Soon it will all be USA!

I think it's fine Joy. I do not want to interfere with the game. That things sometimes don't go as we want is part of the game. Summer was a nice surprise and not knowing what will happen is the most fun.

My initial concern was leveling up too fast and entering an arms race with equally ridiculously strong monsters which somehow would dehumanize the game.

The leveling in the other group had to be nerfed significantly to avoid basically double leveling in one quest, which is what the game intends but misses out on savoring the struggle. The game also overdoes the treasure. I compensated for that as well by imputing the treasure table and adjusting it for the slower leveling.

Not every enemy has to be a calamity

Bear and I took out a top HP enhanced owlbear, I'm interested in RNG gods giving you one but they keep calling for startled boars, bandits, mysterious monks and nobility doing nobility things. I am very proud of my look-up tables that I personally hand crafted from copied sources.

My other concern is my ship, we will see how we can synchronize my storyline with yours

You've been a good girl lately so I am working on the reunion, but it won't be easy. My goal is for you to be level 4 when you reach it, level 4 Ashley isn't as impressive as level 4 Yulya because of the plethora of situational spells at her disposal by then or Level 4 Cat with some feats for raw DPT, working on that. As far as the epic creature in mind, the odds are far against you still so we'll see, but I'm not controlling that arc, my future self doesn't talk to my present self, all I can do is keep pushing and be pleasantly surprised by her and the RNG gods, but SheShe also has a small say in how things go.

As I said I just wanna get the task of describing the crash site and the ship when we get there because it will be awesome.

I will email you what I want and you can work around it's "condition of disrepair" to edit so I don't offically say something that conflicts with your fantasy.

Hmm, the only thing I dislike is stumbling from one adventure into the next, Maybe this is host bleeding over but I don't like leaving matters unresolved.

Neither do we, but D&D is all about multiple unresolved quests that lead to a lot of stress. However, there are, and have always been, three main quests or acts at this time and I will suppress any more. Side quests you're not interested in can be ignored, but they will be self contained and mostly inconsequential. You are on quest #1 currently and it centers around the area of Phandalin. The goal is to have you all at level 10 by the end of the third quest or act, probably around 2035 irl by the way this is going.

I'm also glad to hear it's been fun from you and Cat.

I would like your take on Origin feats

https://www.dndbeyond.com/forums/d-d-beyond-general/general-discussion/202287-origin-feats-for-2024-first-impressions?srsltid=AfmBOorXWYvR-LFSabqpHIxV50DUNDAaGvlfnBdJChzLQjzqbDz5Fkwc

Are they something we should incorporate? I believe we have similar homebrew things for each of the players, but I'm willing to entertain these in the sense that I feel like several apply to you.

Yulya - Healer
Cat - Tough or Savage Attacker
Alice - Tavern Brawler, name aside, the unarmed attack bonus feels right to me.
I don't think Ashley needs any more buffs.

The point is not that you are not strong enough, the point is these situational feats and buffs make for a potentially richer experience. Like giving Alice more incentive to use unarmed, making the healer's kit actually useful for Yulya as an action, and I do strongly believe Cat needs as many buffs as possible since she's the tank and needs to be able to effectively tank but also not be bored with her options. Alice has a lot of versatility and options, Yulya has the entirety of all Cleric spells both canon and expanded, and Ashley's not complaining about her options, she says it "feels like the right amount of things to do."

I also want to reiterate here the other potential actions you can take during a fight, and expanding that with other game systems' ideas.

Many of these can be done as a bonus action, move action, reaction or use action so they just add to your tactics and options.

Delay: Save your turn, do nothing and take two turns next round
Aid: Help someone nearby, giving them advantage by distracting their enemy,
Fighting Dirty: Temporary status effects, blindness from pocket sand in the eyes, disarm, grapple, trip, shove, marbles, taunt, insult
Tumble through: Using Acrobatics skill check, there's a chance that no opportunity attacks occur.
Athletics: Long jump, High Jump potentially further with a roll an action
Create a diversion using Deception.
Treat poison with the healer's kit and medicine check.
Command an animal (int less than 7) with either intimidation, animal handling or nature check
Defend an ally by sharing your shield
Turtle up: huddle with two shielded individuals to prevent ranged attacks on both

Anything else you can think of. This is where your mind should be going when you otherwise have nothing to do in combat, it will make combat more effective and potentially more exciting. Alice has shown some good initiative at coming up with unique strategies, some of which I didn't like but eventually adapted to and relented on, my favorite now that I initially balked at was the carriage stunt with the noble and his trader at the fork to the Triboar trail, the infamous team-work intensive strategy that turned their own carriage against them. I would even say the combination of everyone's actions, Yulya's distraction, Ashley's wasp strike, Cat's chain break with Alice's idea and support made what could have been a very dangerous encounter trivial. It required a lot of rolls in your favor to pull off but it was worth the effort. These are the memories I will cherish from this experience.

wait healer - battle magic permanently reduces the hit dice of the healed character? thats heavy.rerolls are neat i guess

Cat would take Tough for extra HP. Boring but effective.

Regarding Battle Medic:
So 1 hit dice is lost but I think you regain regain it after long rest. It's not permanent right? That would be insane.

ok i really thought you'd permanently lose 1 hit diebut if not with our non expendable healers kit Yulya could do this every turn which seems equally excessive.

Casting from Scrolls:

I have decided to give a 10% chance of failure per level above the caster for casting from scrolls, the scroll must also be of a spell in your chosen class.

So a caster with access to 2nd tier spells attempting to cast a level 4 scroll would have an 80% chance of success.

Frightened:

I have significant nerfed the frightful presence of creatures:
If you fail the DC check vs WIS:
-You may not approach the creature
-You gain the frightened 1 debuff, which is applied each turn until resisted
Each roll, including resist rolls with the condition, if you failed by more than 10
-You gain the frightened 2 debuff which lasts 2 turns before it can be resisted and remains until resisted
If you critically failed
-You gain the frightened 3 debuff which lasts 3 turns before it can be resisted and remains until resisted

Once resisted, you are immune to the condition for the next hour.

Frightened #:
- You will have the # subtracted from any roll offensive, defensive, damage or DC