The D&D thread

Had our first character death this past week (it was my own in a session that I don't DM for). The character was written up as a brave, and reckless college of swords bard, so I'm not overly surprised he died. He died in a heroic act to save the only father figure he'd ever known, so it seemed fitting.
However, I did run into an issue which I couldn't find clarification for, and pretty directly led to the death. The Pterafolk we were fighting have a dive ability. If they use 30 feet of dive speed prior to attacking, and hit they apply a frightened effect for one turn. The also have multi attack. I figured this was similar to a charge attack, which would only work on the first attack of each round directly following the charge. It makes sense thematically, as well as mechanically. However, the DM argued that it did not say that, and applied it to all attacks on the turn the 30 fly speed was used. I went with it, because I get that as a DM players arguing is really frustrating... but I can't help but think it shouldn't work that way. Anyone ever encounter this specific mechanic before? (5E)

Szeth said:

Had our first character death this past week (it was my own in a session that I don't DM for). The character was written up as a brave, and reckless college of swords bard, so I'm not overly surprised he died. He died in a heroic act to save the only father figure he'd ever known, so it seemed fitting.
However, I did run into an issue which I couldn't find clarification for, and pretty directly led to the death. The Pterafolk we were fighting have a dive ability. If they use 30 feet of dive speed prior to attacking, and hit they apply a frightened effect for one turn. The also have multi attack. I figured this was similar to a charge attack, which would only work on the first attack of each round directly following the charge. It makes sense thematically, as well as mechanically. However, the DM argued that it did not say that, and applied it to all attacks on the turn the 30 fly speed was used. I went with it, because I get that as a DM players arguing is really frustrating... but I can't help but think it shouldn't work that way. Anyone ever encounter this specific mechanic before? (5E)

Click to expand...

Reading the stat block, it 100% seems like the DM played it as written, which makes sense to me as well.

Think of it this way, its a terror dive of beak and talons. Just because you fended off the first one, doesnt make the others any less scary. Narratively, a non-hit in D&D isn't necessarily a miss, it just didn't do any damage. So perhaps your character deflects the beak of this dive bomb, but takes two claws to the chest and shits his pants, who knows.

If I was playing wifh a fumble table, maybe a crit fail on the first attack makes it no longer scary ("The terror lizard misses badly and duffs his beak into the dirt, intimidating screech turning to sad yelp of pain"), but as written, its whole attack is the fear tactic, not just the first.

Yeah, I had a think over the Pterafolk thing and basically decided the same thing. That monster does 3 attacks... thematically its biting and clawing all at the same time. If any of them damage you, you scramble to get away from the bird thing flapping around above you. Pretty fucking rough for a CR 1 monster though.

To add to it he was using the Javelin as the first attack. Not claws/bites. But again I am at peace with it, the character got the act of heroism he so badly desired. Time to bust out the Gloomstalker ranger (Tombs of Annihilation)

Works the same way, other than it gets 2 Javalin attacks or its 3 natural weapons (claws and beak), and shouldnt be mixing them. Although if he felt the monster needed a slight beefing, replacing one claw with a javalin is a decent way to up its deadliness a little bit without increasing its staying power. I, personally, would not use the javelin with the terror attack, mostly cause if I wanted to make it fear you, I'd want 3 attacks, not two, plus I think the mental image is scarier using its natural weapons instead of a pointed stick your character has probably been on the end of before.

Doubt he needed to beef them up, we’re a group of 3 level 4 characters and there were 11 pterafolk.

Angerz said:

Works the same way, other than it gets 2 Javalin attacks or its 3 natural weapons (claws and beak), and shouldnt be mixing them. Although if he felt the monster needed a slight beefing, replacing one claw with a javalin is a decent way to up its deadliness a little bit without increasing its staying power. I, personally, would not use the javelin with the terror attack, mostly cause if I wanted to make it fear you, I'd want 3 attacks, not two, plus I think the mental image is scarier using its natural weapons instead of a pointed stick your character has probably been on the end of before.

Click to expand...

listen, i know what a sword is, i see them often, i even own a few. but if i saw a t-rex running at me with a sword in one hand, i'd be just as terrified if he was swinging that or trying to eat me.

Everyone wants to be tasslehoff.

I've currently got: A drunken master halfling, a teenage female warlock (edgy), a reclusive elven druid, and Legolas. We had a conflicted War Cleric that was between Moradin whom he originally worshipped and an evil deity giving him the war domain instead of healing domain. He was probably one of the cooler characters to play with as I had a good amount of freedom to play with his story. He died last session.

I wanted to know if anyone has any experience with DM management software? My situation is that I DM with a Laptop, and have a 70 inch TV hooked up for maps. (I've shared pics before, but as an example, here)



I have been using Roll20 but have had some issues, mostly because its browser based, and while that is working ok... it can also be kind of wonky at times. In addition, its not the easiest thing to manage, and while I would love a perfect all in one solution, it just doesn't seem to exist.

What I'm tossing around right now is using a combination of programs.

I was looking at Hero Lab for character management and possibly initiative/monster tracking as well. There is a community pack that seems to get it all completely up to date, and it looks easy enough that my newer players will be guided through leveling. My players all just use paper, so I would just print them new sheets as needed.

Another thing for campaign management I was thinking about using was OneNote, which I've played around but am kind of mixed on. One the one hand, its very fast! On the other... it just feels weird? I'm sure I would get used to it. Plus a guy on Digital DM has already compiled all the SRD info... so I would be starting with a base as opposed to my next option.
The makers of Hero Lab also make a OneNote like program called Realm Works that looks pretty good as well. Apparently the support is awful and they have things they have been working on for 7 years that still haven't shown up, But I do like that it ties into Hero lab for monster stats and abilities. The other nice feature about this is that you can select any image or text and have it show it on a second monitor, a.k.a. the Tv. You can also do this with maps, even revealing parts of the map by hand if you want. Those features sound nice... but I think the whole program is web based again, so its only as good as my internet connection, and I've watched tutorials where people are waiting 20 seconds to go the page they wanted, where OneNote seems instant.

D&D beyond is fairly nice with a lot too, and I wouldn't be opposed to dropping the $350 on the everything pass... but its really just all the books in reference form right? I don't know that it could really function as a campaign tool.. I don't know how it would handle monsters I just make up but want to save or even custom magic items? It definitely doesn't do any of the Virtual Table stuff.

And speaking of that... while I would love a VTT that does line of sight and all kinds of tracking well, we do like using minis, and while I can also use token and mini's to achieve the line of sight, its just a lot of extra work for a pretty marginal difference. The other thing with VTT's is that right now you really only have two options. Roll20 which works but is not great, and Fantasy Grounds which doesn't support multi monitor stuff at all. As much as I would love the maps to be these crazy awesome things, I'm wondering if I should just display a full map in Windows picture viewer.. or something like Realm Works where I reveal it bit by bit.

Anyway... Just thought I would see if anyone else has strong opinions about any of this, or knows other products that just do X better or whatever. Thanks for any input!

ziggyholiday said:

We use D20pro and hero lab, been playing online like this for a good 5 years. My buddy has even gotten big into map making to the point where we are generally waiting on sessions because of him wanting to make custom maps. I'll see if I can get some screen shots from him.

Click to expand...

Go ahead and run Storm King's Thunder next please. I like making the maps but it's so time consuming.

Seananigans said:

Oh man if you guys have some hook-ups for battle-maps (or maps of any sort) I'm quite interested. I like to have maps for everything I do, but I don't have the time to make them, so tend to have to just fish around and find something that can maybe sorta work.

Click to expand...

Remuz RPG Archive Can dig through that.

Hope you guys enjoy this. First two pictures are of a DM screen I am making right now and the second one with extra is a finished one that I made a few months ago. Be gentle as I have never done any wood working before this. It was a lot of fun to learn though. I also made a two way toggle dice tower, dice trays, dice box, and initiation tracker + magnets on the screen to put either a small white board or paper clips for paper.