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Dungeons and Dragons Megathread

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KingseekerFreyr said:
Can anyone help me with a 5e conversion of a 2nd ADnD book called Secrets of the Magister?
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That'll be hard, especially since the the Mantle spell is essentially an "I win" button, evolving with the caster from levels 12-30 eventually giving immunity to anti-magic fields, wish and time stop, unlimited use Fly, Shapechange and Telekinesis, selecting an entire school of spells that bounce back on their caster when they target you, maximizing and protecting you from 1 spell per level over 12th, and taking 9 successful dispel attempts before going down, all in a 6th level spell.
 
Arawn_Emrys said:
That'll be hard, especially since the the Mantle spell is essentially an "I win" button, evolving with the caster from levels 12-30 eventually giving immunity to anti-magic fields, wish and time stop, unlimited use Fly, Shapechange and Telekinesis, selecting an entire school of spells that bounce back on their caster when they target you, maximizing and protecting you from 1 spell per level over 12th, and taking 9 successful dispel attempts before going down, all in a 6th level spell.
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Okay, so that's probably not the main thing they're looking for, but point-by-point:
*Antimagic is a very situational tool already; taking it off the table is probably fine. The only thing that can't easily be emulated by other effects is its' potential as a general hammer, and tool denial should not be used as a general hammer.
*In combination with immunity to Wish and Time Stop, it sounds like the writer was ticked at some GM(s) for using those as railroading tools/You Lose buttons. Probably droppable, given that the 5th Edition versions of those spells aren't so nasty.
*Unlimited flight is available to Aaracockra from level 1. This is either super broken, not-great-not-terrible, or basically useless depending on the DM's level design.
*Unlimited HP is an issue, although it's not like 5E's Druid 20 doesn't have the same problem. Still, that can probably be jettisoned without losing too much of the shapeshifting feature.
*At-will TK seems like it'd probably be fine, in a campaign with cheap flight. It doesn't do that much damage.
*School and spell immunities doesn't sound terribly reasonable, no. But on the upside, they can probably be dropped without issue.
*9 dispel attempts is probably a bit much, if it's something that's ever supposed to be dispellable. At least in 5E's action economy. Three sounds reasonable.
*All told, that's basically Shapechange+Telekinesis+AMF immunity. Most of which is already available to Shapechange. If you say the Shapechange effect isn't available unless you cast it with a 9th level slot, it sounds pretty reasonable actually.

Also, the number of features makes me suspect the Mantle is actually more subclass than spell. So comparing it to other 12-30 classes might make it look more reasonable?
 
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So a discussion in the Taylor Varga thread reminded me of something. One of the dnd games I've been part of, one of the party found a crude shiv hidden behind a loose brick when we were imprisoned. When we attempted to use it in our escape, we discovered it was a healing shiv. Dealt 1d4 points of damage, then cast Cure ...Serious? Critical? one of those - Wounds. Healed the guard that got stabbed right up. It ended up being quite useful, and the rogue would use it 'til the end of the campaign as her 'anti-undead' weapon. Was a more reliable source of non-caster healing once the DM ruled we could choose to deal minimum damage as long as 3 points of healing was taken off whatever was rolled, since before that a party member was almost killed when they were at -5 and we had no other healing available due to circumstances except for Medicine checks. If we had've shivved them one turn later they would have been killed!

We never did find out who enchanted it...
 
RecklessPrudence said:
Those pages did come out shortly before the healing shiv first became a thing, so I wouldn't be surprised. I always did want to try the atheist cleric idea from 8-Bit Theatre, too, although as described it seems more... agnostic?
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I just like the idea of a Cleric making the gods compete for representation on the mortal plane.

Cleric: I dunno, Kord offered me TWO Spiritual Weapon spells for the fight against the Necromancer tomorrow...

Pelor: How about a Flame Strike, and I'll waive the cost of a resurrection for your party members?

Cleric: Deal! *gets up from his meditation* Hey everyone! Have you heard the good word of the great god Pelor?
 
Actually, now that I think of it, my fuzzy memories say that in an attempt to make the Shiv of Endless Healing (Pity About the Pain) less OP, our DM did something. It might have been that despite casting Cure (whatever) Wounds, you only got half of what that roll would have given you with the actual spell (with the caster level of whoever enchanted it being high enough you always got at least some healing after the shiv damage)? Or it might have been it was only good for half as many Cures as a full caster of the wielder's level would have for the day if they devoted all spell slots of the relevant level to it? I'm pretty sure something was halved.
 
Fuck, I just was going to give my Human Wizard a badge of office and a thing that let said Wizard reduce gold costs that comes with making magic items.
 
HoratioVonBecker said:
Okay, so that's probably not the main thing they're looking for, but point-by-point:
*Antimagic is a very situational tool already; taking it off the table is probably fine. The only thing that can't easily be emulated by other effects is its' potential as a general hammer, and tool denial should not be used as a general hammer.
*In combination with immunity to Wish and Time Stop, it sounds like the writer was ticked at some GM(s) for using those as railroading tools/You Lose buttons. Probably droppable, given that the 5th Edition versions of those spells aren't so nasty.
*Unlimited flight is available to Aaracockra from level 1. This is either super broken, not-great-not-terrible, or basically useless depending on the DM's level design.
*Unlimited HP is an issue, although it's not like 5E's Druid 20 doesn't have the same problem. Still, that can probably be jettisoned without losing too much of the shapeshifting feature.
*At-will TK seems like it'd probably be fine, in a campaign with cheap flight. It doesn't do that much damage.
*School and spell immunities doesn't sound terribly reasonable, no. But on the upside, they can probably be dropped without issue.
*9 dispel attempts is probably a bit much, if it's something that's ever supposed to be dispellable. At least in 5E's action economy. Three sounds reasonable.
*All told, that's basically Shapechange+Telekinesis+AMF immunity. Most of which is already available to Shapechange. If you say the Shapechange effect isn't available unless you cast it with a 9th level slot, it sounds pretty reasonable actually.

Also, the number of features makes me suspect the Mantle is actually more subclass than spell. So comparing it to other 12-30 classes might make it look more reasonable?
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It's a single wizard spell, and to be blunt most of the spells in that book are about breaking the action economy or the resource system, or in one case both at once. One lets you cast a lightning bolt that then casts fireball, one lets you store seven other spells, to be unleashed two at atime (or all at once if you are dying), one lets you smash aside anything in a straight path between you and the target, then move to the target, then strike with a melee attack or touch spell, Mantle itself also stores up to 8 extra spells of levels 5-8 to be cast at your choice as silent, motionless instant actions.
 
Morphic Tide said:
Okay, that's just stupid amounts of overpowered.
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It's a book about the Magister, the guy who is nominally in charge of all forgotten realms wizards, chosen by spell duels. The role itself comes with a shit ton of powers including the ability to change what any and all spells do (I declare that casting magic missile instead casts finger of death until next tuesday), the ability to take artifacts away from their owners and teleport them to random spots on the planet, etc... (lorewise, though it notes that every major archmage in the setting has their own custom version of Mantle, part of why they are always stalemating each other rather than being more active)
 
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KingseekerFreyr said:
Fuck, I just was going to give my Human Wizard a badge of office and a thing that let said Wizard reduce gold costs that comes with making magic items.
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Man, 5E's wealth system is weird. It barely matters to Rogues, because they don't have a real need for expensive spell components or high-end armor, and it matters quite a lot to Necromancer Wizards, because Create Undead might - the description isn't terribly clear on this - need a 150 GP gem per ghoul per day. (Although the most RAW reading I can think of is that it needs three gems but they can be reused between castings.)
Arawn_Emrys said:
One lets you cast a lightning bolt that then casts fireball,
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Sounds like Kiss of Mephistopheles, which is a very cool warlock invocation.
Arawn_Emrys said:
one lets you store seven other spells, to be unleashed two at atime (or all at once if you are dying),
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Ahh, Spell Sequencer. Redeemable in concept - certainly, 5E's 1st level damage spells are outclassed by cantrips once you hit level 11 - but in practice, I expect someone was too excited about adding program logic to actually consider whether D&D was a good place to implement it.
Arawn_Emrys said:
one lets you smash aside anything in a straight path between you and the target, then move to the target, then strike with a melee attack or touch spell,
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Sounds pretty cool, actually. On par with Thunder Step, probably? Honestly though, it's cool enough that I'd want it to be at-will, which means a feat, an Invocation, or possibly a cantrip.
Or I suppose it could be a low-level spell. Hmm.
Arawn_Emrys said:
It's a book about the Magister, the guy who is nominally in charge of all forgotten realms wizards, chosen by spell duels. The role itself comes with a shit ton of powers including the ability to change what any and all spells do (I declare that casting magic missile instead casts finger of death until next tuesday), the ability to take artifacts away from their owners and teleport them to random spots on the planet, etc... (lorewise, though it notes that every major archmage in the setting has their own custom version of Mantle, part of why they are always stalemating each other rather than being more active)
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Ah, so it's a manual of deities-with-the-serial-numbers-filed-off. That explains something.
Doesn't excuse it, but it does explain something!
 
Sydonai said:
Well, more like Champions of a specific deity.
They were one of the things that kept the Forgotten Realms working like a D&D setting so everything didn't just run on fiat.
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Pretty much. Devs want guns to be rare, so a high end mage or two has a hatred for them and in at least one of the short stories was willing to take out a city block in Waterdeep to wreck a gun smuggling operation. Devs need an explanation why things haven't gone back to Netheril style magitech? Well, there's an order of mage assassins who kill anyone who starts researching that stuff. Etc...
 
HoratioVonBecker said:
Man, 5E's wealth system is weird. It barely matters to Rogues, because they don't have a real need for expensive spell components or high-end armor, and it matters quite a lot to Necromancer Wizards, because Create Undead might - the description isn't terribly clear on this - need a 150 GP gem per ghoul per day. (Although the most RAW reading I can think of is that it needs three gems but they can be reused between castings.)
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If the description of the component doesn't say it gets consumed, you can reuse later.
 
Arawn_Emrys said:
Pretty much. Devs want guns to be rare, so a high end mage or two has a hatred for them and in at least one of the short stories was willing to take out a city block in Waterdeep to wreck a gun smuggling operation. Devs need an explanation why things haven't gone back to Netheril style magitech? Well, there's an order of mage assassins who kill anyone who starts researching that stuff. Etc...
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You know, that sounds like it could be fun actually - if the players were the irresponsible demigods. As-is, it's substituting the type of plot holes that you wouldn't care about, if this were actually the setting you wanted to play in, for nearly-unbeatable superboss DMPCs. Which is kind of dumb!
shepsquared said:
If the description of the component doesn't say it gets consumed, you can reuse later.
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The main point of confusion is whether "per corpse" means "per corpse per casting", or "per corpse ever". If a jewel is bonded to a specific minion and an't be used on any other, it almost doesn't matter if the thing is consumed during the animation process. (I say almost, because it surviving does mean the darn thing can be stolen and used against you.)
 
Just finished reviewing my copy of Odyssey of the Dragonlords, a Greek mythology inspired 5e adventure from some ex-Bioware writers who last I checked were working for Hasbro's video game division on some secret thing. Find the review over in my thread for such things. Short version? I liked it, it's a little rail roady at the beginning, there's some organization problems, lots of good PC options, 4 out of 5.
 
5e

Does Booming Blade/Green Flame Blade let you use Mobile's you don't provoke opportunity attacks if you make a weapon attack bit?
 
Nobody said:
5e

Does Booming Blade/Green Flame Blade let you use Mobile's you don't provoke opportunity attacks if you make a weapon attack bit?
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"As part of the action used to cast this spell, you must make a melee attack with a weapon against one creature within the spell's range, otherwise the spell fails."

A melee attack is included in the spell, so it qualifies.
 
So did my first session as DM and...it was not good. I didn't think I"d be a great DM try one, I mostly was able to convince myself I wouldn't be a *good* one even, but I didn't think I would be a bad one.

Players were bored, had little direction, accidentally managed to both railroad and give too much freedom, realized I forgot to drop the plot hook, dropped what should have been a big revelation because I was desperate to get some reaction (and naturally my players saw the obvious thing coming because it was obvious and instead of being half a joke when it gets 'revealed' it just fell flat on it's ass ten times over).

Boring ass NPC's whose accent I couldn't hold. No real drama. The worst shopping bookkeeping with my players.

Lead into the vampire pirates didn't even work because I fucked up explaining it and forgot to bring the battlemap so they could set up for when they got boarded.

Eugh. Four players. One bored enough to leave. Two on phones half the session. One who kind of enjoyed it overall.

I'm definitely looking up how to be a proper DM and all that buuuut...I guess I just want validation that it's ok that my first game was pretty horrible? Like I obviously wasn't properly prepared and was expecting//deluding-myself-into-thinking that my players would pull some slack and want to RP and such but that didn't happen.

Help?
 
Honestly my second dm attempt was worse.

at least you had A plot prepared rather than flying by seat of pants.

It seems like the biggest issue is lack of player buy in, which I also screwed up, but like, not even having a prepared meta plot to fall back on meant I was even more fail.
 
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