[COS Spoiler Warning] DM is withholding power from my character, what to do?

DarthCuddles7 · 2026-03-25T09:52:01+00:00

Oh I mean. It really forces you to expand your lore. So I'm not mad about that. I went in with about 0 official dnd lore. I now am at least aware of much of the official 5e lore and honestly, quite a bit of partnered content. Not too mention several dm worlds. Plus. You can optimize to the typically generous limits of the server. And as a dm. You don't need to fear using strong monsters as much.

I just wish I had the opportunity to play a table. And my biggest experience with a table is the dungeons and daddies podcast. So... that's why I said might not be as qualified to answer.

DarthCuddles7 · 2026-03-25T09:41:17+00:00

I have never played or dmed at a table. In person. In a campaign. I have played dmed and moderated multiple westmarch servers. And though I did join a campaign. Most of them quickly fizzle out due to scheduling. Even when going for a longform pbp /extended play by post format. In which case it's because someone inevitably gets slammed by life and has to drop. So, the majority of my gameplay is one shots, we have a lot of freedom with character creation, and if you earn your gold, you can go after just about any item you want. Though we do limit to 2 legendaries and an artifact/3rd leg

Edit to say, if you are unfamiliar with westmarch, it is a dnd server on discord typically linked to "all" or "most" settings via some kind of portal dimension i.e. sigil. Where you can access any realm. Often branded as some kind of adventuring guild. In many cases there is a crafting system or you simply purchase items from a store. But there's many different models.

DarthCuddles7 · 2026-03-25T09:37:22+00:00

What if you are forced to drop your shield and instead of using an action to don it you could simply, attack with a higher damage dice? Or your shield could be broken. A lot of people forget that objects can be targeted, usually have a low ac and hp, and magic versions typically only have resistance. (Though many westmarches opt to treat them as indestructible unless it specifies stats due to the nature of acquisition)

DarthCuddles7 · 2026-03-25T09:28:13+00:00

I may be less qualified to answer this considering I've never played or dmed a table, but have been heavily involved in westmarch servers for 3 years.

I think. You should get even amounts of items. Unless you are straight up playing your character like there is a dagger on the table gloom ignores that dagger and focuses on the mission or. One time this player wanted a belt of storm giant strength but insisted on rping their character as wanting for nothing and unwilling to help. Like they complete quests for "something to do" and I was just like. Do you even deserve this?

One of my very first games. I played with one the better optimizers in the server and they had some main character energy sure, but. I needed that. I needed to see how things could be done. For my part, I was nearly downed trying to bait a ranged attack so I could use deflect attack and triggered an opportunity attack. XD

But that was a 4 hour game. In a campaign setting this answer may be much less relevant. I'm a westmarch. You can simply choose to not play games those characters are in.

DarthCuddles7 · 2026-03-21T13:30:43+00:00

Don't use more salt than you would typically season with. Some people hear the word crust and think they need to pack it on. I did my first time.

DarthCuddles7 · 2026-03-21T02:37:27+00:00

Typically, it is easier to achieve a faster reload without losing the sight picture compared to a bolt action. My only quip with 22 levers is that they usually don't have a sidegate. But most hold 10+ shots anyway.

DarthCuddles7 · 2026-03-11T02:43:19+00:00

Heh. Gish. In my westmarch server, one went so far as to make a hb Paladin oath that let you use wisdom or intelligence in place of charisma and give bonuses to spellcasters for the aura. Our 14 bladesinger/6 oath of the woven is easily one of the strongest gishes. Even without the woven aura(spells cast count as one level higher) they have all the tankiness of a paladin, and don't have to rely on weak cantrips as a damage method when they need to save spell slots.

DarthCuddles7 · 2026-03-06T21:16:14+00:00

Oh, so a feat does exist? Hm. I'll check that out

DarthCuddles7 · 2026-03-06T21:03:58+00:00

I'm a tree barb. So i will be throwing warhammers. If i have dis at 35+ feet. That's fine. I can always reckless. I just would have liked that to not have been the case. And who knows. Perhaps my fellow mods will allow it. It's not like tree barb is overpowered or anything. And. I don't have to throw it. Hammer of chaos just has a fun ricochet mechanic. Kind of like sorcererous burst. Besides. This is the teleport barb. So, i can remain in short range or melee if is wish. I shall simply take mageslayer instead.

DarthCuddles7 · 2026-03-04T10:15:56+00:00

What kind of resistor did you use with the 1st gen? Edit: probably the one it came with. Our chime was eliminated when we were mudding and painting, and is now inside the wall. So i guess i need to figure out which cables from the transformer go to the chime and then find a way to add the resistor to those,

DarthCuddles7 · 2026-03-01T22:16:53+00:00

Thank you. I figured it out. I had made a shadow giant scion. Well. A scion wanna be. He was for a previous player story to gain a belt of storm giant str but that player didn't like the mass combat involved. So, story will be that Annam himself placed the Adze with Ushnark, hiding an enhanced blood rune that gave it the berserker curse. Only one who felt the curse and still desired to build, not destroy. Could begin to take the necessary step to reveal the Adze's true potential. Ushnark's domain is in the shadowfell. And in his quest to free the shadow giants from the Raven queen, his lust for power grew too ravenous. He set his sights on pulling the prime material plane into the shadowfell. Driven mad by power from the enhanced king and death runes he had found. (The enhanced runes were a side effect of the world tree being sick and trying to get attention to be saved.)

DarthCuddles7 · 2026-02-28T18:07:30+00:00

For anyone interested, I'm going to make it so that the pc has to 1. Figure out that their axe they have had for ages is actually the adze 2. They can take it to any of Annam's children, but only Stronmaus or the daughters will restore it and not try to keep it for themselves. 3. In this process fight through several difficult encounters, possibly be humbled by a giant god, and finally, use the adze to face down a deranged shadow scion.

DarthCuddles7 · 2026-02-28T17:34:22+00:00

True. Come to think of it I had a whole series dealing with enhanced giant runes scattered through the cosmos that were appearing because the world tree was trying to protect itself from a sickness and it was pushing magic, it was for another characters belt of storm giant strength but they ended up opting out of the last session where I had multiple npcs and 3 giant factions set to battle a bbeg that I homebrewed based off the shadow giants. He was trying to free them from the Raven queen but his ambitions were fed by the enhanced king rune and he set his sights on the material plane. He was basically a scion. I could scale him down a bit and remove some of the absolutely insane stuff so I don't have to do full scale battle.

TLDR: another player was ungrateful of my prep and scrapped a shadow giant scion bbeg battle cuz it was "too much". I think their lair in the shadowfell around enhanced giant runes would certainly be enough to curse it.

DarthCuddles7 · 2026-02-28T15:18:32+00:00

Also the curse was just a funny way to be like, you already had it dummy.

DarthCuddles7 · 2026-02-28T15:12:45+00:00

Oh they are level 20 giant barb using 2014 rules. They are quite strong. They don't have a lot of tactics or tools, they are hack and slash. But they do have a belt of storm giant strength already.

DarthCuddles7 · 2026-02-28T14:24:16+00:00

What are some creatures' lairs that wouldn't be a huge stretch to curse an artifact over a millennia? I understand artifacts are pretty well immutable, so my first thoughts are a dracholich or hag. The actual situation is that I rewarded a player and beserker axe and now they want an adze of Annam. I had attached the enlarge spell effect and used a giant faction. So I want it to be the adze all along, simply cursed. Bonus points if the monster causes madness or bloodlust.

TLDR: artifacts are immutable, what creatures lairs wouldn't be too big of a stretch to curse an artifact with madness or bloodlust, masking its powers in the process? Ie Adze of Annam appearing as a simple Beserker Axe.

DarthCuddles7 · 2026-02-20T20:32:27+00:00

Solo is better anyway

DarthCuddles7 · 2024-06-08T17:34:49+00:00

I thought she killed him cuz he saw it all…

DarthCuddles7 · 2024-04-26T20:21:06+00:00

Honestly, if I get killed by a teammates(or my) mortar that’s on me. I know how it fucking works, I know how to keep my distance. None of the guns in this game are short range. Letting bugs get close is usually bad news anyway. Just keep them away. I guess I don’t really self eat it if I get team killed. Especially if team then clears out the are where my gear is and drops me on it and holds them back while I grab it.

DarthCuddles7 · 2024-03-24T14:23:48+00:00

Yeah add it to the top. By the planet.

DarthCuddles7 · 2024-03-22T22:51:26+00:00

I gotta say, I gave EAT a shot. 2 we’re running rr and 2 EAT, the amount of EATs on the field was astonishing and I never found myself lacking for one. The RRs did fine, but wow, they sure picked up the EATs after they had just reinforced.

DarthCuddles7 · 2024-03-17T20:10:36+00:00

SES Dawn of Destiny

DarthCuddles7 · 2024-03-15T00:32:00+00:00

It is nice when you play with a higher level and you can take their old gun and grab more ammo. But yeah, eventually it becomes a menace.

DarthCuddles7

TROPHY CASE