The General D&D thread

For two reasons. One, because those solutions aren't particularly effective, and two, because I was mostly being tongue in cheek when I was complaining about my players in the first place. The game is a sort of Dungeon Hack-y dungeon delve slaughter all da monsters and take their stuff game, and I'm mostly trying to avoid overbalancing stuff or worrying about game balance to much.

Ah.

...In that case, yeah, I dunno if there is any response to the combo, short of putting additional limits on how much they can use the spells (which would be a bit heavyhanded) or using more monsters that... well, crawling on the ceiling isn't actually going to help if you can be pulled off it, and immunity to sliding would only solve half the problem, and both put together would be blindingly obvious reverse-Aquamanning. :|

Maybe give them less XP when they kill a monster with only that tactic the Nth time in a row, on account of they're not learning anything new or doing anything interesting. It's not like it's the only tactic available to them that would work.

edited 3rd Aug '15 8:21:56 PM by Knowlessman

Unfortunately, the dungeon is set up on an XP schedule; if I started nerfing their XP for killing things in such and such a fashion, then they'd be underleveled for later floors!

Anyway, like I said, it's not a biiiiiig deal. As long as none of the players complain, I'm not gonna worry about it too much.

If it starts approaching a perfect system, though... wait. How many times a day can they pull it off, anyway? Eldritch Bolt sounds like a cantrip, but I know Spike Growth isn't.

The druid is casting anything else with the spell slots Spike Growth takes up, right? Are they using this combo nearly exclusively, or have they just discovered it for the first time?

EDIT: If it gets to the point where a fight is just foregone more often than not and there's no excitement or fun to it, the whole thing becomes boring and fails at its purpose as a game.

edited 3rd Aug '15 8:32:31 PM by Knowlessman

They can do it enough times per day that it's disruptive, but it's not a literal "kill the entire dungeon with just one trick" no.

Spike Growth is the only spell they HAVE to cast. Though they do sometimes cast Cure Wounds between encounters.

edited 3rd Aug '15 8:36:30 PM by TheyCallMeTomu

Isn't this sort of thing what flying monsters are for, anyway?

Like, I'm not saying you should do that all the time, but if they start going 'okay, there's a Boss fight coming up, we should save up that Spike Growth so we can get through that,' maybe said Boss should be a Dragon.

What part of "dungeon delve" are you not understanding? :P

It is true that floor 6 is the wind floor, so there's no ceiling and indeed flying monsters.

Floor 7 is the Water Temple!

Really, as long as the PC's ranged offense is greater than the enemy's (which is true for the vast majority of 5E monsters), the party can just stand behind the doorway and block that area.

edited 3rd Aug '15 9:37:27 PM by TheyCallMeTomu

A WATER TEMPLE floor?! You dastardly bastard.

Hey man, sometimes you gotta challenge your players by forcing them to pick up breath water type abilities and making their fire attacks useless. That's just how I roll!

And, of course, swimming monsters are just as good as flying monsters when it comes to bypassing terrain tricks.

But really I'm just trying to figure the logistics of this now. One of the middle floors has no ceiling? How is that possible?

True. And it'll put a stop to the spikestrip.

Water temple just conjures bad memories of Ocarina of Time for me.

The tower is a series of extradimensional spaces, obviously.

So it's safe to say it's bigger on the inside?

By a substantial margin, yes.

Just to tell you a Frost Giant Throwing a Rock at the Druid completely solves the Problem. As it does enough damage that failing the con save is very likely. Then it can run up to the group.

So no this is a valid solution.

edited 4th Aug '15 3:27:09 PM by Envyus

Yeah, tried that. He missed.

Not to mention that due to the Wild Shape rules, any damage directed against the druid is largely irrelevant, because it just goes through the wild shape HP buffer. Of course, that's only true if he casts the spell then transforms into his beast shape as a bonus action (which he can do because of his class feature choice).

edited 4th Aug '15 3:43:49 PM by TheyCallMeTomu

So, remember when I said I wanted to make a Yuan-Ti Pureblood character, and not tell any of the other players I'm not human? Yeah, I'm in a campaign now and the DM allowed it.

For checks to pretend to be human, my Disguise modifier is +20. At character level seven, without magic items. (The Hat of Disguise brings it to +30.)

I'm feeling pretty good about this stupid idea.

edited 5th Aug '15 11:14:39 AM by RaichuKFM

Also, the easiest way to avoid getting hit with a rock is to simply be out of line of effect. Duck behind a wall. 5E concentration does not require line of effect to a conjured zone.

Break out a demilich. Have him break through the wall ala The Kool Aid Man and be all "oh yeah, it's the Demilich, bitch!"

New idea, demilich that is more or less an expy of Jay of Jay and Silent Bob fame. (writes down)

Or a Samuel L Jackson-inspired demilich.

edited 5th Aug '15 1:28:43 PM by MarkVonLewis

I'm not going to throw a Demilich at a group of level 7 P Cs man, c'mon.

Though, give the Warlock enough turns, and she could probably kill a Demilich. They're actually highly vulnerable to Eldritch Blast.

Though that kinda depends on the Warlock avoiding the Demilich insta kill attack every round.

Plug your ears. The attack only works if the target can hear you.

Moreover, the attack can only be used once every three rounds or so; it's a recharging power, not an at-will.

Now that the idea's in my head, I someday need to make Samuel L. Demilich a thing.

"I'm tired of these motherfucking adventurers in my motherfucking dungeon!"

"I recognize that the gods have made a decision, but given that it's a stupid-ass decision I've elected to ignore it," he says as he raises an army of the undead.

"Hand me my phylactery, it's the one with Bad Motherfucker on it".