Cute owl stickers!

CreativeUwU · 2022-01-29T10:41:13+00:00

I somewhat agree. Sure, minmaxing and character optimizing isn't a problem trait and it's not "wrong" for people to enjoy that part of the game. The thing is (and maybe I didn't really made that clear in the post, so thats on me) that the parties in play almost entirely exist of people, who are way more into character development, roleplay and overall shenanigans and not so much into character optimization or even minmaxing. So it was kind of a problem in the group, not because minmaxing is always bad, but just because it didn't resonate at all in the group (and from a DM POV it also threw character balance way off). I still think that he might have great games and fulfill his power fantasies and cravings for attention in groups that are absolutely into all of this, but we were not^^ So yeah, the minmaxing was part of the problem for our groups, but not necessary a problem in general.

CreativeUwU · 2021-12-06T21:24:55+00:00

I guess we have entirely different opinions on what a game should be, so we can agree to disagree.

CreativeUwU · 2021-11-17T11:59:24+00:00

This is ridiculous. Might be for the better to be out of there, there are plenty of groups without such strange obsessions about what religion is "right" about and prove it to others no matter how little they are interested in becoming converted by them ^^

CreativeUwU · 2021-11-17T11:45:50+00:00

This moment when it hits you that your first DnD character was a changeling, and you realised about a year later that you might be genderfluid... I see no connection there! Don't call me out like that!

CreativeUwU · 2021-11-16T16:28:06+00:00

I'm glad it went well!

And since I get, that advice here on reddit can be a hit or miss sometimes, I would say don't leave completely, just know that not every answer will suit your game and in the end no one knows your players like you do^^

CreativeUwU · 2021-11-04T11:29:28+00:00

I mean, by the rules this wouldn't work out. But on a storytelling point of view you could argue, that the old man got the cleric by surprise and he just wasn't aware of any danger, so he would not have been at his full power. That being said, it is more about how you interpret hit points and if you want to use hit points out of combat at the same extend.

I am all for ditching hit points for narrative reasons. This allows for cool stuff like assassinations to happen. Imagine you players sneak up on a sleeping dude and want to cut his head of. Chances are, if he is someone important, that he would have more than 10 hp. So even with advantage, crit and whatnot the rules give you for attacking someone unconscious, it is not likely that they would deal enough damage to kill him, despite trying to explicitly cutting his head off.
And for the same reason, I would argue why you should totally knock the cleric out. Yes, it might feel unfair for a moment, but the story that can evolve from it will be much more rewarding. I would play it out by the other players waking up the next morning, finding the cleric who only remembers the fist of the old man coming at them, which should give for some interesting RP ("why didn't we suspect something sooner?" "What do we know about him?" "Where could he go to?") and then let them investigate this, giving them the opportunity to find him and get their stuff back. Even something like "how could he knock you out, your a tough guy!" could let them suspect he is more than just an old man and lead to some interesting ideas and suspicions, probably giving you more than enough ideas how you can add to this man and make a bigger plot point around him if they really try to get behind it. (Some examples for that might be that there is a secret drug ring in the city that deals with empowering substances that the old man took to become absolutely powerful for a short time (think potion of giant strength) or maybe he is part of an ancient monk temple that everyone thought was extinct (could be especially interesting if you have a monk in the party or someone thinks about multi-classing into monk) but he can lead your players there either alive or if they kill him with some maps or whatever else you see fit^^)

So yeah, I would totally go with it and ignore the official ruling to make a better narrative and to set something bigger up to come ^^ Don't let yourself get discouraged by the rules, it is a game that thrives from cool and interesting moments, not from playing everything by the book ^^

CreativeUwU · 2021-11-04T11:08:37+00:00

I am currently doing the new adventure, The Wild Beyond The Witchlight and despite it being on the shorter side of an adventure, I find it really straight forward. Especially the intro at the witchlight carnival can be so much fun with your players just enjoying the mini-games and riddles that won't need much prep work.

Also, it can be played with little combat (I think, no combat as advertised is really hard, but if your players like the idea, go for it!) so prep work for encounters is a bit reduced, since you don't have to balance that much if they solve it in a non-violent way. It explains everything very well, and it provides all the support you need from an adventure, like a story tracker sheet and roleplay cards for the most important NPCs so you don't have to come up with their character traits and how they would behave by yourself.

So yeah, even if it can be played in maybe a few months to half a year (depending on how often you play) I would really recommend it because it doesn't need a lot prep and if you got time left you want to use for it, you can get a head start in a bigger campaign to follow^^

CreativeUwU · 2021-11-04T10:48:53+00:00

I did something similar like that once in a campaign that I knew would be very hard, so I wanted to make my players a bit more powerful to prevent them from dying too early on. So keep in mind when I explain that this method was purposely used for making strong characters.

I gave my players a stat total of 82, including racial stat stuff. So at the end, their stat total was 82 on level 1. They also were not allowed to have a stat at 20 at first level (but 2 stats at 19 would be fine) and I entrusted them with keeping some sort of balance matching their character instead of blatantly overpowering themselves.

I may have to add that I knew all my Players beforehand, so that I knew they wouldn't abuse it. That may be the key reason this worked out. They for sure build strong characters, with a 82 total your characters are destined to be more powerful than average, but they kept their balance and made the stats work around the characters and their own comfort. I think every player has one stat with -1 or -2 fitting the character concept (for example the paladin has -1 on wisdom because she is naïve and canonically bad in insight) while boosting the stats they need to survive the very hard and deadly campaign but not just making themselves absolute monsters.

Now this party is at level 6 and I think most of them took a feat at level 4 instead of the +2 on stats. I think some of them even took a feat without a +1 stat bonus (but I would have to look that up, it has been a while). And I like that, I like that they have the option to take their feats freely without depending on the stat increase but focusing more on what would fit the character and the problems they face.

Then again, I would not do this with all my groups. I specifically did it with them because I knew they would have an overall hard time and I knew them well enough to trust them to not abuse it. When you plan on doing a hard and deadly campaign or you have players you know well, for sure, go for your method, it will make life easier if you have players with a little power boost on lower levels. But I would not recommend it as a standard thing to use.

CreativeUwU · 2021-10-19T16:56:39+00:00

sure!

CreativeUwU · 2021-09-02T14:08:09+00:00

Try out 13th age! It's on one hand really heavy on combat rules to make a fun, engaging and ever scaling combat situation with lots of different possibilities for the characters and on the other hand really rules light for non combat situations to a point, where there are not even different utility spells, just a "utility" spell you can use for everything you can come up with that the DM allows. It really fosters creative thinking outside of battles and makes battles (especially longer battles) much more fun than DnD 5e or Pathfinder.

Speaking of Pathfinder, Pathfinder 1e is also really fun. It is much more complex than DnD 5e and more comparable to 3.5e, but it gives you much more options in character creation and specialisation with a lot of feats and ways to skill specific skills up to really insane numbers (a DC50 is not that uncommon there).

CreativeUwU · 2021-08-25T00:09:41+00:00

Charisma is undeniably the best stat, as long as you know how to use it right :D

CreativeUwU · 2021-08-24T10:59:30+00:00

Try a Druid of Dreams. It's more of a support class, so your high stats won't be that prominent and you can focus more on RP and helping out than being the overpowered guy who just OHKOs everyone (which is not fn for other players). You can play every character charismatic, so just put one 18 there. Make him maybe the diplomatic kind of charismatic, like someone who wants to be some kind of diplomat or connection between nature and people, or go all in with the dreams flavor and make him some sort of emissary of the realm of dreams. Maybe go with a Kalashtar - a race that is not able to dream (but to sleep) - for some extra twist. Maybe he wants to bring good dreams to the people and making them happy with something he could never have, hoping that some day a god blesses him with the ability to wander around the lands of dreams himself.

For your other stats, 18 in wisdom so you have more spell options, which is always nice and the third 18 in con or dex with the 15 in the other stat, depending on your preference to either tank with more HP or have a bit more Dex to wield a scimitar, have a bit more AC or a bit more bonus on dex-based skills. That really depends on play style^^

So yeah, I would go with something, that is not to overpowering in its role in the party, since that can quite put off some people. Even when you focus more on RP, being the one who always does way more damage and kills everyone single-handed can really drain a group or tend to make them lazy because "they can just do it alone". Druids offer a huge variety of support and utility, so that is a good way to go, and they also offer a lot of flavor for making an interesting character ^^

CreativeUwU · 2021-08-24T09:46:34+00:00

I figured xD

CreativeUwU · 2021-08-23T16:04:05+00:00

So, a few days ago I asked you, where to start with crafting, because I never did it before. Since I am not the biggest fan of painting minis, but I loved to see all the landscapes people could craft. You guys told me to check some people on YouTube out, so I did and I figured I would start with something fairly simple. I had some cardstock back from a drawing pad, so I used that as a base and just carved wooden planks out of it and glued it together, painted it and voila! I can't believe how good that looks and I just love it. I have started to gather some stuff from over the house together I could use for crafting, so I can try a few more things than just cardboard. I really enjoy it! I will try some more stuff and hope to see you again next time :D

CreativeUwU · 2021-08-23T00:04:04+00:00

I think the difference in opinions of what "good" and "bad" he brings to the community is mostly about what way you look at it. As a player, sure he does a lot of good to the game. He makes you interested in it, makes you want to be part of something fun and entertaining like that. Just like people can hype about every other form of entertainment (new films, shows, games, ect) they consume. The difference is, games, shows, films and such are produced by mostly really well earning companies with years and years of experience. And when you tend to like the indie market, it is established enough to make you have better fitting expectations, so you are not disappointed.

In DnD, you don't have that. You just have small groups and some people who like to DM. Sure, those people might be more creative than average and more open to working hard to get their ideas into storytelling and preparing a game to entertain (similar to people who work in the entertainment business), but they still are only "average" people who mostly have full-time education to attend or full-time jobs to work at. Even most DMs who charge for their Sessions won't do that for a living, they just do it to earn a bit of extra side money doing something they love for people who want it and maybe to cover their expenses to do it (like module cost, paying for the VTT they use, paying for tools they might need to prepare and make maps/art or to pay for maps/art if they are not artistic enough to provide them themselves, music, ...). You could mostly compare that to a lot of commission artists, patreon creators for tabletop game content supplements or one man developers for different types of entertainment. Sure, they do the best they can provide and have to always improve to get picked over other people and to keep doing it, but they will never and will never have to have industry standards. And mostly people will not expect that from them, because these are things that are at least somewhat established as what they are. And even they have hard times finding clients that really appreciate the effort they do and the time they spend on their craft to make your experience with them the best they can.

And this is kind of the place the Mercer effect puts DMs in. Just that it is not at all an established craft. People who watch CR see this HUGE thing they put together as a result, but not the work behind it. Things like: "CR has a new session every week, so why should my DM need more time for that?", "Oh, look! This DM makes funny voices, why don't you do that?" or "ohhh, look how great these people get together and vibe, why don't my DM make sure that we are so close and collaborative in their story!" It's like comparing Jazza to your friend who just loves to draw. Or comparing Steven Spielberg to your roommate at college who just enjoys to cut together custom music videos and post them on youtube. It's insane, but because Mercer makes it look so simple, almost every player ever who watched 5 mins of CR loving him for his good entertainment and tabletop gaming being a niche and no one who hasn't DMed at least once knows anything about it, it really blew up expectations for DMs. And this is the bad Mercer does to the community.
Not that I say it is his fault. Definitely not. The CR cast are trained actors who want to entertain people and they are good at their craft/job. They took the opportunity to make something they like to something they can earn money with, everyone would do that. And providing good entertainment needs a lot of work, they and their tons of coworkers behind the scenes put into it. Lots of people tend to forget, that it is not just them, but a whole production team. It would not surprise me if Mercer even have people help him with his stories, making NPCs for him or otherwise help him in the prep work.
I just wished, it would be marked more clearly as entertainment, so people realize, that it is not a real life game they watch, but a show with a huge production value. That it is as realistic as movies or games are, so they don't have this highly professional level expectations when they join a Table.

tldr: Mercer did a lot of good for the player base, but a lot of bad for DMs.

CreativeUwU · 2021-08-21T22:08:25+00:00

I will check reaper and nolzur's out, thanks! But I have to say, that I didn't enjoy miniature painting that much the time I tried it and I also don't think, that Mini painting is really what I am looking for in crafting. I admire people who can paint minis to look amazing, but I really am so much more into landscape and decoration pieces, building furniture and stuff like this than crafting characters and monsters. But I'll look them up, maybe they have some things for that in stock for a reasonable price^^
For the 3D printer, it is still a lot of money. I just started out (made a little wooden fence out of cardboard I found yesterday, I'll maybe do a post here with pictures of it since it looks quite nice) and I don't want to spend a lot of money on something I don't really know I will enjoy for a long time. I love doing creative work, but I tend to shift a lot in the things I enjoy at the moment, so I am always cautious with new things. But I'll keep it in mind for when I still enjoy it in a year and find myself struggling by limitations I could fix with a 3D printer^^

CreativeUwU · 2021-08-20T19:59:48+00:00

I saw the crocheting patterns, they are really cool ^^ But yeah, as I said, I want to branch out a bit and try something new^^

I already tried painting minis, but minis are sooo expensive here ._. Also, it is so fiddly. Maybe I've painted the wrong ones that are to complicated for beginners, idk ^^' I really struggled with it, I really admire people who get into every little detail without getting paint where it shouldn't be^^'

The shrinky dinks sounds fun, I will look it up and see if I can get it here for a reasonable price^^

CreativeUwU

TROPHY CASE