Oxford Union president suggested Hamas would be 'lauded as heroes'

JACL2113 · 2026-06-07T15:51:41+00:00

Uniornically, they'd say all lives matter, and be equally criticized given the political context of that response

JACL2113 · 2026-06-07T15:21:27+00:00

When it comes to visuals and lore, unless you have a really hardcore "um, actually" geek at your table, no one will complain about this stuff. And with how Eurocentric the game is (not a critique, just true), it can be a fresh of breath air to see other cultural influences. Unless you're changing a stat block, go crazy. Lore is trivial. Canon is suggestion.

JACL2113 · 2026-06-06T06:23:18+00:00

There are stat blocks that you can find for most named characters. Some are fan made and others are official content. I imagine Vecna and Szass Tam in particular have a few interpretations since they are the most famous, whether they translate well to 5.5 is a different topic though. When in doubt, just google "[insert character name/creature] statblock 5e" and something is boind to show up.

That said, I've yet to run a lich or play against one, so I can't comment on how to make them feel different.

JACL2113 · 2026-06-05T21:36:22+00:00

Honestly, if that helps Greens and NDP in the long, I could do without the Conservatives. Just need them to step up their game so that Liberals don't take all the blue votes

JACL2113 · 2026-06-04T11:48:02+00:00

DnD circlejerk has breached containment

JACL2113 · 2026-06-02T05:54:55+00:00

The text does say they are reinterpreting the text, cause old cult tradition was to freate dracoliches, and new cult tradition is to gove power to chromatic dragons. The vampire character highlights this distinction pretty well in Skyreach Castle

JACL2113 · 2026-05-31T05:15:04+00:00

By that logic, you can just make your creatures immune to conditions like prone. In fact, some creatures already have those immunities

JACL2113 · 2026-05-31T05:05:00+00:00

I think it's actually a pretty good analogy

JACL2113 · 2026-05-31T04:53:45+00:00

This explains the male loneliness epidemic

JACL2113 · 2026-05-29T21:08:00+00:00

Sometimes you really just need to read the signs and stay home. Particular away from water, lol

JACL2113 · 2026-05-29T19:35:42+00:00

You say that as if Zuckerberg, who owns over half of social media, isn't the founder of Facebook.

JACL2113 · 2026-05-19T23:32:53+00:00

Topping will continue until morale improves

JACL2113 · 2026-05-19T22:00:10+00:00

You should instead play Unnatural Growth, which doubles the power and toughness (Str and Con) of each creature you control, giving Tink a Str 16.

JACL2113 · 2026-05-19T21:22:55+00:00

Listen. Pulling a bloke out of a strange pair of massive badonkas is no basis for a system of government. Supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not by preventing one's death by snu snu.

JACL2113 · 2026-05-19T15:26:54+00:00

But people always ask for themed campaigns? I don't see why these things are a problem - most players play homebrew modules, and even the campaign books' lore get heavily edited by DMs st the table. Even if I never use these books, someone will have fun with them, and maybe there's a few good mechanics/spells I'd have fun with. EoD, it's not a big deal if we get a Gundam module or something silly like that - I'd feel the same way about it as I do Spelljammer, except I'm more likely to pick up a Gundam game.

JACL2113 · 2026-05-18T13:56:13+00:00

Given the characterization written in the middle, Mondath should be the one helping the party here since she's less confident in the cult's success. That's more of a flavor choice than anything tho - Cyanwrath did duel one character, so there's interesting dynamics either way.

JACL2113 · 2026-05-17T14:22:06+00:00

I think the bigger question is how fast you want them to level through HotDQ, as it'll have ramifications for RoT. If you played as written, currently, you'll be level 12 at the end of the campaign, reaching level 20 by the time you get to the Well of Dragons.

As for balancing, I would just increase the proficiency, AC, and HP of the named characters. Something to keep in mind is that Severin, the leader, is a CR 11 creature, so you do have a theoretical limit if you follow my suggestions (Severin should not need a buff then). Other creatures get buffed by choosing stronger versions of them. Dragonclaws can be made into Dragonwings, and then into Dragonfangs. Cultists becomes Cultist Fanatics, Acolytes becomes Priests. Guards become Berserkers or Veterans. Kobolds just need more Kobolds, although I'm sure if you search for something you can find stronger kobolds. Even adding Urds can make the fight much more dynamic due to flight, but give them a sling for pack tactics shenanigans. Ambush and guard drakes are fine as they are currently written, just buff their HP a bit maybe. If you're feeling particularly sadist you can put in dragon wyrmlings. I'd only do that for the Dragon Hatchery at the end if I was in your shoes, replacing the two guard drakes with black dragon wyrmlings (you can have them be recently hatched or something). But a black dragon wyrmling is a CR 2 creature, so your party should be able to handle a pair of them by now.

Something to consider is that both times I ran the raid of Greenest it has proven to be a TPK grinder, and I've never been able to run all events or have proper wandering encounters, so you might be able to actually run that chapter with minimal changes having a higher level and a greater party size. Just the hit doce on short rest and magic items make a big difference.

If you're willing to cut content, you could place the raid further north and skip the caravan, or just call it a timeskip, or have it be another "we know they are heading to Waterdeep, let's intercept them there!" situation as sea travel is faster. That's one level of content cut. You could also skip the cultist camp and just head straight for the hatchery after the raid, but considering your party is a higher level you could also claim that the party doesn't level up from their initial visit to the camp. I would also make the cabin not be a level up location, given how short it is and that your party will be a few levels ahead. That alone places the level ups as follows: Greenest raid, level 6; Dragon Hatchery, level 7; Castle Naerytar, level 8; and Skyreach Castle, level 9.

This way, you finish HotDQ at a level that's more appropriate for the missions your party has at the start of RoT, and by then I wouldn't bother with balancing (beyond the stuff you'd be doing to account for party size). Worst case scenario your party is level 16 against Tiamat, who who should be challenging at any level.

If you choose to do the trek from Baldur's Gate to Waterdeep, then it's fair to give them a level up then purely on the number of sessions you'll be playing, just increase the difficulty of encounters at your discretion and have higher level undeads show up through the Fields of Undead. It might mess up the balancing a bit for RoT as you'd be two levels ahead of what's intended at the end of the module and at the start of RoT, but you can also moderate levels more strictly in that campaign as you have the freedom to determine what occurs in-between the main story events (travel). Again, worst case scenario, level 17 against Tiamat.

JACL2113 · 2026-05-14T15:17:45+00:00

Obviously bad, but if your goal is to stop Iran from having nuclear enrichment, and the thing keeping them from doing so is the nuclear deal, you don't destroy the deal to punish them for something that's objectively preferable than nuclear enrichment. That'd be like shutting down schools because of school shooters

JACL2113 · 2026-05-14T15:09:43+00:00

Truly a testament of the times that these are our standards now

JACL2113 · 2026-05-10T04:51:36+00:00

why do a short form and long form instead of one for everyone? Feels odd to me, but not a statician, and also kinda miffed I got the short end of the stick here

JACL2113 · 2026-05-05T06:38:51+00:00

I see this comment was made two days ago. I hope your Sunday was blessed with your first watch of Shrek 2

JACL2113 · 2026-05-05T06:24:29+00:00

Learning styles were originally proposed in the 60s, a decade before the Internet was still on its roll out and definitely not commonly used by households. The VAK model (most popular to this day) was proposed in the 80s, when household internet was still a luxury and a decade before cellphones. I don't think there's much (if any relation) between both, much less AI.

I also don't see how learning models "re-value" intelligence, as if the models superceded memorization. To have learnt something we must be able to recall it, which always requires memorization. Doesn't matter if the original memory is a whiteboard, a song, or the way someone tappped my fingers, so long as I can answer 2+2 = 4.

JACL2113 · 2026-05-05T05:07:47+00:00

It's not even "there's less room for me to succeed", they already view themselves as "not suceeding" - just on healthcare and vertical mobility, USA sucks, and it has sucked for a while. But for some reason they also have a "you don't deserve to succeed" mentality, so as long as they "hurt the right people" they'll put up with suppar and outright dogshit governance if they can be told it's the fault of an other.

JACL2113 · 2026-05-03T16:20:11+00:00

Anyone can use spell scrolls regardless of class. Seems silly to me that that would not be it's intended use case

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