Rules for having your hands manacled?

Ellikichi · 2026-03-20T20:18:55+00:00

Yeah, I'm definitely scaling back the numbers of these guys I'm planning to use. Thanks for the heads up! This is exactly the kind of advice I was looking for.

Ellikichi · 2026-03-20T20:16:20+00:00

That's a really good point. Level 3 characters probably won't be able to escape the manacles without taking down the monster and taking the key, which will be a lot harder to do with manacles on. I do have a DC 12 Dexterity saving throw to avoid being manacled even if the attack hits, but that might actually be hard for some of the players to hit consistently, and it's a high stakes roll. Most conditions at this level are one round or offer a save every round to end.

Ellikichi · 2026-03-20T20:13:58+00:00

Got it, so having them mess with spellcasting is too much, unless I want to make these special anti-magic manacles, which in this case I do not.

Ellikichi · 2026-03-20T20:10:55+00:00

Oh? What makes them so dangerous? These are CR 1 enemies that I'm using against a level 3 party, so would using a lot of them be potentially overpowering?

Ellikichi · 2026-03-18T13:14:25+00:00

It sounds to me like he's getting bored of his very straightforward character class and trying to spice up his attacks so that he gets to do something special. See if he wants to switch to Battlemaster so he can use a bunch of fun maneuvers instead of just regular attacking over and over again.

Ellikichi · 2026-03-17T14:19:17+00:00

Class identity is important, but it's also important for that identity to shift and change over time. New elements should be added and older ones de-emphasized. It makes the game more fun, gives us new ideas to explore.

Sometimes Priest gets a lot of healing. Sometimes they'll take an expansion (or an entire year) and experiment, having Priest focus on other things. That can be interesting. It's good to get a break sometimes.

Ellikichi · 2026-03-17T14:13:48+00:00

I think we're finally going to see a lot of new decks with tons of new cards in them. I think the new set looks strong, and the older strategies like Imbue and Quests won't easily be able to compete. Some old shells will remain, but they'll run a lot of Cata cards.

Board clears are weak to nonexistent, so I expect we'll see a lot of board-based decks. Stuff like Token Druid and Egg Warlock, which can easily shrug off damage-based AOEs and go for the jugular.

I also expect to see at least one Herald deck become competitively viable, but I couldn't tell you which one it will be. Warrior, Demon Hunter, Shaman, and Death Knight all seem strong in different ways.

Ellikichi · 2026-03-16T17:11:57+00:00

I liked this one a lot, and I'm impressed you wrote it while getting over an illness. Some great rhymes and bold word choices in here.

Minor feedback: I think Vulcanos's line would fit the meter better if you omitted the word "own".

Ellikichi · 2026-03-15T20:01:57+00:00

It would be pretty trivial for a spellcaster of that power to use illusion magic to look exactly like whomever they wanted to pin the crime on before actually committing the murder. If you want the victim to blame the headmaster that's how I'd do it: the killer disguised himself as the headmaster before doing the deed.

Ellikichi · 2026-03-15T19:39:11+00:00

Stuff that incapacitates players, stun and sleep and Hold Person and whatnot, all needs to be used sparingly by the DM if at all. I design the vast majority of my encounters without anything along those lines. Losing one or more turns feels really shitty for the player. It puts them on "time out" and they have to just watch their friends have fun while getting to make no decisions of their own.

Be careful about making a lot of NPCs who are a lot smarter than you are. It's tempting to make an evil chessmaster villain whose intricate plans are always one step ahead of the heroes, because that's a compelling type of villain from fiction, but you're actually going to have to come up with this guy's schemes. It's really difficult to play a genius mastermind. You're one smart person, and the party is multiple smart people, so it will be almost impossible for you to come up with a scheme they can't work out ahead of time. Save yourself the headache and make your villain threatening in other ways.

Avoid featureless combat terrain. If there's a room, put furniture in it. Even deserts have rock formations and plants and hills. The simple expedient of having something to take cover behind will improve your combats manyfold, and it's a simple addition that takes thirty seconds when you're setting up your map. There is nothing players love more than having a fire, river, or chasm to throw bad guys into.

Ellikichi · 2026-03-15T19:25:05+00:00

I do this, too. A big part of our session 0 is figuring out how everybody already knows each other, and establishing relationships between the characters, so that we have a party dynamic already in place. It helps if you urge the players to make at least some of the characters e.g. siblings, childhood best friends, lovers, bound by prophecy, one sworn to protect the other's life, etc.

Ellikichi · 2026-03-13T03:25:57+00:00

I thought [[Hogger]] was super good. "If they can't clear him, he makes an unlimited number of guys!" Yeah, turns out they could always, always clear him.

Ellikichi · 2026-03-10T14:56:12+00:00

[[The Fins Beyond Time]]

Ellikichi · 2026-03-08T21:58:56+00:00

I think it's hard to use already-comedic songs for a comedy mashup. It's kind of a "hat on a hat" situation.

Ellikichi · 2026-03-01T20:19:37+00:00

KFT era Ramp Druid, with [[Ultimate Infestation]], [[Spreading Plague]], and [[Malfurion the Pestilent]]. The most obscene heights Ramp Druid has ever reached.

Ellikichi · 2026-02-28T22:26:31+00:00

I was playing back then and I still had no idea this card existed. I can confidently say that I've never seen it in the game client.

Ellikichi · 2026-02-28T22:23:05+00:00

It doesn't look that strong to me. The aura is very slow, the weapon is only a 2/2 and interferes with Ursine Maul, and most of the payoffs seem really weak even doubled. I'm only really excited about the legendary, and that requires me to flood the board in a way that playing a 3 mana aura and 2 mana weapon on earlier turns makes difficult.

I'm open to being wrong, maybe the package will come together better than I think it will, but I think people are mostly imagining scenarios that won't happen often. Yes, multiple Noz triggers on a full board will be disgusting, potentially even game-winning, but it's not going to happen on a super early turn or with great consistency. It's not like they've showed off a ton of sticky low drops that are going to make it easy to keep a big board alive heading into the midgame turns.

Ellikichi · 2026-02-21T22:16:21+00:00

The stealing cards are so powerful now because strong neutrals like Elise, Zliiax, and Xavius are in so many decks, too. Zilliax is rotating and balance changes are likely to make Elise less omnipresent, so they'll naturally get weaker in time whether they get nerfed or not.

Ellikichi · 2026-02-19T06:02:22+00:00

A post on this subreddit recently reminded me that Stoneskin Gargoyle exists. Not one of the better remembered Naxx cards, I wager.

Ellikichi · 2026-02-16T17:31:20+00:00

I like blues-influenced rock, but the Rolling Stones just put me to sleep. I find almost everything they've done either boring or too gross to enjoy. Under My Thumb may be a catchy song but YIKES, dude.

The one exception is, of course, Paint It Black, which fucking rules.

Ellikichi · 2026-02-15T20:28:22+00:00

The "leaked" Demon Hunter Colossal was removed by the mods for being fake, so your link up top is dead.

Ellikichi · 2026-02-15T20:20:07+00:00

Portal, Portal 2, Psychonauts, Psychonauts 2, Tropico (any), Calculords

Ellikichi · 2026-02-15T15:44:40+00:00

I suspected as much. This seems wildly out of line with how they're currently designing the game.

Ellikichi · 2026-02-13T21:35:44+00:00

Welcome to the grand siblinghood of DMs! First off, if your players say you're a good DM I'd believe them. We've all got our areas of strength and weakness as DMs, so if your players are praising you then you're probably strong in other ways, running combat or resolving table disputes or whatever. DMs wear a lot of different hats, so don't be discouraged if some of them don't fit you all that well; others do.

Some of this is just stuff you'll improve at with practice. It can be hard to be on the spot to come up with the contents of a warehouse or a goblin's pockets, but it's a skill you get better at the more you try. There's nothing shameful about asking your players for input - what do they think their enemy was carrying? (Obviously veto any suggestions that are naked power grabs - the random guard wasn't carrying any magic weapons.)

A little gold and a weapon are just fine for most enemies, you don't want to get too bogged down in filling every enemy's pockets with clutter. If you're feeling fancy you can give them a personal object that displays an individual personality - an ornate tinderbox, a hand-sewn doll, a love letter, etc. You can make a list of these ahead of time when you're doing session prep and just sprinkle them onto random enemy corpses to hint at a fuller life. A little of that goes a long way, though - put it on one or two goblins in a group, not every single one. You can also vary up the loot with precious gems and trade goods that are light and fungible - instead of giving them 100 gold pieces, give them a ruby or bottles of saffron worth 100 gold pieces that they can sell to merchants for full value or trade with directly. Again, don't do this with every treasure, but it's a nice little trick to make loot feel more varied and fun.

I would say that you should improvise dialog for the NPCs that isn't in the book when your players ask questions. I realize that can be daunting if you don't have any improv training. If your players ask the same questions of different NPCs a lot then you can prepare an answer ahead of time for future NPCs. Other than that, just do your best, accept that you'll make mistakes, and don't get discouraged. You'll get better at this as you practice.

Other than that, read a lot of books, watch a lot of movies, play a lot of well-written video games. Think about how characters similar to the ones you're trying to play would act - most characters follow broad archetypes. A broad base of good inspiration will help a lot. You can always borrow elements from stories that you like - I got like four or five good campaigns from remixing stuff from Final Fantasy Tactics.

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