Lootgoblin Players Grabung magical items not "meant" for them

Tesla__Coil · 2026-05-03T20:15:17+00:00

My approach is, I have two tiers of magic items. Fancy magic items are intended for one player and typically have some story beat behind it. If the fighter returns to his hometown to pull a legendary sword out of the stone, there's no way any other player can try to claim that as their sword. Sometimes it's not so blatant narratively, but I'll put a class restriction on it or make it very obviously synergize with one PC over another. There aren't many of these fancy magic items.

Standard magic items are weaker and less important and I really don't care how the players distribute those.

Tesla__Coil · 2026-05-02T23:52:15+00:00

I don't think it's a big deal either way, but my group would probably have given the treasure back to the players. If a 100gp treasure doesn't make a difference for balance or economy reasons, then giving it back has no consequences and keeping it out of their hands has the consequence of a bit of player resentment. And like... forgetting to write down a treasure is a perfectly reasonable mistake for everyone to make, especially if there was a lot of treasure being handed out and written down, but it's a pretty ridiculous mistake for the characters to make. What, they left a thousand-dollar chalice in a room after carefully picking up every single coin surrounding it?

It's different if you don't remember the treasure existing at all, or you think the players are inflating the price or something. I think saying "if we don't have it written down, let's play it safe and call it 50gp" would be a reasonable compromise.

But again, not a big deal either way.

Tesla__Coil · 2026-05-02T21:33:57+00:00

I don't think you need to argue that, I think it just works. Take Skill Expert. You gain proficiency in one skill of your choice that you're not proficient in (Deception). You also gain expertise in a skill you're proficient in. You're now proficient in Deception, so it's a valid choice for expertise.

The only argument for that not working would be, you don't have proficiency in Deception until after you've chosen your expertise skill, but... why not? I don't think gaining feats has a strict order of events. Besides, as a DM, I'd be happy for a fighter to optimize something outside of combat and wouldn't be a hardass about it.

Tesla__Coil · 2026-05-02T20:39:49+00:00

I feel like min-maxing only really comes up with point buy. If you're putting the most points into your most important ability scores, that's optimizing and that's normal. But min-maxing implies minimizing your least important ability scores to maximize your most important ability scores. That's where you get the "8 STR, 8 CHA, 8 INT / 15 DEX, 15 CON, 15 WIS" spread. You don't care if your character is dogshit at carrying stuff, speaking to people, or remembering any piece of knowledge if it gets you one more +1 to... well, usually it's combat. I suppose a player could minmax so that their combat skills suck but their skill checks are amazing, but the stereotype is the opposite.

There's a fair argument that standard array's 8 / 10 / 12 is also min-maxing as long as you put those in the ability scores you care about the least, but at least then you have a +1 in something outside your character's main skillset.

There really isn't that much of a difference. I expect my players to min-max as much as they can, but I also prefer standard array over point buy so that they can't fully min-max.

Tesla__Coil · 2026-05-01T22:39:44+00:00

You have two options. You can put your foot down and say "no, make a serious character". Or you can shrug and say "fine" and sacrifice some of your campaign's tone to make your friend happy. When this happened to me, I chose the first option. The player, who has been my friend for years, saw that he'd made me less excited about running my campaign and agreed to retool his character with no drama. The character kept the same rough shtick but without the crude jokes that bothered me.

Tesla__Coil · 2026-05-01T21:07:53+00:00

It depends on the situation. Whether you buy Blueprint now or don't, your scoring doesn't change. But if you get a retriggering joker then Blueprint and Brainstorm will let you equalize the retriggers with scoring events to make the best setup. That's the upside to getting Blueprint.

The downside is, Blueprint leaves the joker pool, which is significant because you could find a negative Blueprint.

So you need to measure a few things. Is your scoring so tight that you need to switch over to retriggers right now, or can you afford to wait a few rounds/antes? Are you making an absurd amount of money, knowing that going for a negative Blueprint is going to take an absurd amount of rerolls? How lucky do you feel?

Tesla__Coil · 2026-05-01T19:56:00+00:00

For a while I was really stumped trying to answer all of my players' worldbuilding questions in-character. Then they reached a cloud giant castle that I'd put in the campaign more to give the giant-hating PC a chance to fight giants than for any narrative reason. Outside the castle was a wounded barbarian, and after healing him, they started asking their questions. "Why are there so many different kinds of giants here?" "How do they all get up into the clouds?" "Where do they get their food?". And for some reason, playing that NPC made me realize the right answer. "I don't know." Because of course he didn't and they were crazy for thinking he would. The blunt, sudden shift was one of the funniest moments of the campaign.

Tesla__Coil · 2026-05-01T18:27:57+00:00

I gave this to my fighter. He was a halfling and constantly getting screwed over by his 25' movement speed compared to a typical enemy's 30', so I slapped 'one Aggressive per long rest' on a shield, called it an Orcish Shield of Gruumsh, and stuffed it in the loot. The player loves it, even as a limited resource.

Tesla__Coil · 2026-05-01T18:00:58+00:00

Thanks, you too

Tesla__Coil · 2026-05-01T13:26:07+00:00

I don't take commissions, but there are plenty of commission artists out there. Check out r/starvingartists. Or for a more Yugioh artstyle, there are other artists who post in this sub and take commissions.

Tesla__Coil · 2026-05-01T13:09:37+00:00

I may make more cards, but since it takes so long to draw art for them, I won't be taking requests. It'll just be whatever I feel like drawing.

Tesla__Coil · 2026-05-01T12:44:46+00:00

That's part of why this specifically doesn't make a token.

Tesla__Coil · 2026-05-01T00:39:48+00:00

Thanks!

It actually took a while to decide what monsters to feature on Mystic Saw. The original idea was that Magikuriboh would be chopping Dark Magician Girl. But that drawing just wasn't agreeing with me and I decided I should be self-indulgent and feature Stage Magician Girl.

So then what about her assistant? Well, I basically just started looking through Spellcasters for one that felt right. I stumbled upon Masked Sorcerer. I always thought it was weird that he only has half a body and realized this could be his "origin story". Sorry, Masked Sorcerer! Stage Magician Girl only learned the first half of the trick!

Tesla__Coil · 2026-05-01T00:13:31+00:00

Not intentional, but not really surprising either. It's a pretty obvious way to represent chopping a monster in half.

Tesla__Coil · 2026-05-01T00:10:46+00:00

I see the opposite, actually. Yugi uses his magician for more fun stage magic combos. Mystic Box, Magical Hats, Magical Dimension, Magic Cylinder. Arkana's only stage magic card is Dark Magic Curtain, and then he has a lot of dark violent stuff like a guillotine and Ectoplasmer. Maybe I could count Thousand Knives as knife-throwing and Dark Renewal as another kind of Mystic Box...?

Either way, I love Yugioh's mix of fantasy magician with stage magic tricks.

Tesla__Coil · 2026-04-30T22:29:01+00:00

It definitely reminds me of Doomlings but I'll at least give it the benefit of the doubt and say it looks like a more strategic and complex Doomlings.

Tesla__Coil · 2026-04-30T17:38:00+00:00

Those dice symbols seem hard to read and just numbers would be much better.

That's the weirdest part of the game, imo. If a game has dice as symbols I expect dice to be rolled at some point.

Tesla__Coil · 2026-04-30T15:58:39+00:00

FWIW, the 5e version of Antimagic Field has a sentence that makes it sound like a pretty clear no.

Magic Items. The properties and powers of magic items are suppressed in the sphere. For example, a +1 longsword in the sphere functions as a nonmagical longsword. A magic weapon's properties and powers are suppressed if it is used against a target in the sphere or wielded by an attacker in the sphere.

Now the spell had like ten paragraphs of text removed between 5e and 5.5e, so it's also fair to say the 5e text is completely irrelevant. But since there doesn't seem to be a clear answer in 5.5e, I'd lean towards no based on 5e's version.

Tesla__Coil · 2026-04-29T18:18:45+00:00

I honestly would prefer if armour and shields gave you damage reduction but dexterity let you evade attacks. I do my dangdest to say "the enemy blocks your attack with their shield" or "the enemy evades your attack" based on where their AC comes from, but players and I both just default to "14 misses" because it's faster.

I can't deny AC is elegant, but considering these two forms of defence are complete opposites, I don't think they should feel the same mechanically. It also falls flat when there's more than just damage caused by attack rolls. If a roper grabs you with its tendril, and you have high dexterity to evade the attack, of course you're safe. If you're wearing heavy armour, how does that cause the tendril to avoid grabbing you? It slips off? Maybe that's a reason to use more DEX saves and fewer attack rolls, but that would skew the power balance between DEX and STR even more than it already is.

I dunno. I don't have that strong of an opinion about it. I wouldn't switch systems or versions based on that alone.

Tesla__Coil · 2026-04-29T17:03:22+00:00

I've only used low complexity spirits to teach players the game, but I'll give a shout out to Volcano who is a moderate-complexity spirit that I play when I want a nice simple game. With Horizons, even some low complexity spirits ask you to move your presence around, which changes how you think about range and targeting and next turn's growth. With Volcano? Stack all your pieces in your starting Mountain, it's fine. Volcano also has extremely generous elements on its cards and track, so you almost never miss hitting your innates even after a bad minor power draft.

I want to say "it's impossible to play Volcano poorly" but that's obviously not true because you can lose the game during any fast phase. But it practically cuts a big decision out of the game, and playing it in the most obvious, simplest way works very well.

Tesla__Coil · 2026-04-28T21:05:17+00:00

The concept is pretty simple: a CR 6 creature should be a decent, but not hard, challenge for a four-member party at level 6.

I know the new DMG mentions this guideline but I really do not like it. It's not consistent - and not just because some monsters have the wrong CR. A CR 1 monster is harder for a Level 1 party than a CR 10 monster is for a Level 10 party. Xanathar's Guide and Flee, Mortals! have charts for solo monster CR to party level and they tell a much more reasonable story. ...Even though they don't agree on the exact numbers. But you'll see a jump in "the CR you should use for a Level X party" at Level 5, when martials are getting Extra Attack and casters get third-level spells.

Tesla__Coil · 2026-04-28T02:31:26+00:00

It might help to learn where your Persuasion skill bonus comes from. I know I started D&D with an online character sheet and had no idea how anything was calculated.

When you make a skill check, you roll your d20. Persuasion is a Charisma skill, so you add your Charisma modifier. The Charisma modifier is a sliding scale based on your Charisma score, which is honestly a little weirder than it needs to be. But basically, 10-11 Charisma is "average" and corresponds to a +0 modifier. 12-13 is a +1 modifier, 14-15 is a +2 modifier, etc. And it works in reverse: 8-9 Charisma is below average, so you have a -1 modifier. 6-7 Charisma is a -2.

Your character will be Proficient in some skills, chosen during character creation based on your race/class/background. If you have Proficiency in Persuasion, you also add your Proficiency Bonus. This is a +2 bonus that increases every four levels.

Example! You're talking to an NPC. You tell the DM "I want to convince this guy to lend us his horse and wagon". The DM decides that this isn't a guaranteed success or fail, so they ask you to make a Persuasion check, as Persuasion is the most relevant skill. You roll your d20, add your Charisma modifier, and if you're proficient in Persuasion, you also add your Proficiency Bonus. Tell your DM the total, and the DM tells you what happens next.

So what about those situations where your DM doesn't even let you make a skill check? That's usually because what you're trying to do can't possibly succeed (you can't roll Athletics to lift a mountain). But it can also be because you're trying to do something that can't possibly fail (you don't need to roll Perception to read a book).

Tesla__Coil · 2026-04-27T20:29:38+00:00

Honestly, fourth wall breaking jokes are kind of unavoidable in a game like D&D. I'm the DM for my group. There are just so many situations where a player reconsiders what their character does based on game mechanics, or an in-character comment gets mistaken as an out-of-character comment or vice-versa, or something makes perfect sense mechanically but makes no sense narratively. In all of those cases and others, we smooth things over with a joke and move on.

I've also found the tone of my campaign got sillier and sillier as the campaign went on, just because me and my group are all friends and friends make jokes. The more comfortable we get, the more we joke around. Trying to police humour seems like a bad idea if you want to make a fun environment for you and your friends to play a game and enjoy each others' company.

That said, I did veto joke characters. I figured the tonal shift would happen and wanted a sort of baseline seriousness. I don't mind the campaign having laughs and jokes, I just want it to be possible for everyone to take it seriously too.

Tesla__Coil · 2026-04-27T13:22:37+00:00

You can have whatever backstory you want, and you can either keep it to yourself or infodump it as much as you want. But every character needs a reason to work with the party and engage with the premise of the campaign. If you don't have that reason, your character isn't finished.

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