The General D&D thread

That Ao answers no prayers and seems less interested in overseeing the world than keeping the gods in line gives him an interesting role: what if there was a god, and he was completely indifferent about us? Ao's not particularly interesting himself, but like the Wall of the Faithless, like the Bhaalspawn Crisis, it seems like the gods being fallible is pretty much the point. These are hooks to hang adventures on, problems to be solved.

Also the implication that Ao is middle management, answering to a still greater power almost entirely unknown to lesser beings. Toril was weird.

I heard that Bhaal's back, CHARNAME is canonically dead, and they're breaking up Abeir and Toril all over again.

Man, the deets on the gods resurrection in 5E is totally absent and also bizarre.

It's like Cyric's stolen portfolios got distributed to Bhaal and Myrkul upon their resurrection, but since Myrkul's "the dead" portfolio still belonged to Kelemvor, he had to steal Death from Bhaal, leaving Bhaal with just "murder."

Whole thing is very awkward, and it's a bit frustrating how there's basically no lore on this point.

I personally went with the Eberron route where evil gods are worshiped by non-evil people to appease them. That's why the temples of the god of disease are often best-armed to deal with said diseases, and why the temples of the goddess of storms come with built-in tornado shelters.

Well, with Gods of Evil being worshiped, I justify it in my own setting by simply stating that not everyone considers the God of Evil to be evil. In real life, for example, there are totally people who believe that God Is Evil and that Satan Is Good.

In the TV Tropes Creates A Setting, there was a god that called himself the "God Of Evil" but gods, being made of emotions in this setting, ala Warhammer, was actually the god of guilt.

Wait, was Baldur's Gate actually canon at some point?

It's been canon for a while. Minsc has been the star of several recent D&D Comics and has shown up in several recent D&D games.

And it's the game thats canon not the awful novels. (Charname is canonically named Abdel after the first listed Pregen in the game.) As everything featuring it in recent lore has been based on the game.

edited 18th Jan '18 9:41:30 AM by Envyus

I was so afraid the punchline would be that it was the Diablo-ripoff console games and not actual Baldur's Gate.

Where can I get more info?

so i pickpocketed a bag of holding containing a pair of winged boots (lol @ loot tables get rekt DM) and used them to heist a hotel. while the heist didn't go all that well monetarily, I was able to jump out windows without any fear each time I woke someone up, so at least we didn't get caught and management was in chaos the next morning without knowing it was us.

10/10, would recommend the power of flight to any aspiring adventurer

Heck, one of the first adventures for the 5th Edition playtest is Murder in Baldur's Gate, which deals with, you got it, the last two Bhaalspawn battling each other, the Ravager manifesting from the victor, before it was driven off from the city.

Slayer.

My players made it through their first encounter with a recurring foe this week: a half-goblin-half-kobold sorceress whose underlings abducted a dwarf priestess for unknown reasons, and I'm pretty proud of them. They showed a fair bit of creativity for such new players, using flasks of oil they found earlier in the dungeon to create a fire in the doorway of the great hall that kept all the normal goblins and kobolds within at bay so they only had to deal with the elites for a good long while, then using a Wind Fan to pin the flying sorceress under a chandelier and blow her down a chimney. I had to lower some damage rolls and miss some successful attacks to keep them in the game, but even though I had a backup plan for them to wake up as captives if they lost, I wanted to reward their creativity and tactical improvement (I was legitimately concerned that they might all rush straight into the room).

Next session we'll see how they deal with her when she isn't fighting them head on; she'll start by trying to infiltrate their group in the magical guise of another prisoner, a halfling wizard, in order to lead them astray. If that fails, she'll go guerilla and follow them through the rest of the dungeon trying to pick them off as they try to recover the efreeti bottle that will be the center of the rest of the campaign from the demilich that guards it in the secret tomb at the end of the dungeon.

That's as far as I've had a concrete plan for thus far, it having taken over a month for the party to arrive here from when I originally designed this part of the adventure. Now I've started fleshing out other paths for the adventure to take from here on once they return to the main city, so I'll have a basic plan of what's ahead for them depending on which plot hooks they grasp.

The Ancient Forest

The party came to the current dungeon to rescue a priestess of the top nature good of the setting, and upon escorting her back to her temple they will learn of a sacred wood said to be the home of fey creatures. With four rangers and a druid in the party, this should be fairly appealing to them. Upon making their way to the forest, the party will begin coming in contact with various fey creatures good and evil alike, and eventually come to the attention of the forest's defenders, the Daughters of Titania. The Daughters are a religious order of dominantly elven and gnomish women who worship the faerie queen, Titania, in the belief that after they die they will be reborn to dwell forever in the feywilds for their service - basically Valhalla, except you don't walk on the rainbows.

They blame the despoilment of the forest on an abomination: Zah, the Tree-Eater and her offspring, the Tryads; trolls whose bloodline has taken on aspects of the dryad that their matron, Zah, devoured a hundred years ago. Zah, for her part, turns out to be a pretty amicable freak of supernature, having had her perspective on life gradually shifted by the spirit of the dryad she ate guiding her as a warlock patron for the last century. However the party chooses to resolve the conflict between the Daughters and the Tryads, it will turn out that it was a misdirection caused by the true culprit: a vampiric black dragon who turned the two groups against one another in order to further its own goals undisturbed.

The Thieves' Guild

The party was set on this entire course of adventure in the first place by the city guard, who contracted out work fighting the goblin raids due to their own short-handedness. Upon returning and checking in with them, the party will be invited to join in on a raid on the local thieves' guild, which had grown bold while the guard was too busy with the goblins to crack down on them, but who are now able to do so thanks to the party's actions. A couple of the party members are criminals by their background, and one has a criminal contact with links to the guild, which should result in the party having to make some choices. Whatever they decide, the thieves' guild raid will reveal a connection between the guild and a noble house of drow. If the party pursues this link, they will find themselves embroiled in the intrigues and machinations of competing drow houses, including the party's drow sorceress' estranged family, now led by her brother, who has sold his soul to a duke of hell for power. This same duke is the ally of the efreeti whose bottle they possess, and will stop at nothing to retrieve it from them.

The Ring of Frost

As tales of the party's heroics make their way around the city, the suggestion is made that the party try their skills in a gladiatorial contest to the north, on the edge of the frozen tundra. Arriving there, the party will hear about marauding orcs who call the wastes home and frequently attack travelers and caravans. These same orcs are vassals of the princess of the frost giants, whose father, the king, was the first to wish upon the efreeti bottle the party now possesses. The princess now desires the bottle in order to end the madness her father's wish put upon him, or failing that, for the power to overthrow him. If successful, she will attempt to close the portal to the plane of fire that her father has refused to in order to sate his sentient weapon's hunger for the essence of fire elementals.

The Dazzling Singer

A famous and enigmatic singer from the east has come to the city to perform for its leaders, and contacts the party with a cryptic message urging them to travel to the eastern desert in search of an ancient brass dragon's abandoned lair. Upon finding their way through the perils of the desert, the party is attacked during their exploration of the ruins by the half-blood sorceress they're fighting now. The fight reveals the singer to be a supernatural creature herself - a dazzle; a genie-like creature that vampirically feeds on emotions. Both the dazzle and the sorceress are driven away by the arrival of an adult brass dragon - the son of the dragon who once laired here, and who explains more of the story behind the bottle, which was once part of his father's hoard, and that his half-sister seeks it for her own wicked ends, the sorceress and the dazzle being her agents. Seeking the sister out, she claims that her brother is the one lying to them, and that while the dazzle is her friend, the sorceress is her brother's spawn as part of a long scheme to take the bottle for himself.

The Wizard's Tower

The party has become acquainted with the apprentice of the city's wizard, and have had an appointment to meet the wizard working its way through her schedule since they first arrived in town. The time has finally come, and the wizard will offer to purchase the bottle from them for a handsome sum. If they agree, the wizard, a transmutation expert, will contact her conjuration specialist colleague, and together they will try to unravel the bottle's secrets. In the meantime, the apprentice has gotten in trouble. A surprise visit from a relative has revealed that the apprentice is an imposter, and the real noblewoman she is impersonating has actually been missing for over ten years. Once the mystery is resolved one way or another, the party might check back in with the wizard and her colleague, who in the course of their research have will accidentally some into contact with the followers of an ancient god, who will corrupt their minds to their own ends, leading to an illithid colony beneath the city.

So, I'm wanting to do a 5e campaign with some nation-building. Does anyone know some homebrew rules for that sort of thing?

If you want help with Kingdom building, look up the Kingmaker Adventure Path from Pathfinder.

I think the d20PFSRD also has the rules for Kingdom Building.

EDIT: Yup, it does.

Even though its originally from Pathfinder, the stuff for it is still helpful/valid for other systems.

edited 23rd Jan '18 8:05:13 AM by BlackSunNocturne

Yesterday we finally wrapped our 2-year long campaign. It took 16 levels, 99 sessions, 450+ pages of written work, 30-ish maps and whatnot, but now it's finally finished.

The players seemed happy with the way things turned out. I certainly am ready to lay this particular campaign to rest and set my sights on new adventures. During those two years I've gathered quite a pile of other material to run. Not to mention the character concepts I'd like to try out at some point. Perhaps now it's someone else's turn in the DM chair...

Grats.

It turns out my campaign's going on six years and my friends are interesting in running side-adventures in the same setting. Davrix just finished his adventure in Southport, the city of faith.

We're just to hit 1 year on our campaign, it's been a wild ride, our DM has done a bang up job.

Thanks to all the D Ms out there, it looks like a lot of time and effort but if your players are anything like me they massively appreciate it.

@Rotpar

yea it was a fun game. I would note that are artificer, played by a good friend of ours once again decided to try and TPK the party with a well placed fireball. To understand this joke you have to understand this would have been the second time on my final boss fight that he would of managed this. The first time was a Cathulu dragon lich and he well... blew up the hovering island over the magical endless chasm and the party had just gotten stunned lol. I really couldn't stop laughing on Monday night when he pulled out his fireball patch from his cloak and threw it at the boss.

Poor Rotpar though got lost in time and space in the end.

Since we're bragging, next month'll be the two-year anniversary of my campaign starting, and we're in Part 3 out of maybe 5 (or more?).

I just tease Rotpar because we've been at this game for 5 or 6 years (To be fair i think we had at least 2 years off from it) and we hadn't reached lv 10 yet hehe. (also to be fair we started in 4th ed)

So i have a few months to work on this while Rotpar gets back to our main game but hey never to soon to start and my mind has been going nuts over the thought. So I'm just going to toss out a list of idea's I'm considering for the game, tell me what you guys think or any other suggestions.

Base concept points

• A somewhat large landmass. I'd say like half the size of Australia segmented away from the rest of the world so its a bit secluded.
• Its home to more monstrous races and less of human fold
• There is no main civilization just little towns and maybe one city not sure yet
• The place is ruled by a council of dragons which reside over their own territory of the land. (exiled from a fallen empire and decided to re-found it themselves)
• Most common races. - Lizardman - Dragonborn - Minotaur - Tabaxi - Yian Ti (as actual naga) - Kobolds - Bugbear - Orc - Tortle
• Very rare races - Everything else
• Elves practically don't exist on this island (story reasons) Same with Tieflings.
• Humans would probably considered second class citizens.
• Magic power is strong on this island. It saturates the ground in some places. Races have become imbued slightly with power
• Knowledge of the Arcane and Divine magic is restricted and taught only by the council of dragons. This doesn't mean players cant have magic or religion but their is no easy source to be taught outside of pledging service to one of the dragon lords. Because it is so powerful in this area. Party to maintain control but also because people have the habit of blowing up.

Rule Alterations

I'm ok with what 5th offers for the most part But there are a few things I want to monkey with because I have several players that prefer things more tactical from 4th and find some things in 5th annoying.

• Stats : Roll 4D6 best 3 in stat order - Re-roll 5 or lower - You may switch two one pair of stats and if you don' have at least two 15's raise your two highest scores to 15.
• Advantage Gives 1D4 on any attack roll or skill check. (Elvan accuracy provides you with a D6 on advantage attack rolls)
• Initiative is based on Dex or wisdom checks.
• Mark variant rule is in play from DMG
• Flanking variant rule is in play from DMG
• Direction face variant rule is in play from the DMG
• 5ft step is back - costs your movement action
• Feats are not able to be taken which means the human variant is not allowed (they will be given by other means)

The reason im locking feats

I love and sort of hate 5th ed feats. On one hand I like how cool they are, on the other I dislike what they do to player choice and the "meta" that's come out of them.

• Power attack is given as an option - forgo you proficiency bonus on your attack roll to add it to your damage roll if you hit. Double this bonus on a Crit
• GWM and SS now grant a crit range of 19-20. If you have a class ability that grants you this increase the range to 18-20 (this doesn't matter as much as you think)
• Eleven accuracy as listed above will grant you a D6 on advantage over the D4
• Toughness and magic initiate are given as free feats to all players.

The reason for these changes is simple. I want the players to take stat increases and will be awarding slightly tweaked feats or augmented abilities via rewards or boons given by NPC's or shrines of gods. Player saves a temple? Maybe they are given the resilient feat as a boon. A player wants to spend his downtime with a weapons trainer for a bit of time? maybe they acquire GWM or duel wielder. Spend time in the forest honing your skills? Maybe alertness is your reward. This is just some of my line of thought. I also like the idea of tacking on +1 feat features into magical items. For example a set of full plate that grants the heavy armor mastery for a +1 str stat and giving the non magical damage residence. Some custom feats to like giving a lizard man a breath weapon boon or augmenting a dragonborn's breath weapon. the goal is to empower the players based on their own choices and actions.

edited 25th Jan '18 5:24:17 PM by Davrix

Stats : Roll 4D4 best 3 in stat order - Re-roll 5 or lower - You may switch two one pair of stats and if you don' have at least two 15's raise your two highest scores to 15.

So roll 4d4, and add the 3 highest dice together for the ability score is what you mean here, right? Just like the rolling method in the PHB, only subbing d4s for d6s and repalcing "reroll 1s" with "reroll totals of 5 or lower?"

Because that maxes at 12. It's literally impossible for anyone to have even one score of 15, even after racial bonuses. Not to mention that the median roll for 3d4, which is what this functionally works out to be, is, like, 6-8 after factoring in the extra die slightly raising it. Even rerolling totals of 5 or less, you're practically guaranteeing that your party is going to be completely gimped by negative ability modifiers in all but the two scores they get to auto-bump to 15. And, because you're forcing them to assign those scores in order rolled, you're basically taking away their class choices because they're going to be forced to choose something that works with their literally only two usable stats.

Here, let me try. Using your rules, I got 11, 10, 7, 7, 11, 10, which becomes Str 15, Dex 10, Con 7, Int 7, Wis 15, Cha 10. Dumb as a brick, and solid as tissue paper. That's not a great combination. My only real options here are to switch the 15 Wis with the 7 Con and be a fighter or barbarian, or switch the 15 Str with the 7 Con and be a druid or non-heavy cleric.

10, 9, 9, 9, 6, 11 becomes 15, 9, 9, 9, 6, 15.

Try again. 6, 8, 9, 9, 7, 10 becomes 6, 8, 15, 9, 7, 15.

12, 7, 11, 8, 10, 10. -> 15, 7, 15, 8, 10, 10.

Forcing the 15 bumps onto the two already highest rolls actually hurts more than I anticipated, too, because it means you basically wasted your two highest rolls. Did you get lucky enough to actually roll a maximum 12 somewhere in your set? Well, everything else was 8 or lower, so it would have been exactly the same if you'd rolled a 9 in that spot.

Scores like these are really, really going to pigeonhole your players not just into what classes are viable options for them, but down to every skill check they need to make. You could very likely wind up with an entire skill group that literally no one in the party has a positive modifier in.

edited 25th Jan '18 5:25:11 PM by Wryte

lol oh god that was a big typo no its 4D6 lol

sorry to make you do all that work ><

Its fixed now in the above post. Any thoughts on the rest of it :)

The other method I'm toying with is 2D6+6 in order no re-rolls or switching but still must have at least 2 15's. The reason being this method tends to generate higher avg stats.

edited 25th Jan '18 5:32:24 PM by Davrix