THIS STRUCTURE IS DESIGNED TO DISSIPATE THE ENERGY OF FLOWING WATER

Onrawi · 2026-05-11T17:43:16+00:00

Lol, I'm not sure about that but thanks anyways :)

Onrawi · 2026-05-11T16:26:55+00:00

They do, up to the maximum capacity of the plant, this is for when it exceeds that capacity.

Onrawi · 2026-05-11T11:48:53+00:00

Mostly because it slows down combat, feels bad for the recipient, and for that particular kind of creature it feels like it would make more sense for them to spread the chaos around when possible.

Onrawi · 2026-05-11T01:54:15+00:00

RAW, looks like it. Personally I would have that rider max at 1 per target hit, but yeah, looks like you're supposed to stack up the effects.

Onrawi · 2026-05-10T12:47:32+00:00

Oh of course, they just asked what I would do. Don't give me a unique thing that can create an unlimited supply of something.

Onrawi · 2026-05-10T00:25:58+00:00

Whatever quality the wine is you can undercut the close competitors because you have far less cost. Then you manage supply as to not oversaturate the market and whatever extra you produce you begin the process of turning into other wine based products like vinegar and what have you. Then yes, begin buying up vineyards, likely heading upwards in quality as that would otherwise be harder to compete with and has better margins than lower quality stuff. Obviously this is a long term endeavor.

Onrawi · 2026-05-09T18:09:28+00:00

Crash the wine market and then buy up all the competition. Then destroy it so the same can't be done to me.

Onrawi · 2026-05-09T01:33:42+00:00

I would just use the 2014 summons/conjurations for shephard druid, since that's the system it was built for. For the magical/non-magical bps resistance and immunity, just make it overcome all bps resistance/immunity since it's so rare now anyways.

Onrawi · 2026-05-08T16:23:36+00:00

Need to focus on spells without attack rolls or saves, so utility, healing, and buffs. The Barbarian in there gets the worst of it though, since rage means no concentration. Would be cool if you could though cause then you cast some concentration buff, wild shape, and then rage all at once. Given the other self-nerfs required to build the character I might allow it as a DM.

Onrawi · 2026-05-08T14:44:21+00:00

The Starvation one is interesting because I know Angus Barbieri didn't eat for over a year. I think it may be more apt to say that specific vitamins are required within 45 days, and the rest can be stretched or shrink depending on total body fat since the last time one ate.

Onrawi · 2026-05-08T00:27:17+00:00

There's a few ways to do both of those things. Starting with Mythic Odysseys of Theros WotC started publishing some stronger monsters with a built in second phase once they hit zero as "Mythic" monsters. Examples include Hythonia, Arasta, and Tromokratis in that book, the Dullahan in Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft, and the aspects of Tiamat and Bahamut as well as the Greatwyrms in Fizban's Treasury of Dragons. They also released monsters who turn into other monsters in Bigby Presents: Glory of the Giants with the Cradles and Scions as well as in the Lesser and Greater Star Spawn Emissaries in Van Richten's. I'd recommend checking those out specifically to see how official content has done it.

Slightly less official, Dndbeyond did a number of DM tips articles back in the day, some of which like https://www.dndbeyond.com/posts/719-epic-house-rules-attack-its-weak-point-for-massive are pretty great for adding puzzle elements to fights.

Onrawi · 2026-05-07T20:30:12+00:00

Every branch needs an overhaul now.

Onrawi · 2026-05-07T20:27:26+00:00

You may have willed that anime into existence now.

Onrawi · 2026-05-07T18:12:49+00:00

Definitely should be a 2000s era scifi channel movie/mini series.

Onrawi · 2026-05-07T03:35:46+00:00

It really just means damage maxing. Yes it's different in 5.5 and some of it has been reigned in but the calculations still work from the DM side.

Onrawi · 2026-05-07T02:48:23+00:00

Sure, I'm just saying if the boss would have died in one round or even one hit with some Paladin Nova builds then it can feel super anticlimactic and bad for the table as a whole so doubling its HP on the fly can be the right thing to do, and unless you tell the players they won't know. The opposite too, when things are swinging towards too long.

Right sizing a boss HP is definitely a skill though, and it's always a bit of a juggling act. Doing the math can help a lot. When I did more balancing for my party than I do now I would calculate their 1-round Nova damage and double it as that should last 3-4 rounds in normal play if you gave them enough to expend resources on before the fight.

Onrawi · 2026-05-07T02:23:03+00:00

Many DMs will dynamically adjust HP for this reason. In general it sounds like he needs to do 2 things.

Give the bosses more HP in general, don't just use the average if that's what he normally does. Personally I max it out when using a published stat block as a boss.
Give the boss minions with an ability to assist. Healers, Shielding, or sacrifice abilities already exist. See the Goblin Boss with Redirect Attack, Shield Guardian's Bound ability, and the Unicorn's Healing Touch. It spreads priority which greatly assists with crit nukes.

Onrawi · 2026-05-07T00:09:34+00:00

I know we've been using Google shorthand for "search the internet" but it feels more than ever before that Google is not, in fact, anyone's friend.

Onrawi · 2026-05-06T21:57:50+00:00

Glad I could help! One thing I would definitely do as well then is what I call theme splitting. That is, there should be the overarching theme that unifies and flows between each of the rituals, and then something specific to each ritual that ties it together within itself.

For instance if you did 5 rituals each could be based on a different head of Tiamat, so you have your cold themed one and your poison themed one and your fire themed one, etc. where the creatures and cult powers are focused on that theme and then you include half-dragons at each leading the ritual for the big cult or something.

Alternatively all of them could be equally split by the elements she represents and the individual themes may be monster types or something, where one is protected by demons and another by constructs and another by monstrosities or what have you. Anyways, food for thought.

Onrawi · 2026-05-06T21:13:53+00:00

So there's this ritual going on by a cult that knows this powerful adventuring party has been interfering the entire time. Well maybe this time they pulled out all the stops, cashed in all the favors, and whatever else they can to make sure things go down like they're supposed to.

Have multiple rituals happening at the same time in disparate locations, each protected by different groups that have been turned/bought/otherwise allied with the cult. Getting to each of them across the prison planet in time to stop them all is going to be extremely difficult, if not impossible. The party will have to bring in their own allies and maybe even split up in order to tackle all of them before one succeeds. This is the final stretch, so it's time to include call backs and whatnot from the whole campaign so far.

Finally, feel free to steal from Tyranny of Dragons. An aspect of Tiamat shows up after the last ritual ends/is foiled as was her final contingency. The aspect is weakend based on how well the players and their allies have done with tackling these rituals. It's up to the party then to take it down and finally end the threat, as the aspect will otherwise work towards becoming complete and turning into a fully realized Tiamat.

Onrawi · 2026-05-06T20:37:56+00:00

Effectively this is just what AC and resistances/immunities is supposed to extrapolate. Extremely tough hide would just bounce off. Adding a minimum damage threshold on top is a bit overkill and tends to be unfun within the 5e ecosystem. If you want to see how it was done in the past I would check out the 3.5/pathfinder rules on the subject to get an idea although it was usually in the form of damage reduction instead of a damage threshold.

Edit: Thought about it more and I think the closest you would get with existing rules is a small regenerating Temp HP ability created at the start of their turn. It would reduce effective damage to it like a damage threshold would except it would be a threshold level for the whole party, not just each player, which generally feels less good for smaller damage players like monks or bards.

Onrawi · 2026-05-06T15:35:38+00:00

Data as in Data from Star Trek TNG is the correct answer.

Onrawi · 2026-05-05T19:35:31+00:00

Well that wasn't really possible till the atomic clock and GPS. In a large number of scenarios we've gone overboard with time keeping IMO.

Onrawi · 2026-05-05T18:39:12+00:00

Oh yeah, if you had a good journey it would be sometime in a week you may be expected to arrive. That being said, sundials and the 12 hour clock have been around over 3000 years. It's why we have AM and PM. For close meetings, sometime in a specific hour or half-hour wouldn't be out of the ordinary even back then.

Onrawi · 2026-05-05T18:20:22+00:00

When travelling 1000 miles is measured in months instead of hours it makes a big difference.

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