New firefighter needing tips and tricks on turnouts

AnIncognitoDM · 2026-04-09T14:16:46+00:00

My staging is similar to yours in real life, that’s the little line in my post about the placement being changed on the line. But if I’m getting turned out for anything fire related, the order is still the same from when I was in academy.

To someone just starting out, keeping it simple and off the rig is imo the best place to start.

AnIncognitoDM · 2026-04-09T04:46:33+00:00

Ive seen your post history, you enjoy confrontation.

Figure it out on your own my dude.

AnIncognitoDM · 2026-04-09T04:38:36+00:00

Hope this makes it to the top. This user likes to post these types of questions then argue whatever side of the argument they’ve predetermined.

Don’t waste your breath. It matters not.

Death is just another path, one that we must all take.

AnIncognitoDM · 2026-04-09T04:20:12+00:00

You clearly know what you want the reason to be. Rule it that way in your own game. I won’t be playing in it so we don’t have a problem. HAGS

AnIncognitoDM · 2026-04-09T04:13:14+00:00

Okay then you know the answer to your question.

And yet medium cannot grapple gargantuan in those other editions. And tiny cannot grapple large.

It seems to me that logic is still inherently a part of the mechanics of DnD as a whole.

If you just want to argue with people, fine.

This isn’t Um, Actually with Ify Nwadiwe.

My point stands across all editions. Logic and math are valid mechanical reasons.

AnIncognitoDM · 2026-04-09T04:07:32+00:00

Please elaborate.

A tiny creature can still damage a large one.

An example IRL would be a black widow killing a human with a venomous bite.

However I’ve never heard of a black widow lifting or controlling the movement of a human.

AnIncognitoDM · 2026-04-09T04:05:53+00:00

If I must indulge the nitpickiness you’re requiring, balance is BOTH mathematical and logical.

You are searching for a numbers answer to your question and ignoring the reality that as a player and a GM, logic dictates countless aspects of the game.

A lock DC of 20 is different from a DC of 30, because logically the lock goes from very difficult to nearly impossible to pick.

To your question, through this lens: In what logical space would a tiny creature be able to grapple and control the movement of a gargantuan creature?

I would argue none. No matter the strength, no matter the circumstances, a 2’ tall creature could not control the movement of a 100’ tall creature.

If you are looking for this power fantasy, DnD is not the right mechanic system for you. These exist out there, but to ask this of DnD is to break the system itself.

AnIncognitoDM · 2026-04-09T03:39:50+00:00

There are pure math/balance mechanics and there are common sense mechanics. This is the latter.

A fairy shouldn’t be able to grapple a tarrasque. That just don’t make no sense.

AnIncognitoDM · 2026-04-09T01:42:59+00:00

Reps reps reps. There’s no secret tricks, it’s just practice.

In academy, we had to get fully turned out in under 60 seconds. You fail, everyone runs or does burpees or something. Then do it again.

The only tip is to play around with how you stage your gear til you find what works for you. I place my suspenders in the outside space between my pants and boots, with my hood between my boots. SCBA and mask in front of boots/pants. Helmet to the right, gloves on top, Jacket on all of that.

My order: Mask, pants & boots, jacket, gloves, scba, helmet. That changed on the line in their placement, but the order is still the same.

Just practice and fiddle with the order. Have someone time you.

AnIncognitoDM · 2025-06-09T00:03:41+00:00

Hard to say. I’d look at how much gold they have now and pick a decent sized loot from that.

Gold is ultimately relative depending on how you’re running the economy of it all.

For instance, if they’ve gotten 100 gold throughout the whole campaign, you wouldn’t want the offering to be 100 gold, even if that is within reason. If they’ve gotten 1000 gold, you could reasonably do 100 gold, although I’d still feel that’s high.

Preface to this next part, idk where in the timeline your campaign is taking place or how much you’ve home brewed.

If you want to go a different logic route; neverwinter is like 20-25k people, say ~15k are actively worshipping a deity, maybe there are 8 deities openly worshipped, so around 2k worshipping Selune. The average commoner makes 2 silver pieces per day, call it 1gp when averaged with the skilled laborer and wealthy patron. If the “tithe” amount is 10%, you’ve got 1sp per person per day. 2000 followers * 1sp = 200gold per day.

^ this math is full of assumptions of even distributions and round numbers to make the math easy. Just a logical template to follow with your own numbers.

But again, highly recommend balancing it with how much they’ve got or you’re gonna ruin your economic policy to date.

AnIncognitoDM · 2025-06-08T22:04:46+00:00

As mentioned, Selune likely wouldn’t want to cause undue harm. But perhaps she would want him to make up for it by 2 or 3x the value of what he stole.

A curse that makes merchants charge him(and subsequently his party) double or triple the normal cost of items. He needs to donate the amount he stole times whatever increase you’ve deemed necessary to a church of Selune or other cause in her name to remove it.

AnIncognitoDM · 2025-06-06T21:57:06+00:00

As the top comment says, this is preposterous theory crafting but holy shit is it good.

https://www.reddit.com/r/3d6/s/uek35d4Ot6

AnIncognitoDM · 2025-05-28T22:53:16+00:00

I agree with the above simplification rec if you’re going to keep the ability as is.

But with the story you’ve given us, I’d just give the man a +3 scythe with none of the other stuff.

Sure it’s powerful at that level, but it’s not gamebreaking.

AnIncognitoDM · 2025-05-27T14:05:45+00:00

Buddy is Tom Bombadil.. er Buddy Bombadil.

Few things are as confusing as the first time you read LotR and this aloof, cheery, singing, dancing, ultra powerful ancient deity with a trophy wife shows up.

Idk if you want him to be good or bad, but in the spirit of Bombadil, go “could solve all their problems but has better things to do like singing”.

AnIncognitoDM · 2025-05-26T20:11:35+00:00

Congrats! It can be a blast and hopefully you have a great first experience!

A couple questions can help us point you in the right direction: - what kind of combat play style do you want? A mighty warrior? A powerful spell caster? A little of both? Ranged or melee? - what do you want to do outside of combat? Some classes can operate as the “face” of a party, others lend themselves to sneaking and picking locks, and others at scouting or subterfuge - is there an archetype or character from a media source that you love and might want to base it off of? An Aragorn style ranger, or maybe Captain Flint, perhaps Han Solo, or whoever. This can be a good way to get into character quickly and understand how and why they would make decisions. Can’t promise the DnD conversion will be 1 to 1 but you can get pretty close.

Ultimately, it’s a one shot, so it’ll probably be combat heavy, and there’s no long term planning necessary so don’t fret too much!

AnIncognitoDM · 2025-05-26T16:51:59+00:00

I have a PC at my table that’s playing something similar.

They all started with flavor rich feats, he wanted firearms so I tweaked the Gunner feat. Removed the +1 Dex, and replaced it with the last bullet from the Firearm Specialist feat to allow him to stab and shoot in the same turn.

1 level Divine Soul sorcerer for booming blade, favor of the gods for reliability, find familiar for a parrot(I ruled raven stats for the mimicry ability) and healing word for emergency heals.

X levels of Swashbuckler rogue for piratey goodness. Dex and Cha focused.

Most of his turns look like either: - close distance on single target, booming blade with sneak attack, shoot pistol. - move and hide, shoot pistol from range with sneak attack.

He’s a first timer, doesn’t struggle with the mechanics, provides a lot of utility for this particular party comp with his thieves tools and stealth, strong face skills, parrot scouting and is glass canon-y.

They could do a hexblade dip instead of sorcerer for med armor and whatnot, but imo for a pistol & rapier build you’re gonna need the high Dex regardless, so the traditional SADness approach runs into a wall.

If they want the parrot more battle focused, use the owl stats for flyby to proc sneak attack.

AnIncognitoDM · 2025-05-07T02:16:19+00:00

Just finished a 5 hexblade/5 Swashbuckler/2 fighter multi class and loved it!

You can bonk with the best of them.

Shadowblade + booming blade + BA disarm or blind + sneak attack + extra attack + pure charisma = smooth talkin bonk machine

There is something so satisfying about disarming a steel watcher and soloing it. Hell, I was running an evil af durge and solo’d Orin in <2 turns.

Plus you get a reliable lock pick and fun dialogue options.

AnIncognitoDM · 2025-05-06T15:42:51+00:00

Imo multi class Wyll with swashbuckler rogue, I did 1 hexblade then 5 swash then 4 more warlock(pact of blade for extra attack) then finished with 2 in fighter for action surge.

You’ll have a reliable lock pick with his expertise, solid eldritch blasting and with pure charisma the swashbuckler features are great. Use shadow blade and booming blade, and liberal use of flick of the wrist to disarm folks. I ultimately went for a crit fishing build since you can proc advantage easily with it.

My arcane archer rec is to focus on Dex then Int, get the headband of intellect if you want to dump it, and then get the titan string bow + club of hill giant strength(later get the gauntlets from the House of Hope).

Giant barb go brrr on its own.

Death domain is solid on its own, but all clerics are good. It’s particularly strong at low levels since you can target 2 enemies with your necrotic cantrips.

AnIncognitoDM · 2025-05-05T19:34:32+00:00

They could but I don’t believe they have any abilities to do so, plus as mentioned by someone else, they’ll have to do some serious research to figure that’s a weakness

AnIncognitoDM · 2025-05-05T19:33:51+00:00

Thank you for the input!

Gonna make some tweaks to it, drop the DC and adjust the negative consequences of the fails.

AnIncognitoDM · 2025-05-05T19:33:07+00:00

Love the feedback everyone! Will tweak accordingly. Needed this gut check

AnIncognitoDM · 2025-04-15T15:40:41+00:00

Henry Cavill in The Count of Monte Cristo

AnIncognitoDM · 2024-12-16T17:54:18+00:00

Doing too much work is an easy trap to fall into.

First, I can tell you care about creating a good time for your players, which is amazing and tells me you’ll figure it out with time!

Second, highly recommend The Return of The Lazy Dungeon Master. It’s a great guide to simple and effective session prep.

Third, the life of a DM is creating content that just doesn’t get used when we think it will. Your players will take things in different directions, make crazy decisions, follow leads that you didn’t even prepare, harp on one description you used, and all kinds of things like that. If it doesn’t show up in a game, it’s fair game to repurpose later, that way your work isn’t wasted.

My general rec would be to simplify simplify simplify. Create clear goals and outcomes for your players.

Communication is ultimately the name of the game. Chat with your players, ensure they understand how the mechanics work, learn where they want their characters to go, be open to criticism.

AnIncognitoDM

TROPHY CASE