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Messages - phaedrusxy

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41
The visual of these four guys sitting around sipping a bunch of tea at infinite speed to pull this off is hilarious. Whether it works or not thanks for that. :D

42
Homebrew and House Rules (D&D) / Re: Alternate shield use rules
« on: March 08, 2022, 12:53:47 PM »
So, if the people in the cone have total concealment, the shield-bearer can still target their square and have a 50% chance of hitting them with anything requiring an attack roll, right?
Correct. You're basically stabbing over/around the shield blindly.

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With the heavy shield, I guess you're getting +4 AC against roughly 1/4 the battle map and +0 against the rest? In some cases, it certainly makes shields better. Although, it seems in 3E, it's just not worth it because of how Power Attack works.
Yes... and I was thinking of Power Attack and how to make shields "worth it" compared to that...  :bigeyes

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As for the 5E version, it's just a free +1 AC to Str-based melee characters, and the drawbacks probably don't matter. I could see someone who chose breast plate over half plate to avoid the Stealth disadvantage not wanting to use one, but +1 AC is kind of a big deal in 5E.
2 handed weapons still do more damage. So there is that tradeoff, and not going with TWF also.

43
D&D 5e / Re: Fun Finds: 5e Edition
« on: March 05, 2022, 10:27:00 PM »
Silvery barbs is probably the most overpowered spell I've ever seen in any edition...

44
Homebrew and House Rules (D&D) / Alternate shield use rules
« on: March 05, 2022, 08:06:58 PM »
I've always hated how useless shields are in D&D. I'm thinking of adding the following rules to tower shields and large shields:

Shield Wall (Optional Rule)
Alternatively, a tower shield may be used as a shield wall. The shield user must choose whether to use this optional rule at the beginning of their turn, and cannot change it until the beginning of their next turn. When using a tower shield as a shield wall, the user chooses a cone originating at their square. All targets within this cone receive total concealment from the shield user's attacks, and the shield user receives total cover from theirs. The shield user does not receive the normal shield bonus to AC against attacks originating outside of this cone when using a shield in this way. This DOES provide total cover against spells. However, it does not provide any protection against being Bull Rushed. Additionally, the target's tower shield may be the target of applicable attacks and spells.

A large shield may be used in the same manner, but only grants cover and concealment (not total). Small shields and bucklers are not large enough to be used like this.

I'll also add this to the normal shield in 5e games (treating it as a large shield), and plan to add the Tower Shield back into the game as well (it will be heavy (30 lbs and require 15 str), give disadvantage on stealth and make it impossible if used with heavy armor, and grant a +3 to AC).

45
General D&D Discussion / Re: What are the real party roles of D&D?
« on: March 03, 2022, 02:13:38 PM »
There have been a few threads about this in the past, some more comprehensive than others. I think certainly the roles include:

1) damage dealer(s) (mandatory more than others, but doesn't have to be 100% specialist)
2) battlefield control (could be tank with reach, CC/debuff caster, etc)(not 100% necessary, but very nice to have)
3) healing, damage mitigation (buffs) and negative status effect removal (not 100% necessary, but nice to have. Can also be done via potions, items, etc.)
4) a way to deal with traps (can be a Log (TM), undead, sacrificial summons, or a rogue, etc)
5) face/negotiator (not always needed in all games)
6) Scout (not 100% necessary, but very nice to have.) (Can be stealthy class, caster with a familiar or divination, etc)

46
Phaedrusxy, your character is 67 years old, which means old age (just a few years shy of turning venerable), and yet he inexplicably doesn't have the age adjustments to ability scores.
They may have been factored in already in the character generation page, or the DM told me to disregard them. I don't remember... it was several years ago. :P He was meant to be old, though.

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Lucid Dreamer is also a bad feat, and I'm not sure your character is a great help to this sort of party.
That was the trait, not the feat. It also somehow was more useful for that campaign, because it involved dreams, etc... but again... long time ago. :D

The two extra revelations I took I think would be thematic and useful for this campaign. Automatic Writing lets you get a free Divination once per day starting at level 5, and Focused Trance lets you make Int-based skill checks with a +20 bonus (a number of times daily equal to your Cha mod).

47
I'm late to the party, but I really enjoyed (briefly) playing an Oracle in a PF game. I took the clouded vision curse because I couldn't resist the "blind seer" trope, but he had darkvision 60' (completely blind beyond that) which would have improved to include blindsight, etc, later. I built him as a melee build, and so thought that it probably wouldn't matter much... I picked up a few tricks to use his Charisma mod for saves and such, too.

I had a couple versions of him, if you want to check them out: https://www.myth-weavers.com/sheet.html#id=1441478
https://www.myth-weavers.com/sheet.html#id=470659

48
Legends of the Heroes / Re: Shattered Isles
« on: January 18, 2022, 11:06:49 PM »
The next night my son was joined by his sister and her best friend. My daughter decided to play a lower level version of her old Mind Pirate (human, and a member of the Bescaru clan). Her friend played a changeling agraramel. My homebrew is popular among my kids and their friends. :) The game session was a murder-mystery, with three people having gone missing in the past week, and reports in the area of a "ghost". Numerous people complained of terrifying moaning sounds, and one corpse had been found with no marks on it. The other two victims just disappeared during the nights when the moaning was heard. A good Search check (I let them get the benefits of the Investigate feat without actually taking it... because that seems like something Search should actually do...) let them figure out that the guy had suffocated.

I had forgotten that the Agraramel has a devastating (to murder-mystery plots) ability to see what's transpired in an area over the past few days as if they rewound time and watched a security tape at super speed. So... one moment spent on Visions of the Past, and a good Lore check later, and they knew they were up against a cloaker... After stuffing some wax in their ears, and taking other similar preparations (the binder bound a vestige that gave Blindsight and Immunity to Mind Affecting, and they used Silent Image to create a "victim" to lure it into an ambush), they made very short work of the enemy before it even had a chance to retaliate.

I did have some GREAT inspiration for future games, though... and can't wait to see how those play out. So far they seem to really like the intrigue-based scenarios better than traditional D&D.

49
Legends of the Heroes / Re: Shattered Isles
« on: January 18, 2022, 10:57:49 PM »
He charmed a gang member, and got her to tell him everything she knew about the gang's new secret benefactor/boss. He then reported this to the Bescaru clan, his primary employer (he actually took payment from 3 different groups..., but the Bescaru's paid him double to tell them first, and sit on the information for 24 hrs before reporting to anyone else). He decided to sneak in (with his charmed gang girl) and watch the show go down... Several of the Bescaru family trickled in through the night, and then finally the new boss/benefactor showed up just after 3 AM (which is when he always shows up). Once he'd arrived, the Bescaru's began lobbing flasks of alchemical knockout gas and flashbangs (blind if fail Fort save). They put on gas masks and closed their eyes, and so were immune, and within a couple of rounds they'd either killed or incapacitated everyone in the place except for the two bosses, the PC and his charmed "slave", and themselves. The underboss ran into a safe room and shut the door behind him, ditching his new "benefactor"... but after a couple of rounds of their attacks bouncing off him, they realized they'd bit off more than they could chew. Dahm (the Binder PC) then made a knowledge check and identified the "benefactor" as a vampire, and told the Bescaru's who promptly retreated, only managing to lose one member in the process.

50
Mindscapes / Re: Mind Pirate [Base]
« on: January 17, 2022, 04:38:17 PM »
I added a really minor tweak to the class, giving it the ability to make undead flee with its Sapping Strike (as with Chill Touch). Otherwise, they're pretty terrible against undead in general... which wouldn't be that bad... (looking at you, rogues) except flavor-wise, they probably should have some kind of ability to affect them.

51
Legends of the Heroes / Re: Shattered Isles
« on: January 05, 2022, 10:41:04 AM »
Started yet another "chapter" in the Shattered Isles campaign setting. This one is a traditional "urban"/intrigue focused arc, which will probably ultimately have little to do with the rest of the setting. It is occurring in a corrupt metropolis on one of the islands. It does make for a fun twist on things, such as having the "underground" be literally under the bottom of the sky island (houses hanging down on the bottom side of it, in perpetual shadow, and connected to the topside via tunnels, etc). Since these islands move around, and can occasionally crash into each other, I decided that the slums should be on the edges, and higher priced real estate nearer the center where it is safer from "crashes". I found a great picture of "the Edge" (slums) to use, also. I described this as "buildings literally on top of one another, going right around the lip of the island, all the way down until they join with the underworld". (Picture is from Rio, evidently).
(click to show/hide)
Overall, I decided to have the island be a crater, with a lake in the middle and a small island in the center of that (where the Governor lives). The rim of the crater has some of the highest priced real estate, and the outer slopes beyond that are what turns into the slums. The whole thing is the result of an ancient meteor impact, and an infusion of the meteoric metal (adamantine...) is what strengthened the whole thing enough to remain intact after the "Shattering" of the world.

So far I'm running it as a solo campaign for just my son's binder character, who he is playing as a mercenary spy/investigator type of character. Had great fun in the first session with him trying to track down the source of one crime gang's sudden infusion of wonderous magic items, which has gave them an edge against other local gangs. They are pressing this advantage with violent "bombings" (neckace of fireballs), etc. He managed to witness one of these attacks, and was beginning to follow one of the assailants, but then the gang member was attacked by a ripper (Cityscape), and he was put to sleep by being caught in the area of effect. It was a great nail-biting moment, and we of course had an intermission right at that point where he was knocked out and wondering if he was dead/captured/etc. :D

We resumed, and he used a dog to track the ripper into the sewers where he used Malphus' bird to see it eating the unfortunate criminal, and got a really good look at how horrific the ripper is in the process. He then decided to leave the ripper well enough alone (good choice... it's a tough CR 6 and he's level 3, lol), and go try tracking down one of the other criminals that fled the scene. He ultimately succeeded, and found a hideout of the gang. We stopped there for the night.

We had a lot of intrigue with him spying on another criminal gang's methods of passing messages along to their boss, etc, as well, which was at least as much fun (probably more so) than the actual plot/action parts. I also had him pick up on a random pick pocket who was working the area when he was making regular spot checks to make sure he wasn't being followed, just to give a feel for how nasty the city is. :)

52
Legends of the Heroes / Re: Shattered Isles
« on: January 02, 2022, 12:32:42 PM »
Ran a few sessions in this world, mostly with just my kids, but also with a couple of their friends. Working well so far. The water bender class is a lot more developed and my daughter has been playing one of those. Still thinking I'll convert this to 5e, but right now we're playing in PF1e with 3.5 material allowed.

Had really basic adventure where they explored a stereotypical haunted keep with skeletons, and with a trapped porticullis that was supposed to shut behind them if they went in (one of them found it using Search, and they set it off before they went in... effectively trapping the skeletons inside and allowing them to shoot them like fish in a barrel... I gave a couple skeletons bows just to make it the slightest bit interesting. :D

Next adventure we started but haven't finished yet, and I will probably add this one to the book (if we ever publish one...). It is set on a volcanic island with a jungle where almost everything is "giant" (giant ants, trees, etc). There are two main villages: one of fire-benders (and fire themed creatures) around the mouth of the volcano, and a water-themed village near a waterfall closer to the edge of the island. Of course... they hate each other, and sometimes the fire people come attack the (peaceful :P ) water village. We haven't quite completed this one yet, but put it on hiatus to run an encounter with a couple other kids who joined us for a couple of games.

I also elaborated a bit more on the cosmology in this one. The material is now mostly "severed" from the elemental plane of earth, and is "closer" to the elemental plane of air. That's why there is less earth and more air (a la... sky islands). Hence, metals and other materials are much more rare. Portals to the elemental planes of air, water, and fire are fairly frequent, and can be used as hubs for long ranged travel. This is because the elemental planar geometry is more stable than the prime (where the floating islands move around). So you can map routes between portals in the elemental planes, and use them to get back and forth to the prime locations connected to them.

Finally, the last encounter (which we also haven't completed yet) involves a peaceful island with an "enchanted" forest with a holy (hallowed) grove in its center. A unicorn lives there with a few other magical creatures. However, there is a set of dark catacombs beneath this island inhabited by vampires and other undead.

53
Legends of the Heroes / Re: Mind Games
« on: December 26, 2021, 03:46:44 PM »
So... it's been a while. We'd played the other game several times, but finally got back to this one! We've played this out in a series of short sessions, but it was really all the Battle of Brindol, and so I'll post it all here together. The PCs are still level 10, but way overpowered for their level, especially the psion, and have been "recruiting" a bunch of powerful allies including two dragons (young blue and black), the "Ghost Lord" (who is a druid Worm that Walks in my game), and lastly Gorodon Ashlord (whom the psion started the battle possessing). They'd been carving through enemies like butter. So I decided to go absolutely bonkers on the Red Hand side in this battle. Their enemies included a beholder (CR 13, with buffs which included Improved Invisibility), Abithriax (whom I upgraded to an an adult red dragon, CR 15), and Warlord Kharn (whom I upgraded to 12th level, gave full casting, and used an insane 2-day buffing routine that includes Consuptive Field abuse from an old PC of mine, so easily CR 14). Plus the 10s of thousands of hobgoblins, who were really just there as the "background". Since this is in Eberron, the Red Hand had also allied with Droam, and so their army also included ogres, harpies, and other things which really didn't come into play mechanically.

The actual combat in the sessions was basically just the PCs facing off against the beholder and dragon, while laying down some AoEs to help repel hobgoblins from the walls. They were (rightfully so) terrified of the beholder, especially the psion, whose real body has been destroyed and so is dependent on continuously possessing an enemy to survive. He wound up basically taking on the red dragon by himself for a while, and the Mind Pirate went after the beholder with some other defenders of Brindol, along with two dragons and a couple of charmed wyverns. The artificer cohort was playing support for both PC groups.

The dragon was actually a decent spellcaster, and wound up dispelling a bunch of buffs from the psion, causing him to plummet from the sky and onto the top of the wall surrounding Brindol (he managed to catch onto it with one arm with a reflex save). The psion's cohort then did the "turnabout is fair play" thing and dispelled almost all of the dragon's buffs, allowing the psion to actually land a bunch of attacks via telekinesis and do enough damage to cause it to temporarily flee the battlefield for a Heal (from Warlord Kharn, who had up until then been hanging back in the back of the army just giving orders). The beholder turned its antimagic cone onto their "allies", causing the two wyverns to become uncontrolled and turn on their riders (a couple of knights of Brindol). Then it managed to get off two full rounds of eye rays while they tried to find it and make it visible (via Glitterdust) so their allies could focus fire on it. The PCs and their allies rolled remarkably well, making nearly every saving throw except for the Mind Pirate who failed against a Fear. The Mind Pirate had the last laugh, as her animated fire giant scored two crits in a round against the now visible beholder, slicing it in half.

Then everyone ganged up on the dragon, which had flown back into the battle with Warlord Kharn on it's back. As it's hit points dropped precipitously, Kharn started to use another Heal on it (from a custom staff), but the psion used Anticipatory Strike and ripped it out of his hand with Telekinesis. The dragon then tried to flee, but dropped from a couple of AoOs from the psion's pair of level 6 Astral Constructs. The Mind Pirate also landed an AoO on it, finishing it off, and used her steal memories ability as it was dying... and revealed that the battle was mostly just a "ruse" to keep the PCs busy while High Wyrmlord Azar Khul finished the ritual to break Tiamat out of her prison...

We left off with the PCs planning to teleport away from the battle and to the newly revealed (via stolen memories) ritual site to confront Azar Khul. Thanks to their defeat of the beholder and dragon, and recruitement of Ghostlord and elves, the defenders of Brindol will be able to successfully win the Battle of Brindol without them. It was definitely the most dramatic and satisfying battle so far, and the first one where my daughter wasn't overshadowed by the psion's raw power. :D

54
Min/Max 3.x / Re: Fun Finds v7.0 - Now with +15% more reposts!
« on: December 19, 2021, 02:24:31 PM »
My son's running a game for me, and I decided to play a mad goblin bomber... and look what I found!!
https://www.d20pfsrd.com/races/other-races/featured-races/arg-goblin/winged-marauder-goblin-alchemist/
The lost class skills sucks... but hey... it's PF. It's just a +3 bonus. Trading out Mr. Hyde to get a giant bat/buzzard totally seems worth it, though.

55
Other Games / Valheim
« on: November 22, 2021, 08:49:30 AM »
If you don't know, Valheim is a game very much like Minecraft with decent graphics (and it's harder, more like some of the harder survival modpacks). It's still in early release at the time of writing this, but the content that's in so far is pretty awesome. You're a dead Viking in their equivalent of purgatory trying to earn your right to pass on to Valhalla. If you have the game, or are interested and have $20 bucks and a PC with a decent graphics card, I have started a dedicated server. It's nothing fancy, but would be interested in playing with any of you. DM me on discord if interested (PhaedrusXY#9923).

56
Legends of the Heroes / Re: Shattered Isles
« on: November 09, 2021, 09:51:28 AM »
I have no real input except to say that we do have a homebrew bending system on the board although I don't remember anything about it so it might not be good.

It could be scavenged for buffing ideas.
Thanks. I thought you guys might have suggestions for that. :) Basing it off either a warlock or martial adept chassis seems like it would make the most sense.

57
Legends of the Heroes / Shattered Isles
« on: November 08, 2021, 04:58:18 PM »
So... I started a new game with my kids.  :lmao

My son and I took a long road trip (6 hrs each way), and spent quite a bit of it discussing D&D. Eventually, the discussion reached the following conclusion: he'd really like to play a binder, but they're weak and he likes stronger characters... Eventually, we of decided to come up with a setting where all the tier 1 and 2 classes were banned (with in-world reasons), and to also beef up binders a bit. We're basing it off the Sky Raiders book by Brandon Mull, if you're familiar with it (and if not... you should go read it right now). The setting is technically a post-apocalyptic Eberron where his old character was responsible for and/or involved in "breaking the world".

What's left of the material plane is a series of "islands" floating over an endless void of space. Some of them are fairly large, like small continents, but most are small, and they all move around slowly with respect to each other... So there are no reliable maps, and getting around involves flying somehow (there are blimps), and is insanely dangerous (most of the ruins on these "islands" are haunted and/or housing some kind of terrible, ancient evils leftover from before the breaking of the world, etc). It can also be very lucrative, and hence of course there are idiots who go around plundering them. They are typically called "sky pirates", and are pretty deserving of the name... because they are not averse to robbing and/or stealing children and conscripting them to use to explore the (insanely dangerous) ruins.

The first adventure involved only my son's character, with him starting out as "level 0" and encountering a medusa who instead of turning him to stone decided to train him as a binder. He then went back and joined the "crew" he'd been a slave of previously as a "full member", and they raided a keep with 5 skeletons, with the two NPCs with him both getting beaten up pretty badly (one below 0 and one just barely above), but no one actually dying (which I regard as a success when DMing 1st level characters...).

We've brainstormed quite a bit, and are even considering writing up a campaign book for this. A few details:
1) the gods all died and/or were "cut off" from the world during the "breaking"
2) the prime material plane was actually cut off from or moved further from the outer planes, and closer to the elemental planes
3) all the dragons died as part of the "final battle"
3) because of 1, 2, & 3, there are no wizards, sorcerers, clerics, druids, etc. (Basically all the T1&T2 classes).
4) "Benders" are a thing (as in Avatar: The Last Airbender). We're using some homebrewed classes that look a lot like warlocks. Here's the Airbender class: https://dnd-wiki.org/wiki/Bender_of_Air_(3.5e_Class) (Oof.... looking at that, it is incredibly weak... will almost certainly buff it...)

Debating on whether to allow beguilers, warmages, and dread necros. Leaning towards yes, but making them mostly NPCs.

We're using PF1 as the base ruleset, but allowing 3.x material.

58
Mindscapes / Re: Feats and Items of the Mind
« on: October 28, 2021, 11:01:14 AM »
Magic item idea I had.

The Bloodbound Blade

After bonding yourself to this weapon in a ritual that involves cutting yourself with it, it gains a few powers.

1) After wounding an enemy, a bond is formed between their blood and yours. Thereafter, anytime you again injure that enemy with your Bloodbound Blade, you may draw upon this bond to further harm them by sacrificing your own blood. You may inflict an extra 1d6 damage to them (necrotic/negative energy) for each 1 point of damage you take yourself, up to a maximum of 1d6 per hit die you possess, or 10d6, whichever is less.

2) Any special attacks you have may be delivered through the Bloodbound Blade as if it was one your own natural weapons.

3) Thinking of letting it "store" hit points to work as an emergency healing source, but haven't "fleshed out" these details, or decided if I want to even included (since this is already pretty potent).

What equivalent "plus" value should this have in 3.5? What level item should it be in 5e?

59
Arhosa / Re: Arhosa Discussion and Notes
« on: October 15, 2021, 12:09:00 PM »
Inimical to Progress
Prerequisites: Str 15
Benefit: You do not provoke an attack of opportunity when you strike at an object held or carried by an opponent, and deal an extra 1d12 damage if the item is magical. Any spellcasters you threaten cannot cast defensively, and are not aware of this (until the first time they fail). You take one less damage per each die of damage a spell would do. This cannot reduce the total below 0.
So... what exactly happens? They automatically just fail the concentration check if they try to cast defensively, and lose a spell slot? Or you ignore the fact that they're casting defensively and get an AoO anyway? (I think the latter would make more sense, but it sounds more like the former.)

60
D&D 3.5 and Pathfinder / Re: Build advice for 3.5 Barbarian Cleric
« on: October 14, 2021, 06:41:03 PM »
Nerfed Power Attack... oh boy... lol. Got some armor spikes?

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