The D&D thread

pharmakos said:

okay, i have a handful of people interested in D&D, but none of us have actually played the P&P game. most of us have gained enough familiarity over the years from various non-P&P D&D stuff that we should be able to pick things up pretty quick...

but none of us want to DM

how crazy would it be if we took turns DMing? probably just going to run modules and whatnot so won't need a whole lot of creative cooperation

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I've known a number of campaigns over the years that went that route. There's nothing crazy about it. Typically each person does an adventure's worth of story and cycles out.

As above.

Most games I have played, there are two or three DMs. One does a campaign or module, then if they want, someone else takes up the mantle.

It can get a bit chaotic, if you are juggling different settings/homebrews/etc, but most DMs like a chance to play, so it works out.

every year we do a large group event over a weekend.. basically we have two 2-3 hour games running concurrently all day friday and saturday. depending on certain things, the two teams can interfere with each other. sometimes that comes down to one team asking the other team for help (where the second team can require payment in either gold or items) or one team can actively sabotage the other team by making a deal with the other team's DM to increase the difficulty (at varying cost) or setting up traps in their own adventure that the other team may run into.

in my weekly group, we also put some terribly virulent fungal disease in a bag of holding because we didn't know what else to do with it. we then had the idea of selling the bag to another group (same DM). when they opened the bag, it boiled out of the bag and infected everyone with some terrible sentient plague. it was pretty hilarious

j00t said:

in my weekly group, we also put some terribly virulent fungal disease in a bag of holding because we didn't know what else to do with it. we then had the idea of selling the bag to another group (same DM). when they opened the bag, it boiled out of the bag and infected everyone with some terrible sentient plague. it was pretty hilarious

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Nice, did something similar to a group of NPCs in one of my campaigns, except we stuck a really dangerous goo in a bag that was supposed to be holding loot we were using to pay off the gang. The goo itself only got one of them when he opened it, but it made for a nice opening to our surprise attack

Maybe it says something about our campaigns, but our bags of holding always end up being dead body storage units.

I'm sure it's extraordinarily old news with you guys, but yesterday I came across the Mythica series of movies on Amazon.

I really have no idea how they managed to fly under my radar because they're actually pretty good. Especially when considering their budget.

The movies actually 'feel' like D&D adventures and really enjoyed watching Mercer in the second one.

I'd love to see what they'd produce with 10x the funding.

Anyone have a good character creator they use? Is there a good character tracking application?

So tonight I did my halloween event for my group. Party gets invited to a hallows eve party by a lord of water deep. Then they find grusome murdered corpses. Follow the would be killer through a portal to the raven loft castle. Then go a murder hoboing through it. I had a friend's okd 3rd edition wizard play the bad guy who was a physio murder / dr Frankenstein. Took em about 4hrs and I cut out like more then half of it lol. But it was a good time.

Last year I was able to work a one off Halloween themed adventure into the middle of my ongoing campaign it was called Deception or Reward ( Trick or treat )

The adventurers set up camp outside some caves they planned to explore in the middle of no where and a little old woman in a cart pulled by an old broken down horse slowly approached the camp.

She said she sold candies by trade but had lost her way and if they would share the camp fire she would give them each some sweets and offered to sell them some as well.

As the night went on she finally produced an old bag and asked if they would like to play a game called Deception or Reward. Each player reaches in and pulls something out. One of the items was an 80ft chain with a chain devil at the end riding an anchor.

Once the last member of the group has reached in the old witch attacks them her horse can be a zombie horse or nightmare and her cart can be an animate object.

Can someone explain to a newb house beast master works?

Im a ranger just hit level 3, first campaign. I was going to go beast master because I thought having a pet would KICK ASS.

But I can't get a straight answer. How do pets attack?

I thought it read that I can command them during my turn, and they go on my initiative, and some things read as they have their own actions, or some say my command is my action and thus I can't attack?

So do I get to say, fire my bow and command the animal attack, or do I literally sacrifice my bow attack for their attack? If that, what's the point when my attack skill is higher than the pets? I guess send them into battle to soak up damage? Or are they only useful in out of combat scenarios?

Breakdown said:

Can someone explain to a newb house beast master works?

Im a ranger just hit level 3, first campaign. I was going to go beast master because I thought having a pet would KICK ASS.

But I can't get a straight answer. How do pets attack?

I thought it read that I can command them during my turn, and they go on my initiative, and some things read as they have their own actions, or some say my command is my action and thus I can't attack?

So do I get to say, fire my bow and command the animal attack, or do I literally sacrifice my bow attack for their attack? If that, what's the point when my attack skill is higher than the pets? I guess send them into battle to soak up damage? Or are they only useful in out of combat scenarios?

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Welcome to why Rangers suck in 5th edition, once you get two attacks(5th level) you can each get one and at 7th level your beast can attack your target when you do. As a DM I do two things, I allow my rangers to take an extra Fighting Style and hunters mark is a cantrip not a first level spell. This has balanced them nicely.

Hatorade said:

Welcome to why Rangers suck in 5th edition, once you get two attacks(5th level) you can each get one and at 7th level your beast can attack your target when you do. As a DM I do two things, I allow my rangers to take an extra Fighting Style and hunters mark is a cantrip not a first level spell. This has balanced them nicely.

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For my newb skills how does that buff them?

Breakdown said:

For my newb skills how does that buff them?

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Hunters mark doesn't use a spell slot, and multiple fighting styles at level 1 is nice, can do +archery and +armor for example.

Breakdown said:

Can someone explain to a newb house beast master works?

Im a ranger just hit level 3, first campaign. I was going to go beast master because I thought having a pet would KICK ASS.

But I can't get a straight answer. How do pets attack?

I thought it read that I can command them during my turn, and they go on my initiative, and some things read as they have their own actions, or some say my command is my action and thus I can't attack?

So do I get to say, fire my bow and command the animal attack, or do I literally sacrifice my bow attack for their attack? If that, what's the point when my attack skill is higher than the pets? I guess send them into battle to soak up damage? Or are they only useful in out of combat scenarios?

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in the phb, beast masters are mechanically pretty terrible. they have great flavor but you'll either never use your pet or just be outclassed at every turn by everyone else. ask your DM if you can use the unearthed arcana version of the beast master as it allows for some better synergy with the action economy.

Hatorade said:

Hunters mark doesn't use a spell slot, and multiple fighting styles at level 1 is nice, can do +archery and +armor for example.

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Nice. Spoke with DM and we agreed to a similar idea to make more viable.

We also came upon an owl bear and 2 cubs at the end of our session. I tried to convince him to let me form an animal companionship with a cub since it would be small enough to fit the size. Then I could raise it as my own and eventually have my own owl bear. He shot it down because of the challenge level of the beast but was open to the idea in future situations.

Breakdown said:

Nice. Spoke with DM and we agreed to a similar idea to make more viable.

We also came upon an owl bear and 2 cubs at the end of our session. I tried to convince him to let me form an animal companionship with a cub since it would be small enough to fit the size. Then I could raise it as my own and eventually have my own owl bear. He shot it down because of the challenge level of the beast but was open to the idea in future situations.

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that's part of the nice thing of the UA revised ranger... your pet is inline with YOU. so it's hp isn't based on the monster manual stat block, it's based on your level, your proficiency, stuff like that. i want to say the health is like 5x your level, and while it loses multi-attack, it gains your proficiency on attacks