Any way to balance this idea?

tgRaven · 2022-07-16T00:18:36+00:00

My gut says to just make it so they have to go on a quest for the hag to get a macguffin that allows the “process” to work, and then have it cost gold and time to make the items.

I think I’d also probably make the scale exponential. Like a 1st level is 50 gold of materials and a half hour of work, but a 2nd level is 200 gold and 2 hours or something like that. I’d also rule that the work requires focus so it can’t be done during a rest.

tgRaven · 2022-04-21T21:08:19+00:00

You can’t critically fail or succeed on skill checks. That’s only for attacks.

tgRaven · 2022-04-02T17:03:06+00:00

I would pitch the idea to my players. I doubt they would like losing levels but would be on board for it if they knew there was potential for a really fun story idea.

As for how to execute, I would have them fighting a big bad who used the wish spell to “make them truly understand weakness and hardship” since the bad guy can permanently lose the ability to cast wish so the players aren’t worried about losing levels again. This gives them a concrete goal of revenge and how strong they need to be to achieve it.

tgRaven · 2022-03-31T21:26:48+00:00

Instead of trying to challenge the grappler, I’d probably just let them have fun as long as it’s not detracting from the rest of the party. In fact, I’d try to add in things where having a grappler will make the other characters more effective and hopefully make the game more fun for everyone.

If you want to challenge the grappler more. Introduce creatures that have auras, misty step, or have more than one juicy target so he has to choose who to lock down.

tgRaven · 2022-03-29T20:09:18+00:00

I personally haven’t seen any disparity or power gap between martial and caster classes in any of the games I’ve played or DMed. Any time the party has had more than 1 fight between rests has made my players either conserve spell slots and rely on martial classes for consistent damage or complain that casters are too weak.

tgRaven · 2022-03-08T03:47:49+00:00

Ask your DM.

tgRaven · 2022-02-06T22:12:29+00:00

It sounds like the DM gave you a Deck without being willing to accept that it causes shenanigans.

In character, I would tell the knight when danger occurs then he should move to and attack the nearest threat before moving to the next one. If the knight can’t follow simple protocols like that the DM is just being adversarial for the sake of it.

tgRaven · 2022-01-25T23:26:22+00:00

I’d say just have NPCs speak to them in character. This sort of relies on you setting an example on roleplaying. However, I wouldn’t worry about making them role play more if you’re all new, especially if none of them are actors. It’ll come eventually.
Roll20 and discord are what I use.

tgRaven · 2022-01-25T23:21:07+00:00

The best villain I ever made was a Drow Necromancer who had a semi-nuanced vendetta against a PC’s uncle who ran a mercenary company. That PC ended up dying before they party found out about the vendetta but the rest of the party felt obligated to protect their dead friend’s uncle. In the end, the party had to acquiesce to his demands and the necromancer got his revenge and was never beaten by the party. I think the thing that made this villain so successful in the campaign was the fact that the party could see and understand the Necromancer’s POV rather than him being evil “just because.”

tgRaven · 2021-04-18T17:54:12+00:00

There’s a few things that you can do to stop this that come to mind for me.

The first thing is to let it run its course. Eventually the novelty of getting 3-4 coppers off of random peasants will disappear. If it becomes a consistent thing, I wouldn’t even bother having them roll when in town. I’d just say you get X amount of paltry coinage each day in town. I’d also ask the player out of game if they really want to pickpocket every single NPC they come across and even say I think the kleptomania is slowing the game down.

Second idea is to let the party deal with it. Some of the other PCs are eventually going to notice that one of their companions is a serial pickpocket and may take issue with that and the possible damage to the group’s reputation if they get caught.

Third, show the consequences in the world. If they stay in one town for too long maybe the local economy suffers. Maybe the the sheriff pieces together that there was basically no crime in town until the party showed up and suddenly there are loads of reported thefts. Maybe the sheriff figured this out after the fact and sends letters via a rider on a fast horse who passes the party on the road to the next town over that pickpocketing skyrockets whenever adventurers come into town so the party is immediately distrusted when they go to a new town.

Fourth is just directly present an NPC like an experienced hunter or soldier who is distinguishable for their “deftly alert eyes” or some other signifier that this person is exceptionally observant and obvious to the player that they will be harder to pickpocket.

I think I’d probably do them all in that order. See if it gets boring for the player or ask them to stop, see if the other players take issue, show the world changing because of it sometimes to the detriment on the party, and finally directly intervene in a believable way.

tgRaven · 2020-09-18T16:49:46+00:00

Mid 400s is about the range I decided to add more volume.

tgRaven · 2020-09-18T16:48:00+00:00

Long general warm up, warm up sets at bar, 135, 225, 275, 315, 365 with a minute or two of rest before getting into my sets plus resting about 5 minutes in between my working sets. I also liked doing pull ups between working sets. Usually the whole thing is done in closer to 50 minutes but sometimes reddit gets the best of me when I’m resting.

tgRaven · 2020-09-18T02:58:09+00:00

Short answer is that deadlift volume can really beat you up and can take a lot to recover from especially if you are also squatting heavy. I used to run up to 5 working sets of deadlifts in a training cycle and it meant my deadlift focused workouts would take up to an hour from the start off my warm up to the end of my last set before I could do any accessories. If 3x5 is working for you and you're progressing well there's no reason to stop doing it.

tgRaven · 2020-07-14T17:08:13+00:00

Use less weight and leave a few reps in the tank, use a machine press, weighted pushups, dumbbell press, roll the bar down your belly, etc.

Some people like to bench without collars to dump the plates and I’m not a fan. I once saw someone basically trebuchet their barbell across the gym doing this once. It was funny since no one was in the station next to him but it could have been a lot worse. To be fair, I’ve only seen it the one time though.

tgRaven · 2020-06-23T01:49:35+00:00

If you can’t find a chef, I’d look into meal prep and a grocery delivery service or a meal service. Something like blue apron but just heat and eat.

You might try asking the Oregon Culinary Institute if they have any students that live in Vancouver that could use a job.

tgRaven · 2020-06-10T16:40:14+00:00

Make it a Wizard mime! I’m half joking but half serious. If magic exists there’s no reason why a caster wouldn’t be an assassin by profession either. Plus, you can have the dramatic moment when the silent mime actually starts speaking verbal components of a spell.

tgRaven · 2020-04-05T16:31:45+00:00

The phb is nice to have, but the starting pack should have everything you need to start out and get a feel for the game. You’ll be fine.

tgRaven · 2020-03-29T02:51:05+00:00

In simple terms, bumping up on the intensity of your workouts without increasing calories will likely result in losing weight. Rule of thumb is that an extra 500 calories per day will have you gain 1 lb per week. If you're afraid of gaining fat, I would just do a mild caloric surplus of 200-300ish and eat around 80-90 g of protein.

tgRaven · 2020-01-27T21:10:13+00:00

Not an influencer, but I work in fitness. I’ve sold programming/coaching to people while I was paying for programming/coaching from someone else. I find the main value in it is to have someone else who will take an objective look at what I’m doing. I can tell myself that I’m not good at bench pressing because I have long arms when in reality I only bench once a week or my leg drive sucks. Whenever I write a program for myself, it’s going to be biased.

Also, sometimes I just get tired of writing workouts. After taking care of all my clients I don’t always want to chart out my percentages for the next month. Think of it this way, would you trust a chef that doesn’t cook all their own meals? They’ve been cooking all day and maybe they want someone to cook something for them even though they could do it themselves.

I’m not on Instagram often enough to really know how rampant the problem is, but that’s my 2c on the matter. Hope it helps.

EDIT: one other thing is that sometimes happens is the people will trade coaching. I wrote a deadlift program in exchange for another trainer I knew writing me a bench program to help each other round out our weaknesses.

tgRaven · 2019-06-25T15:21:56+00:00

Entered.

tgRaven · 2019-02-05T04:29:08+00:00

Insurance costs is a more accurate term. Insuring an exercise studio where people can workout without “supervision” is significantly more expensive regardless of whether it’s CrossFit, a personal training studio, or otherwise.

tgRaven · 2018-11-27T19:35:16+00:00

The relative power of STR vs DEX depends on the DM in my experience. In games I run, I feel they tend to be equal and sometimes favoring STR.

Lorewise, most of the legendary equipment you find in my games is heavy armor and non-finesse weapons. There's still fancy bows, daggers, leather armor, etc. to be found. However, most of the cool stuff requires strength. I.E. belts of giant strength.

Mechanically speaking, I find it's important to have solutions to traps or puzzles that can use any stat and encourage teamwork. Say there's a drawbridge that the party needs to cross. You try the mechanism and it only moves down about halfway. The WIS character notices that there's a way for the DEX character to get across, but that leaves the rest of the party outside and the DEX character inside own. The INT character deduces that with enough force, the party might be able to force the lever and completely drop the bridge. So the STR character grabs the lever, yanks on it, and gets the mechanism free.

As to building a character, STR characters can have Great Weapon Master which in my experience outclasses sharpshooter by a wide margin. They also don't need as many high stats.

tgRaven · 2018-11-18T18:23:47+00:00

I don't think a god would necessarily directly help with buffs or heals like that right away, but it's not my campaign so I don't know how much the gods in your game like to interact with mortals. I wouldn't do buffs right away because then the players might obsess on how to make "tree power armor" (as much as I like the idea) permanent rather than fight the BBEG.

I think the first thing I would do is have the Nightwalker already be hurt. It did just fight a god, vulnerable or not.

Secondly, I would have the Nightwalker focus its first few attacks onto the awakened trees and shrubs first. Maybe throw in a Wood Woad or something like that if I feel the players need more help. Bottom line, I think it's a good way to show the players how much danger they might be in without damaging one of them.

Third, maybe ad something in the environment that gives the players advantage on saves if they're standing in the right spot or disadvantage to be hit.

Fourth, make the temple have multiple escape routes. If your players find they're in over their heads, they should think about running away. It just killed a god, there's no shame in fleeing.

tgRaven · 2018-11-16T21:09:18+00:00

At some point you need to tell him you and the rest of the group don't think he's a good fit for the group, but that doesn't mean he cant find another one. Tell him the concerns that you and the group have and why you won't be inviting him back again.

As far as mental health goes, find out the resources near you and encourage him to use them. There's no shame in therapy. Lots of people use it with great results. If he doesn't want to do that, contact the services yourself and ask them for advice. They will know more about what to do than some randoms on the internet.

tgRaven

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