The General D&D thread

Huh, they did rules for ships. I've been kicking around a concept for a nautical Sandal Punk setting recently. The problem is that I want a design system for the myriad ships and that makes me bust out GURPS to design that.

Random idea I had: Adapt the Homeland Trilogy of the Drizzt series into a campaign comic. It was meant to be an evil campaign, but Drizzt's player kept derailing everything by being good.

Darths & Droids style?

Yeah. It's just I was reading them and realized that there were several moments where Drizzt did things along the lines of "attacking a quest giver". For example, include killing gnolls that were trying to recruit him.

Or one moment in particular: Drizzt is offered to be given the position of weapons master by Matron Malice. He refuses, insults Lolth, and then flees into the wilderness and spends 10 years there. I can just imagine a DM being like "Really? Shit...I'm just gonna...run random wilderness encounters".

Mind you, in-universe Drizzt's life kinda is a derailed campaign, as his life was definitely intended to go quite differently.

Something that perhaps pertains more to 3.5 edition (And PF 1e) and might only pertain to 5th (and 2nd) by coincidence because I haven't been paying attention.

This proposition is that second iteration of my Alignment S-System. The first iteration was simpler, roughly correlated with the normal Good-Evil scale with an added Evil-For-Good-Reasons alignment that I proposed replace the normal alignment.

This second iteration is more complex and is actually meant to exist alongside the normal Good-Evil scale. In here, there are at least five "Stances", the first four each a bit more evil than the last and the last one purposely existing in a nebulous area.

Sacrificial (Sr): Willing to help everyone around you, even at cost to yourself. Perhaps it reaches even further, and even the people not within your sight and immediate reach are people you work to save.

Selfless (Sl): Closer to home, you community or just your family and your friends, somewhat cultural dependent, and perhaps anyone who can gain your sympathies. You care about you and yours. This is noted to be the normal, default Stance most NPCs take. (Perhaps there is yet another Stance between this one and the next, Sectarian (Sc), representing a less open and friendly version of this one. In that case, when noting which Stance most NPCs take, an even 50-50 split might work.)

Selfish (Sf): The standard Stance for the cold-hearted mercenary, who thinks about themself and themself alone. Perhaps there are a select few who have pierced their stone soul, perhaps that would be enough to drag them up to the next Stance (especially if Sectarian is a thing). The Selfish character has lines they won't cross, either purposefully to prevent themself from falling too low or simply because, for all their conceited, self-centeredness, there are things they can't stomach.

Sadistic (Sa): Defined as a character who goes out of their way to hurt others for their own gain, be it profit or pleasure. (Once again, for further nuance, one might place yet another Stance before this one, Senseless (Ss), representing someone who is more callous than cruel, though one might be forgiven for not making the distinction.)

Psychotic (Sy): The Knight Templar, the one who would do bad things for good reasons. They are sadistic in their actions, selfless in their motivations. This is the nebulous Stance.

Okay, so how would this work?

First, note down where your character Stands.

Second, note down what they believe marks the cross between Good, Neutral and Evil. Deities have their own opinion on this and followers of that deity more than likely line-up.

The DM should place logical limits where these goal posts can be placed, like saying Sadistic is not evil only works in the most deliberately assholish objectivist interpretations or saying anything short of Sacrificial is evil is its own kettle of dumb and either you're a munchkin or your standards of behavior are a bit extreme.

And Psychotic can be placed wherever. Perhaps the ends do not justify the means, and it is Evil. Perhaps it's all a wash in the end, and it's Neutral. Perhaps motivation trumps action, and they are Good. You might wanna discuss it with your DM and group.

Your belief makes it real, real to you anyway. Some things, like perhaps certain magics and definitely Outsiders, remain inherently of some-such alignment unless you really wanna get crazy. Mortals, however, are affected by or affect alignment based magic from you accordingly. For example, the paladins Detect/Smite Evil detects and smite according to what the paladin believes in.

Edited by God_of_Awesome on Dec 27th 2018 at 10:56:44 AM

I like this quite a bit!

Also, for those of you whom it may interest, my DM and I created a way to implement Asperger's Syndrome as a character trait if you want your character to explicitly have it or some equivalent.

Essentially, your character gets a +1 bonus to Intelligence and Constitution (as Aspies are often highly intelligent and some autistic people have a higher than normal pain tolerance); however, they have a -1 to Dexterity (due to poor motor skills) and Charisma (due to poor social skills).

Speaking as an Aspie myself:

I'm not offended by the concept (and in fact thought of something similar once), but I'm not sure if it can be represented that simply. The issue basically is that autism effects the insight check more than it represents charisma (and when I proposed the idea the basic response was 'you have high charisma'). Having said that, I think the bonus to intelligence but penalty to charisma is still the best way to represent it mechanically...though I'd probably leave it to simple roleplaying and build-design (instead of an external trait). Just have a character with high int, low charisma, and roleplay them like an autistic person.

On a sidenote, I was once writing a record of an Out of the Abyss campaign I was in, written in the format of my character's journal. The campaign has ended, but I wanna continue the story and my old DM has given me their blessing.

Basic idea is for this to be an alternate timeline spin-off. My character (a human Artificer named Cato), during the campaign, managed to become friendly enemies with the Drow Priestess Asha and was offered a sort of We Can Rule Together (or rather, "come willingly and we'll treat you relatively ok considering") in the last session-which he refused. This story would explore what would happen if Cato accepted that offer.

Through a series of events he gets conscripted into a conflict with Illithids and becomes an Almighty Janitor of sorts. Any ideas for where to take a story like that?

Edited by Protagonist506 on Dec 27th 2018 at 12:04:37 PM

Fun fact: The best classes to adventure naked are Draconic Bloodline sorcerer, Monk and Barbarian

Or Warlocks with Armour of Shadows.

And any Tortle.

x5 I really like this alignment system.

Heh. Just the other day I saw a debate justifying Atalanta's evil alignment with her decision not to risk herself to save strangers.

Edited by Saiga on Dec 27th 2018 at 11:14:55 PM

Debuted my setting-appropriate Caitlin Snow/Killer Frost expy the other day. The DM had already appproved the concept, and the other players ended up loving it.

Her introduction to the party was...interesting.

For those of you who aren't familiar with the Arrowverse incarnation of the character, she sort of functions as somewhere between the Hyde to Caitlin Snow's Jekyll and the Hulk to her Bruce Banner. Due to the fact that I always distance the expy's personality from their canon counterparts, Caitlin was played as "lawful good but not lawful nice" (our negative-Intelligence-modifier wereboar just calls her "Yelling Lady") while Frost, called Khione here, was Neutral Evil.

The main party basically set fire to her hometown in an attempt to stop the efforts of some crusaders who were staying there.

Being lawful, Caitlin was understandably upset by this and began following them as they ran, only for a dryad the "leader" had allied herself with to grab her.

She wasn't too happy about this, and Khione took over and basically DESTROYED said dryad.

The party then knocked Khione out, leading to Caitlin sustaining a head injury and forgetting how she'd ended up following them.

Naturally, our fey warlock "leader" who had "befriended" said dryad decided to inform her that Khione had gained control, laid waste to Caitlin's hometown, killing everyone there, and then proceeded to slaughter several dryads for no discernible reason, and that to attone for Khione's crimes, Caitlin was going to have to serve this group for a while.

Poor girl got off to a rough start.

Edited by Spottedleaf on Jan 11th 2019 at 12:10:44 PM

So guys. Not too long from now I'll be playing a level 12 Artificer with a homebrew subclass (based around having a construct bodyguard). My character (Cato) is a guy who put the soul of an elven warrior into a construct body (which he calls The Valkyrie).

The Valkyrie has 60 HP and a base of 12 AC. My character will have a total of 5 upgrades he can give The Valkyrie. These can, among other things, add 2 AC to her, or add 1d10 to her melee damage rolls (the first of such upgrades increases her from 1d6+2 to 1d10+2, then afterwards the rest give her an additional 1d10 damage).

I'm trying to think of the best combination of AC and damage here. Part of me's thinking going full glass-cannon here and making her do 5d10+2 damage. Though another part of me wants to give her more AC.

What do you guys think?

Since I'm not big on minmaxing, I'd say it depends on the elven soul inside the Valkyrie. Does the soul affect the construct's nature in any way? If so, I'd personally use that as a guideline.

Then again, 60 HP and AC of 12 does not make the construct very survivable, especially if your characters are 12th level. If repairing the construct is costly, difficult, or time-consuming, I would say that it's better to increase the AC.

The soul has no mechanical affects, though flavor-wise it provides the machine's combat expertise (it fights using elven combat techniques) and its personality.

I'm mostly looking into the mechanical viability question, because I don't think either one's particularly out of character and Cato (who would be making these choices in-universe) would likely put pragmatic concerns first. That is to say, the character building her is something of a min-maxer.

I am kinda leaning toward the glass-cannon build since I tend to imagine Elven Warriors as being dextrous and such so that'd fit.

Edited by Protagonist506 on Jan 13th 2019 at 4:13:13 AM

You could also say that the dexterous fighting style is the reason why it's so hard to hit.

Could you provide a link to the homebrew you're using for this?

It's something a former DM made so it won't look all that professional.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/18sbdfmSP_nInSo8zx1Y0Q8eVb1Bmwg6tBpaahnu9LPw/edit?usp=sharing

Related question: My character has a cantrip (via magic initiate feat) so he does 3d10 damage. If I give the Valkyrie 18 AC and give her 2d10+2 damage, is that too weak for level 12 do you think?

Edited by Protagonist506 on Jan 14th 2019 at 3:12:17 AM

Let's look at some numbers. A level 12 fighter has 4 feats (such as Great Weapon Master and Tough) and three attacks. With those feats, two ASIs in Strength, a greatsword, and plate mail, they could be doing 2d6+15 three times per turn, over twice what you and your construct can do. And that's before Action Surge, which will give them three more attacks for one turn. The fighter will also have, on average, 70 more hit points than the construct (assuming a Constitution modifier of +3, which is entirely possible with point buy) and the same AC.

Of course, that fighter won't have any healing or other support effects, and they won't have any spells at all unless they're an eldritch knight. You're probably also more accurate than they are.

If you're concerned that your construct is too weak, you could consider asking if you can use this mechanist homebrew. You may need to shuffle the levels around depending on what levels the base artificer you're using gets subclass features (like I did), and it's more complex, but it offers a lot more options and will probably give you a stronger construct.

Edited by Serac on Jan 14th 2019 at 6:22:04 AM

Made a prop for our next session of Curse of Strahd◊

The issue's been resolved for me, as my DM begged me to play the first character I ever played (who was an Ensemble Dark Horse) and I agreed. The character being a ranger who's a religious badass akin to Joshua Graham and has a velociraptor companion.

Dang, that looks really nice.

i would like to try being DM, as i have an idea for a campaign inspired by Re Zero, with the P Cs essentially taking a similar role to that of Subaru in the story.

and yes, that includes Return by Death

completely off-topic, but this thread won't register as read on my watchlist and clicking the link when it's bold brings me right to the first post. anyone knows how to fix this?

Edited by MABfan11 on Jan 15th 2019 at 7:11:40 PM

So it turns out that my niece has gotten so into roleplaying that she's planned her next two characters out.

Keikaku means plan.

So I'll eventually be running two campaigns that are concurrent with each other. There will be a good campaign and an evil campaign, and both parties effectively become each other's BBEG.

However, I'm running into an issue-I want to run some premade adventures (the first adventure in particular) for the Evil party, but I can't find many. I have one called Killing The Golden Twins. I'm unsure if I'll use that one, though-it's very much crossing The Moral Event Horizon and I'm thinking I might have the early missions for the evil party be Poking The Poodle and be offered increasingly Darker and Edgier evil quests as time goes on.