#might be my next dnd char when i play

[cannabisbutch]

Statong up til 2 am to get asterion to fuck my tav Success

[cas-fulleditmode]

I saw your "tell me about your dnd characters" post and didn't want to spam comments BUT one of my favorites of my characters is my half-elf arcane trickster rogue. Her backstory is she's a jewel thief that was hired out to do a heist with her partner-in-crime/lover, but the people who hired them knew that whoever touched the jewel would get imprisoned in it so her lover was trapped and eventually smashed, RIP (-- we love a good revenge motivator though) She took the Crossbow Expert feat (can wield two hand crossbows, ignore loading, some other stuff you can Google -- I HIGHLY recommend it for ranged chars) and had sneak attack so she did hella damage at a high level. I rolled a nat 20 during the final boss fight of a YEARS LONG campaign and everyone at the table had to help me count the 20-something d6s. She delivered the killing blow on the BBEG with that roll -- very "and everyone clapped" of me, but that's exactly what happened and it was so satisfying lmao My favorite part about her though is the fact that I was new to the group and literally session 1 the DM pulled me aside for a secrets/player consent talk to tell me that my character had contracted lycanthropy after a fight. He was really apologetic and was like "we can retcon" but I thought it was hilarious, so she became a were-rat. She'd shift into rat mode and hide in the bard's pocket to pop out for shenanigans/crime, and rather than cure her lycanthropy she kept it as an asset to her thievery 🐀

first of all, love the backstory, i envy anyone who can come up with a compelling tragic past event that motivates their character going forward.

my friend is playing a rogue in our campaign atm, but i think he went for the thief archetype. but i've seen the powers of a sneak attack + a bunch of other halfling abilities.

the thing with the natural 20 delivering the final blow sounds dope as hell, i'm sure it was wild. i'm still waiting for my nat 20s to come through when it actually matters lmao.

i'm obsessed with your character contracting rat lycanthropy, i might need to mention that during my next session meeting. my dm tends to throw a lot of shit my character's way while being very apologetic about it but i also just take it with humor. a lot of the stuff my character goes through is pretty fucking funny too.

thanks for sending this ask btw!!! :)

[iamthepulta]

📌 🎥 🎶💢🍀💕 Almost the same questions as in your ask for me :D for the three Fallen London games, and Mask of the Rose if you want to! (To answer the question from your ask in short, I am very excited about it - what are you thinking of it so far?)

Initial Introduction: Nicktosaurus (on tumblr) started ranting about Fallen London way back when we first met. I think I disregarded the first few times? And then I saw Sunless Seas and Skies had a sale going on Steam, so I bought them, and started playing Seas. xD Understood fucking NOTHING because I didn’t play FL first, but I loved the atmosphere so much I just kept learning. In way too deep at this point.

Favorite Scenes: I absolutely adore the imagery when completing the cavern in Godfall, and I loved the imagery from Varchas’ storylines. I really don’t play a lot in the South of the Neath and I should. Completing all of Varchas’ storylines is on my list of things to do the next go-around. I love a lot of the imagery from the Zubmariner ports too, even though they’re also more terrifying than the surface ports? Finishing that stupid cigar plot turned my stomach lol.

Favorite songs: I have a pavlovial response to Wolfstack Lights, haha. My favorite in general is when going to Port Carnelian, then maybe Sunless Skies’ intro music. That’s another pavlovial response because we play it as background music for DnD and now anything that sounds remotely like it sends me into Westlie-mode.

Raar, Anger: I CAN ONLY HAVE LIKE TWO GUNS? Drives me up the fucking wall every time I start over before I get the Cladery Heart, omg. I think everyone would just tell me to play Skies, but I love the challenge of Seas, even though GOD I just want more guns are you fucking with me. I also wish infiltrating spies and getting knowledge to sway those storylines was easier early game. I think I need to wait until I have a few more legacies under my belt. I’ve spent a lot of time on the game and I’ve only finished the Father legacy, lol.

Comfort Char: This varies. x’D For Skies/FL/Seas, the Captivating Princess. For Seas, the Pirate Poet and Deviless from Mt. Palmerston, lmao. For Skyfarer, obviously Westlie.

I really just wish I knew more about the Deviless from Palmerston, lmao. I keep trying to sneak in, but my Veils aren’t high enough. And her storyline ends so abruptly! I wish Seas were a bit more like Fallen London where you could interact with the characters who just disappear.

Oh! And there’s that one storyline where the woman from the tomb colonies wants you to help her find her disappeared lover and eventually she sinks under the sea and never returns. I REALLY wish I knew what happened to her. Which... maybe that’s a zubmariner thing! I don’t think I’ve played long enough with the Zub to grab that. 

I’m an absolute sucker for the characters who just disappear lmfao. I guess that’s the moral of that story. I want to know how they’re doing. There was that one kid in Varchas who starts the whole revolution too. He was dope. 

Favorite Character: Impossible to pick. xD Maybe the Pirate Poet. I’d REALLY like to see more of her somehow. I want to know more about her background, about the clay men - you fucking have a brief trist with her! and engrave poetry - and then you never really see her again, except to save her. At one point, end game, maybe I’ll let her drown and see what happens then - but ahhh, it would be really cool just to be friends, or have some sort of Fallen-London-esque social interaction beyond what we see in game.

I really wish I’d played more of Zubmariner before this because a lot of the characters underneath seem amazing but I haven’t finished their storylines and I don’t know them well enough. ;~; 

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Misc note because I just remembered this and it fucked me over: The fucking tomb colonist curator who goes and dies after you give him the colors and he turns into that stupid moth. I took the moth because I wanted to see the stats and holy shit I should have taken the money. Now I might not get Aestival because I baaarely have enough change saved up to buy the shitload of supplies it requires, AND I need to get the judgement’s egg to save the Presbyterate Adventuress so she can rule the colony because I did the Doctor’s storyline this time, for some stupid reason and now he won’t talk to me unless I fix him up in London. 

I really fucked up this round, lmfao. And this is why I haven’t played Seas in 6 months, because I’m still trying to figure out the best way to get out of this one.

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Second Misc Note: I’m fucking convinced that one of the writers on the team is a geologist or mineral nerd. I know because they keep using geology-specific terms like schorl when anyone else would just say onyx and move on with their life. They also have a love affair with basalt and serpentine. I cannot prove this other than straight up asking them, but it HAS TO BE a thing. Nobody in their right mind who doesn’t have mineral knowledge is going to compare the color black to a tourmaline and call it schorl, not black tourmaline- who also knows the difference in the first place. I just- mmm. Their word choices fascinate me.

[lethesomething]

Play with writers, they said...

So I'm dm'ing a DnD game (as anyone who's spoken to me in the past year knows by now), and I made the Grave Mistake of recruiting my players among my fanfic writer friends. So obviously, shipping is an issue. And because DnD is a rule based game, and I'm a Scientist (note: I'm not), I came up with some rules for this madness. So here are hotness check rules and cuteness check rules I use. You can tweak them or use them for your own game, should the need arise. They're probably Weird, but I challenge you to figure out a rule based system for sustained Thirst.

 The Flirt check

When someone is into you, or you're being flirty at each other.

Wisdom check against their Charisma

Upon succeeding: You’re cool. They’re probably kinda cute, but you’re cuter and/or busy saving the world. Upon failing: Well damn. They are cute, and, um, flirting? Holy shit, what do I do? Do I buy them a drink? Am I supposed to talk to them about the weather? Oh gods did I wash my cloak since we destroyed that army of mutated rats?

This works similar to a saving throw for being, say, charmed, or if you have a character actively trying to seduce another character. Only instead of them making a persuasion check and your character making a saving throw, you're basically making an insight check against passive charisma. It's a 'are they cute? Does my char think they're cute?' type check. A 'gap moe' check, if you will.

 The Hotness check

An advanced level, to be used when the npc isn't actively being flirty. Could be considered a 'pining' check.

Wisdom check against your own constitution plus their charisma modifier

This is essentially a saving throw against your own loins. Upon succeeding: Well, while they might be attractive to some, I have better things to do and I’ll just be on my way. Upon failing: You’re into them. On a low roll: you’re into them a LOT. You would enjoy getting into their pants and boy do you hope they’re into you too.

Here's the thing with my party. They'll try to check hotness on nearly anyone, including random passersby and the poor half-orc acrobat they just saved from the torture room. Making a saving throw agains that npc's charisma feels needlessly victim-blaming here.

The hotness check therefore pits the characters insight (wisdom) against their hormones (constitution). The idea here is that people with high constitution also have higher libido (this is not necessarily true but YOU try putting DnD rules to attraction), and those with high wisdom will be better able to stop their hard-on from making anyone uncomfortable.

So a scrawny wizard with his head in the books  (+3 Wisdom modifier) and kind of a sickly demeanour  would have an easier time rolling higher than his 8 Constitution (+ whatever the charisma is of the checked party), than a beefy Goliath (16 Con) with low wisdom (-2 Wisdom modifier).

In case this needs to be said: a failed hotness check is not an invitation to harass npc’s. As should be pretty damn clear from the mechanics, these checks are entirely the player characters’ problem and how an npc reacts to flirtation or communication is up to them.

 This is very silly

Yes.

Also, feel needlessly complicated?

Absolutely, that's kind of the point.

When do people roll?

Making a hotness or flirt check is entirely voluntary. The players choose whether or not to submit their characters to this, meaning that an ace character probably never rolls hotness checks, but that skirt-chasing bard might roll a lot for roleplaying purposes. It's really just a way to let the dice add (even more) extra chaos to the game, or to make some canon love interests in a world with too many attractively haughty elven kings and badass smith ladies.

What happens on a crit fail?

Glad you asked! Rolling a zero on a flirt check turns your character into a sweaty mess, making them tongue-tied and adding a -6 to charisma for the next hour, out of sheer embarassment. Upon crit-failing a hotness check, the character is overcome with lust. They are incapacitated for a minute, and suffer a -6 to any strength checks for the next hour.

[atomicgm]

Doomsday Dawn: In Pale Mountain’s Shadow Char Gen Part 2 and a Rant on Healing

So I’ve made a second pregen for my players for session 2 of the playtest.  This was a specific request from a friend of mine for a Human Alchemist.  It went pretty well actually, much better than the last character.  I will now summarize my thoughts on character creation in general.

DnD 5e character creation is boring.  Seriously. There is almost no choice in the affair. Assign some abilities, pick a race, background, class, archetype, and you’re done. Maybe we get a little crazy and introduce ability boosts, feats, or multiclassing.  Now here’s the thing.  P2 doesn’t expand upon this.  There is no additional mechanical complexity in play, like fighters using maneuvers to pierce armor, shatter stone walls, or provide leadership to their party.  The characters are about the same mechanically speaking.  They have 6 ability scores, an ancestry, a background, a class, and some feats. They hit things or cast a spell, with roughly one class feature per level to mix things up.  The thing is, getting there requires a lot more choices to be made.  A LOT more.

To make a character’s ability scores in P2 you don’t roll or use point buy.  You choose ability boosts which add a +2 or -2 to a score of 10. Feats are also divided up into categories, with general and skill feats being available to all characters and class feats being available only to specific classes.  Class feats function a bit like broken up archetype paths with mix and match features.

So at 4th level you pick an ancestry, a background, and a class, getting 4 ancestry ability boosts, 2 background ability boosts, 4 general ability boosts, 1 class ability boost, 3 class feats, 1 background skill feats, 2 normal skill feats, 1 general feat, your actual class features, weapon and armor proficiencies, between 2 and 10 skill proficiencies, 1 expert skill proficiency, and some combination of familiars, animal companions, spells, powers, and crafting formulas.  Plus there’s gear.  You need one or several weapons with tons of distinct tags useful in different situations, armors that involve a very real tradeoff between protection and high armor check penalties, miscellaneous adventuring gear, and then fighting with the stingy encumbrance system to fit it all on your character without having them collapse under their own weight.

And then there’s magic items!  You get one 3rd, two 2nd, and one 1st level items. Those are all nearly worthless, with the only standout pick being +1 armor in your 3rd level slot. There are some other items I’m overlooking, especially some consumable oils and wands, but the one that really burns me are the potions of healing.  I think those actually are worthless now.  Adventuring parties are experiencing massive hit point inflation because everyone gets max hit points now, for every level.  My 4th level human alchemist with a 12 con has 44 HP, up from 26 last edition.  Pretty close to double.

While I think it might be a good thing in that it reduces the value of your con score from “mandatory for all classes” to “nice to have”, it devalues a lot of choices.  Toughness and boosting your con score now give relatively modest differences in hit points. Consider that a 4th level fighter with a 10 con might be at 50 hit points, and at 70 with an 18 con, a 40% boost. Last edition you’d be looking at 27 base hit points and 47 with that high constitution, a 75% boost.  Healing, toughness, constitution, it all seems less valuable now with that big buffer of hit points added on.

You should almost never have maximum hit points either.  Healing up will take tons of resources, and despite 1st level spells being buffed a la 5e DnD (y’know, the old “Magic missile shoots 3 missiles instead of 1 to make it look worthwhile compared to your cantrip which is basically a bow” thing), despite that buff, Heal (Cure Light/Moderate/etc. is just “Heal” this edition) still does a measly 1d8.  They pretend to throw us a bone by letting you add your ability modifier to that, as if that makes up for losing your caster level added on to it.  What was regularly regarded as the worst possible strategy to take in combat, healing, has gotten beaten with the nerf bat. And besides that, there is less of it going around.  You have Resonance Points limiting the amount of magic items you can use in one day, spells healing less than they used to, fewer spells being available with the elimination of bonus spell slots, healing being proportionately weaker due to hit point inflation, and wands now only carrying 10 charges.

This is an immense and radical shift in how hit points and healing works.  Out of combat healing never bothered me.  Your spell casters would still run out of spells and the martials would still run out of hit points once combat started.  I worry this will just encourage more 15 minute adventuring days as parties will be desperate to return to their full hit point totals. I am open to the idea of keeping on the pressure by slowly whittling down a larger hit point total with less healing available, but boy that is an uncomfortable shift.

Well.  That got away from me.  End rant.

I should probably actually talk about the Alchemist at some point, huh?  He’s fine.  Alchemical formula are neat.  Tons of neat potions and effect are available. Bombs look much cooler than spells and with my 10 resonance points I have up to 20 of them per day before I spend a single copper. The use of resonance points as ammo and doubling your exchange rate by prepping potions at the beginning of the day was interesting, though I worry Remarkable Resonance is a mandatory feat for Alchemists (maybe it should be a bonus feat instead of Studied Resonance?).  Class and skill feats were mostly unremarkable but felt good to choose.  Skill proficiencies seem more impactful when you aren’t hampered by armor check penalties. Weapons seemed relatively worthless when you’re packing bombs, and the lack of Dex-to-damage for non-rogues made it hard to get excited by a d8 damage crossbow at this level.

To summarize, I didn’t hate making this character like I did the ranger.  The Alchemist is almost a wizard lite, with tons of different abilities including damage, concealment, disguise, poison, darkvision, and more. Their skills didn’t fight with the prohibitive armor system because the alchemist wasn’t dependent on strength for damage and put those points into dexterity and light armor. And at least Alchemists gets to take advantage of the formula system without spending hundreds of silver pieces.  At least the alchemy items are worth using, unlike the traps that have a half dozen hoops to jump through in order to deal a d8 damage. (Please just buff the snares or something!)

Next time, we continue prepping for In Pale Mountain’s Shadow.  My wife wants to build a character, so we’ll see how someone who doesn’t focus on system mastery deals with dozens of choices in character creation. I’m hopeful that a little advice from someone with experience will make things a lot smoother for her.  Wish us luck!