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amytheartist · 4 years ago

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Man, readin’ chat during the fire elemental fight with people saying “SEE, THIS IS WHY THE FAMILY SHOULD’VE GONE IN THE BALL.“ Like, y’all... Let’s workshop for a sec:

Suppose the family members went with Team Outie.. They have no skills to contribute to opening the door without breaking it. Assuming the NPCs were out of the range of the FIRE LOCK TRAP (and if not, OOPS), how do ya think the family members would’ve fared against the dissolving hallway into VOID?

But say they all make it into the study. Fantastic! Now let’s hope none of the NPCs are near the golem or out of range to immediately make it to the stained glass (lest it become an initiative debacle and the PCs potentially having to protect themselves and the NPCs while fleeing and losing their tiny head-start into the dragon room).

If they get through THAT ok, rejoice! Now let’s see how they fair on a 30 ft drop into the next room.. 3d6 dmg. Yasha can take an action to heal someone ONCE with Healing Hands. Fjord can heal with Lay On Hands multiple times to give bits of health, but needs an action each time, and at this point they’re waiting on Fjord to book it to the crystals to activate them.. So any delay to heal any unconscious NPCs also endangers them by giving the golem more time to catch up and potentially land on/target the NPCs. Going off of the standard clay golem stats, if it were to be within melee of any of the NPCs and target them... Like WWWOOhhh high chance of instant death, especially if they weren’t healed to max.

Now, it’s unclear what Yeza and Luc’s HP are, though I assume it’d be around “commoner.” Marion survived the fire detonation thing due to a nat 20 save+fire resistance, taking 9 dmg, so she has at least 10 HP. Luc also beat the DC 19 dex save with a 20 total, but was still insta-killed by the 19 dmg, meaning he has less than 10 HP. Kiri had somewhere between 6-10 HP (conflicting info there), but was around the size of an adult halfling. Thus it would be reasonable to assume Luc, who’s much smaller, would have less... Like 1-4 HP. The NPCs could’ve easily all died in the HFB, leaving the PCs to try to fight, carry bodies, and retreat--60 seconds[10 rounds] to do that, get to the others, and get Cad to revivify (assuming their bodies are.. intact). Oh yeah, and if you die, you lose all of your attunements, which means Trent&Co. can play some more “I Scry” until you get to reattune~

SOOOOO, all that considered...... It went pretty well, tbh.

#*HUFFS*#cr spoilers #critical role spoilers #cr meta #s2e129 #critical role meta #luc brenatto #yeza brenatto #ruby of the sea #marion lavorre

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spartanblacksmith · 4 years ago

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Ok, so I was DM to a game of 3 players at level 4. We were doing a one-shot of a dungeon crawler in a cave full of skeletons and their necromancers.

I told my players since there was only 3 of them and the other 3 players didn't show up, they could have their choice of 2 common magic items and a rare magic item. If you have DM'd before, you know where this is going...

The first player was a rogue and the second was a cleric, both dwarves. 3rd was a dragonborn sorcerer-fighter (3/1).

The cleric had chosen a +1 mace and traded 2 items for mithral armor. The rogue chose the +1 dagger, winged boots, and the bag of tricks. You know, the one that can summon a tiger. Dragonborn chose a +1 war wand, goggles of night vision, and an Arrow-catch shield.

They start in a dungeon after a scene where they are patrolling a town with a bandit threat nearby. A powerful sleep spell is cast on the town, and the one who rolled the highest d20, the rogue, and an npc wizard are the only ones standing. A hundred skeletons and their necromancer bosses storm the plaza, grabbing everyone in town, including the cleric and dragonborn.

The wizard casts a tracking spell on the dragonborn from the his and the rogue's hiding spot (a watchtower, as they didn't have time to grab their buddies as the skeletons came in, and yes, I know it's a bit of a railroad, but bear with me).

They track the army and it's captives to a cave, leading to an underground complex occupied by a death cult.

After 30 minutes, sure that their friends are in a cell, the wizard uses dimensional door to send the rogue into the base to rescue the party while the wizard goes to the local lord to recruit an army to save them.

While this is going on, a cult lieutenant is bragging to the cleric and dragonborn about the unbreakable cell doors, locked by the very runestone in his hand.

*POP* Rogue pops in, 5 ft above ground, right by the lieutenant. He kicks the runestone out if his hand and it breaks. The party is free and they kill the lieutenant and his two guards. Smooth start.

The second room has 8 skeletons in an empty room, looking for prisoners escaping from the cells where I started my players at. The necromancer was napping behind the single pillar, boot only visible from the door crack.

The rogue rolls high on his bag of tricks and summons the tiger. He sends the tiger to draw the skeletons attention (which I ruled the skeletons see but don't attack cause it's not a prisoner that was brought in.)

The rogue stealths in and flys up to the ceiling, passes his stealth roll. He positions himself above the necromancer. He positions his tiger to their face. The cleric readies a spell. The dragonborn prepared magic missile. 40 damage later, he's a pile of limbs on the ground and his skeletons fall to the floor.

They searched the bodies, nothing of value except the skull medium the necromancer used to control the skeletons. The rogue tries to use it. I let him roll for it. Nat 20.

*inhales*

He got 2 skeleton npc's for it.

He sends them ahead of the party, cause they're considered friendly to the cultists.

*exhales*

They trigger the set-piece I had set up. They had entered a big cavern full of an army of skeletal soldiers and their necromancer captain and his lieutenant's. Then a bandit army blows a hole in the side of the cavern and attacks the skeleton army. Battle ensues.

The party then passes several empty rooms cause everyone is leaving to fight the bandits. The party finds the 2 npc's I left for them previously to find, Penny the cleric and Donald the fighter.

Twin elf's, acolytes of Helm, the god of protection, they were supposed to help them through the rooms until they reach the boss room. Here, Penny says an "ancient family spell" where she restores the party's health and spell slots and grant them the blessing of Helm before passing out due to "ancient spell side effect". She's then carried out of frame by her brother.

They got to search all the rooms in peace, finding the treasures, a grenade, and several runestones for different cells.

Now to deal with the battle. They peek through the door, it's chaos. Bandits are throwing grenades from the rear. Necromancers are throwing skeletons, one after the other at the bandit brutes, and the bandit captain with his elite guard has chased the cult leader and his elite guard into the main ritual chambers. Located on the other side of the cavern.

Rogue says "Yeah, imma just fly over that and see what's going on with the captains."

Okay then.

He flys over, uses a runestone to open the ritual doors, and finds a bloody scene. A big room, with a big, bloody pentagram in the middle, with the bodies of 20 villagers around it. On the right, a gigantic cell, with over 300 villagers in it, gathered from several towns. As for the cult leader, his elite guard is dead, and he's covered in wounds. The bandit captain is laughing, as well as his guard. What else could the cult leader do to them?

Well, the arrival of the rogue set off the next event. The cult leader summons his god. Myrkul, the god of death, or an avatar at least. Standing 10 ft, a big guy, but all of his flesh is rotting and smells putrid (think Nurgal look alike).

He asks why he was summoned. The leader says that it was to bring Myrkul's glorious destruction to the world.

The bandit captain fires an arrow at Myrkul. He simply dodges and points a finger at the captain. He dies instantly. The guard fires and attacks. One gets a swing in, but then dies instantly. One by one, they fall, until none remain.

Then Mrykul sees the villagers to the side. He points his finger at them.

Nothing happens.

He asks why. The leader notices that the runestone protection in still up on the cell. He moves to unlock it. Then then the rogue's ferret takes the rune key from his hand, then runs out the door, locked by the rogue a second later.

See, he used his bag of tricks again and rolled a ferret. Used it for stealing. The god gets angry, now that he's locked in a room with 300 sacrifices he can't soul-suck. He eats the cult leader and starts bashing on the door.

The battle outside stops as the giant thump from the big doors rings loudly across the cavern.

Then my party decides to recruit the 2 armies for a fight with a death god's avatar. After some convincing, just a little speech about how they're all going to die and the world will die if they don't help them.

They set up defenses using cafeteria tables and boulders from the broken wall. The bandits prepare firing lines. The necromancers, suddenly scared of the god they worked to summon, raise some of their skeletons back to life. The ferret is sent outside, to find the wizard and the reinforcements. Penny does her spell on all of us, passes out, and Donald carries her out, following the ferret out.

Myrkul doesn't have a runestone. Doesn't matter, as he knocks down the walls around the doors. The leg of the cult leader is hanging out of his mouth, which he eats with one final chomp, for everyone to see. He tries his insta death finger, but Helm's blessing stops it. He decides to kill these mortals the old fashioned way.

Combat ensues. And Myrkul goes first cause he rolled highest. (By the way, I had to buff him last second, due to the whole 2 ARMIES my players recruited).

Oh boy.

He fires his first AOE. A big bone spear storm, that fires at everyone. A few bandits are taken out, but everyone else is okay.

The bandits fire flaming arrows, the necromancers command their skeletons to charge and attack the god. The party launch all kinds of attacks. The cleric throws the grenade at him, dealing double damage.

But it is Myrkul's turn, and he launch's his vast poison attack. Everyone in the room rolls constitution to see if they're poisoned.

The dragonborn and half of the npc's are affected. Another round of attacks.

Myrkul launches an auto-hit attack for everyone, pestilent fly missiles, but it issues less damage. But this extra damage kills many bandits and necromancers on their next turn due to poison.

Turn after turn, attack after attack, finally, Myrkul was on his last legs. All of the bandits are dead, the cultists and necromancers are gone, as well as their skeletons, except the rogue's. The party thinks of a plan. The Dragonborn and the cleric engage in close combat with Myrkul.

Then the rogue goes into the previous rooms and grabs 4 cans of cooking oil from the cafeteria kitchen, runs back and douses his skeletons in it, strapping another can to each. On his turn, he tells his teammates to step back and orders his skeletons to advance and hop onto the god.

With a thrown match, the skeletons explode in a ball of fire and deal fatal damage to Myrkul, causing him to explode into a massive pile of vomit, rotten meat, and bones.

The group, covered in refuse, open the doors and free the villagers, meet with the wizard and the army, whom will clean up the site. The party heads home.

#dnd story #dnd

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miqo-tales · 6 years ago

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Lightwarden S’era - Metus

Can’t draw it but I can describe it! This is assuming S’era was the Warrior of Light/Darkness and succumbed to the Light.

Metus

Appearance:

About 8 feet tall.

Her skin is still dark brown, but multiple cracks and scars across her body show glimpses of bright white.

Her eyes are unchanged.

Her hair is a mix of white and brilliant gold and has grown out, falling down to her waist (both down her back and front).

She has three sets of arms. The bottom pair is larger than the others and the hands are more beast-like with claws.

Five of her six hands holds a weapon: the first set holds a short spear and bow, the second holds a large sword and shield, and right hand of the last set has an axe.

Her tail is larger and longer, and the end is tipped with a pale yellow flame instead of fur.

Above her head is a fractured halo, colored red, purple, and gold

Behavior:

Metus shakes in fear and shame. She is afraid of herself, her failure, her new strength, the pain she is causing, and what she assumes is her own eventual death.

Metus will kill anyone that approaches her out of fear. She will protect herself at all cost, but also desperately wants to die, and will blame her victims for being unable to stop her and also herself for killing them.

Fight:

(I make no claims that this is balanced in any way. I’m really just trying to come up with cool stuff that isn’t completely ridiculous, but entirely possible I may have overdone it.)

When first seen Metus is kneeling, her eyes closed and no visible weapons. Her first set of hands is covering her eyes, the second set is crossed over her chest, and the last is crossed behind her.

When provoked she rises and brings out her sword and shield and will do some basic circular AoE attacks (move in, move out sort of things) and occasionally a high damage hit on the main tank. After a bit of damage she will draw the party in, surround them and herself with four shields, and begin casting an arena wide high damage AoE. The party must destroy one of the shields, then move out and stand behind one of the remaining shields to block the attack. Metus then uncovers her eyes and brings out her bow and spear.

Metus’ regular attacks on the main tank increase in speed and she has more mechanics. Her bow will make small AoE attacks that must be avoided. Her spear will target a DPS and the damage must be mitigated by the off-tank standing in front of the targeted player. Her circular AoE attacks from earlier now cause Terror if not avoided. And she will sometimes stun a player with her shield and target them with a line AoE attack. The stun must be erased so that the targeted player can move out of the AoE.

At 50% Metus moves to the center of the arena and drops to her knees. She then surrounds herself with four shields and begins casting an attack. Four wraiths (that look like NPCs like the Scions, Alliance leaders, etc) then spawn and begin attacking the shields, and players must destroy the wraiths. For each shield that is destroyed, the party will receive a stacking DoT from Metus’ attack (if they survive it). If all four shields are destroyed, the party is insta-killed by the attack. After the attack, Metus grows larger (now about 10-12 ft tall) and draws her axe. She remains in the center of the arena for the rest of the battle.

Metus drops most of her earlier attacks and gains two different AoE attacks. One is four successive attacks that target half the arena in each of the four cardinal directions. The second is a series of line AoEs that target four players, then another four players. At times she will strike the main tank with her empty hand and pin them down. The tank will receive a high damage DoT, and her hand must be attacked to free the player and remove the DoT. Also, she will target the tank with her sword, and the off tank must provoke her to take the hit. Last, she will set down her shield and prepare an arena wide gaze attack. Players will receive the Terror effect and a stacking debuff called “Thanatophobia” unless they hide behind the shield to avoid it. If a player gains 3 stacks of “Thanatophobia”, they are KO’d.

#ffxiv #spoilers #5.0 spoilers #this was actually fun #seraphemi #about sera

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waiting4morning · 6 years ago

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Anthem - 10 hour trial thoughts

So I just finished my 10 hour trial and wanted to write down a few thoughts. No story spoilers!

+ The main game seems way better balanced than the demo. My first few solo missions I was able to complete fine on Normal, where in the demo I struggled a little with the difficult. The only time I had trouble solo-ing was when I forgot to equip a new javelin with level-appropriate gear. I died about 5 times before I restarted the mission.

+ Which leads me to... soloing. You can tell this game wasn’t meant to be played on solo. The battle areas are huge and there are a lot of enemies. Also, they really don’t want you to play on solo. You get less XP and loot apparently. During my trial I tended to play most of my missions on public matches and only 1 time did I have an issue. For some reason, one of the missions I went on loaded me a few seconds (minutes?) late so I missed whatever opening story dialogue that came with the beginning of the mission. Then, I was so far behind the only other person on the mission that I missed a bit more dialogue because of the mission catch-up thing that boots you ahead. It was really annoying... but I’m wondering if it was just a one off, because unlike every other mission I played, this one only had one other person. Maybe the matchmaking system had trouble finding others for this particular mission, so when it did finally find one it just booted me in a little late? Not sure.

+ The weird thing about the MP aspect is that the story doesn’t acknowledge the presence of other freelancers. All the conversation with Owen (your cypher partner) or Brin or Matthias (agents you get contracts from) goes on as if they are dealing with you alone. And even the first mission post the tutorial is solo. It’s almost like the first iteration of this game was intended to be solo.

+ Speaking of Owen, Brin, and Matthias: you can tell Bioware’s deft hand at character writing here. They are all instantly recognizable as unique and people you feel like you could have fun getting to know them throughout the game. But I think the immersion would be better if your pilot was in 3rd person. I’m not sure why they picked 1st person. It doesn’t make sense with the rest of the game, if I’m honest. Maybe they just wanted to save on animation of your character?

+ That brings me to another good point: the facial animations and body animations are waaaay better than I’ve ever seen in a game before. So good on Owen, in fact, I wondered if they did face capture. There’s a subtly in some of his expressions that is really great, and then the not-subtle expressions are just right, not creepy or too uncanny valley either. Not every NPC has the full range, but enough of them do that it’s clear they spent some time on this.

+ Ft. Tarsis is fun to explore, even with the 1st person feeling a bit clunky. There were Codex entries all over and these refreshed every now and then, so there would be new things to find and read.

+ Microtransactions. I know that some people are grumpy about any microtransactions at all, but I don’t mind them as long as they’re fair. As far as I was able to tell, it is possible through going on missions that you’re doing anyway, to earn enough in-game currency to buy stuff. It felt to me like ME3′s lootbox system: you can earn coin just by playing and it’s not too grindy, at least to me. I bought an N7 vinyl and a new torso piece in the 10 hours I played, all without spending a dime. Of course, if you don’t want to wait, you can spend real money, but this doesn’t feel like a situation where you have to otherwise you’re going to miss out on content. As far as I’ve seen, all the microtransactions will be for cosmetic stuff only and the base game comes with a LOT of customizable option that you really don’t need to shell out real money.

+ Overall: I think this will be a fun game to play. The main story so far seems interesting, and I enjoyed all the side missions too. But is it an insta-buy for hardcore BW fans? I don’t know. If you don’t mind solo-ing on Easy and not getting the XP and loot from a MP experience, then sure. I’ve had a lot of fun, but I also see how a person who wants a traditional BW experience might be a little frustrated.

#anthem #bioware

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