Fantasy Grounds Curse of Strahd campaign
- Thread starter Hatorade
- Start date
If Hator approves, I'll post Eonan's backstory so you get a feeling of how Aesir came to exist and came to power. Shouldn't affect too much since Eonan is dead. D E A Dead
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I have some questions for you guys. I personally have played a ton of 3.0 and 3.5, and a brief amount of 4th (fuck that system). I always enjoyed 3.5 and thought it was pretty well balanced.
Some guys I game with (other stuff, Mafia, Tabletop games on Tabletop Simulator like Terra Mystica etc) have been talking about putting a 5th edition campaign using Fantasy Grounds. Does everyone need to own the software or just one person to host it? Do you have to buy much else in the DLC type department to really use it?
How different is 5th from 3.5? I didn't get to delve into it too much, but at a glance it seemed like this things are the case
Individual BAB is gone in place of a proficiency bonus that is the same for all classes and a lot lower
You no longer ever earn feats, but just take them in place of ability point enhancements, which are no longer every 4 levels but instead determined by class?
You don't put points in skills? It looks like you just learn a skill and it uses your proficiency?
It looks like basically all the random +2 stuff for tons of different scenarios are just replaced by Advantage/Disadvantage
I dunno, I'm sure I have questions I'm not thinking of. Do you guys enjoy it more than other systems? Any complaints?
Some guys I game with (other stuff, Mafia, Tabletop games on Tabletop Simulator like Terra Mystica etc) have been talking about putting a 5th edition campaign using Fantasy Grounds. Does everyone need to own the software or just one person to host it? Do you have to buy much else in the DLC type department to really use it?
How different is 5th from 3.5? I didn't get to delve into it too much, but at a glance it seemed like this things are the case
Individual BAB is gone in place of a proficiency bonus that is the same for all classes and a lot lower
You no longer ever earn feats, but just take them in place of ability point enhancements, which are no longer every 4 levels but instead determined by class?
You don't put points in skills? It looks like you just learn a skill and it uses your proficiency?
It looks like basically all the random +2 stuff for tons of different scenarios are just replaced by Advantage/Disadvantage
I dunno, I'm sure I have questions I'm not thinking of. Do you guys enjoy it more than other systems? Any complaints?
Sulrn
Deuces
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DM is the only person that needs an active account to host / use official resources. Sean or Hatorade would need to cover specifics for resource use.
5 is a streamlined 3.5. The lack of class feat levels is the only real difference I felt as a player besides class redesign, but every 4 you choose feats or stats which is always a painful choice. Prof replaces BAB/skill points. Situational bonus are replaced by Adv/Dis but will/should always be DM flavor as well. I think 5 is great for introducing new players, but it's currently suffering teething pains. Some of the design revamps were underwhelming in my opinion and took away a lot of the cool random stuff from 3.5 in terms of class skills/feats/items and haven't been replaced with anything equivalent. This isn't a major problem, but from guest DM'ing a local game and being in Hatorade's it seems pretty homogenous in terms of character design due to the lack of feat access. There are some goofy niche builds, but everyone ultimately fills one of a handful of roles intead of the variety you see in 3.5/PF.
5 is a streamlined 3.5. The lack of class feat levels is the only real difference I felt as a player besides class redesign, but every 4 you choose feats or stats which is always a painful choice. Prof replaces BAB/skill points. Situational bonus are replaced by Adv/Dis but will/should always be DM flavor as well. I think 5 is great for introducing new players, but it's currently suffering teething pains. Some of the design revamps were underwhelming in my opinion and took away a lot of the cool random stuff from 3.5 in terms of class skills/feats/items and haven't been replaced with anything equivalent. This isn't a major problem, but from guest DM'ing a local game and being in Hatorade's it seems pretty homogenous in terms of character design due to the lack of feat access. There are some goofy niche builds, but everyone ultimately fills one of a handful of roles intead of the variety you see in 3.5/PF.
Hatorade
A nice asshole.
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As a huge Pathfinder fan but I now prefer 5E, so much easier to DM and from a player perspective far easier to just have a good time. I really like the DIS/ADV system and with the exception of ranger classes continue to get some love(new subclasses) as the game progresses. My biggest complaint as a DM is CHA and INT saves are almost non existent, everything nasty is WIS and everything that hurts is DEX. So if you are proficient in DEX and WIS and have high DEX you are at a huge advantage vs most creatures.
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That was one of the things I thought as well. It seems like it's going to be pretty easy to figure out the most effective builds for characters and you don't have enough control over building your character to really change that aside from fluff reasons. There was so many ways to build a Fighter in 3.5 (1h Shield, 2h, Dual Wield, Mounted, Ranged, etc) and they all worked and all were enjoyable. I don't feel like you really have that ability from what I saw in the rules for 5th. I mean I guess this could kind of get fixed with more source material in the lines of disciplines or whatever it is (the prestige class like shit that you get as part of leveling).
I dunno, i guess we'll see how it is. Other peoples opinion and feedback also greatly appreciated!
I dunno, i guess we'll see how it is. Other peoples opinion and feedback also greatly appreciated!
Seananigans
Honorary Shit-PhD
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Personally I'm loving 5e in basically every aspect. Both playing a character in Hate's Thursday campaign, and DMing my Wednesday campaign with 6 people over FG as well. I didn't play any PnP 3e or 3.5e campaigns, but overall my gut feeling is 5e is a very solid structure, and to echo others, the ADV/DIS mechanic is quite good.
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I second what both Hate and Sean said, and I have to add it feels like they took some of the best aspects from their systems over the years and meshed them together in a fun way to play. I far prefer 5e over any other edition I have played so far. I love how balanced it is, but you can fine tune somethings to make your character either great at RP aspects of the game (which is highly encouraged this time around) or from a min/max perspective as well. I have a blast playing in Hate's campaigns under this edition.
Hatorade
A nice asshole.
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You do have all those options in 5E, at level 3 you pick a fighting style which every fighter gets, then you branch from there to champion, eldritch knight etc and each of those comes with new abilities.
Hatorade
A nice asshole.
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I wish you had had more success! I hope Sheng Bei turns out as good as I hope he does. Hopefully he won't get killed in his very first round...
Sulrn
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I'm going to disagree with you there. Take a level 5 "knight" (mounted combat design /not knight class) from 3.5 and level 5 fighter from 5. 3.5 will have 4/5 feats depending on race where the 5 will have his second attack and 1/2 feats. The 3.5 is ready to rock and distinguish yourself from everyone else on the field because (let's be honest who else even had a warhorse besides the pally) of feat choices [mounted combat, ride by attack, spirited charge, trample] making you completely differant. 5e fighter has nothing to get him here without homebrew. Even if you take mounted combat as a feat and fight from horseback you essentially fight like every other champion / battle master, because WotC supported pirates over knights and there are no distinguishing mechanics in game yet. So no, archetypes/fighting styles (while cool) do not replace the options martial classes had straight out of PHB in 3.5 because the lack of feats is a noticeable vacuum (even if the relatively few feats in 5 are more powerful on average). This only gets even worse depending on how many splatter books you let players use in your group.
What they do though is help curb a lot of the power disparity between classes by not letting you fall off the designated path so everyone stays relatively powerful earlier, even if it leaves'em all playing the same (look at your Thursday group at the start for example). Could go on, but you already admitted Ranger was a roleplaying Archery "Eldritch" Fighter.
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