Tulpa Network
Off-Topic => Off-Topic => Topic started by: Wofl on January 30, 2025, 07:27:44 PM
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(https://i.gyazo.com/7d5f2788cb56eab5c42312abc5d63587.jpg)
Please use this thread to mainly say what you liked, disliked, want to see more of, less of etc.
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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.
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Feedback:
I think Joy is doing a great job. I know it's a lot of work, I wouldn't wanna be DM
Complaints:
It's cold, there's dragons, orbs and now even pesky uncooperative humans! But I guess that's part of the game.
Concerns:
My initial concern was leveling up too fast and entering an arms race with equally ridiculously strong monsters which somehow would dehumanize the game. Simple beginner missions and the shortcomings of rookie adventurers are way more fun. But seeing the pace of our game, that's not really a concern. Just saying, not every enemy has to be a calamity and not every mission has to be heroic. I am fine with mundane tasks as well.
My other concern is my ship, we will see how we can synchronize my storyline with yours. Currently the ship is frozen solid which is good because it can't do anything stupid like digesting the world due to nanobot cancer. But in order for me to one day reach viscous form, we gotta make the dragon leave so it thaws. It will then take the debris a while to seep into the mountain and create a space for my metamorphosis. It will then continue to grow underground and slowly repair itself. It will however hopefully have no further impact on the story, it can't do more than mine ore and provide a modest cave shelter. It will however change the environment around the crash site with its artificial trees over time. For the foreseeable time there will be little more visible on the surface than the dark-purplish lichen-like things the size of a child's hand. 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.
Likes
We did a lot of different things, encountered different enemies and I like the mix of combat and social interaction. Also we make a good party and mostly work together well though its not perfect. Oh of course host is very fond of Summer for obvious reasons. I'm glad he's not playing...
Dislikes
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. If tasks keep piling up like they currently do we can never finish anything. I also think I already said I don't like constantly moving on to new places. It's such an extravert thing. We have our base in Neverwinter and enough tasks in Phandalin. Not to forget my ship is there. Another host autism thing is that whatever happens should fit into the story and make sense in context of what happened in the past. We can always talk about changing things that simply don't work but within the framework of this world, logic and causality should be respected. We will see how this works out with our cart.
Yeah that's about it, I know we're slow but better slow and steady than some half-assed nonsense that hurts the game in the long run! Thanks to everyone for sticking to this game for so long, that's really cool!
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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.
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Yulya is also having fun at this but she has to stick to her role i still think she takes this too seriously. you know shes always afraid to make wrong decisions that ruin the game for others. so yeah no real complaints. just what Alice said. Yulya wants to see the characters we already met again.
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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.
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The point is not that you are not strong enough
That's because you are plotting us against calamity-tier monsters at LV.3 a week after we started our adventuring career!
I like the general idea but all in due time. If we get all that now, what will be left for higher levels?
implying we ever reach them
About Tavern Brawler, this is often recommended and I was looking into it from the beginning but how exactly will this benefit me except for +1CON?
I can't use improvised weapons without losing my monk shenanigans. Except for hitting the orb with a chair for my personal entertainment. But is this useful in combat?
My unarmed strike already uses my martial arts die which is better
Bonus action push is something I already can do anyway with Crusher. or do I get 2 pushes per round?
DPS of unarmed strike is abysmal so why would I use that as main attack instead of my trusted spear?
Reroll on a 1 is at least somewhat useful but meh
The nonstandard actions you listed are essential though!
We often forget a lot of things we can do.
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wait healer - battle magic permanently reduces the hit dice of the healed character? thats heavy.rerolls are neat i guess
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Battle Medic. If you have a Healer's Kit, you can expend one use of it and tend to a creature within 5 feet of yourself as a Utilize action. That creature can expend one of its Hit Point Dice, and you then roll that die. The creature regains a number of Hit Points equal to the roll plus your Proficiency Bonus.
Healing Rerolls. Whenever you roll a die to determine the number of Hit Points you restore with a spell or with this feat's Battle Medic benefit, you can reroll the die if it rolls a 1, and you must use the new roll.
This is different then the one I read, but I like it.
How we would interpret this: Our healer's kit has unlimited uses, so there's nothing lost, 1 use action does not use up your action, so you could also cast a spell or stabilize or potentially use it twice, once with use, once with action.
The creature would not lose a hit die, but be healed by its hit die, so Ashley would get 1d6, Cat would get 1d12 healing, it would only require that you're near them.
Now that I read delay again, it may have to be disallowed to save won up in round 0, but Ashley could potentially use two rallies.
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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.
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Losing a hit die is obviously a poor interpretation. I would ignore that, I wouldn't say it is lost even temporarily.
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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.
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Balancing may be an issue, I'd have to think about exact wording. During battle, every turn counts so that doesn't bother me, it might be best to think of it as one use per person per injury.
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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
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Honing weapons:
Any weapon with a slashing or piercing affect can be honed including arrows and speers.
The honing is a blanket +1 to attack and damage for the first use.
Honing requires 1 hour for 10 arrows, or 2 weapons. It will dull whether it hits or not.
Poison:
Perhaps one of the more useful and potentially powerful modifications to weapons is adding poison.
The goblins have poisoned weapons for instance.
Again, one application lasts for one hit, a miss doesn't count.
The effect varies on the quality of the poison and does not affect the attack roll, only to damage. The poison must be viscous unlike the stink bomb fluids. It could be boiled down but without immunity to poison of that type, boiling it will cause exposure to it which can cause negative conditions including unconsciousness.
Poisons are available for sale at the Alchemist.
The quality varies from +1 straight to 1d4 for 1d4 turns.
Different poisons cannot stack on weapons but might stack for other methods of delivery.
Jagged:
A weapon may be modified to add bleeding damage up to 1d4 bleeding damage for up to 1d4 turns. It requires a skilled smith to make that change.
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Sounds interesting.
Regarding honing, we should do that. Cat hast the whetstone after all.We will probably forget.
>Poisons are available for sale at the Alchemist
Hey, that's me!
But my character sheet explicitly states that I can't make poison even in viscous form. Only acid.
Wew, I forgot even the intermediate chemosynthesis of the viscous form is basically useless.
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Bear and I have been utilizing poison but for a green dragon, that is useless.
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Grapple and Topple
You may grapple an enemy as discussed, but you may also attempt to just knock down a creature that is not a larger size than you without a grapple, the creature will have the prone condition and will need to stand up again, wasting part if not all of its turn and setting it up for disadvantage against attack. If you have a heavy or two-handed blunt weapon, topple may be done as a bonus action after a successful hit.
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Hmm, Isn't this usually a weapon mastery or special monk trait? So how does it work?
Usually Cat would only gain that at LV.10 with Battering Roots and Alice only if she had chosen the Path of Open Hand. What's the difference to Alice's Shove bonus action?
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Considering I feel you can Trip an opponent, and could possibly knock them down with weapons that have the heavy property, I figure blunt attacks also apply as long as you're putting both hands into it.
Monks could grapple and topple without these requirements, path of open hand has other benefits.
With Battering Roots, your reach increases to 10 and you also can topple with heavy or versitile (2 handed) weapons which do not need to be blunt.
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In our other run, we utilize honing and also poison.
5e does list poisons that do certain things, but the cost is prohibitively high. For example:
Drow Poison (Injury):
A poison typically made by drow, requiring a DC 13 Constitution saving throw or the target is poisoned for 1 hour, and possibly unconscious if the save fails by 5 or more.
Purple Worm Poison (Injury):
A potent poison requiring a DC 19 Constitution saving throw, dealing 42 (12d6) poison damage on a failed save, or half as much on a success.
Serpent Venom (Injury):
A common poison, requiring a DC 13 Constitution saving throw or the target is poisoned for 1 hour.
Poisoned condition: A poisoned creature has disadvantage on attack rolls and ability checks.
So they're great and their cost is hundreds of gold in some cases.
I am offering to share the three poison system based on cooking, tinkering, or alchemy skill.
The process is as follows: you forage while looking for specific plant species, I have 6 so far such as datura, oleander and hemlock. You will find some amount of it each time you forage successfully. A single forage is a variable amount of time but almost always guarantees you find something. When you find at least three components, you can make some number of doses of weapon grade poison that can be applied to slashing or piercing weapons. The poison is only expended if the weapon hits.
You can also make bait: 1 raton and three doses of poison that can be used on a creature if they eat it.
In any case they have various effects that are unknown to you and based on rolls:
1 roll based on your crafting/cooking/alchemy skill will determine the quality of the poison
6 separate rolls will determine the effects such as DC and including stun, unconsious, nausia, straight damage, poison, or other conditions. There is the potential for 3 stacking effects per batch of poison. 1 batch is say 10 uses and uses up 1 pound or 10 portions of each of 3 poisons.
This is still WIP, but if you're interested in foraging extra damage to enemies on first hit and not just from honing, then I can add it to your game. In this case, honing will be a necessary step for poisoning a weapon and this includes arrows, so they don't stack.
Otherwise you can continue to hone weapons and in addition arrows, in our run, a blade takes 30 minutes and an arrow takes 15 minutes. They both get +1 for hit and damage.
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So basically Cat is the only one with knowledge of the local flora and she will jhave to do the foraging or instruct the others.
Good thing host isn't playing or he'll have a heart attack if you find one of those plants in the wrong ecosystem.
I have to hold back as I hnow nothong about this planet. He could make you a list about which plants you could expect to find where in what season and how to procuce poison from them.
Then I would process them with my alchemy skill and Cat would finish the product by cooking it into the desired form.
I generally like the idea but it still should be hard. Mass-produced poison takes the fun out of the game. That's the reason I nerfed my form to be unable to produce poison even though there is no logic behind that. Except if poisons are magic.
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I follow this logic, if it's easy in real life, and even easy enough that goblins do it, then it should be easy in game. A sharpened stick of fresh oleander would definately cause poisoning if stabbed into someone. if concentrated and isolated, it should work well spread onto a sharp blade.
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then why doesnt everyone do it?and who would pay premium for poison if you can just forage them with little effort?
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>Why doesn't everyone do it?
For balance
(https://i.gyazo.com/bf5811911537ac64b1c54bd3a4882c3d.jpg)
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Haha, I don't think you can make Alice not question everything.
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I am working on a list of suitable poisonous plants, in which habitat they are found and in what season they can be harvested. Also how they need to be processed and what to expect from the poison. This might get waffles a visit from an anti-terror unit but frankly that's not my problem. We already had Kashtan teach us how to make incendiary devices from simple household items.
Most important this will keep me from rage-quitting D&D because a plant species is found in an unrealistic setting. Even Alice won't be able to stop me then. There are limits to what is acceptable.
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Please do. Neverwinter is technically a coastal rainforest at approximately 35deg North, no frost owed to relatively warm ocean current. There are also grasslands, coastal mountains, and swamps. North of Lusken, Taiga and tundra. We can add more biomes later.
Consider that I want 3-ingredient combinations.
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In vanilla 5e, arrows have a 50% recovery rate, meaning every other one breaks. I didn't like this metric and have tried to test a quality system to keep track of arrows. Instead the arrows keep growing in number as adventuring continues. So I want to implement that arrows have a 1 in 4 chance of breaking, which is closest to the quality system without having to change the arrow. They will no longer break on critical miss. For the purpose of buying or selling, they are always new condition. Honed or poisoned arrows may be worth an additional amount.
-Honed arrows have a +1 non-magical attack roll and damage, they lose this condition on use. It takes an hour to hone 4 arrows, the sharpening stone has unlimited uses.
-Magic arrows do not break.
-Poisoned arrows must be honed before adding poison, have an additional 1d4 poison damage, and lose this condition on use.
In Vanilla 5e, healing kits have 10 uses but is made somewhat obsolete by stabilizing magic. Previously I've made it mandatory to have to guarantee scars don't form after critical hit. I am making the following further changes: Healer's kits have 10 uses and are required to prevent scars from forming after critical hit but also heal 1d4 on use, and can only be used once per wound (critical hit).
Also, being taken below 0 no longer causes the effects of critical hit and a healer's kit will not lose a charge to perform the stabilize action. Stabilize automatically succeeds by spell or action at range touch if a healer's kit is carried by the one using it else a Medicine check will be used. A healer's kit must be used prior to fully healing to avoid scars. Scars are similar to missing limbs and can only be restored with Regenerate or with a replacement made by a flesh crafter, artificer, tinkerer or smith.
Unless otherwise specified all non-magical items found have good condition and can be restored to new by various means depending on the item. Paying for an item to be restored costs the difference in selling price, so there's no incentive to restore an item to sell it. If you can restore your own, then it is done on rest if otherwise downtime is available and you specify this is what you want to do.