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Dungeons and Dragons Megathread

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horngeek said:
*blinks*

Um. You'll have to expand on that, because 4e got so much hate because it was so utterly different from 3e.

Personally, I don't mind 4e mechanics, and I actually really really like a fair few of the concepts contained within there- although mostly classes, in that case.
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Well considering that OSR was mentioned I assume it was that everyone now has special attacks meaning every descriptions runs into , casters are casting every turn and that the magic level in the party was increased by everything being magic.

Which ignores that for example the at will psells are basically recoloured crossbow bolts and so on but...
 
Actually, the reasons are more like "Too many fiddly bonuses to keep track of that bog combat and gameplay down, too much overdependence on magic items being assumed as part of character advancement, Feats are still basically garbage bullshit, skills are still basically worthless, DCs get too absurdly high necessitating said stupid fiddly bonuses, class design is overly complicated and makes quality homebrew difficult, a lot of spells and powers don't make a whole lot of sense in the setting and are blatant dissassociative mechanics, and there's no fucking Domain Play even though dungeoncrawling becomes totally unfeasible in higher levels."

So, yea, basically the exact same complaints we had for 3E except for "Tier balance", but atleast 3E classes were fun to play and all the above problems weren't AS annoying in 3e.

Seriously, you kids. People reacted to 3E the same way the modern internet D&D crowd took to 4E. "This isn't AD&D!" "D&D is fucking dead" etc etc.

That being said, the pros: There's a lot of cool lore in 4E, even if I prefer the Great Wheel. Epic Destinies are fucking cool, as is the IDEA of Multiclassing Feats. All three of these things, including Shardminds (one of my favorite races) have been used in my 3.5 games. The Warlord is also an interesting class and i sympathize with 4rries who are salty about it's absence in the 5E PHB, because otherwise the 5E PHB has every core class from every edition.
 
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Duvalle Homebrew: Casting Dice
  • Threadmarks
    • I've been working on an alternative magic system for 5e which I call 'Spell Dice'. Instead of spell slots being a fixed number, it is determined by a roll of the dice, which increases at certain level milestones. The idea based off the proficiency dice variant rule from the DMG, with the intention of making magic more capricious.

    Here's a rough draft of what I've got so far, I'd love to hear your thoughts on it.

    Sorcerer/Wizard/Cleric/Druid Table

    Level​
    Casting Dice​
    Advancement​

    1st​
    1d4
    Increases to 1d6 at level 5, and 1d8 at level 9

    2nd​
    1d4
    Increases to 1d6 at level 7, 1d8 at level 11

    3rd​
    1d4
    Increases to 1d6 at level 9

    4th​
    1d4
    1d6 at level at level 11

    5th​
    1d4
    1d6 at level 18

    6th​
    1
    1d4 at level

    7th​
    1
    No Increase

    8th​
    1
    No Increase

    9th​
    1
    No Increase

    Eldritch Knight/Arcane Trickster Table

    Level
    Casting Dice
    Advancement​

    1st​
    1d4
    Increases to 1d6 at level 4, and 1d8 at level 7

    2nd​
    1d4
    Increases to 1d6 at level 10

    3rd​
    1d4
    Increases to 1d6 at level 16

    4th​
    1
    No increase
    Paladin/Ranger Table:

    Level
    Casting Dice
    Advancement​

    1st​
    1d4
    Increases to 1d6 at level 3, and 1d8 at level 5

    2nd​
    1d4
    Increases to 1d6 at level 7

    3rd​
    1d4
    Increases to 1d6 at level 11

    4th​
    1
    Increases to 1d4 at level 15, 1d6 at level 17

    5th​
    1
    Increases to 1d4 at level 19

    Bard: Cantrip Dice starts at 1d4, increases to 1d6 at level 4, and 1d8 at level 10
    Cleric: Cantrip dice starts at 1d6, increases to 1d8 at level 4, and 1d10 at level 10
    Druid: Cantrip Dice starts at 1d4, increases to 1d6 at level 4, and 1d8 at level 10
    Eldritch Knight/Arcane Trickster: Cantrip dice starts at 1d4, increases to 1d6 at level 10.
    Sorcerer: Cantrip dice starts at a 1d8, increases to a 1d10 at level 4, and a 1d12 at level 10
    Warlock: Cantrips dice starts at a 1d4, increases to 1d6 at level 4, and a 1d8 at level 10. Additionally, Warlocks begin using 1d4 as their casting dice. It increases to a 1d6 at level 11, and a 1d8 at level 17.
    Wizards: Cantrip dice starts at a 1d6, increases to 1d8 at level to a 1d10 at level 10

    Additional Rules:
    Starting at level 7, Warlocks and Wild Magic Sorcerers can spend one of their Hit Dice to re-roll their spell casting dice. They can only do this once per short rest and must keep the new roll, even if it is lower than the original.

    I've also come up with a feat to supplement this variant system.

    Rapid Resumption
    Prerequisite: Spell casting score of 13 or higher, ability to cast 2nd​ level spells
    • Choose one spell level that is lower than the highest level spell you can cast. When rolling for spell slots, you can roll that spell dice twice and take either result. This can only be done once per long rest.
    This feat can be taken multiple times, and applies to a different spell level each time. If your character is a warlock, it applies to all of your spells regardless of level.
     
  • Threadmarks
    • Doing stuff for the Wraith of the Righteous game has totally made me desire more Pathfinder- or more specifically, Golarian- gaming ^^ If anyone has anything on Golarion they've wanted to do- AP, their own idea, whatever- note that you have an interested person here.
     
    So, posting character idea here, I'm going to run it in the Strange Aeons AP this fall:

    • Female Witch
    • Umbral Unmasking and Warded Against Nature Drawbacks
    • Mongoose Animal Companion
    • Worships Sarenrae
    She's going to be the reincarnated form of some demon, given a forcible second chance by Sarenrae. Her familiar, i.e. her connection to her "patron", is actually where her real memories of being a demon are stored, which is how she gets spells and stuff. As the familiar gets smarter with higher levels, it will eventually start trying to get her to fall back into evil.

    The witch, though, doesn't remember being a demon, only ever knowing being human.

    The two drawbacks allow her the chance to figure out something is off about her. Her shadow is not human, but something large and terrible, and for some reason animals won't come near her without some prodding. If she falls back into evil, then all that will happen is upon death she'll return to demon hood (story stuff, no mechanics), whereas if she pursues redemption she'll get the chance for a happy afterlife. I'm going to have her start as neutral, and see if the GM is ok with allowing her one free alignment shift by the end of the first AP, to show how far she is coming along her path to heroism or evil.
     
    That's pretty interesting :) I'd be curious to see how that goes.


    If I did a witch, I'd be super-tempted to just go changeling.
     
    Q99 said:
    That's pretty interesting :) I'd be curious to see how that goes.


    If I did a witch, I'd be super-tempted to just go changeling.
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    I would have, but I needed the extra feat :p

    Also, if you do go changeling, take the alternate racial ability score package to get a bonus to Intelligence, which is what Witch needs.
     
    Literally the only things I liked about 4e were the Eladrin race, which thankfully came back as a subrace of Elf in 5e via the DMG and the idea of the Warlord class (which is surprisingly missing). Everything else was too radically changed for my tastes.

    I started with 3e/3.5 and while I enjoy those editions, I much prefer OSR/AD&D and 5e. BTW, I am still interested in running an OSR/Microlite74 OD&D game on this forum. However, I may be inclined to run 5e as well, since that is also awesome too.
     
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    I think 4ed is a fun game, but it's also a very different game. And yea, the Eladrin special was cool... I was somewhat annoyed at the name chosen because you will not find a bigger fan of prior Eladrin (or PF Azata), but the mechanics of having a character being able to blink around is cool.

    The Imperator said:
    I would have, but I needed the extra feat :p

    Also, if you do go changeling, take the alternate racial ability score package to get a bonus to Intelligence, which is what Witch needs.
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    Makes sense.

    Though honestly it's third-at-best in my desires. I'm partially thinking of a Ghoran Alchemist (yea, yea, -int bad for alchemy) or something who's traveling in part to find a way to make more Ghorans but . Also considering doing a Merfolk gunslinger. Just, like, walkin' on the tail (thicktail of course), shootin' folk. Or alternatively paladin. I just really like the idea of a Merfolk who has decided she likes going around on land and kicking ass.
     
    Q99 said:
    Makes sense.

    Though honestly it's third-at-best in my desires. I'm partially thinking of a Ghoran Alchemist (yea, yea, -int bad for alchemy) or something who's traveling in part to find a way to make more Ghorans but . Also considering doing a Merfolk gunslinger. Just, like, walkin' on the tail (thicktail of course), shootin' folk. Or alternatively paladin. I just really like the idea of a Merfolk who has decided she likes going around on land and kicking ass.
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    Merfolk pyschic(as the PF class from the Occult guide).

    Sits in a wheelchair, and has a friend roll him/her around, until the merfolk can cast some sort of permanency spell to give them control of the wheelchair. Professor X!

    Plus, Create Mindscape is possibly one of the most OP spells in the game, and Psychics get it. Basically a no save Hold Person. As long as you have a friend with you, they can go get some serious damage in on the target of the Mindscape spell. you can also create harmful mindscapes, like lava and such, and just kill the person your holding, with mind magic.
     
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    The Imperator said:
    Merfolk pyschic(as the PF class from the Occult guide).

    Sits in a wheelchair, and has a friend roll him/her around, until the merfolk can cast some sort of permanency spell to give them control of the wheelchair. Professor X!
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    Nah, running around on the tail is part of the *fun*! Thicktail gets up to an acceptable move 15 feet. (Also, if you did have a wheelchair, there's, y'know, handpowering it like normal people ^^)

    And I've never been much of a psionics person. Maybe in the right campaign, but I like magic more.
     
    Q99 said:
    Nah, running around on the tail is part of the *fun*! Thicktail gets up to an acceptable move 15 feet. (Also, if you did have a wheelchair, there's, y'know, handpowering it like normal people ^^)

    And I've never been much of a psionics person. Maybe in the right campaign, but I like magic more.
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    I have no clue how DnD psionics works, but Pathfinder Psychic classes are Vancian casters just like Divine and Arcane casters, they just have a different subtype to their casting (so now there are three in Pathfinder: Arcane, Divine, and Psychic).

    Just as Divine Spells need a focus, and Arcane spells need hand motions, Psychic spells require specific emotions and thoughts.
     
    It's more flavor-wise. I normally don't have much instinct to go psi. Unless I was on Athas, that one continent of Eberron that uses psi, or maybe planescape.
     
    Ah, ok.

    I think they're a really interesting group of niches for Pathfinder, including the one that is obviously not Constantine/Dresden, and the obviously not Stand User.

    The classes are all fairly distinct flavorfully, which is nice.
     
    Has anyone read anything about the Vigilante - I don't have the leak myself, but apparently it's not!Batman and/or not!Zorro, work archetypes for being the hulk, a cult leader, a magical girl or a secretive Warlock. And one for being "Batman on a horse" because Paizo always needs to put out something to make Cavaliers feel bad.
     
    SpacePaladin said:
    Depends on what you mean. For example, in 5e, Favoured Souls get bonus spells based on the domain spells of a certain domain.
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    Oops, should've specified 'in pathfinder'.

    Like above, I was talking about doing a Merfolk character, maybe Paladin or such... but there's a cleric domain that grants +10 movement speed, which would be very helpful for a tail-traveling character, which'd suggest going Cleric, but I wonder what my options are.
     
    Q99 said:
    Oops, should've specified 'in pathfinder'.

    Like above, I was talking about doing a Merfolk character, maybe Paladin or such... but there's a cleric domain that grants +10 movement speed, which would be very helpful for a tail-traveling character, which'd suggest going Cleric, but I wonder what my options are.
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    Inquisitor and the Divine Hunter archetype of the Hunter also allow you a domain if I remember it right. ANd I think there is a variant of either the Sorcer or the Wizard for it.
     
    Aaron Peori said:
    Druids can get a limited selection.
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    They can? Interesting, didn't expect that.

    And it seems... Inquisitors can? But not Paladins or Warpriests.

    Scia said:
    Inquisitor and the Divine Hunter archetype of the Hunter also allow you a domain if I remember it right. ANd I think there is a variant of either the Sorcer or the Wizard for it.
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    *Research research research*

    Oooh, the Temple Champion Paladins!... which is a fairly weak choice since that requires giving up all spellcasting for it and Travel's associated blessings aren't the best, but remains a possibility... depends on what the rest of the players pick, I suppose. Hunter's not really my thing, but TC is quite useful.
     
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    Clerics get two domains (obviously) and domain spell slots, though many of their archetypes give up one of their domains.
    Druids can choose to get one domain and domain spell slots, though theirs is from a limited list.
    Inquisitors get access to one domain, though they do not gain domain spell slots.

    The Divine Hunter Archetype gets access to one domain, but no domain spell slots. However, they add their domain spells to their spells known.
    The Reliquarian Occultist Archetype gets access to one domain , but no domain slots. However, they add their domain spells to their spells known.
    The Sacred Servant Paladin Archetype gets access to one domain and gets domain spell slots.
    The Temple Champion Paladin Archetype gets access to the 1st-level power of one domain, but no further powers and no domain spells.

    The Emissary Familiar Archetypes can use the 1st-level power of one domain once per day.
    Anyone can access the 1st-level power of one domain and, at higher levels the second power of that domain, via variant multiclassing.

    So if you genuinely want to build around a domain, that's perfectly possible. Some have really really nice powers, after all.
     
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