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Official Dungeons & Dragons Thread... (2 Viewers)
- Thread starter Trihonda
- Start date
Anthony Martino
Royal Flush
Whew, last night was a doozy.
We had just finished a long rest and were gearing up to utilize the plan I made to lure the cultists away from the entrance of the Owlbear lair when we were hit with a random encounter in the wilderness.
A group of four Draconians happened upon our campsite and a battle ensued. One of the Draconians was a leader who had an ability to give the other three extra attacks on us, plus they were magic resistant so got advantage on all savings throws against magic, and I think they took less damage from our melee attacks as well.
It was a hell of a fight that saw two of our party almost killed. So we had to take ANOTHER long rest. During the 2nd watch I heard some clucking noises a bit away from camp, and our idiot Warlock who was on watch with us decided to go check it out (even though I had confirmed with the DM the noise wasn't getting closer and we could've just stayed where we were and probably been ok)
So of course she goes to check it out and four Cockatrices attacked, and if they hit you and you fail a savings throw you can be turned to stone! We managed that battle fairly quickly, with everyone succeeding on their savings throws and not getting petrified for 24 hours.
After that battle we move forward with our plan and it works pretty seamlessly. We trick the cultists into thinking we're part of their group with some of our party in disguise and using our Minotaur as a fake prisoner. We get the jump on them with a full round of surprise attacks before having to roll for initiative. We manage to kill 3 of the 4, but on the initiative round the 4th one takes a Disengage action and rushes through the cave entrance.
Our monk follows and trips a trap, taking some damage, but we kill the guy and proceed onward over a bridge inside. The area has these floating clouds with flashes of electricity/light that keeps going off, some sort of magical energy, and the clouds obscure our vision beyond 10 feet in front of us.
All but one of us make our Dexterity savings throws as we cross the bridge, one takes a handful of damage as they slip. We come to an area where there's two more bridges that branch off, plus an odd structure to the left that one of our party members goes to investigate.
He notices there's webbing and then THREE Phase Spiders get a surprise attack on us! They are CR3 each and we are a party of 3rd level characters, so it's a bit rough. They attack, then blink out of the Material Plane. We manage to tighten up ranks to prevent them appearing behind anyone, while we all fight back-to-back. We ready our actions so we can attack if they appear in sight before they get to attack.
They manage to dish out some nasty poison damage to a few party members, but we finally down the bastards. We left the night off with us returning to the inside cave entrance where I put down a bear trap I had found and our Bard re-activated the entrance trap. So once again we need to take ANOTHER long rest because two party members got beat to hell.
The entrance is covered so we don't have to worry about being attacked from there, just from the front/bridge area.
We had a substitute DM last night as our usual guy wasn't feeling well. The sub DM messed up a few times during the battle against the Draconians, because they had AC 18 and he kept thinking we had to roll a 19 or higher to hit them, so was counting our 18 hits as misses which kinda fucked us. Plus one of the newer players kept forgetting to include his +7 to attack on his rolls and kept missing attacks he would've hit because he was telling the DM his attack roll was a 12 or 13 a bunch of times.
I was sitting at the other end of the table but eventually spoke up to the kid and was like "hey, are you adding your attack bonus to that?" and he was like "ooooh, I have +7!" which helped turn things around.
We had just finished a long rest and were gearing up to utilize the plan I made to lure the cultists away from the entrance of the Owlbear lair when we were hit with a random encounter in the wilderness.
A group of four Draconians happened upon our campsite and a battle ensued. One of the Draconians was a leader who had an ability to give the other three extra attacks on us, plus they were magic resistant so got advantage on all savings throws against magic, and I think they took less damage from our melee attacks as well.
It was a hell of a fight that saw two of our party almost killed. So we had to take ANOTHER long rest. During the 2nd watch I heard some clucking noises a bit away from camp, and our idiot Warlock who was on watch with us decided to go check it out (even though I had confirmed with the DM the noise wasn't getting closer and we could've just stayed where we were and probably been ok)
So of course she goes to check it out and four Cockatrices attacked, and if they hit you and you fail a savings throw you can be turned to stone! We managed that battle fairly quickly, with everyone succeeding on their savings throws and not getting petrified for 24 hours.
After that battle we move forward with our plan and it works pretty seamlessly. We trick the cultists into thinking we're part of their group with some of our party in disguise and using our Minotaur as a fake prisoner. We get the jump on them with a full round of surprise attacks before having to roll for initiative. We manage to kill 3 of the 4, but on the initiative round the 4th one takes a Disengage action and rushes through the cave entrance.
Our monk follows and trips a trap, taking some damage, but we kill the guy and proceed onward over a bridge inside. The area has these floating clouds with flashes of electricity/light that keeps going off, some sort of magical energy, and the clouds obscure our vision beyond 10 feet in front of us.
All but one of us make our Dexterity savings throws as we cross the bridge, one takes a handful of damage as they slip. We come to an area where there's two more bridges that branch off, plus an odd structure to the left that one of our party members goes to investigate.
He notices there's webbing and then THREE Phase Spiders get a surprise attack on us! They are CR3 each and we are a party of 3rd level characters, so it's a bit rough. They attack, then blink out of the Material Plane. We manage to tighten up ranks to prevent them appearing behind anyone, while we all fight back-to-back. We ready our actions so we can attack if they appear in sight before they get to attack.
They manage to dish out some nasty poison damage to a few party members, but we finally down the bastards. We left the night off with us returning to the inside cave entrance where I put down a bear trap I had found and our Bard re-activated the entrance trap. So once again we need to take ANOTHER long rest because two party members got beat to hell.
The entrance is covered so we don't have to worry about being attacked from there, just from the front/bridge area.
We had a substitute DM last night as our usual guy wasn't feeling well. The sub DM messed up a few times during the battle against the Draconians, because they had AC 18 and he kept thinking we had to roll a 19 or higher to hit them, so was counting our 18 hits as misses which kinda fucked us. Plus one of the newer players kept forgetting to include his +7 to attack on his rolls and kept missing attacks he would've hit because he was telling the DM his attack roll was a 12 or 13 a bunch of times.
I was sitting at the other end of the table but eventually spoke up to the kid and was like "hey, are you adding your attack bonus to that?" and he was like "ooooh, I have +7!" which helped turn things around.
Alex Lundstrum
Two Pair
Had a session last night. For past two sessions, we've been raiding a crypt to reclaim a lost adamantine hammer. DM had two encounters that included spectres, with the ability to drain Max HP. Both should have been fairly difficult encounters, but he forgot my cleric can turn undead 
both occasions saw 2 of the 3 spectres running through the crypt wall as far as they could. Also got to use my spiritual weapon for first time, which manifests itself as a miniature galleon (cleric of Valkur, sailor background) which absolutely wrecked the big bad undead, along with our rogue's psionic blades.
both occasions saw 2 of the 3 spectres running through the crypt wall as far as they could. Also got to use my spiritual weapon for first time, which manifests itself as a miniature galleon (cleric of Valkur, sailor background) which absolutely wrecked the big bad undead, along with our rogue's psionic blades.
DeeVee8
Flush
One Eyed Dollar
Flush
My group started a new session last night on Roll20. I look forward to playing in person again. The online software has gotten much better over the years, but I'm still not a big fan of playing virtually.
It's rough not only starting at first level, but beginning the campaign in prison with no money or equipment, plus playing a Wizard and I have no spellbook, so I'm just tossing cantrips around for now.
It's rough not only starting at first level, but beginning the campaign in prison with no money or equipment, plus playing a Wizard and I have no spellbook, so I'm just tossing cantrips around for now.
Out of the Abyss?
One Eyed Dollar
Flush
It's something the DM cooked up with old 2nd edition stuff for Al-Qadim. I haven't played in that setting before.
I think what WOTC is doing right now with game expansions is good. They are focusing on two major official campaigns/adventure anthologies per year, plus one new campaign setting, instead of the 15-headed monster that was 3.5 with a dozen splatbooks per year. Promoting user-made content through DM's Guild. Keeps everything fresh and in bite-sized pieces so table top gamers can savour them. Let's face it, in a decent campaign arc, even a dedicated gaming group that can meet for a few hours once a week will still take about 6 months to finish a major campaign from start to finish, earning about 15 character levels in the process.
Anthony Martino
Royal Flush
Just watched this highlights clip and feel even more strongly that Critical Roll is poorly acted and scripted, despite their fanbase defending all of this as just a group of really good friends who are giving us real responses (reminds me of folks vehemently defending The Walking Dead as a good show)
The over-the-top reactions I guess appeal to their audience and Laura seems to HAVE to be the first one to notice any scripted plot twists right before Matt reveals them
But how anyone finds this level of fake entertaining or believable is beyond me
The over-the-top reactions I guess appeal to their audience and Laura seems to HAVE to be the first one to notice any scripted plot twists right before Matt reveals them
But how anyone finds this level of fake entertaining or believable is beyond me
Poker Zombie
Royal Flush
I couldn't even suffer through the first scene. Then again, I have friends.
Anthony Martino
Royal Flush
Anthony Martino
Royal Flush
Oh good grief what a cluster tonight was. So we have our weekly D&D session every Thursday night. Upon arrival the DM let's us know that we all actually leveled up to level 4. So instead of us having the entire week to figure things out, we have to scramble during our paid session to level up.
Then our first encounter he throws TWO Ettins at us which is listed as a Hard encounter based on CR/Exp numbers for our party.
Previously our party had gone into a well, but never finished the kobold lair down there, and instead went off on this tangent hunting owlbear cultists. Now my party decides they want to return to the outpost and leave the owlbear thing unfinished, and return to the well location.
We find the entrance down in the well bricked off, so we begin searching the woods in the area to find another entrance. We come across some well-hidden snares in an area that we disable, and then discover a hidden heavy chain that leads to a really heavy door that requires an astronomical strength check to open (it takes almost the entire party to pull it off)
Getting the door open we descend about 200 feet and find ourselves in a large cavern. In the distance we can see a small figure in the middle of the cavern. Our Bard uses his unseen servant to check what it is and it looks like a Kobold. Our Rogue shoots it with an arrow and it topples over. Upon investigation, we discover it's just a dummy and not real.
My character looks up towards the rafters and notices 6 clay like cauldrons suspended from the ceiling via ropes. Searching the room we discover what we thought were doors but it's actually just painted in the wall. Likewise, there's a massive hoard of what looks like coins, weapons, etc. in the corner of the room, but nobody will touch it as we don't trust it.
The Bard goes back up the stairs and uses his boomerang to try and hit one of the cauldrons. He succeeds, it shatters and out falls a Black Pudding. Our idiot Monk and Barbarian try engaging it in melee because........they're fucking dumb. As they and other party members hit it (the rest of us are using ranged or spell attacks) the DM states that it splashes acid everytime it's hit and so anyone adjacent to it winds up taking acid damage each time.
We manage to kill it, it almost takes down our Barbarian. So while all of this was going on, that extremely heavy door that was really difficult to get open in the first place has slammed shut, trapping us inside. The Bard is up there using his unseen servants to help him crank a lever that is slowly opening the door, VERY slowly.
Meanwhile the rest of the party starts searching around the room, I wait by the stairs we came down. They find a small, kobold sized lever. I warn them that EVERYTHING has been a fucking trap, and it probably releases the FIVE fucking cauldrons still left in the ceiling, and we should at least wait for our Bard to get that door upstairs open before we touch the lever.
But the Monk just can't help himself and pulls the lever. The ENTIRE CEILING collapses on the party (only not hitting the bard who is way up top by the entrance door).
I have 41hp and succeed on my savings throw......and take 32 hp of damage. A number of party members fail their throws and take.......64 hp of damage. Some of them take so much damage they are killed outright, no death saves, they're just completely dead. Meanwhile, the five cauldrons fell as well and shattered and out spill FIVE black puddings (these are CR4 EACH so just one or two is enough of a challenge for our party, FIVE of them at one time is absolute murder, ESPECIALLY with half our party dead or incapacitated)
The whole death-trap concept of this place we found makes zero sense. It's heavily trapped and heavily hidden. You'd think if you wanted people to be lured into this death trap you wouldn't make it so difficult to locate (or so painfully obvious when you're down there that's it's all a fucking trap)
To top all of that off, three party members got into an argument earlier in the night. One of them was bitching about wanting us to divvy up any treasure we find when we find it. We tried explaining to him we've been fucking doing that (he's got Leather Armor +1, magical boots, etc) and whenever we find stuff we determine who gets what items and anything that nobody knows what to do with or nobody is interested in, one player marks it all down so we can sell it or get it identified later at the outpost.
And on top of that, the majority of players are excruciatingly slow in determining what they're going to do individually or what we as a party should do, and the pacing of everything is just terrible, we spend too much time sitting around accomplishing nothing, having no action and any actions that are taken are useless time wasters that make the whole experience extremely frustrating and boring.
CLIFFS NOTES: I think I'm done with this group
Then our first encounter he throws TWO Ettins at us which is listed as a Hard encounter based on CR/Exp numbers for our party.
Previously our party had gone into a well, but never finished the kobold lair down there, and instead went off on this tangent hunting owlbear cultists. Now my party decides they want to return to the outpost and leave the owlbear thing unfinished, and return to the well location.
We find the entrance down in the well bricked off, so we begin searching the woods in the area to find another entrance. We come across some well-hidden snares in an area that we disable, and then discover a hidden heavy chain that leads to a really heavy door that requires an astronomical strength check to open (it takes almost the entire party to pull it off)
Getting the door open we descend about 200 feet and find ourselves in a large cavern. In the distance we can see a small figure in the middle of the cavern. Our Bard uses his unseen servant to check what it is and it looks like a Kobold. Our Rogue shoots it with an arrow and it topples over. Upon investigation, we discover it's just a dummy and not real.
My character looks up towards the rafters and notices 6 clay like cauldrons suspended from the ceiling via ropes. Searching the room we discover what we thought were doors but it's actually just painted in the wall. Likewise, there's a massive hoard of what looks like coins, weapons, etc. in the corner of the room, but nobody will touch it as we don't trust it.
The Bard goes back up the stairs and uses his boomerang to try and hit one of the cauldrons. He succeeds, it shatters and out falls a Black Pudding. Our idiot Monk and Barbarian try engaging it in melee because........they're fucking dumb. As they and other party members hit it (the rest of us are using ranged or spell attacks) the DM states that it splashes acid everytime it's hit and so anyone adjacent to it winds up taking acid damage each time.
We manage to kill it, it almost takes down our Barbarian. So while all of this was going on, that extremely heavy door that was really difficult to get open in the first place has slammed shut, trapping us inside. The Bard is up there using his unseen servants to help him crank a lever that is slowly opening the door, VERY slowly.
Meanwhile the rest of the party starts searching around the room, I wait by the stairs we came down. They find a small, kobold sized lever. I warn them that EVERYTHING has been a fucking trap, and it probably releases the FIVE fucking cauldrons still left in the ceiling, and we should at least wait for our Bard to get that door upstairs open before we touch the lever.
But the Monk just can't help himself and pulls the lever. The ENTIRE CEILING collapses on the party (only not hitting the bard who is way up top by the entrance door).
I have 41hp and succeed on my savings throw......and take 32 hp of damage. A number of party members fail their throws and take.......64 hp of damage. Some of them take so much damage they are killed outright, no death saves, they're just completely dead. Meanwhile, the five cauldrons fell as well and shattered and out spill FIVE black puddings (these are CR4 EACH so just one or two is enough of a challenge for our party, FIVE of them at one time is absolute murder, ESPECIALLY with half our party dead or incapacitated)
The whole death-trap concept of this place we found makes zero sense. It's heavily trapped and heavily hidden. You'd think if you wanted people to be lured into this death trap you wouldn't make it so difficult to locate (or so painfully obvious when you're down there that's it's all a fucking trap)
To top all of that off, three party members got into an argument earlier in the night. One of them was bitching about wanting us to divvy up any treasure we find when we find it. We tried explaining to him we've been fucking doing that (he's got Leather Armor +1, magical boots, etc) and whenever we find stuff we determine who gets what items and anything that nobody knows what to do with or nobody is interested in, one player marks it all down so we can sell it or get it identified later at the outpost.
And on top of that, the majority of players are excruciatingly slow in determining what they're going to do individually or what we as a party should do, and the pacing of everything is just terrible, we spend too much time sitting around accomplishing nothing, having no action and any actions that are taken are useless time wasters that make the whole experience extremely frustrating and boring.
CLIFFS NOTES: I think I'm done with this group
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It takes a lot of time to break in a new group. When I was a kid we would have weekly or biweekly games in a rented room in a local bowling alley. Probably would have enough people to do 2-3 simultaneous games with an average of 6 players per game. You'd get to know everybody eventually, but age range really varied from about 14 all the way to late 30's. You get a lot of different play styles in a group that diverse, but eventually the majority moves toward truly cooperative play. There will always be the occasional person who goes his own way, usually because they're attention-seeking and/or love to stir the shit to see how much people can tilt.
It does come down to the DM to keep things moving along. I would have no problem forcing an action declaration with a possible consequence of loss of action if someone drags on a game. At the same time, this is not poker where you're trying to get through/see more hands as quickly as possible.
It does come down to the DM to keep things moving along. I would have no problem forcing an action declaration with a possible consequence of loss of action if someone drags on a game. At the same time, this is not poker where you're trying to get through/see more hands as quickly as possible.
Anthony Martino
Royal Flush
I'm currently studying to eventually give the DM chair a shot, and want to create my own campaign.
My plan is to simplify some aspects of the game, not only to make it easier on me as a first-time DM, but also to improve the flow of action in the game, and avoid a lot of the cumbersome time-wasters that I've found unenjoyable when I've played 5e
In addition, was going to limit the party to just four members. I feel more than that really slows down gameplay and leaves players waiting too long for their turn, and is just much harder to manage party decisions and so forth. Plus it'll be easier for me as a new DM to work with a smaller group as well.
Anyway, drafted up some of my ideas at the moment. Would appreciate input from players and DM's alike if you see any potential issues with changes I'm considering, or if you have any other suggestions for keeping the game fun, the action flowing and everything manageable for a new DM.
My plan is to simplify some aspects of the game, not only to make it easier on me as a first-time DM, but also to improve the flow of action in the game, and avoid a lot of the cumbersome time-wasters that I've found unenjoyable when I've played 5e
In addition, was going to limit the party to just four members. I feel more than that really slows down gameplay and leaves players waiting too long for their turn, and is just much harder to manage party decisions and so forth. Plus it'll be easier for me as a new DM to work with a smaller group as well.
Anyway, drafted up some of my ideas at the moment. Would appreciate input from players and DM's alike if you see any potential issues with changes I'm considering, or if you have any other suggestions for keeping the game fun, the action flowing and everything manageable for a new DM.
Poker Zombie
Royal Flush
Just remember, fewer players = fewer minds. If you involve any "thinking" puzzles, traps, clues, storylines, etc, the more the merrier (to a point). If the adventure is "Hack-n-Slash", 4 players are fine. I prefer 5-6 and have run 8 players with success, but I also have many years DM/GMing on multiple game systems.
Anthony Martino
Royal Flush
This will be more focused on combat, exploration and diplomacy (intimidation/persuasion)
Not really a puzzle/trap fan as I feel they tend to slow gameplay more than they're worth
Poker Zombie
Royal Flush
I'm with you on "Puzzles". I should have written it as a "deep storyline".
Some movies just roll forward with all the intrigue and middle-school though process of a Jean Claude Van Dam pic. Others play out with the continual mystery and mental challenge of the Jason Bourne series. Both have styles have made millions. Nothing wrong with either one, but one requires more players.
Anthony Martino
Royal Flush
just did up a draft intro video for the adventure I'm working on, would love your feedback, good or bad!
*golf claps*
Seriously, though, the thought that you've put into your idea so far bodes well for your home-brew campaign. All you need are the right players to help build the adventure along with you. As the players are developing the details of their backstory, make notes to see how you can incorporate their ideas into the story arc, even if it's just in a peripheral way.
Seriously, though, the thought that you've put into your idea so far bodes well for your home-brew campaign. All you need are the right players to help build the adventure along with you. As the players are developing the details of their backstory, make notes to see how you can incorporate their ideas into the story arc, even if it's just in a peripheral way.
Anthony Martino
Royal Flush
Bwah ha ha
Anthony Martino
Royal Flush
Just heard about this yesterday. It starts off a little meh, and there's a fart humor scene that I wasn't a fan of, but overall it was a fun fan-made flick. The Bard absolutely cracks me up throughout most of the adventure
Got a little bit of me time for the next few days, going to get some paint on some sophisticated terrain (think: yuan-ti temple) that's been sitting there for two years....
Ok, so I have D&D stuff from the 80s, and reading part of this thread makes me realize I need to thank this for being in my life and now is time to set it free. I would be looking to sell in one transaction, but could break it up by hard/soft/figures so if interested please send me a PM with questions and reasonable offer plus shipping. If no one, I will put it on eBay, no worries.
Thanks for looking,
T
Thanks for looking,
T
Attachments
Anthony Martino
Royal Flush
Anthony Martino
Royal Flush
Still need to finish the dwarves, but the Lycanthrope is coming along nicely
Anthony Martino
Royal Flush
The collection of painted minis is growing. Did most of these, some of the monsters and one of the heroes already came painted
29 total so far, but have another 40'ish still to go
29 total so far, but have another 40'ish still to go
Poker Zombie
Royal Flush
Goes pro playing a card game, spends a small fortune on custom computers and D&D minis.
12 year old me grew up to be Anthony.
12 year old me grew up to be Anthony.
You are a fast painter, too. I can never paint miniatures, or even terrain, this quickly. I should have a preliminary shot or two of my jade snake-themed temple in a day or two. I'm expecting some Gear labels so there will be some competition for my arts/crafts time.
Anthony Martino
Royal Flush
I can do about 4 in a day, then I've had my fill of painting
It doesn't take me all day, just a few hours. Plus I don't paint everyday either
But Jenn is on crutches for a twisted ankle and banged up knee, so I've been home since Saturday to help out around the house, and making use of the time to continue crafting my adventure plus get some painting done
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