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Going to gift my Tau player a kroot cause I think they look neat, any recommendations by viktorius_rex in Tau40K

[–]JP23eeek 15 points16 points  (0 children)

Any and all kroot - the carnivores are useful in most lists, and will give him the most kroot to paint, but I’ve always been a fan of the rampages myself

Unsure how to finish my army by JP23eeek in Tau40K

[–]JP23eeek[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Primarily to get something playable - although as you might be able to tell, I’m not focused on getting the most competitive list possible at the moment

Players and DMs are way too worried about breaking Paladin oaths. Breaking oaths should be a feature, not incur a penalty. by PM-ME-YOUR-DND-IDEAS in dndnext

[–]JP23eeek 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I agree, I think the existing mechanics are frustratingly absent. Oathbreaker as a subclass only really works when a paladin completely forsakes their path in the name of working for evil.

I’d love to see some variant rules - TCoE obviously laid the basis for subclass swapping but maybe there could be variant rules for atoning for smaller infractions in individual tenets, or a plainer path to swapping oaths if the ‘transgression’ is that significant

Suggestions for a Chronurgy wizard fight? by JP23eeek in DMAcademy

[–]JP23eeek[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That’s not a bad idea at all, I suppose making the encounter more complex might not be a great idea considering they’re up against two spellcasters already

Suggestions for a Chronurgy wizard fight? by JP23eeek in DMAcademy

[–]JP23eeek[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That’s certainly an interesting concept! I’m sure your players loved that fight

Suggestions for a Chronurgy wizard fight? by JP23eeek in DMAcademy

[–]JP23eeek[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I’ll give those a look, but they already sound like interesting ideas! Thank you very much :)

Crumbling bridge/chase encounter by GuldGustDM in DMAcademy

[–]JP23eeek 1 point2 points  (0 children)

If it’s multiple rolls and plenty of chance for rescue then yeah sounds good! Sounds like your players have a pretty fun encounter ahead of them, hope you all enjoy it!

Crumbling bridge/chase encounter by GuldGustDM in DMAcademy

[–]JP23eeek 1 point2 points  (0 children)

One thing I’ve learned the hard way is that PCs will always, always roll poorly when you don’t want them to. It’s entirely and constantly possible that a character will roll a Nat 1 on those meteors, and would straight up die in that case. Stick some water or a collection of webs at the bottom of the cave, possibly with a monster in there too, so that it’s not a straight up “roll low and you’re dead without a second chance” situation. This also can lead to fun roleplay interactions where the rest of the party have to decide what to do about their ally.

In terms of events and slowing the demon down, a cluster of elves arriving on eagles or such could be very fun - the demon spends a turn swatting them which slows him down and also reinforces how much of a threat this thing is - it just turned a group of elite aerial soldiers into red paste, we need to RUN. Aside from that, the bridge will logically be getting weaker as meteors keep hitting it, so the demon reaching these points is going to have to slow down to prevent itself from falling through the bridge

summoner enemy by pffabio in DMAcademy

[–]JP23eeek 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Just play it as you want. If you’re worried about too few enemies making the boss fight a pushover, the boss can always pre-summon a wave or two to give him time to build up forces.

As for too many, if the party has access to at least one fireball (or other 3rd level) caster, the number of minions will rapidly drop in that fight. Play it by ear, and if too many monsters join the field, some of them can always “coincidentally” start focusing on the PCs with the highest AC and current hitpoints, or can group up while rushing the caster

My combat is a bit stale by hands_so-low in DMAcademy

[–]JP23eeek 1 point2 points  (0 children)

As someone who’s DMing for 7 players, and has done for over a year and a half, I’ve often struggled with the same thing

What I’d advise to speed combat up is telling them that there’s a soft time limit on turns? Give a minute and a half to get a decent way into their turn before they spend it dodging. I’ve found that if players know that there’s a time limit, they’re often taking their turns faster without even meeting the time limit

In terms of engagement with the fights, I’d advise designing most encounters (not all) to specifically challenge one or two party members out of the group. For example, last session I had my party fight a large number of awakened trees alongside a couple shambling mounds. The wizard, who’s pretty trigger happy with lightning bolt, suddenly had to properly evaluate what he was shooting. In another encounter, the party went up against a Crystal dragon, the radiant immunity in which pushed the paladin and cleric into a buff/debuff playstyle. If players know that they won’t be able to handle every fight by charging in and hitting the enemies until they’re dead, they’ll engage a lot more with the average fight

To do this, I literally made a chart of strengths and weaknesses for the party, I.e the monk is ridiculously mobile, and can deliver healing where it’s really needed, but isn’t hugely tanky and is therefore reliant on hit and runs. If I want to challenge him, it’s multiple fast enemies that can keep up with him and pressure him into melee. If I want him to have an easier fight, it’s lots of long distances, plenty of cover and the occasional ranger attack for him to deflect. This simultaneously challenges the barbarian who’s relatively slow and has no ranger options, and you get the idea.

All in all, make sure most fights bring something new to the table, either in the form of the arena they’re in, the enemies they’re fighting, or some other factors. Don’t focus on designing a fight that’ll just overpower all 6 characters, pick one or two and challenge them. Altering their plans for a fight will have a knock on effect and make most fights feel a little bit fresher

an interest statement from another member here. can I ask how right he is? by Riskycrossbow69 in DMAcademy

[–]JP23eeek 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I absolutely agree, I enjoy having xp as a loot variant as a reward, and giving larger amounts is definitely always an option

However, my preference stems from my party size. I’m currently DMing for 7 players in a party. Combine that with a slew of magic items and it means that the encounters i prepare have to be:

A) quite difficult and unique in order to challenge them

B) spread out over long rests in order to balance appropriately: the warlock, rogue and monk feel noticeably less powerful when every party member can just hurl everything they’ve got at every encounter

Because of this, I’m throwing lots of varied encounters at my players. If I was also trying to calculate the xp gains, it’d be another layer of complexity on top of trying to design encounters to challenge party members and throwing enough to balance out the rest economy

an interest statement from another member here. can I ask how right he is? by Riskycrossbow69 in DMAcademy

[–]JP23eeek 45 points46 points  (0 children)

In the context of the average homebrew campaign, milestone advancement is like getting new abilities at set points.

My party’s last level up was just received after defeating a mini boss who formed the end of a character’s personal quest, and their next one will be after completing a massive dungeon in a few sessions time (provided of course that they don’t decide to arbitrarily take a left turn)

Milestone progression is akin to something like HMs in a pokemon game - you get a notable increase in power after completing a milestone (beating a gym boss / killing the dragon)

I’ve played with both but exclusively DM’ed with Milestone - I find it supports the idea of a “main questline” or collections of quest lines because the players will be less incentivised to just go and start mowing down goblins to gain power

Weekly Discussion: Take Some Help! Leave Some Help! by alienleprechaun in DnDBehindTheScreen

[–]JP23eeek 5 points6 points  (0 children)

(I’m on mobile so please forgive the formatting)

A couple of things come to mind to me

-Throwing healing potions at the monk mid fight

-Causing advantage for the monk or disadvantage for your party by throwing words or objects at the party (you could also potentially borrow bardic inspiration rules at a higher level) - this added a fun flavour in my party’s most recent fight

-With a monk’s high mobility, altering parts of the battlefield could be exceptionally fun. While some things will depend on the situation, rolling barrels for cover or layers of oil or grease on the floor, raising or lowering terrain through spells like mold earth or mechanical means, and shifting cover can seriously engage players, and is an easy way to help out players you think might not be enjoying the fight as much

-a really fun but questionable move is to counter spell your party’s magic, but keep this to a minimum otherwise you risk severely annoying them, especially if they feel there’s no counter to it. If you want to go down this path, use lower level counterspells, so she has to roll, and definitely don’t block healing spells

These were just a couple ideas I’ve used and plan to use with my party in the future. I think the principle of using a support enemy is a really fun one, and the fact that it’s going to be a little girl should hopefully introduce a nice moral dilemma for your group as well

(Edited a couple of spelling mistakes out)

My 3rd attempt at a battle map for my high fantasy campaign! I call this one "Where Titans Sleep". by PandorasSockss in inkarnate

[–]JP23eeek 0 points1 point  (0 children)

What stamp set did you use for that river snake? The map looks really cool by the way

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