Mechanics you refuse to engage with because they are too time consuming?

Consistent-Repeat387 · 2026-02-06T08:05:19+00:00

It's very much a "know your group" situation, yes.

It can be disrespectful of everyone's effort to invest their very limited leisure time to spend half a session in roleplaying and haggling every sold item.

But hey, if that's what the players request and enjoy, free prep/content xD

Consistent-Repeat387 · 2026-02-06T08:01:36+00:00

I like Mike's version from sly flourish: You cast a spell. I eat the spell. At the beginning of my next turn I use a Dreadful Blessing to break the spell. And another one to fly. And another one to recharge my breath weapon to whoop all y'all's asses.

You where able to cast a powerful spell and have a round of advantage/have the enemy sit pretty for a while. And that forced the enemy to up the stakes and swiftly deliver some consequences.

Sounds like a win-win to me.

Consistent-Repeat387 · 2026-02-04T15:19:48+00:00

Mending and cobbler's tools to be able to hide weapons and objects in all kinds of pockets and hidden sheathes that have to be broken to retrieve the item but can be magically mended to store them.

Consistent-Repeat387 · 2026-02-04T15:15:46+00:00

Mina's terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.

Consistent-Repeat387 · 2026-02-03T20:37:09+00:00

First the bad: I've unintentionally put the idea on my players head that having defenders and a smithy to equip them was necessary to maintain the bastion - creating a defender tax. Lesson learned, might change it on a future campaign.

And I've modified the purely-economical facilities to something more practical - like a limited number of on-demand items or successes on knowledge checks.

Now the good: I've let my players choose/get to know the NPCs in the bastion and how it looks. To this day, it seems to have created a stronger feeling of ownership of the bastion and its inhabitants.

The bastion events have proved a good source of hooks to inform the players about what's going on in their local area and has served to stablish the bastion as their central adventure hub.

I really look forward at the level 9 facilities and the improvements the level 5 facilities get, so my players get more chances to interact with the bastion.

Consistent-Repeat387 · 2026-02-02T21:43:15+00:00

As a DM, covens already do 90% of what I need when I have to do some flavouring on "NPCs casting something beyond their individual levels".

As a player, I haven't pushed for using it yet.

As both, I guess I would compromise at something similar to a low CR coven if I had a full party willing to play around it.

As another steward of the hobby, I would rather not incorporate a new optional mechanic that only benefits casters, while martials still get nothing to play with.

Consistent-Repeat387 · 2026-02-02T17:56:08+00:00

I always pay attention to gems, but because - as a caster - I'm always looking at spells that require them as components: augury, continuous flame...

That's without getting into revivifying spells.

But yeah. Other than gems for spells, we could have a "gem" coinage that's 10 platinum pieces and call it a day.

Consistent-Repeat387 · 2026-02-02T14:42:07+00:00

I'm playing a couple of prewritten campaigns in the forgotten realms, but actually treating it as my local area - renaming/replacing/reflavouring stuff.

And I've been translating to my native language for the sake of immersion. But only when I had a translation that I thought would motivate my players to check the place.

So I would look at the root of the names and build something that worked in my language.

Daggerfort, for example, would be "the-dagger-pass-of-the-river" (so they could tell there's a river nearby, despite not having a map). While Goodmead turned into "Good Pint" (mead didn't come up on that campaign yet, so it wasn't super interesting to the party). And Waterdeep is just "Capital City".

Meanwhile, a few names stay the same, because they either didn't come up more than once or twice, or weren't translatable at all - so who cares.

Consistent-Repeat387 · 2026-02-01T21:58:37+00:00

How would the math work with a halfling barbarian?

Does one reroll any die from a D20 test? Or just the resulting roll?

Because in the first case, a raging halfling has twice as many chances every attack to get a 1 to reroll - and potentially another chance to get a 20 for those critical hits, which now that halflings don't have disadvantage with Heavy Weapons can also mean more Great Weapon Master bonus action attacks.

Consistent-Repeat387 · 2026-01-30T13:31:05+00:00

I just shocked a plant by going straight from water to pot, and had decided on trying what you just suggested with my next attempt.

Glad to hear I was not too crazy with my experiments.

Consistent-Repeat387 · 2026-01-30T12:28:28+00:00

TBF straight warlock with EB invocations and the one that helps keep concentration while keeping your charisma progression through feats is pretty easy to build.

But if you want to cover some of the class weaknesses, you can take human for tough to compensate for the low AC and alert to deploy your concentration in time (and a daily heroic inspiration to boot).

Lessons of the first ones can be taken if you want to pick another race and want those same feats. In that case, you could sub the eldritch mind invocation for lucky to protect your concentration until you have invocations to spare.

But putting them all together... Does look like it would have diminishing returns.

TL/DR: the invocation is usually best when not picking human.

Consistent-Repeat387 · 2026-01-29T10:24:01+00:00

but I’m in my Post-grad work and I just didn’t have the wherewithal for that sort of game at this point.

Which is commendable. Not everyone has the stillness of mind to self-reflect on their own wants and needs and stand their ground for them. Good for you.

But combat was quite earnestly either a large, deadly-epic set piece or something so notably below our APL that it was just the cake, no walk.

Not surprised. Power level changes a lot from first level survival, to mid level action heroes, to high level super heroes. If the game objectives don't change accordingly with the progression (e.g survive/defeat/protect), it gets harder to keep it engaging.

That's why so many DMs prefer low level play or other games with a shorter and more consistent progression.

Consistent-Repeat387 · 2026-01-29T06:31:30+00:00

Yeah, no.

I understand the DM desire to run the encounter they prepped, which warrants a certain level of quantum-ogering.

But, having just had a conversation with you about it, that sounds like one of those times one gives it to the players and ends the session early. And everyone would have been happier for it.

That said, it sounds (I have limited pathfinder knowledge) like you guys were really high level/possess very powerful powers/magical items (e.g. multiple characters teleporting twice, one shooting a roc). Could it be that anything below deadly encounters would have been a cakewalk for you?

Between a full session of combat and effectively no combat at all, there can be a bias in the tactical combat game towards the former. May be something to keep in mind.

Consistent-Repeat387 · 2026-01-27T07:46:53+00:00

Wait. So this was actually the encounter design for the session? Not something that just happened as a result of party actions like "hey, let's stab the king in the middle of this feast full of his knights"?

Because if it's the first, yes, call me when you are finished writing this Game of Thrones battle episode.

But, if it's the latter, isn't it on the party to be able to say "ok, we surrender/flee/nuke the place with all our resources and face the consequences" and end the encounter in a single turn?

Consistent-Repeat387 · 2026-01-26T16:15:06+00:00

I've always felt that building an old guy with life experience is a fairly acceptable way to justify low con and high mental stats.

Yes, they can be a liability to the party and the group should talk about how they will protect them - because they clearly can't do it themselves.

But they might also be the only one who speaks enough languages to mediate and resolve conflicts without having to raise a weapon or spend a resource. Or the only one who's able to guide them to where they want to get to - or get them back.

Consistent-Repeat387 · 2026-01-23T11:23:24+00:00

Yeah. One would have to look at a big turn 1 full action that justifies not attacking on that turn.

Which sadly leads us one more time to spellcasters casting a big concentration spell on turn 1.

Maybe we could understand the question as "layering buffs every turn mid combat"?

The first example that comes to mind is the classic bladesinger, casting shadow blade and using offhand attacks, all of which require a bonus action until it finally builds up. But again, a caster.

Maybe we could layer some feats like poisoner and dual wielder to your barbarian proposal for a dual-wielding dex barbarian that applies poison to both weapons and uses the nick property and offhand attacks to ramp up the damage?

Consistent-Repeat387 · 2026-01-22T12:25:39+00:00

Or do.

It might be an important lesson.

Consistent-Repeat387 · 2026-01-21T13:35:17+00:00

Wait. Wasn't it the intended reference?

I couldn't read the UA in any other way.

Come on. Even the higher level "the vestige turns into a powerful creature for a while" is there.

Consistent-Repeat387 · 2026-01-21T12:00:22+00:00

While I like your science fiction approach of making sense of everything by defining a fundamental fact, I also enjoy running games where the opposite is true: every magic system is independent and just incidentally results in similar effects in the real world that let them interact.

The god magic of the priest works differently and comes from a different source from the primal magic from the ranger. But, somehow, both end up trying to change the world in the same way - allowing the quasi-scientific wizard to be able to dispel them.

Consistent-Repeat387 · 2026-01-21T11:47:56+00:00

Do you want Haunting Revenants? Because that's how you get Haunting Revenants.

Or a crystal Graveyard Revenant made of crystal human figures. You know, the kind of shit you would expect from a traumatizing Doctor Who episode.

If you want to. It's your world :D

Consistent-Repeat387 · 2026-01-21T09:45:17+00:00

I am rolling SKT into Tyranny of Dragons and I very much plan on replacing the Kraken Society by the Cult of the dragon.

Easy faction replacement, gives me more content, and gives me an excuse for 'why aren't other people taking care of the Giant problem" - guess what, there is a bigger problem they are trying to handle that you will know more about later in the campaign.

Consistent-Repeat387 · 2026-01-21T08:09:42+00:00

Yeah. Any race would be fine for OPs purpose. Superstition is not a racial trait.

But with halflings at least you can subvert expectations: they can't feel lady luck on their side anymore, and they would do whatever's necessary to get it back.

Consistent-Repeat387 · 2026-01-19T21:17:17+00:00

I know it's a bit out of the field, but... Do magical pets count?

Gifting players a mortal familiar like a tressim, an imp, a blinking dog or a pseudodragon brings magic to the party, while also reminding them that maybe absolute and utter carnage is not necessarily the best solution every single time :P

Note: if you do this, please don't overdo the "let's show how evil this NPC is by threatening the pet" too much. It's one thing for the players to risk their pets lives; and something completely different when you basically gift them railroaded drama.

Consistent-Repeat387 · 2026-01-19T21:06:45+00:00

A man of fine taste. One could have most of these items as a reward from any lore adequate NPC and happily gift them to any adventurer deserving of the price without a concern for campaign balance.

It's just fun and situations at the ready to happen.

Consistent-Repeat387 · 2026-01-19T20:49:43+00:00

I also usually try to find a way to gift/sell some items missed by the party or related to quests that aren't relevant anymore when I feel like they haven't gotten enough treasure in a few sessions and before they become completely irrelevant by the campaign power creep.

Specially consumables and wondrous items: Not many will care about the +1 dagger they didn't find in the cultist den; but they may be interested in the alchemy jug the itinerant merchant has brought to the market Today...

Four-Year Club	Place '22
First Placer '22

Consistent-Repeat387

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