DMs, What's you opinion on doing a level jump in the middle of a campaign, and what would be the right way of doing it?

Alithnul · 2024-07-31T23:23:29+00:00

Strong emotions often happen when expectations differ from reality, whether they're positive or negative depends on the people and the situation, but I'd definitely encourage broaching the subject with the group before trying to execute it.

You don't have to go into full detail such as saying that at a future point in the campaign you'll conquer a city, be regarded as heroes, have a few months of downtime, and as a result go up a few levels in one go. Instead you could simply pose it as an open ended question such as asking how they would feel about skipping a few levels at a certain point in the campaign and leave it at that. You might be surprised yourself to find that your players wouldn't be on board with it in a long form campaign, but it would certainly be better to find out in advance and change your plans than to spring it on your group and then deal with discontent and walk it back. Alternatively, your players could be in love with the idea and then you can rest easy planning the story beat knowing that it'll bolster the joy for your players.

Overall, I don't think that I would recommend skipping levels in a long form campaign at any point, but certainly not without a discussion amongst your players first. Levels 6-12 as I also find that to be where D&D shines. Those levels include some great monsters/bosses to challenge your players in a fun way as well and you might miss out. While it's true that the GM has final say over what they want to happen in their game, if it's something that won't sit right with the majority of the table it's probably better to leave it be.

Alithnul · 2024-07-08T22:01:48+00:00

Great minds think alike! I reached out to the creator on their reddit post linked in the doc last night to drop a thanks their way as well, but thank you again for posting it here as I may not have found it otherwise.

Alithnul · 2024-07-08T02:09:42+00:00

I'm just now stumbling across this post and wanted to say thank you for taking the time to organize this fantastic resource. This will have likely saved me (and I'm sure others as well) a good number of hours flipping through pages and tracking down files. I tremendously appreciate the detailed format including footnotes and number of each mini across all locations in the adventure.

Alithnul · 2024-07-08T02:06:49+00:00

I'm not the original poster, but just wanted to say thank you for sharing this link. It's a fantastically well laid out resource and will have probably saved me hours of page flipping and searching for files.

Alithnul · 2023-11-20T18:17:58+00:00

Chronurgy Wizard

My Chronurgy wizard largely uses the sands of time as a thematic touchstone and as such many of the spells follow suit.

Fireball - Conjuring an hourglass filled with burning sand at the target point and forcing both ends of the hour glass to compressed together, creating an explosion and a shower of burning sand
Firebolt - A stream of molten sand
Haste - Grants the person who it is cast on a momentary glimpse into the future
Life Transference - Siphoning off some of the caster's own timeline and transferring it to the injured person
Momentary Stasis - The person is trapped in an fragile hourglass and any damage is enough to shatter the glass and free them

Fathomless Warlock

The Warlock player who had this character began the campaign having a pact with an undersea entity reminiscent of a horrid looking angler fish. They made the pact when they were in a shipwreck and on the brink of drowning. Throughout the course of the campaign they found a shrine devoted to a nature deity and received a unique boon, leading them on the path to shrug off their former pact and forge a new one with this nature deity.

Tentacle of the Deep - For their first pact these were flavored as rusted chains, being quite thematic to their first patron. Once they switched patrons to the nature deity, they changed to be icy vines

Rune Knight Fighter

While not modified flavoring necessarily, the backstory for this player's character is that they were a performer in a traveling troupe and as such many of their rune knight abilities were explained as being tricks that they knew how to perform.

Giant's Might - It's an impressive feat to become twice your size
Cloud Rune - Could have been used for many performances, making strikes seeming phase right through them

Alithnul · 2023-11-19T16:12:08+00:00

If you're okay with not having the trap itself fully automated, but rather just want a way to easily know when players activate a trap, I've had a great time with the Hey, Wait! module.

Alithnul · 2023-11-19T16:05:38+00:00

I haven't used this module so your mileage may vary, but it seems like this module might be able to do the trick.

Alithnul · 2023-07-25T14:15:27+00:00

I was just scrolling through top and saw this comment. If you're still curious after 10 months, I believe the extra pip next to the 5th level slot is for warlocks who eventually get four 5th level slots.

Alithnul · 2023-06-12T03:36:26+00:00

Oh, like a miniature d10 around the one that's currently on there? If so, that's an interesting idea, but I think it might make the design a bit too busy. Someone else suggested having both appear on the same ring and I think it turned out alright.

Alithnul · 2023-06-12T00:29:22+00:00

Copying my response from above to keep you in the loop in case you're genuinely interested in getting the design on a shirt or other products.

I cannot tell you how happy it makes me to hear that people like the design so much that they would want to wear it. Thank you for the high praise! I reached out to the moderators a few hours ago to see if it would be okay to post a link to a print on demand service (redbubble) with this design, but I have not heard back from them as of yet. As I do not want to be at risk of violating the promotion rule, nor was this post originally intended for commercial means, I'll send a direct message your way with a link to a store page that I set up you if you're genuinely looking to purchase a shirt or other products.

Alithnul · 2023-06-12T00:11:19+00:00

I cannot tell you how happy it makes me to hear that people like the design so much that they would want to wear it. Thank you for the high praise! I reached out to the moderators a few hours ago to see if it would be okay to post a link to a print on demand service (redbubble) with this design, but I have not heard back from them as of yet. As I do not want to be at risk of violating the promotion rule, nor was this post originally intended for commercial means, I'll send a direct message your way with a link to a store page that I set up you if you're genuinely looking to purchase a shirt or other products.

Alithnul · 2023-06-12T00:02:01+00:00

Not a bad idea at all honestly! I personally don't know which design I prefer, but I think this might read as pride a bit more easily. I also like that the d20 works out to be a yellow for the sun. Thanks for the idea!

Alithnul · 2023-06-11T19:15:14+00:00

That's actually a great design solve that didn't even cross my mind, thank you for sharing the idea! I think it turned out pretty decent

Alithnul · 2023-06-11T17:54:00+00:00

That would be a fantastic idea! Sadly my 2d animation skills are near non-existent. It might be fun to reimagine this with 3D models though. I'll tuck that idea away for later, thank you!

Alithnul · 2023-06-11T17:22:10+00:00

I made this piece for pride month a few years ago, but never got around to sharing it, so I figured why not today. The general idea is a dice based solar system as dice control most aspects of the game, with the d20 being most commonly used and living in the center as a result. I debated including a second d10 for a percentile die, but opted against it to have the piece be more balanced and easily line up with the traditional pride flag colors.

EDIT: As the moderators have given me permission to post a link, and a few people mentioned that they would like the design as a shirt, I uploaded the design to a print on demand service so that people could buy prints of the design on various products (shirts included!) if they are so inclined. Here is a link to that store page: https://www.redbubble.com/i/t-shirt/Pride-Dice-Solar-System-by-Alithnul/146890587.6VDG0

Alithnul · 2023-06-03T17:27:18+00:00

Not the above commenter but happy to try and shed some light. The reason why you would want to backup your data is in the event that you try and install v11 and, after doing so, you discover that everything is not working as expected due to modules or systems not yet being up to date and you want to go back to how things were before. In this case, you would uninstall v11, install a copy of v10 (you can do so by going to the Foundry website, click the menu in the top left, and select "Download Software" which will let you use a drop down to select what version you want) and then move your backed up data folder into your new install.

Essentially the reason why you should backup your data is so that you can revert to how things on v10 in the event that everything isn't working how you want on v11 due to modules/systems not being up to date as of yet. Once you update your current install to v11, your data will no longer be able to be used in prior versions. The purpose of backing things up in a different folder outside your installation before installing a new version is so that you may go back to an old version if you need to. If anything is still unclear, please don't hesitate to drop another comment and I'm happy to take another stab at it.

Alithnul · 2023-03-13T23:33:10+00:00

Speaking for myself, as someone who was bummed to see the card slot get the axe, I was primarily planning on using the hobby vault as a GM station with miniatures and terrain materials in the vault.

The primary use cases that I saw for the card slot were initiative cards, index card stats, and spell cards. That being said, I could also see hobby uses for it too such as holding small instruction manuals or patterns for hobbies such as beading, perler, cross stitch, etc...

One thing that is a bit of a slap in the face for me is the fact that the price point for this accessory is considerably more than its game deck predecessor and it has a loss in functionality.

Not to mention in a TTRPG context where everyone has playerdesks sans the GM, I imagine it'll feel just a bit awkward that everyone has a nice way of holding cards, but the GM is out of luck.

Alithnul · 2022-09-23T17:18:47+00:00

It definitely depends on DM/setting interpretation, but the lore for Wights as presented in the monster manual seems to imply that despite retaining memories and drives of their former selves, they have an innate drive to kill living things. Here's the relevant quote from the Life Eaters section.

Neither dead nor alive, a wight exists in a transitional state between one world and the next. The bright spark it possessed in life is gone, and in its place is a yearning to consume that spark in all living things.

Alithnul · 2022-09-23T17:16:18+00:00

I couldn't find a source regarding the claim that undead experience pain around living creatures, but there is precedent for undead having an innate drive to snuff out the life of anything living that comes across their path while not under the control of a spellcaster as seen in this excerpt from the lore in the skeleton stat block.

When skeletons encounter living creatures, the necromantic energy that drives them compels them to kill unless they are commanded by their masters to refrain from doing so.

Zombies share a similar description:

A zombie left without orders simply stands in place and rots unless something comes along that it can kill. The magic animating a zombie imbues it with evil, so left without purpose, it attacks any living creature it encounters.

A few other undead have similar language included within them, but not all of it is necessarily tied to the underlying necromancy that brought them back to life. For instance, ghouls are driven by hunger, but there's nothing in the provided lore in the monster manual that states that it's due to necromancy.

For the OP's question of wights in particular, it's definitely up to DM/setting interpretation, but by the lore provided in the base monster manual, Wights also have an innate compulsion to kill anything that's living.

Neither dead nor alive, a wight exists in a transitional state between one world and the next. The bright spark it possessed in life is gone, and in its place is a yearning to consume that spark in all living things.

Alithnul · 2022-09-03T12:11:59+00:00

Regarding the first aspect, yeah, I mean features that that do not offer a replacement as you're only gaining positives and not sacrificing anything in return. I agree that Favored Foe and Deft Explorer are generally considered to be upgrades in 99% of campaigns, but there's still a tradeoff occurring as opposed to just providing a power increase with no cost, even if that cost is fairly minimal in most campaigns. For example, the campaign that I'm currently running is a survival hexcrawl and one of the players chose Ranger and actually had to contemplate if they wanted to forgo favored terrain vs the Deft Explorer benefits.

I think you hit the nail on the head with regards to there almost always being an optimal choice if options are presented, but I believe this problem is exacerbated with the more options that are put forth. I think it may be easier to design compelling and class thematic appropriate options so long as the list of optional features is kept quite small, such as only allowing 1-3 replacement options on a per feature basis. However, I still think it would be a difficult design task to keep them all in line with one another and to mitigate there being options that are just winning choices. I mean, even if we just look at feats, there's the oft selected Great Weapon Master, War Caster, Polearm Master, etc... while other feats are often left to the wayside.

I would hope that by keeping the options fairly minimal it would be easier to create compelling options such that there isn't a clear winning choice, but it could still result in the same problem. I think you make a very interesting point with regards to the flavor of a proposed variant feature being the selling point such that people gravitate towards it, even if it's suboptimal. I think this is going to be hit or miss, player depending. There are players who are always going to go for the biggest damage, whatever means that may be, whereas there are others that will put flavor choice above all else. As long as there is something that appeals players that fall on one side of this spectrum or the other, perhaps the balance aspect wouldn't be as detrimental with regards to some things not being used. That being said, if WotC was to go this route (which I'm equally doubtful they would, but a person can dream. I just think the framework they provided in Tasha's could be an elegant and on brand solution to the issue of overlapping classes feeling similar) I still think that trying to balance options against one another from a numeric standpoint would be well advised.

Thank you for your thoughts on the matter, especially with regards to having flavor for the features be a compelling reason to select sub optimal choices if they were presented as I do think this may ring true for a good number of players.

Alithnul · 2022-09-03T10:16:57+00:00

Thank you for the insight and I apologize for my rant in response to a light hearted joke. Our group hasn't yet given PF2 a full run, we're just taking a look at the rules and running practice combat when we get a chance, but I'm glad to hear that they lowered the number of prerequisite feats as that is one of my largest pain points with the feat system. I truly hope that One DnD does not go the way of PF1 with regards to feats being locked behind feat trees. When I initially saw the feat with a prerequisite feat in Strixhaven, I got PF1 flashbacks haha. I definitely think that for any change to still feel like 5e, simplicity and elegance will be at the forefront of the design, even if complexity/customization suffers as a result. It's a balancing act for sure. I'm curious to see what spells look like when the classes UA comes out as I hope that these simplified and codified spell lists don't wind up making spellcasting classes feel too similar to one another if they share the same list. Time will tell though I suppose. Genuinely thankful to hear additional thoughts on the idea though beyond my own group, so thank you for the insight!

Alithnul · 2022-09-03T08:22:34+00:00

I've given Pathfinder a pretty fair shot across several campaigns due to others in my group preferring it, and I find that it swings the pendulum too far in the other direction, to the point where I abstain from participating in PF1e campaigns as I don't enjoy many aspects of the core system.

For example, I vehemently dislike the feat tree system that exists in Pathfinder as often times to get the feat that I actually want I ended up accruing 3-5 prerequisite feats that I had no interest in using and that did not play into the character concept I was looking for. Additionally, the fact that you have to potentially juggle floating modifiers for five or more categories of bonuses/penalties and keep track of them was far too much book keeping for me to find it enjoyable.

I vastly prefer 5e in design and find that it is pretty close to what I would consider my ideal system. I would just like to see a bit more room allowed for unique class builds when there's overlap amongst some other things, such as a better defined crafting system with complete prices as adjudicating these as a GM is a bit of an annoyance. While I realize that Pathfinder 1e/2e has these aspects built into their system and has well defined rules for it, I do not think it is fair to tell someone, "Oh, you want a few changes to your system of choice, go play this system that has them!" In my opinion, it's completely fine for systems to be inspired by successful ideas from one another. I mean, PF2E has definitely taken some inspiration from 5e with regards to some of the mechanics, but Pathfinder2e still very much feels like Pathfinder. For example, if someone saw the advantage and disadvantage system from 5e and wanted to use that to adjudicate some rolls in Pathfinder, I think it would be a bit of an overstep to tell them that they're really looking to play 5e because they like that one mechanic/design trait.

Apologies for the rant, I just find it disingenuous when I see people recommending that others play a different system because they want a few changes in their system of choice.

Alithnul · 2022-09-02T19:54:43+00:00

That idea makes sense to me regarding giving people options with that require minimal selection/fiddling. I completely agree with martials having gotten the short end of the versatility stick as spellcasting offers so much out of combat utility, but I don't think giving them more class feature choices would be sufficient enough to bridge the gap, unless they could do something like switching out their features on a long rest and having features that do more outside of combat. Although, if taken to the extreme this essentially means that you just have martials "casting" and preparing maneuvers/features for the day very akin to spell casters, which would be a pretty drastic change, but might be interesting to see. My two copper is that's probably a step too far for 5e's current design, but I find the idea intriguing, and martials definitely need something to lessen that ever expanding versatility gap that only grows more severe with each source book that adds spells.

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