gerusz @ gerusz @ttrpg.network

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2 yr. ago

It's a game, not a simulator. I mean, how would I handle fireballs then? Would I roll for lung damage due to the targets breathing in hot air (enforcing realistic consequences), or would I just disallow the spell because magic is not realistic? Or if the enemy gets shot by an arrow, would I roll for organ damage?

And of course you have to account for the fun of all players. Would it be fun for the wrestler player to take out any humanoid in two turns? Probably. Possibly. Would it also be fun for the archer and the swordsman who still have to play by the normal game rules instead of the power fantasy of a "hurr durr wrestling is da ultimate martial art" player, and have to actually use their attacks to overcome the enemies' AC and whittle down their HP? Doubtful. What's the point of having them around if the wrestler can just choke everything because that's the part of combat that the DM suddenly starts simulating realistically?

Either enemies can survive a dozen arrows, being roasted alive in their armor for a minute, being stabbed with a rapier a lot, etc... and they can last long enough versus a wrestler that just choking them doesn't become the dominant strategy, or they can be choked out in a realistic timeframe but they can also be instakilled by an arrow or a sword.

If you only take one element of the game and turn it "realistically" OP while the rest remain fantasy, you're liable to fuck up the whole game for everybody else. Now there could be a merit in playing "dark and gritty, all damage is super lethal" games but then that's not really D&D anymore, something like Mörk Borg might be better for it.

The problem with this is combat balance. I wouldn't want to give players an ability that can take out an archmage in 2 turns, no save, without any resources used.

I'm not a wrestler or a wrestling fan, so no clue for most of them. Bars and holds... well, I think the automatic damage to the grappled creature that is dealt with the unarmed fighting style is meant to symbolize damage dealt by various holds and bars, so that would apply here.

Airway chokes are extremely impractical in D&D; every creature can hold their breath for a number of minutes equal to their CON modifier with a minimum of 1, and that means 10 rounds. I wouldn't bother trying to simulate that, just deal the 1d4 damage and move on.

Blood choke... well, that's a different matter entirely. I would most definitely require the grappler feat and the unarmed fighting style for this. Say, you forgo the automatic damage to the grappled target and instead force the target to make a CON save, DC = 8 + your PB + your STR mod. If the target fails, it gains a level of temporary exhaustion (that lasts while you're choking it), if it fails by more than 5 then it gains 2 levels, and if it hits 6 levels it falls unconscious.

I don't think that's in the rules. Like, at all. The unarmed fighting style allows you to deal damage to a creature grappled by you, the grappler feat allows you to pin a creature you grappled (which is just fucking useless since both of you become restrained), and you can make a shove attack to push a creature prone. But there's nothing in the basic rules about an unarmed attack that deals damage and knocks the target prone.

The alternatives for flavoring are:

• Battle Master fighter, trip attack. Technically it must be a weapon attack, but if you have the unarmed fighting style, a natural weapon, or are a monk multiclass, I'd be inclined to allow it.
• Open Hand monk, Open Hand technique. This is probably the best alternative that is 100% RAW.

Of course a more permissive DM (like me) could allow you to make a fairly hard athletics check once you have grappled the orc and have two free hands, then resolve it as a 2d6+STR bludgeoning damage attack.

You can always take the shove action. PHB 195.

Using the Attack action, you can make a special melee attack to shove a creature, either to knock it prone or push it away from you. If you're able to make multiple attacks with the Attack action, this attack replaces one of them.

You only need the subclass (or the feat that gives you maneuvers) if you want to do it as part of your weapon attack.

She is also a 700-year-old wizard, so she wouldn't be inclined to give a fuck about the "social stigma" of a Tiefling child.

Too much math for 5e's design philosophy, and with bounded accuracy it would need a crit on the strongest enemies anyway.

The actual implementation of that system could take a number of forms:

• PB/LR for every class that is proficient with the given weapon. (The most basic implementation, but also screws over pure martials in favor of half casters.)
• PB/LR for every class that is proficient, but fighters regain PB/2 uses when they use Second Wind.
• PB/LR for every class that is proficient, PB/SR for fighters, monks, and barbarians.
• PB/LR for every class that is proficient, fighters regain all uses when rolling initiative.
• Etc...

For now it's just a fourth wall break because none of the players questioned it.

If they do ask, the lore reason is:

"DM" stands for Dunnusaidu Marudu, an ancient philosopher and the inventor of hedonism in this universe. When he died, he decided that even though he has experienced all the possible sensations that his current body and the current time period can provide, he still hadn't had enough. He had enough followers to become a minor god, and his spirit wanders the world, possessing random people for a short while to gain new experiences. He is not malicious which is why he created this talisman that appears on those possessed by him, he usually doesn't speak much when he does this, and he never makes major life decisions in the given body.

Reminds me of how they incorporated weapon type-specific attacks in BG3. Stealing this one for sure.

Yep, that whole weapon maneuvers system should be backported into base 5e stat, with slight modifications (i.e. they would be PB/LR instead of 1/SR, since short rests in the tabletop version are less regulated).

(Or alternatively they could auto-proc on a crit.)

If one of my players can't make it and it's not possible to remove their character from the group storywise (meaning I'll have to control their character in combat), the character will immediately equip the "Talisman of Protection from DM Stupidity". What it does is:

• When a character holding this item dies, they fall unconscious instead and disappear into a demiplane. While in this demiplane, the character is stable at 0 hit points. When the party takes a long rest, the character will reappear near a random other player character as if they had also taken a long rest.
• If the player retakes control of the character while they are still in the demiplane, the character reappears next to another player character of their choice with 1 hit point.
• If all other player characters die, the character in the demiplane will die too. If the method of their original death would have left a corpse, the corpse will reappear adjacent to a random player character's body. Otherwise, they will disappear alongside the demiplane.

Basically, it makes them immortal unless a TPK happens.

It could be tied to per-rest. Similar to the fighters' weapon mastery in OneDnD, switching stances could be tied to a long or short rest instead. Just call it something else, like katas. (Yeah, yeah, they are trying to move the monk away from the strictly Eastern roots, but they could give this as a flavor option.) You drill one of the katas in the morning and then you can use the basic ability associated with it for free:

• Kata of the Wildfire: aggressive stance,
• Kata of the Mountain: defensive stance,
• Kata of the Zephyr: mobile stance.

I did a bit of googling and I'll be damned, looks like even the official Roddenberry Productions Facebook/Instagram account picked it up. OK, that's it, I peaked, my life is all downhill from there.

Or: Monks have 3 stances: aggressive, defensive, and mobile. Switching stances costs a bonus action, and you can assume one stance freely when you roll initiative.

In aggressive stance Flurry of Blows is free.

In defensive stance Patient Defense is free.

In mobile stance Step of the Wind is free.

This way monks are not just a worse rogue, their basic abilities are now actual basic abilities.

Hey, that's my meme!

(I don't mind, I reaped sufficient karma on the website we don't speak of, just funny coming across it in the wild.)

My players have been having an easy time with the enemies so far, thanks to literally half of the 6-player party being paladins with 20+ AC and a cleric with also 20+. Tomorrow they are fighting a really nasty homebrew fire giant lord with a special armor and shield, legendary actions, and legendary resistances. I gave them an out because defeat will just mean losing a bunch of newly-found magic items and being sworn to the service of said fire giant lord for 10 years, but we'll see how much of a reality check this will be for them.

Edit: they nuked him in less than two rounds. The giant got out a fireball as a legendary action, and rolled really high... except all but one of them saved (with +2 to saves because fucking paladins) and then all but one of them also took half damage (because fucking Ancients paladin). Then he managed to do two attacks which did pretty good damage against a paladin, but not enough to take her out. Then he got out a stomp attack as a legendary action but everybody made the DEX save because, again, fucking paladins so it was useless. Then he got out a Circle of Death... that everybody managed to save against because fucking paladins, and everybody took half damage above that because, again, fucking paladins, so it did a whopping 9 damage to a bunch of them which amounted to jack fucking shit. And meanwhile he got blasted with divine smites, including a critical one (with some assist from a hexblade's critical eldritch smite and a crit from a ranger with a powerful homebrew bow (about as powerful as a Dragon Wing bow) combined with Hunter's Mark and Hail of Thorns (edit2: I see one of my mistakes now, they are both concentration spells and I neglected to enforce this; will do the next time but it wasn't really the deciding factor)).

I don't know what I hate more, paladins or WotC's game design philosophy. Seems like the only way to challenge a level 5+ party in combat is to make it a horrible slog through a dozen enemies. Or, y'know, the FromSoftware design philosophy of slapping down an enemy with 20000 HP and an enormous weapon that deals 20d12 damage in a 90 foot cone or a 90 foot long 15 foot wide line.

The problem with Redemption is that it's an externally-focused oath, trying to redeem others. A conquest paladin having an "am I the baddy" moment and turning into a redemption paladin is like a douchy bully who suddenly finds Jesus then tries to convert people without apologizing for the years of bullying.

D&D needs an Oath of Atonement which would be specifically focused on making up for the shit you did as a previous less-than-moral paladin subclass (mostly conquest, sometimes revenge, occasionally crown or devotion).

Yep. CR is funny like that.

Consider the Werewolf and the Owlbear. They are both CR3, so they should be equally challenging, right? WRONG.

The owlbear could be considered the baseline CR3 monster. It's got a big bag o'HP, an AC of 13 that will be hit by a third level character ~65% of the time, and two +7 attacks that can hit level 3 characters with a similar hit probability (50% vs. chainmail and shield, 75% vs. a squishy caster with decent dexterity) dealing 24 damage per round on average assuming both hit. Party composition barely matters, 4 level 3s with competently-distributed ability scores, spells, etc... will take it out (barring a series of shitty rolls).

The werewolf though... on paper, it's easier than an owlbear. They have similar HP, a smidgen lower AC in hybrid form (12), and much weaker attacks (+4, with 12 average DPR). But this is where the CR system gets swingy depending on the party. If your party is a melee fighter, a ranged rogue, a barbarian and a monk then the werewolf might as well be CR999999 because it's immune to nonmagical non-silvered damage. But if the party is a paladin, a soulknife, a cleric and sorcerer then its effective CR will be basically 1.5.