The D&D thread

I'm listening to the Glass Cannon podcast just recently. They play Pathfinder but super similar as I'm sure everyone here knows.
The Half Orc Ranger always uses his heritage for RP stuff which makes it fun. Hating Giants and ogres.
The episode I just listened to they made a point to say how utterly sickening Ogres are in Pathfinder. Inbred, brutal, savage. One of the players described them and said it made them particularly satisfying to kill.

The other thing is I'm noticing the DnD nerd stereotype has changed since I played in the 80's 90's lol. Almost every channel I've found has a guy with bright pink hair, or in a dress or using they/them pronouns. Then you have the Joe Manginello and Matt Mercer types too, who seem way more normal than the people I played with ha. I guess it's a broader spectrum of players now, seems much more popular.

Chanur said:

Is anyone familiar with the evil campaign Way of the Wicked? Seems like some people think highly of it but would like to get some input from folks I trust.

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It is a good time if your group is into espionage/sabotage and puzzles, if they like to murder hobo it will not go well. Starts off with a prison escape with no equipment, ends with a plot to weaken a fort for an invasion. I also remember it being pretty long. Was a fun ending and great sandbox.

Minor spoilers about what the party did.

Anyone have any class suggestions for my group to do Descent to Avernus?

5 players. Right now the classes being bandied about are:
Paladin
Eldrich Knight
Tempest/War Cleric or Divine Soul Sorcerer
Warlock
Ranger

They are worried about going into hell and not being effective because whatever demon is immune to spells or something. Or their class abilities are not suited for that environment.

Paladin and Cleric seem super obvious. The rest I am unsure about. Just want to give them a bit of direction.

Dashel said:

Anyone have any class suggestions for my group to do Descent to Avernus?

5 players. Right now the classes being bandied about are:
Paladin
Eldrich Knight
Tempest/War Cleric or Divine Soul Sorcerer
Warlock
Ranger

They are worried about going into hell and not being effective because whatever demon is immune to spells or something. Or their class abilities are not suited for that environment.

Paladin and Cleric seem super obvious. The rest I am unsure about. Just want to give them a bit of direction.

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Party should always roll what they want but a Bard or Rogue is always a good edition when going to hell. Almost nothing is immune to sonic damage and a mobility rogue is crazy useful.

Yeah I told them pick what you want to play. Then we'll see if there are any gaps. If it was me I'd definitely be rolling a Bard.

I'm trying to see if Eldrich Knight is any good. He wants a fighter that has some magic capability. We already have a paladin.

Dashel said:

Anyone have any class suggestions for my group to do Descent to Avernus?

5 players. Right now the classes being bandied about are:
Paladin
Eldrich Knight
Tempest/War Cleric or Divine Soul Sorcerer
Warlock
Ranger

They are worried about going into hell and not being effective because whatever demon is immune to spells or something. Or their class abilities are not suited for that environment.

Paladin and Cleric seem super obvious. The rest I am unsure about. Just want to give them a bit of direction.

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That seems a solid party to me - I can't think of anything of the top of my head that would be immune to all types of spell damage. As you get up the CRs there's plenty stuff that has advantage on saving throws against spells but that also applies to adult dragons and the like.

Personally I like an Eldritch Knight - taking fire bolt as a cantrip gives the fighter a d10 range damage that scales at the same levels as it does for wizards (e.g 2d10 damage at level 5, 3d10 at 11th). It gives access to useful utility spells like shield, misty step and haste and AoE damage spells which gives the fighter a lot more options in combat.

Eldritch knight is amazing. Take shield and misty step as mentioned. Take booming blade because it's the best fighter spell in the game and be an amazing tank who can hold everything down.

Nice ok that's good to hear. My only concern with Eldrich was that it seemed like a lot of elemental based stuff, and a lot of demons/devils are immune or resistant to fire, cold, thunder, lightning etc. But shield, misty step, ae, haste etc are all great to have.

Dashel said:

Nice ok that's good to hear. My only concern with Eldrich was that it seemed like a lot of elemental based stuff, and a lot of demons/devils are immune or resistant to fire, cold, thunder, lightning etc. But shield, misty step, ae, haste etc are all great to have.

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The thing about Eldritch knights is that even if you run into a creature who is magic resistant or resistant to fire/cold/etc, you still have the attack progression of a fighter. I've played with a few Eldritch knights and they don't usually do TONS of damage every round, but they ALWAYS seem to be able to do CONSISTENT damage no matter what

Locnar said:

Am I the only one here that has stuck with 1st edition?

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I view 1st edition like an old classic car. It's unwieldy and inefficient and technically inferior to the newer version in every way, but it's still fun to drive occasionally, mostly for the sake of nostalgia.

TBH there was more of a reason to play 1st before they came out with 5th. 1st still had some things that 2nd, 3rd, 3.5, and 4th didn't. But with 5th I think they successfully captured all the good stuff from the previous versions (including 1st) and packaged it into one refined version.

I haven't D&D'd in a very long time. Any ideas for a person to look to find a group online to play with?

Borzak said:

I haven't D&D'd in a very long time. Any ideas for a person to look to find a group online to play with?

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Roll20 is really popular and always has a lot of listings for new games starting up. Be discerning with what games you apply to be a part of as there are apparently many oddballs and flakes littering the place but such is life dealing with nerds. My own experience has been entirely positive - I applied for one game on there and I'm still playing with those folk 2.5 years later and another that I started ran for a solid year with good folks playing before time constraints killed it for us.

There's also fantasy grounds but I've never given it a go.

If you need pdfs www.thetrove.net has anything you'd ever want.

1st edition was so bad. We had so many house rules back then to make things exciting. We have one house rule now and it's that potions can be used as a bonus action or else they are basically never worth drinking in combat.

I much prefer fantasy grounds but there's no real online presence for it. Roll20 has the online interconnection all baked into it.

I'd say if you already HAVE a group, fantasy grounds is better. If you are LOOKING for a group, roll20 is what you're looking for

Roll20 also has a much lower cost barrier. People say you need all the books but you don't .

Locnar said:

Why did you think 1st edition was bad? I find it hard core and gritty in the same way UO or very early EQ was hard core and gritty compared to later MMOs. Also its best to play rules as written/by the book. Its what Gary intended, I limit house rules to almost nothing when I'm running the show.

edit: question, because I never played a edition past 2nd edition. How often do player characters die in 5th edition campaigns?

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To answer your question, it depends more on the GM and the campaign than the system. I would differentiate between "hardcore and gritty" and "broken and unbalanced" and there are a lot of 1st campaigns that were so unbalanced they could be considered broken. 5e campaigns are way more tested/balanced than the old stuff so you generally won't run into stupid, unwinnable situations. But a good GM can keep things really challenging and a few bad rolls can still result in a tpk.

The list of differences bt 1st and 5th is big in terms of mechanics. I'm not going to go over it all but someone else can if they want. I started playing DnD with 1st in 1990 and played every edition since on the way to 5th. I have a soft spot in my heart for 1st. What they did with 1st was amazing considering what they had to build on (which was very little).

Play 5th edition a few times. That's the easiest way to figure out the difference. If you do I'd be pretty shocked if you went back to 1st.