The General D&D thread

Now you all are just being pedantic.

Imagine never being able to see the sun and then one day someone tells you that it exists and you're like "nah" so you look up and roll a Spot check to look for it and you crit and you're like "WHOOOOOOAAAAAAAA"

It says that an observer who fails that Spot check automatically spots the light source at half the distance. Reading. It works.

Shush you! I want blind peasants

They're within twenty radii of illumination lengths of the Sun, so they're entitled to a DC 20 Spot Check to see it, yes. They're within ten radii of illumination lengths of the Sun, so they see it even if they fail that check, yes.

They're within one such length.

So, the question is, what is the radius of illumination of any given star, and are we within ten such lengths?

And what is the radius of illumination of the moon, for that matter?

edited 27th Mar '15 4:29:45 PM by RaichuKFM

I believe that the radius of illumination is the radius at which it casts enough light to prevent concealment. By that definition, the Sun's probably extends out past Mars at the very least, while the Moon's doesn't encompass Earth.

Somewhat related to D&D, but my buddy is planning an online 13th Age RPG. I was thinking of reprising my alienist, but I had an idea - HEAVY METAL DWARF BARD. Playing a bitchin' magic powered lute that is suspiciously similar to a flying V guitar.

"Heavy metal bard" and "dwarf bard" are two of my favorite bard concepts, yet I never thought of combining the two. Genius.

I'm gonna make it a thing. Bruce Half-hoard (Bruce, referring to Bruce Dickinson of Iron Maiden, and Half-hoard because it sounds like Halford, referring to Rob Halford of Judas Priest) will be my character. I'll find ways to sneak all kinds of heavy metal references in.

You should give him a bragging song called 'No One Can Destroy The Minstrel.'

(Yes Tenacious D is the most experience I have with metal. Shut up.)

Oh I'll work Tenacious D in there. This online campaign likely will be over Skype, so anytime my bard launches into a badass battle song I'm gonna put on some metal.

My favorite bard archetype is the wandering storyteller rather than any sort of musician. Take oration as your perform skill and spend the campaign travelling the globe, spreading news and telling histories — educating people about the world around them, in other words.

I love the irony that the rules to confirm one can see the sun in 3.5 require a supplemental book. But not any supplemental book, the one about the ONE PLACE WHERE YOU CAN NEVER SEE THE SUN OR MOON.

That's awesome.

I tend to think of it like I think of the breakdown of Newtonian Physics at the quantum level.

Forget quantum mechanics busting it, Newtonian Physics very clearly breaks down if you just go fast enough.

Special relativity and all.

Which breaks down around enough gravitational distortion.

General relativity and all.

:P

Random question: How long do aranea live? Is there any semblance of a hint in any official source whatsoever?

Also, what do you reckon they eat?

edited 9th Apr '15 8:53:15 PM by Knowlessman

I had my players face a rogue Mind Flyer and a pair of Intellect Devourers yesterday. Holy crap those guys are nasty. I had to pull my punches to avoid a TPK by the second round of combat. Fortunately the sorcerer managed to burn the MF to death in a Ring of Fire.

Well yeah, you picked some of the only critter with instant death moves (Though the flayer has a hard time doing his) and ability damage.

My GM is a Tamora pierce fan, and on more than one occasion I have said, "how many lava cakes will it take for us to NEVER fight a Skinner?" (a Skinner being a creature from her Immortals Quartet that removes the skin of anything it touches, including bark from trees and film off of grass)

So far we have not had to fight one. I keep the group alive not my my character's sword or strength but by my baking skills.

You've discovered the most powerful spell in D&D: "Bribe GM".

Clearly that's actually an Extraordinary ability.

one time we were about to get ambusahed/attacked by way too many bandits—we could have survived, but it would have been a long fight and would have probably killed the npc party members, which included a four year old child we'd rescued.

I looked at the GM and pointed at the table.

"really? that's what bacon is worth? 12 guys?"

".....that's bacon quiche?"

"from scratch."

"it's 6 guys."

This may be more appropriate for a general RPG thread, but the game I'm D Ming has a player who seems to have some issues with having his character in danger. His fighter has been badly injured and even knocked out a couple times. But the guy is also a kill machine. It's just that he gets angry whenever it seems that his character is at risk of dying. Not scared or anxious like most players, just angry.

I'm not a killer DM, but sometimes the dice just don't go your way, and I believe that a good challenge should pose a risk. I know a game should be fun, but having a player get mad at me because of a hard encounter that he survives isn't fun.

Would it satisfy this guy if every encounter was a cakewalk? Sure, power fantasies are fun, I guess, but what's the point if you can just effortlessly carve your way through hordes of enemies?

I actually do sometimes tailor encounters like that, as a sort of breather, but not every time.

edited 21st Apr '15 10:07:46 AM by Lawyerdude

I've had most players be like that. It's usually no big issues, seems most players just get angry at perceived failures - they don't get scared coz there's nothing to be scared about - it's a gamem there's nothing TO be scared about. If the anger gets disruptive just talk to your player about it.

edited 21st Apr '15 10:20:51 AM by Ghilz

It's worth questioning what he's getting mad at. Like, is he mad at you, the monsters, or the dice? Because only the first case should require any effort on your end.