly that’s not the problem it used to be back when 3e was what everyone was doing, but damned if I’m going to let anyone forget that it was a thing).

That sounds like heresy, but here’s the wild thing: there’s a whole armature of play to D&D that nobody uses and it would make the whole affair so, so much simpler if we did, because D&D is built to be a player-facing system, despite appearances. The original mechanic’s been buried under ability score modifiers, saving throws, attack rolls, and skill DCs, but it’s still there, baked into the dice and the stat spread.  Roll a d20 and compare the result against the relevant ability score; if it’s equal to or lower than the stat in question, you done did the thing. High rolls within the margin of success are better than low ones; use this to determine who comes out on top in a contested action when there’s a tie.

Bam, you’re done. That’s your core task resolution mechanic. The great thing about this is that it takes a huge amount of pressure off the GM to pin down extraneous numbers. Your monster doesn’t need an AC score, just a penalty it applies to a player’s attack check. Same with to-hit bonuses, just applied to the roll the player’s making to avoid or resist the attacks it has. Same with exceptional (or exceptionally shitty) base abilities like strength, speed, and intelligence. You don’t need to so much as think the phrase “Passive Perception.” All of that lets you pare down a monster’s statblock to a pretty spare couple of lines that you can fit on a notecard, leaving you room and time to come up with mechanical texture that’s actually fun.

Additionally, using stats this way leaves plenty of room to come up with fun implementations on the players’ end. Stat damage rules begin to make a lot more sense when you strip away all the derived values and re-center your players’ attention on those 5% probability increments. Rolling high but shooting for less than a target number is one of those mechanics that’s really satisfying to then carry over into some kind of direct numeric result. Just narrowing things down to a smattering of possibilities for martial characters, n this framework you can set up mechanics for defensive fighters to convert a failing attack roll into a substitute AC score for the next round, while a more buckwild berserker type who plays more for risk/reward sets their hp total to whatever the die result is—that 1 hits, but now your timetable for the fight’s shifted drastically, but if you hit high, you can pull in a killer second wind. In short, you have an infinite canvas for crunch if that’s what your players are into.