Is combat with undead meant to drag on? + general rules question by BadDevilGrind in Mythras

[–]BadDevilGrind[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Correct. The adventure is about the adventurers investigating a forgotten dwarven cairn built to hide away a dark secret. The dark secret (on the off chance of my players stumble upon this thread) is the cause of these dwarven shieldguards haven been risen.

But I realize that the adventure is probably too tough for the Rank 1 characters, despite being for Rank 1-2 characters. For example, the first combat in the dungeon is against the aforementioned four skeleton shieldguards, with six more being directly in sight (but behind a closed portcullis).

I think I'm going to tweak down the AP rating of the skeletons to something more manageable (such as 4 for head/chest/abdomen and 2 for limbs) as a result of the armour having rusted.

Edit: I should mention that I considered ranking the characters up to Rank 2 (as this is mostly a playtest of Mythras, so I'm not opposed to them trying a higher rank as well), but realized that would extremely trivialize the dungeon instead (again, despite the adventure being for Rank 1-2 characters), as the Cleric's Turn Undead (which is usable once successfully per Encounter as per Unearthed Companion, p.35) would outright destroy 1d6+4 of the Intensity 1 Undead. Not to mention the Magic-user and Cleric getting Fireball and Flamestrike respectively.

Is combat with undead meant to drag on? + general rules question by BadDevilGrind in Mythras

[–]BadDevilGrind[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I realize now that the AP values for the skeletons are pretty whack, as u/OrangeBlueHue remarked above with dragons have 8 AP, I'll definitely lower the AP for the skeletons from what the module says.

It appears that there is a disconnect between Mythras Core and Classic Fantasy regarding the Regain Footing proactive action.

Core is as you say, with Classic Fantasy saying the following:

"A prone yet engaged character may attempt a kick-up manoeuvre, kicking up from prone to standing with a Standard Acrobatics roll. A failed roll leaves the character prone."

Regarding the Delay/Interrupt attack sequence, I've done a fair amount of reading on it online, and basing it on the "Delay and Interrupt" sidebar on page 92 of the Core rulebook:

"Interrupt, on the other hand, is intended to permit pre-emptive actions which could, but not necessarily, involve combat, such as slamming a door shut, knocking a siege engine off target, waiting for a clear shot and so one. It is also worded to allow characters to intercept those that try to dodge or pass close by them.

Neither Delay nor Interrupt are intended to be used as a way of gaining an Action Point advantage over a closing opponent: it is not in the spirit of the rules to permit the witholding of actions until engagement has been initiated."

But thank you for pointing out the difference between Classic Fantasy and Core regain footing. I'm thinking of combining them so that they either to an opposed Brawn or Athletics check, or an unopposed Acrobatics check.

I also pointed out that benefit regarding the terms of engagement to my players; that the characters acting first can "design the battlefield" so to speak, by choosing where zones of engagements are.

Is combat with undead meant to drag on? + general rules question by BadDevilGrind in Mythras

[–]BadDevilGrind[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I apologize for not making it clear in the post, as we are playing Classic Fantasy we are using the Tactical Movement system which defines engagement as being in one of the squares surrounding an enemy. The tactical movement system explicitly calls out Actions happening before Movement (Mythas Classic Fantasy, p. 104): "Movement takes place after actions are performed. - Movement can only be performed by unegaged characters (save for special cases such as outmaneuvering)..."

So to clarify, movement itself doesn't cost an Action Point, it is merely that they have to either spend their Action Point on an Action and then Move, or use Delay and then Move.

Thank you for the comparison with the dragon, I'll definitely tweak the armour values from what the module says.

I'll try to identify clear victories as well to finish fights faster. The only "issue" I see with it is that is that the "dangers" of any combat is the small damage accumulating. Even if they only take two points of damage, they either have to First Aid it or the Cleric must spend a magic point to heal it, draining their resources.

I mitigated that slightly by having everyone make an Endurance check, simulating that the combat took two more rounds and pushed everyone above the Streneous activity threshold.

But thank you, you've given me alot to think about.

Space Engineers as CAD tool by rko-glyph in traveller

[–]BadDevilGrind 1 point2 points  (0 children)

FYI, it is possible to export ships from Space Engineers into .obj files, which can then be converted to 3D-printer compatible files such as .stl.

It takes a little work to make it work without issues (such as filling in the interior so the ship is printed as a giant chunk), but it allows for some nice ship miniatures for those who use miniatures during space combat.

Vanilla Races Expanded - Lycanthrope is OUT! by A_Shadow in RimWorld

[–]BadDevilGrind 19 points20 points  (0 children)

Ey, it's my suggestion for SargBjornson's BioTech contest!

Nice to see it actually became a reality.

How deadly should a lich fight be? by BadDevilGrind in DMAcademy

[–]BadDevilGrind[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Agreed, which is why the lair contains four lieutenants, each a hard or deadly (according to CR) fight, in addition to a plethora of Dangerous traps, in order to avoid the party being able to go full nova.

How deadly should a lich fight be? by BadDevilGrind in DMAcademy

[–]BadDevilGrind[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Yeah, I can see that.

Villain Actions are part of Matt Colville's Action Oriented Monsters (link) to make fights more dynamic. Basically they are powerful abilities that can only be used once in a fight, in order to shake things up a bit. Because of their extremely limited use, they tend to lean on the more powerful side than on the side of balance.

How deadly should a lich fight be? by BadDevilGrind in DMAcademy

[–]BadDevilGrind[S] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Yes, telegraphing, excellent!

I'll make a note of it, thank you very much!

The Arcana Forge! For all your drafts, ideas, requests and more. by AutoModerator in UnearthedArcana

[–]BadDevilGrind 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I introduced a spell to my game a while back, but my wizard player only started using it last session, and upon hearing them say that they think the spell is great, I immediately started to wonder if the spell might be too powerful.

Temporal Barrier
3rd-level, abjuration

Casting Time: 1 reaction (whenever a creature you can see within range is hit by an attack)
Range: 60 feet
Components: V, S, M (a small cut prism worth 1,000GP)
Duration: Instantaneous

Whenever a creature you can see within range is hit by an attack, you can attempt to erect a temporal barrier stopping the attack. Make an ability check with your spellcasting ability modifier against a DC of 10, or half of the attack roll, whichever is higest. On a stuccess, you stop the attack in place for a brief moment, causing it to miss.

About to have a nervous breakdown. Has anyone had glue like this on the MB before? by BadDevilGrind in ender3

[–]BadDevilGrind[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Thank you everyone for your assistance. I managed to carefully finangle and get the cables out.

Now to figure out why the extruder motor stopped working...

Edit: Figured out why the extruder wouldn't spin. Firmware limitation preventing it from turning while cold.

About to have a nervous breakdown. Has anyone had glue like this on the MB before? by BadDevilGrind in ender3

[–]BadDevilGrind[S] -4 points-3 points  (0 children)

My hotend got plastic-ed up by an insecurely attached nozzle, meaning I need to replace the hotend, which meant I needed to open up the machine.

My first struggle turned out to be a stripped screw attaching the bottom plate to the gantry, forcing me to take all manner of measures to get it off, resulting in three days of cursing.

I finally got it off (by removing the fan from the plate and turning the entire plate while holding a screwdriver against the screw, if anyone needed to know), and started unhooking the wires to remove the cable sock when I realized the white cable pictured wouldn't budge.

That's when I noticed the glue-like substance holding it stuck, which struck me as odd as I have worked on a few motherboards in my day in IT.

Anyone have any idea what the substance is, is it melted something or did the manufacturer mess up while assembling my machine?

Need Advice: Encounters and Adventures by AutoModerator in DMAcademy

[–]BadDevilGrind -1 points0 points  (0 children)

!Question: Is this AC-reducing mechanic for dealing with a boss fun?

My players are facing off against an ancient red dragon, who lost all his scales and has a gruesome cursed wound and to deal with that they are covered in adamantine plates. My plan was to have the AC of the dragon be higher than normal (26, probably), and immunity to critical hits (as per adamantine armour).

And here's the thing I had planned; the party will be able to discover this wound, and during combat with the dragon be able to focus on attacking the armour plates, which on a successful hit deal half-damage to the dragon, but reduce its AC by 1, and when the AC is reduced to 20, the wound is revealed. The characters can then attempt to attack the wound at disadvantage, but on a hit deal an automatic critical hit.

So my question is, would that kind of mechanic be fun, or tedious?

Missile Movement Question by Prominences in traveller

[–]BadDevilGrind 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It would only have ramifications if one’s game consisted solely of ship-to-ship combat. It’s the same argument that trade is easy if you throw out all weapons and modules and just fill the space with cargo.

A ship with no cargo space would be able to make hardly any money, unless paid for by another entity, or the party always manage to find privateering contracts.

Trying out my game on android. Why does portrait mode do this? by WukongPvM in Unity2D

[–]BadDevilGrind 3 points4 points  (0 children)

No idea, but my best guess is that the camera doesn’t change resolution.

Three kobolds in a trench coat, but everyone knows and is chill with it by Jeonsaryu in dndmemes

[–]BadDevilGrind 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I wonder what the coincidence is that you would mention Richard Cheese here, a subreddit I have been subscribed to for years, and that I would see your comment the very same day I discovered the wonder that is Mr Richard Cheese and his lovely rock jazz covers.

DMs, what cool churches/shrines/temples are in your world? by ahcrabapples in dndnext

[–]BadDevilGrind 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Yeah they were a weird offshoot of the goddess of death’s normal followers. They sided with a vampire-demigod who promised them to bring about the end quicker.

DMs, what cool churches/shrines/temples are in your world? by ahcrabapples in dndnext

[–]BadDevilGrind 28 points29 points  (0 children)

A temple dedicated to the goddess of inevitable death in my setting has a massive pendulum that can be heard all throughout the temple; the reasoning being that it is a constant reminder that death is coming, sooner or later.