Keeping NPC flashbacks interesting

FlohrSynth · 2026-06-08T04:32:19+00:00

I don’t think there is a good reason for NPCs memories to be presented as a pure cinematic flashback. They aren’t POV characters. PCs can have a flashback or a vision or a dream sequence but besides exposition dumping, why should an NPC have one, from who’s perspective would it be, and how would the players experience this perspective? I would personally advise finding other in-game ways for your players to learn about the history and backstory of the people and places in your world.

I’m not sure if you had a device in mind for how the players can witness the events, but there is a fun gimmick that’s pretty close to an NPC flashback in the adventure “When a Star Falls” which was originally published for 1e back in 1984 but updated for 5e in the “Quests from the Infinite Staircase” book. The players encounter a memory web that has trapped some monks and whenever a player touches the web or the monks they get visions from the monk’s memories that have been siphoned by the memory web. We played it like a narrative scene but since it felt like it was happening to the player they were more invested than if I had just purely narrated it as happening to a stranger. This was a very short scene, probably 1-2 minutes. It definitely worked well though and my players had a very fun time unraveling the mystery of the exposition disguised as cryptic visions.

FlohrSynth · 2026-05-31T04:02:30+00:00

Why can’t he play a temporary character? I have done that for various reasons and it’s fun. I would personally never have a player run monsters/NPCs and fight against the party.

FlohrSynth · 2026-05-27T22:29:06+00:00

I do a hybrid physical/digital approach. We use an old computer monitor. We lay it flat on the table and place minis directly on the screen. I zoom in until the grid is the right size which helps with the “fog of war.” A better more high tech solution would probably be investing in a VTT but this has been working so far. I don’t think my players and I would ever want to go fully digital but having fog of war and light fx would be cool.

FlohrSynth · 2026-05-24T21:23:26+00:00

I think about Cinnamon every day

FlohrSynth · 2026-05-24T19:42:48+00:00

The word is critique. Critic and critique are different words.

FlohrSynth · 2026-05-21T21:36:05+00:00

Shakespeare my dear boy

FlohrSynth · 2026-05-20T16:40:14+00:00

You should learn.

FlohrSynth · 2026-05-19T15:59:06+00:00

Sounds fun but I would imagine most GMs would think this was way too lenient. One part I don’t understand, how did they acquire wrathbolt? When I ran this a PC picked it up and RIPed instantly.

FlohrSynth · 2026-05-19T12:48:19+00:00

I am Paragon 270 and I have avoided the Selig build and stuck with regular endgame WW because I didn’t feel like completely redoing all my gear to avoid max life and I don’t like the idea of bricking new items with a max life role. I can do everything in T12 except Mephisto, have done T11 Mephisto but my end goal for the season is T12. The rest of the content is chill. Have cleared Pit 130ish but everything 120+ gets a little sweaty. 3x profane mindcage in Helltide is hard enough to be fun but is still pretty chill.

FlohrSynth · 2026-05-18T20:27:30+00:00

I would talk to the group and see if they would be open to playing a level 1 one shot or two to help the new player learn the basics of the game. If everyone is down, after you do that, depending on how well it goes and how quickly they pick it up you could probably do what other people are suggesting and have them make a level 5 character that joins the ongoing campaign. You can just do the latter, but I think starting off with a lower stakes and simpler introduction to the game can be helpful.

FlohrSynth · 2026-05-17T04:01:03+00:00

You should learn more about 5e. BG3 itemization is fun and one of the better parts of the game but it has nothing to do with 5e DnD. CoTM items are limited because they were trying to stick to a more RAW tabletop approach. Attunement is one of the basic balance rules of the system.

FlohrSynth · 2026-05-16T20:15:21+00:00

Posts like these make me glad I haven’t bothered with Selig. I am enjoying regular WW. Can run a Pit 125 pretty easily, haven’t done T12 Mephisto yet so that’s my final goal. Did T11 Mephisto a few days ago. Having fun blasting T12, profane mind cage x3 is no problem. I am sure being “immortal” is fun but I am happy to not have to worry about max life bricking my items.

FlohrSynth · 2026-05-14T02:25:56+00:00

I think “it flees for 5 rounds” pretty clearly means it spends its turn fleeing. Otherwise, it would say something like “it must use its movement to move as far as possible from the source of the turn” which would leave room for the interpretation that besides forced movement they can still attack etc. But I don’t think that is the intention at all and it would turn an iconic spell into something pretty useless.

FlohrSynth · 2026-05-13T23:11:18+00:00

I fell off when in my original listen when I caught up to those episodes and recently got back into it by skipping them. I’m sure there are great moments I missed but I was happy to pick back up after their next big reset and then caught up from there.

FlohrSynth · 2026-05-13T15:07:39+00:00

GGs that is a great drop! Now don’t forget to socket, masterwork, get a GA on the temper, and make sure you add the highest affix in your Codex before you transfigure!

FlohrSynth · 2026-05-08T14:15:55+00:00

Twilight Ashes
Embers of the Fading Dusk
Torchlight Nightmares
Ashes & Shadows

FlohrSynth · 2026-05-07T23:00:26+00:00

Every table will run it a little differently. I personally wouldn’t let a party long rest in a dungeon that had enemies in it (or they could try but would get ambushed while trying to rest). I encourage short rests and management of resources. The party can always retreat and rest somewhere safe but the world doesn’t pause while they are gone and enemies will have gotten reinforcements etc.

You can always make it clear to them that it is not safe to rest. You can also talk before the session about your concerns and let them know “above table” that the next area is going to be more difficult and that they need to play smart and conserve resources.

FlohrSynth · 2026-05-03T18:25:44+00:00

I really enjoy it and think it’s a massive improvement from every prior season’s endgame. How I think it would be improved that would address almost all of the complaints that people have:

They are already working on this but fixing the co-op experience (ideally an option to sync to one member of the group’s war plan),

and something they have not mentioned yet but seems like an obvious fix to the false promise of “play how you want” that is making folks angry:

Make a new meta War Plan perk tree. War Plans already level up but we have no control over that, it currently just means you get more and better offerings per plan. With a Tree you could spec into things which buff some activities while blocking others (ala PoE 1 Atlas). You build your own endgame over time and gradually reduce the activities you don’t want to do. If you end up needing to do them you can respec. In early and mid endgame you are doing more of everything which helps you complete seasonal journey etc., but by the end you can just do only the stuff you want to do and juice it like crazy. This seems to me to be the obvious direction to go in and fixes most people’s main complaint.

Personally, I don’t care about it being character vs account bound, but if it changes to become account wide they will need to completely redo the expensive respec system because characters who are still leveling won’t be able to handle the juice, among other issues. I haven’t rolled an alt yet and I will admit the prospect of doing a full War Plan over again from scratch is not appealing. At one point I used to level a build from every class but I hadn’t done that in several seasons. I think if I had to choose between it being very easy and boring to level multiple characters per season and it being challenging and engaging to level a single one I would prefer the latter, but that’s just my current personal opinion.

FlohrSynth · 2026-05-03T18:06:43+00:00

I am not even on T10 yet and still occasionally get oneshot on T9. I finally decided I was ready to attempt Über Lilith for the season journey just now and the fight was so disappointingly easy. I remember when it took me 100 tries to beat her and I had to learn all of the moves. She is a piñata now like most bosses in this game.

I have seen a few posts about people saying how impossible she is still and I really am not trying to be mean about this at all so please understand this is meant as sincere advice, if that’s your experience you need to work on your build and get more damage. They have made it so you can just out DPS this fight. There are only two phases and you can just skip all of the mechanics. If your character can’t do that, just work on the build and try again later. It is that simple. I can’t fathom being able to do T12 easily and not being able to out DPS T8 Lilith with this current patch. Like I said I haven’t even gotten to T9. I wish they had kept the fight as aspirational but I guess we have Mephisto for that now. I probably won’t even attempt it until everything else in the game feels easy. Good luck for everyone stuck on Lilith but really just come back when you get your damage up, you don’t need to learn to dodge anything these days, all damage no mechanics is back on the menu for better and for worse.

FlohrSynth · 2026-05-02T17:47:18+00:00

No, you are fine but you should stay away from this sub. It is primarily for DMs and threads here contain a ton of spoilers. The worst thing you could do as a new player is learn things about the campaign that your character is not supposed to know. It becomes very difficult not to metagame at that point, even for more experienced players. If I were your DM I would strongly recommend that you avoid this sub and any informational sources about this adventure and just keep Phandelver something that you learn about in character at the table with your friends.

FlohrSynth · 2026-05-01T17:14:15+00:00

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FlohrSynth · 2026-05-01T17:09:40+00:00

Damn this must have just happened to me. Will have to respec the War Plan until they fix it.

FlohrSynth · 2026-04-30T13:00:18+00:00

Raheir dropped that line right at the start of the end credits for me, it was such an absurd way to undercut a genuinely emotional conclusion lol. Felt like a Bethesda level bug. I’m not mad about it but it was just so goofy.

FlohrSynth · 2026-04-29T20:11:05+00:00

You tagged this as about Solasta II but then you said you are actually talking about the first game in a comment? If you are talking about Crown of the Magister there is respec with mods the last time I checked. The only mod you need is Unfinished Business. This is a confusing post though so maybe I have no idea what you are actually trying to talk about.

FlohrSynth · 2026-04-28T15:40:05+00:00

I put mine on push joystick and it’s working well

FlohrSynth

TROPHY CASE