AuraTwilight
The Sorcerer of Smiles
- Location
- The Silver City
Yea, that's true. So Beholders can't just ultra-gank everyone in the world.
Dungeons and Dragons Megathread
- Thread starter Havocfett
- Start date
And it makes Beholder on Beholder Combat, which is quite common, a hilariously primitive affair as both try to bite each other to dead.
Ugh, okay, lacking a topic of its own and being fairly certain that it would be shortlived anyway, my old group started RP again.
Warhammer Fantasy RP: 2nd ed.
Aka. Roll up peasants and warriors with a roughly 1/4 chance to hit anything and try to fuck up daemon princes.
We actually have to do that in this setting.
Bloody hell I forgot how utterly lethal the system is to characters. If I hadn't found that goddamn helmet I would have been dead.
I have 11 wounds with a coif and a helmet, granting me effective 4DR , one relatively standard enemy did 14 damage to my head, so I was standing at 1 wound.
Zero is out, negatives means racking up long-term, potentially crippling injuries. Or death. If I had not been wearing any form of head protection the damage would have been doubled, which would have insta-splattered me.
I am, however, fairly certain and afraid my GM did the 'worst thing': Allow one character to be 'secretly a chaos cultist'.
Who promptly tries to fuck everyone over.
It's the same thing as the 'secretly evil wizard', and he actually is a wizard, and also the only one who can read arcane shit.
So we find a book with protection against chaos and whatnot. Which is good, considering we were marked unknowingly -and certainly unwillingly- to bring the BBE guy into the mortal world.
So, after he botched an attempt to cast a spell on another party member, we subdued him, put him in a cage, scouted the rea and were knocked out as a cliffhanger.
Warhammer Fantasy RP: 2nd ed.
Aka. Roll up peasants and warriors with a roughly 1/4 chance to hit anything and try to fuck up daemon princes.
We actually have to do that in this setting.
Bloody hell I forgot how utterly lethal the system is to characters. If I hadn't found that goddamn helmet I would have been dead.
I have 11 wounds with a coif and a helmet, granting me effective 4DR , one relatively standard enemy did 14 damage to my head, so I was standing at 1 wound.
Zero is out, negatives means racking up long-term, potentially crippling injuries. Or death. If I had not been wearing any form of head protection the damage would have been doubled, which would have insta-splattered me.
I am, however, fairly certain and afraid my GM did the 'worst thing': Allow one character to be 'secretly a chaos cultist'.
Who promptly tries to fuck everyone over.
It's the same thing as the 'secretly evil wizard', and he actually is a wizard, and also the only one who can read arcane shit.
So we find a book with protection against chaos and whatnot. Which is good, considering we were marked unknowingly -and certainly unwillingly- to bring the BBE guy into the mortal world.
So, after he botched an attempt to cast a spell on another party member, we subdued him, put him in a cage, scouted the rea and were knocked out as a cliffhanger.
Which is where the idea of Mouthpicks came from.
Shephard
Still in Statis
While WHFRP 2E is pretty lethal, especially in comparison to its terrible 40k hackjobs, the chance to hit on average is roughly 1/3rd even for an ordinary peasant and barring house rules, zero doesn't knock you out. Further, unless there's a pretty major rule I missed, you don't double damage for headshots. Also, did you only have toughness in the 20s? Unless I'm mistaken , Helm and coif should be two Dr and the average toughness bonus is 3...
The real danger in Warhammer Fantasy isn't getting one shotted(even a ballista bolt to the head may not necessarily do that), it's dying of the infection and your terrible back alley doctor afterwards.
Edit: Also, the best place for this would be memorable moments in your tabletop game. I legitimately didn't realize this was the D&D thread until I checked a like on this page and only just now realized this was the wrong thread.
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it was just a one-off thing, if more and frequent stuff happens I'll kick open a topic for it.
But yeah, it was DR7, and he rolled pretty high, was actually 7 but I subbed my T from it right from the get go.
Anyway, my main gripe was the "having secrets is a bad thing, unless you play something like Vampire.", because it may very well have ended in a TPK if the Chaos wizard player was a but more political in his aproach. Or at least a half-dead party.
That shit could have gone down in a D&D/Pathfinder group just as easily.
Though having a couple of ego's in the group doesn't help. Backing down is unknown to them
But yeah, it was DR7, and he rolled pretty high, was actually 7 but I subbed my T from it right from the get go.
Anyway, my main gripe was the "having secrets is a bad thing, unless you play something like Vampire.", because it may very well have ended in a TPK if the Chaos wizard player was a but more political in his aproach. Or at least a half-dead party.
That shit could have gone down in a D&D/Pathfinder group just as easily.
Though having a couple of ego's in the group doesn't help. Backing down is unknown to them
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- Location
- Australia
- Pronouns
- She/Her
My current IRL group are, save for the guy playing a gnome illusionist, all really bad at the game.
The rouge took five sessions to work out that flanking was a thing. And he's been playing for nearly a decade.
As a result, my solidly T3 character has created a huge outcry over his power level. Thus the DM cut swift actions from the game entirely, after greatly reducing AoOs.
It's the DM's choice when ballanceing the game, but the way to deal with my character is right in front of him. It's annoying too, because when it comes to everything but combat he's a great DM.
The rouge took five sessions to work out that flanking was a thing. And he's been playing for nearly a decade.
As a result, my solidly T3 character has created a huge outcry over his power level. Thus the DM cut swift actions from the game entirely, after greatly reducing AoOs.
It's the DM's choice when ballanceing the game, but the way to deal with my character is right in front of him. It's annoying too, because when it comes to everything but combat he's a great DM.
Evillevi Homebrew: Magical Items
Evillevi
A Pikachu for everything - Shadow Pikachu,2015
So here I was trying to balance combat encounters in a theoratical campaign called "Escape from Treasure Island" where some Lvl 1 characters have to escape from the center of an Island. To spice things up they get access to any item up to Artifact level and combat encounters are tougher to compensate for it. Hence the balance part.
So something odd is that the functional usefulness of some Legendary item in the DM manual are actually rather... Meh as compared to others.For example compare the Defender to the Staff of the Magi. One gives a good Attack and damage roll buff while allowing characters to use that buff for defense (allowing high level characters to get obscene amounts of AC). The latter allows people to cast a lot more spells (with two 7th level damage spells), defend against spells, and have infinite castings of a few more spells.
In order to have more effective (as far as play style significance is concern) here are some not play tested legendaries designed with teh Staff of the Magi as the baseline.
Some thoughts would be nice as to how broken these things are and how to fix them
=============================================
Shield of Retribution (Requires attunement).
+2 to AC. Starts at 0 charges which resets to 0 after an uninterrupted Long Rest. Any time an attack/Grapple/spells/offensive move hits the wielder, the item gains 1 charge. Passively, every charge gives any single melee attack a 1d20 per round.
Using 1 charge and a reaction, the wielder can halve incoming damage from 1 attack/spell.
Using 2 charges and a bonus action, the wielder can boost his AC by 5 until the end of his next turn.
Using 3 charges and a reaction (where needed), failed saving throws can re rolled
Using 4 Charges and a reaction (where needed), failed saving throws can be rendered into an auto success.
=================================================
Etearnalis (Sword; Requires attunement)
-2 to AC and Attack and -2 (1d8) from damage. These modifiers increases by one for every critical and nat 20 the wielder and allies gets up till a maximum of 10. These modifiers decreases for every critical and nat 20 the enemies get up until a maximum of -10. The modifiers resets to -2 on a long rest.
==================================================
Bow of Ihatemagic (Requires attunement)
When fired at an enemy with spell levels, the enemy is marked on hit. Also on hit lowest spell slot possessed by said enemy is consumed and a number of (1d6) equal to the level of the spell slot is inflicted on the enemy. Using a Reaction and at the cost of removing the mark, any spells directed at the wielder can be redirected to any area/enemy as appropriate.
===================================================
Shield of the Last Bastion. (Requires attunement)
Gives an AC of +3. Increase Spell save by +3. This shield starts with 20 charges and regains all of it at the end of a long rest. By expending the charges as a bonus action or reaction as appropriate, different effects can occur.
1 charge. (ra) Single target attacks against a friendly ally will be redirected to hit this wielder (attack roll is still required).
2 charges (ba) You can increase the AC of a friendly ally by 2 for the duration of the current battle.
4 charges (ba) Until the end of your next turn all attacks rolls and spell attack rolls against you are at a disadvantage.
6 Charges (ba) You gain resistance to all damage until the end of combat or until the wielder use an action to disable this.
8 Charges (ba or ra) You invoke a spell on the back of your shield. Until the end of your next turn, all enemies attack you once before doing anything else. If they can't immediately attack you, the must spend any action, items, spells, and etc to attempt to do so.
20 Charges (a, ba or ra). The Final Line. The Last Stand. The Ever Victorious Bastion. You incant the words inscribe throughout the shield and lay down a Truth in the laws of Nature. Until you fall, all enemies that are aware of you must attack you to the exclusion of everything else. The wielder gains resistance to all damage, an additional +3 to AC and Spell Save, advantage to all saving rolls and last the ability to substitute stat for a saving roll with his highest stat. This ability last a full 24 hours.
So something odd is that the functional usefulness of some Legendary item in the DM manual are actually rather... Meh as compared to others.For example compare the Defender to the Staff of the Magi. One gives a good Attack and damage roll buff while allowing characters to use that buff for defense (allowing high level characters to get obscene amounts of AC). The latter allows people to cast a lot more spells (with two 7th level damage spells), defend against spells, and have infinite castings of a few more spells.
In order to have more effective (as far as play style significance is concern) here are some not play tested legendaries designed with teh Staff of the Magi as the baseline.
Some thoughts would be nice as to how broken these things are and how to fix them
=============================================
Shield of Retribution (Requires attunement).
+2 to AC. Starts at 0 charges which resets to 0 after an uninterrupted Long Rest. Any time an attack/Grapple/spells/offensive move hits the wielder, the item gains 1 charge. Passively, every charge gives any single melee attack a 1d20 per round.
Using 1 charge and a reaction, the wielder can halve incoming damage from 1 attack/spell.
Using 2 charges and a bonus action, the wielder can boost his AC by 5 until the end of his next turn.
Using 3 charges and a reaction (where needed), failed saving throws can re rolled
Using 4 Charges and a reaction (where needed), failed saving throws can be rendered into an auto success.
=================================================
Etearnalis (Sword; Requires attunement)
-2 to AC and Attack and -2 (1d8) from damage. These modifiers increases by one for every critical and nat 20 the wielder and allies gets up till a maximum of 10. These modifiers decreases for every critical and nat 20 the enemies get up until a maximum of -10. The modifiers resets to -2 on a long rest.
==================================================
Bow of Ihatemagic (Requires attunement)
When fired at an enemy with spell levels, the enemy is marked on hit. Also on hit lowest spell slot possessed by said enemy is consumed and a number of (1d6) equal to the level of the spell slot is inflicted on the enemy. Using a Reaction and at the cost of removing the mark, any spells directed at the wielder can be redirected to any area/enemy as appropriate.
===================================================
Shield of the Last Bastion. (Requires attunement)
Gives an AC of +3. Increase Spell save by +3. This shield starts with 20 charges and regains all of it at the end of a long rest. By expending the charges as a bonus action or reaction as appropriate, different effects can occur.
1 charge. (ra) Single target attacks against a friendly ally will be redirected to hit this wielder (attack roll is still required).
2 charges (ba) You can increase the AC of a friendly ally by 2 for the duration of the current battle.
4 charges (ba) Until the end of your next turn all attacks rolls and spell attack rolls against you are at a disadvantage.
6 Charges (ba) You gain resistance to all damage until the end of combat or until the wielder use an action to disable this.
8 Charges (ba or ra) You invoke a spell on the back of your shield. Until the end of your next turn, all enemies attack you once before doing anything else. If they can't immediately attack you, the must spend any action, items, spells, and etc to attempt to do so.
20 Charges (a, ba or ra). The Final Line. The Last Stand. The Ever Victorious Bastion. You incant the words inscribe throughout the shield and lay down a Truth in the laws of Nature. Until you fall, all enemies that are aware of you must attack you to the exclusion of everything else. The wielder gains resistance to all damage, an additional +3 to AC and Spell Save, advantage to all saving rolls and last the ability to substitute stat for a saving roll with his highest stat. This ability last a full 24 hours.
- Location
- Australia
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Update: Duskblade and players handbook II has been banned outright from the game. Meanwhile, my DM thought a druid was a good idea (and I admit, I did kinda like the dinosaur-themed kobold druid idea) and after he shot down unarmed swordsage, I will be playing a monk; but he thinks certain elements of the monk might be overpowered.
I took four goddamn hours for my character to be rescued, despite being able to break his restraints fairly easily (because apparently monks can't break objects with unarmed attacks), and I don't even start out with some clean clothes. Because wealth has no relation to power in 3.5, and it's not like he's stingy with magic items in game either.
Oh, and no one can ever learn identify because economics. Except by the use of wish.
It's not like it's an unfun game, most of the time (sitting waiting to be rescued for hours wasn't the greatest), but it's clear he doesn't understand the rules at all and it just infuriates me that he can't see a way to counter a duskblade without killing the party despite throwing said counter at us a boatload of times.
earthboy
(verified ape)
- Location
- NYC
- Pronouns
- He/Him
It's sad that a DM thinks that "challenge" and "counter" are the same thing.
However, the upside is that it looks like you're getting a large does of that very special type of frustration which turns skillful players into skillful DMs.
You really ought to offer to run a game.
Is this person purposefully using all the "dumbass rookie" clichés?
- Location
- Australia
Okay. I just got back from a session with Marr the Fighter today, and unlike last week, something exciting actually happened.
Last week was just really unexciting for the most part. We are all still level 1, so not only do we die really easy, we don't have access to any decent equipment. Mostly, everybody just rolled really low- I believe I succeeded on five rolls out of a total forty-two rolls I made that session, from memory. Luckily, everyone had the same luck, to the point that the two werejackals we fought during the session's final character each rolled a critical 1 and killed themselves.
Anyway.
This week, it all started when I rolled a critical 1 on an Insight check.
See, for a bit of reference, we were running Carnival of Horror this week. This is meant to be an adventure themed around horror (obviously). And we have a bit of a newbie DM, so I kind of all thought we were all going to die.
However, also as a bit of a reference, Marr the Fighter has 16 Dexterity, 16 Intelligence, and 13 Charisma. Also 10 Strength, Constitution and Wisdom because I felt like gimping myself a bit.
The DM started us off in just a little waywards backswood town- you know the kind, the one where they basically just have a little store and an inn for travellers to stay at. We were in the inn, and an old lady came up to us and started raving about some awesome carnival that's going to rock up through town that night.
So I decided to roll an Insight check on her, and got a 1. Everyone else rolled above 15, and got told that the lady gave them a bit of a weird feeling. But me? I just thought she was a herbologist.
So then I asked the DM if I could roll Insight on her again, this time seeing if there were any traces of arcane power or anything on her. The DM was initially going to refuse, but after taking him away for a bit and explaining that I was aiming for Eldritch Knight and wanted to RP a bit of arcane stuff, he allowed it.
I rolled a natural 20, so he told me that I could feel power emanating from the woman. In fact, I could feel such power that I was now convinced that the woman was an amazing herbologist- such an amazing herbologist, in fact, that I now believed she was capable of making potions of immortality.
Marr, of course, jumped to the obvious conclusion; the herbologist was planning to lure the party to a carnival to enact an arcane ritual to steal our life essence and use it in a potion of immortality.
Attempting to be the helpful party member I am, I proceeded to attempt to explain to my party exactly what was going on here. They didn't believe me, but I wasn't willing to just let them die, so I of course rolled a Persuasion check- and rolled a 19, bringing me up to a total of 22 (I have Persuasion as a skill). The Paladin rolled a natural 20 on their Wisdom save and didn't believe me, but everybody else in the room failed it, and became convinced that this herbologist was planning to ritually sacrifice us.
So blah blah blah, we went downstairs, and the party's rogue decided to talk to the mayor. They went on for a bit about the carnival, but I only had one action in mind; I rolled an Insight check to see if he was aligned with the herbologist.
I rolled a 4, so the DM ruled that I now firmly believed that the town's mayor was in on it with the herbologist.
After a few shenanigans involving upending a barrel of beer and setting half a dozen unwanted carnival tickets on fire, we eventually arrived at the carnival, where we saw people streaming in from all directions, including the backwoods town we had just come from.
Being the helpful investigator that I am, I immediately rolled an Insight check to see who all these people were and where they'd all come from. And being the helpful d20 that my die is, it decided to roll a 1 for me. The DM, in turn, ruled that I now firmly believed that all of these people were herbologists.
However, I additionally rolled an Insight check to see if I believed that they were in on it with the ritualist herbologist. And I rolled a total of 19, high enough that the DM ruled I knew they were not.
So blah blah blah, we went through a couple of side-sessions with some shenanigans like a cameo by Skeletor and Marr being firmly convinced that the party rogue is having a secret affair with a drow, before we eventually got up to the room before the final room. There, the party saw the ritualist herbologist lying dying on the ground-
except Marr rolled a 2 on his perception check, leading the DM to firmly rule that all I saw was a talking bag of herbs on the ground.
At this point, I was firmly convinced that Marr had accidentally gotten high the night before, but I ran with it. After a bit of combat, we ran through a hall of mirrors and got through to the main villain of the session- a shapeshifter who shifted through a few forms, including the ritualist herbologist, the town blacksmith, and Marr himself.
Blah blah blah, we saw some of the villagers chained to the ground. However.
Earlier in the session, I had quickly made a note on my background- I was a Guild Artisan, and I made a note that my character was a member of the Herbologist's Guild, and I'd joined to infiltrate their upper echelons and root out the corruption there. Additionally, my character has a single Bond; he is extraordinarily loyal to his guildmates.
And the DM had earlier confirmed that I firmly believed that all of these villagers were herbologists.
So yeah, that was just a sidenote. Anyway.
Being the clever party member I am, I immediately decided that I would roll an Insight check to determine if this woman was actually a mimic.
I rolled a 2, so my DM confirmed that yes, Marr believed he was actually fighting a mimic. Right down to actually seeing the woman as a mimic, a wooden chest. Then we got the additional hilarity of Marr critically hitting the mimic, and doing over half its total health in damage. Haha!
Eventually we killed the mimic, ending with Marr being really really confused as to why the dead mimic had suddenly shapeshifted into a human woman, and why I had gotten no loot from the mimic's corpse.
Anyway, that was the story of how Marr got up to level three and accidentally became convinced that a town, and later a convention, is full of befuddled herbologists being tricked into having their life essence stolen by an arcane mimic.
We'll see how next week goes.
The DM was actually so impressed by how willing I was to run with everything that he ended up giving me a physical item after the game, some item I believe I can use towards actual D&D tournaments or something, I don't know.
Last week was just really unexciting for the most part. We are all still level 1, so not only do we die really easy, we don't have access to any decent equipment. Mostly, everybody just rolled really low- I believe I succeeded on five rolls out of a total forty-two rolls I made that session, from memory. Luckily, everyone had the same luck, to the point that the two werejackals we fought during the session's final character each rolled a critical 1 and killed themselves.
Anyway.
This week, it all started when I rolled a critical 1 on an Insight check.
See, for a bit of reference, we were running Carnival of Horror this week. This is meant to be an adventure themed around horror (obviously). And we have a bit of a newbie DM, so I kind of all thought we were all going to die.
However, also as a bit of a reference, Marr the Fighter has 16 Dexterity, 16 Intelligence, and 13 Charisma. Also 10 Strength, Constitution and Wisdom because I felt like gimping myself a bit.
The DM started us off in just a little waywards backswood town- you know the kind, the one where they basically just have a little store and an inn for travellers to stay at. We were in the inn, and an old lady came up to us and started raving about some awesome carnival that's going to rock up through town that night.
So I decided to roll an Insight check on her, and got a 1. Everyone else rolled above 15, and got told that the lady gave them a bit of a weird feeling. But me? I just thought she was a herbologist.
So then I asked the DM if I could roll Insight on her again, this time seeing if there were any traces of arcane power or anything on her. The DM was initially going to refuse, but after taking him away for a bit and explaining that I was aiming for Eldritch Knight and wanted to RP a bit of arcane stuff, he allowed it.
I rolled a natural 20, so he told me that I could feel power emanating from the woman. In fact, I could feel such power that I was now convinced that the woman was an amazing herbologist- such an amazing herbologist, in fact, that I now believed she was capable of making potions of immortality.
Marr, of course, jumped to the obvious conclusion; the herbologist was planning to lure the party to a carnival to enact an arcane ritual to steal our life essence and use it in a potion of immortality.
Attempting to be the helpful party member I am, I proceeded to attempt to explain to my party exactly what was going on here. They didn't believe me, but I wasn't willing to just let them die, so I of course rolled a Persuasion check- and rolled a 19, bringing me up to a total of 22 (I have Persuasion as a skill). The Paladin rolled a natural 20 on their Wisdom save and didn't believe me, but everybody else in the room failed it, and became convinced that this herbologist was planning to ritually sacrifice us.
So blah blah blah, we went downstairs, and the party's rogue decided to talk to the mayor. They went on for a bit about the carnival, but I only had one action in mind; I rolled an Insight check to see if he was aligned with the herbologist.
I rolled a 4, so the DM ruled that I now firmly believed that the town's mayor was in on it with the herbologist.
After a few shenanigans involving upending a barrel of beer and setting half a dozen unwanted carnival tickets on fire, we eventually arrived at the carnival, where we saw people streaming in from all directions, including the backwoods town we had just come from.
Being the helpful investigator that I am, I immediately rolled an Insight check to see who all these people were and where they'd all come from. And being the helpful d20 that my die is, it decided to roll a 1 for me. The DM, in turn, ruled that I now firmly believed that all of these people were herbologists.
However, I additionally rolled an Insight check to see if I believed that they were in on it with the ritualist herbologist. And I rolled a total of 19, high enough that the DM ruled I knew they were not.
So blah blah blah, we went through a couple of side-sessions with some shenanigans like a cameo by Skeletor and Marr being firmly convinced that the party rogue is having a secret affair with a drow, before we eventually got up to the room before the final room. There, the party saw the ritualist herbologist lying dying on the ground-
except Marr rolled a 2 on his perception check, leading the DM to firmly rule that all I saw was a talking bag of herbs on the ground.
At this point, I was firmly convinced that Marr had accidentally gotten high the night before, but I ran with it. After a bit of combat, we ran through a hall of mirrors and got through to the main villain of the session- a shapeshifter who shifted through a few forms, including the ritualist herbologist, the town blacksmith, and Marr himself.
Blah blah blah, we saw some of the villagers chained to the ground. However.
Earlier in the session, I had quickly made a note on my background- I was a Guild Artisan, and I made a note that my character was a member of the Herbologist's Guild, and I'd joined to infiltrate their upper echelons and root out the corruption there. Additionally, my character has a single Bond; he is extraordinarily loyal to his guildmates.
And the DM had earlier confirmed that I firmly believed that all of these villagers were herbologists.
So yeah, that was just a sidenote. Anyway.
Being the clever party member I am, I immediately decided that I would roll an Insight check to determine if this woman was actually a mimic.
I rolled a 2, so my DM confirmed that yes, Marr believed he was actually fighting a mimic. Right down to actually seeing the woman as a mimic, a wooden chest. Then we got the additional hilarity of Marr critically hitting the mimic, and doing over half its total health in damage. Haha!
Eventually we killed the mimic, ending with Marr being really really confused as to why the dead mimic had suddenly shapeshifted into a human woman, and why I had gotten no loot from the mimic's corpse.
Anyway, that was the story of how Marr got up to level three and accidentally became convinced that a town, and later a convention, is full of befuddled herbologists being tricked into having their life essence stolen by an arcane mimic.
We'll see how next week goes.
The DM was actually so impressed by how willing I was to run with everything that he ended up giving me a physical item after the game, some item I believe I can use towards actual D&D tournaments or something, I don't know.
- Location
- Somewhere
Any advice on when, if at all, to allow PCs to go on a quest for an artifact?
I've been keeping my groups stuff value rather low, due to them getting lucky enough to walk through a lot of encounters even without much magic stuff, but I feel it'd be nice (after this part of the campaign, due to it taking place in the Outer Planes) to let them go on a quest for some nicer magical items, and maybe an artifact/minor artifact.
I've been keeping my groups stuff value rather low, due to them getting lucky enough to walk through a lot of encounters even without much magic stuff, but I feel it'd be nice (after this part of the campaign, due to it taking place in the Outer Planes) to let them go on a quest for some nicer magical items, and maybe an artifact/minor artifact.
Evillevi
A Pikachu for everything - Shadow Pikachu,2015
What level are they?
Personally I like to think that artifacts are used. Sure you can go ahead to get them, but either they are stuck in a vault (an abandoned one to make it easier) or they are currently being used by some badass.
Go ahead and try to find the former and kill the latter. Just don't expect to suceed easily
Aaron Peori
Rest in Peace
Are they going to be allowed to keep it?
If so, not until you're happy letting them have Legendary equipment.
- Location
- Somewhere
Level 10.
Yeah, I understand, the artifact is going to be something they might get, depending on choices, but the magic items are something they will get.
- Location
- Somewhere
I figured there were enough non-combat, yet nifty, artifacts that I could find one that didn't throw off any semblance of game balance.
Aaron Peori
Rest in Peace
Non combat stuff is almost entirely unimportant to game balance in 5e except for travel powers.
If your artifact is purely a Macguffin, with only Plot Powers than you can introduce it at any level you please.
Evillevi
A Pikachu for everything - Shadow Pikachu,2015
I suggest something like the Defender if you have a difficult quest to obtain something. Better yet with the "You must kill someone to get it" questline you can use the boss battle as a simple tutorial on how to use that artifact from the get go.
And while a +3 weapon like the Defender is really 'strong' It's something that's rewarding from the get go, not so strong as to break your game, and good enough that a party of multiple front liners may afford to do some more tactically bad ideas since the AC bonus for the Defender is really really good.
Furthermore you can place a 'curse' on it that stronger and more entities will try to kill the party while they have the sword. So you can change both the types of combat the group can face and the strength of the monsters, making them(players) glad to have the artifact and leveling faster from the greater influx of XP while getting into the new and dangerous fights.
On top of that you're at the lvl 11 milestone (presuming you guys are playing 5e). This means a spike in your PCs ability, making both the defender less vital, an awesome supplement to the Quest since the fighter will be followed by the more powerful (Insert every other class) and general fun times to be had
- Location
- Somewhere
Playing 3.5/Pathfinder `
But yeah, they are soon getting a bump in power from higher spell levels from the two dedicated casters and the Paladin.
Evillevi
A Pikachu for everything - Shadow Pikachu,2015
Playing 3.5/Pathfinder `
But yeah, they are soon getting a bump in power from higher spell levels from the two dedicated casters and the Paladin.
In that case I have no good advice. That said a Quest! with a Big Boss at the end using the artifact the party wants is a solid option since it puts the party at the disadvantage in regards to the Artifact.
And in the act of overcoming it, nto only would they feel better about themselves, can easily understand the limitations and strengths of the artifact, but it would be followed up by having more power so the one guy who got the artifact won't make anyone resentful .
Evillevi
A Pikachu for everything - Shadow Pikachu,2015
At any rate for 5e users, has anyone have a good idea on the Narcolepsy problem where by everyone wants to have a long rest constantly.
Personally I make it so that there are obvious points and limitations that makes the party ration the long rests they could have.
For example if you're infiltrating a Mercenary camp to kill the Head Honcho, if you raise the alarm say Head will run away. And by setting multiple areas to rest with the LeonundV Forgot the spelling) hut and by putting a lot of distance (comparatively) between these areas I can make it so that not only does the party appreciate when they find these rest spots, they aren't tempted to go back after stealthing through the camp.
Furthermore there's a short cut that the party could take but would bring everyone down on their heads and the Head Honcho running if they tried to use it. That way i can justify them being still able to fight the Head Honcho if they fail the Stealth by simply going in a straight line to the guy.
On one hand constant tension as they pray to the gods they didn't fail their Stealth rolls. On the other constant exilaration as they have an entire merc camp trying to kill them as they go deeper in to kill the Head honcho.
Personally I make it so that there are obvious points and limitations that makes the party ration the long rests they could have.
For example if you're infiltrating a Mercenary camp to kill the Head Honcho, if you raise the alarm say Head will run away. And by setting multiple areas to rest with the Leonund
V Forgot the spelling) hut and by putting a lot of distance (comparatively) between these areas I can make it so that not only does the party appreciate when they find these rest spots, they aren't tempted to go back after stealthing through the camp. Furthermore there's a short cut that the party could take but would bring everyone down on their heads and the Head Honcho running if they tried to use it. That way i can justify them being still able to fight the Head Honcho if they fail the Stealth by simply going in a straight line to the guy.
On one hand constant tension as they pray to the gods they didn't fail their Stealth rolls. On the other constant exilaration as they have an entire merc camp trying to kill them as they go deeper in to kill the Head honcho.
They can go look for an Artifact at any level and at any time.
First they have to research to discover that the Artifact exists, then they have to learn where it is.
And finally they have to go obtain it.
However before they actually try to get it give them the option to research what exactly is guarding it.
So they have the chance of knowing it's a Level__ Adventure's worth of difficulty.
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AuraTwilight
The Sorcerer of Smiles
- Location
- The Silver City
At any rate for 5e users, has anyone have a good idea on the Narcolepsy problem where by everyone wants to have a long rest constantly.
Personally I make it so that there are obvious points and limitations that makes the party ration the long rests they could have.
For example if you're infiltrating a Mercenary camp to kill the Head Honcho, if you raise the alarm say Head will run away. And by setting multiple areas to rest with the Leonund
Furthermore there's a short cut that the party could take but would bring everyone down on their heads and the Head Honcho running if they tried to use it. That way i can justify them being still able to fight the Head Honcho if they fail the Stealth by simply going in a straight line to the guy.
On one hand constant tension as they pray to the gods they didn't fail their Stealth rolls. On the other constant exilaration as they have an entire merc camp trying to kill them as they go deeper in to kill the Head honcho.
This problem exists in basically all editions of D&D. Make goals time-sensitive or make it so that they can only rest in times and places that you designate. Old-school D&D, for instance, had GMs roll on random encounter tables if you slept in a dungeon, or the God that Crawls adventure has an unstoppable monster follow the party so they can't tarry for too long or afford to take literally everything because of movement/encumbrance rules.
I am thinking about building a Dhampiric Cleric of Naderi, going for a undead controlling build as soon as I level up from level 2 to 3 but I am slightly stumped on good mechanical ideas for it.
Backrond wise she was basically the scribe /base support for a adventurers guild until her lover was killed by one of the local nonhuman hating empires. In a way it is funny as while she found the call to adventurer fairly late in her life she is also the one with the most real world experience as she is older then the elf that will be a party member.
It is a 20 point buy , and the repose domain has been replaced with the death/undeath domain for me.
So, would anyone care to offer a bit of help there for me?
Oh and the other party members are a Stalker, a Sorcers with the verdant blootline, a Urban Babarian/chevalier that is going for a switch hitter build and someone that is still unsure.
Backrond wise she was basically the scribe /base support for a adventurers guild until her lover was killed by one of the local nonhuman hating empires. In a way it is funny as while she found the call to adventurer fairly late in her life she is also the one with the most real world experience as she is older then the elf that will be a party member.
It is a 20 point buy , and the repose domain has been replaced with the death/undeath domain for me.
So, would anyone care to offer a bit of help there for me?
Oh and the other party members are a Stalker, a Sorcers with the verdant blootline, a Urban Babarian/chevalier that is going for a switch hitter build and someone that is still unsure.