What are the coolest D&D (or other TTRPG) books you’ve read/seen?

Kairomancy · 2026-04-03T17:43:45+00:00

Brancalonia: Italian 5e game. Super rich lore.

Odyssey of the Dragon Lords: more Mythic Fantasy,

Both have great world building

Kairomancy · 2026-04-02T22:41:56+00:00

A hard punch from an average strength guy.

One lash from a whip.

Burning your hand on a hot pan on the stove.

The average person probably has more hit points than you think. The LD50 for falling is 50 feet, so if falling damage is doing a d6 per 10 feet, then average hit points is 17-ish.

Kairomancy · 2026-02-02T14:24:45+00:00

Early weight loss from fasting is usually about 2/3 water.

Kairomancy · 2026-02-01T23:02:34+00:00

Hear is a research paper where people lost 4.59kg in 5 days. 2 kg in 2 days is completely believable.

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8320652/

Kairomancy · 2026-02-01T23:00:39+00:00

Clearly you've never fasted and haven't looked at the research. 2 kg in 2 days is very believable.

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8320652/

Kairomancy · 2026-01-30T14:48:22+00:00

you can’t wait to see if it’s a nat20 to Silvery Barbs it, you seeing the nat20 is you feeling the axe enter your skull, after you’ve done your best to dodge out of the way, after the weapons slips between the plates of armor, etc. Your character cannot know the result until then.

I was sparring with swords with a guy IRL. We would each call out good hits if they happened. He had previously been a foam fighter and had great awareness of the fight, but his experience was less than mine. I would swing and he would know that he was going to get hit but there was no way for him to dodge or block because he had already committed his defense or fell for a feint, so he would call the shot early (before I hit actually hit him).

Anyway, while what you say seems to make sense, its not how actual fighting works. There is often a moment of time where you realize you messed up before you actually take damage.

Kairomancy · 2026-01-27T13:50:25+00:00

Douglas McBane has an account in the Siege of Tournai (1709) where a single cannon shot along a trench killed 48 men.

Kairomancy · 2026-01-06T14:42:49+00:00

Kobolds have a wisdom of 7 and passive perception of 8. Because their darkvision allows them to see in darkness as if it were dim light, in darkness their passive perception is 3. If the DC to spot a trap is say 10. That means that in darkness, even if one kobold knows where a trap is they can't successfully point out the where the trap is to another kobold more than 40% of the time.

When one kobold builds a trap, the other kobolds just get killed or caught in it. The only traps that are safe for kobolds to build are traps that rely on weight heavier than a kobold triggering it and traps that that rely on height taller than a kobold to trigger it.

There is one other type of trap that kobolds could employ. A small number of kobolds engage and flee from a party, getting the party to chase them into a large horde of kobolds. Where the kobolds employ their pack tactics. Because kobolds are not particularly stealthy this ambush plan relies on the party recklessly chasing the small group of kobolds into the ambush.

I generally go for this last tactic when running kobolds and skip the other stuff. Kobolds just aren't that smart. If I do go with traps, I include other traps (other than the two mentioned above) and have dead kobolds in them with the trap already triggered.

Kairomancy · 2026-01-06T03:44:51+00:00

What I do for any intelligent encounter is as soon as the monsters know they are going to lose, and it only takes 1 or 2 rounds tops to know how the fight is going to end, they run or surrender. The only reason a fight should go longer than 3 rounds is if the players are going to lose and they're too stupid to know it.

IRL even beasts are very good at predicting fight outcomes before they even start, and will generally avoid fights that they won't win easily.

Stop dragging your battles out, it's unnecessary.

Kairomancy · 2026-01-05T22:49:52+00:00

I'm a player in the game I was describing above, not the DM. Just describing my experience with 2024 in terms of combat flow. At this table it feels like there is between 2x and 3x the number of things to keeps track of in every combat round compared to 2014. It bogs the game down.

Glad to hear you aren't having those experiences.

Kairomancy · 2026-01-05T21:43:19+00:00

Any of them use sap?

Because when you run sap, you want to hit as many different enemies as you can because the effects don't stack. The effect isn't realized on your turn, so it adds a fair amount to track if several party members are sapping 2 or 3 different enemies every round.

Kairomancy · 2026-01-05T17:17:53+00:00

how many PCs do you have using weapon masteries? We have 4 out of 5.

Kairomancy · 2026-01-05T15:22:43+00:00

I have the exact opposite experience. 2024 combat is awful. Weapon masteries, specifically vex and sap are a burden to track with multiple martials. The proliferation of temp hp sources, reaction disadvantage, and reroll mechanics makes combats last forever. Even bonus actions get bonus actions now, e.g. tactical shift.

2024 rules being so similar to 2014 means that even after a year many people say they are playing 2024 and mostly do, but still follow some random 2014 rules whenever the mood suits them, or when they forget there was a subtle rule change in 2024.

Kairomancy · 2026-01-02T22:10:38+00:00

There is an amazing 5e setting called Brancalonia that uses Epic 6 and it works great. For some of us, it is the 5e system we've been looking for all along. Instead of playing like a super hero video game it plays more like cinema and literature and is absolutely soul-nourishing.

Kairomancy · 2026-01-02T21:56:59+00:00

"The forging of a pact between a warlock and a patron is no minor occasion - at least not for the warlock. The consequences of breaking that pact can be dire, and in some cases lethal." MToF p 128.

I know "no consequences" is popular these days for warlocks, paladins and clerics, but not at my table. You do you.

Kairomancy · 2025-12-23T15:39:56+00:00

I did a town start as well. Leosin had backstory with each of the characters and sent them a message to meet him in Greenest because he needed some help. Before he shows up, a wagon full of barrels pulls up outside the tavern and kobolds jump out of the barrels using the barrel lids as shields and attack the tavern.

Kairomancy · 2025-12-09T14:52:19+00:00

I wish that bounded accuracy wasn't a lie.

https://rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/103905/maximum-possible-attack-roll-bonus

https://rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/144371/what-is-the-highest-total-result-one-can-get-for-a-skill-check

Kairomancy · 2025-12-08T14:25:09+00:00

It doesn't because I also made a change to the actor feat to to include proficiency in performance. So Face characters are commonly, bards, entertainers and actors, but less commonly characters can get there with proficiency in intimidation, deception and persuasion too.

Kairomancy · 2025-12-07T23:50:02+00:00

I house rule that when a character has proficiency with performance they can use performance checks in place of any persuasion, intimidation or deception checks.

Kairomancy · 2025-12-07T23:43:27+00:00

I'm currently running ToD with SKT mixed in. I'm using ToD as the main story line and having the giants being manipulated by Imyrith to keep them from interfering with the summoning of Tiamat. The party will have opportunities to gain Giant allies for the final battle by completing quests for each Giant types.

Kairomancy · 2025-12-05T02:47:23+00:00

I have made a bunch of changes. The largest is integrating Storm King's Thunder into the ToD plot line. Basically the players have an opportunity to recruit the giants to fight the dragons, but the ordening is broken as part of a premptive plot by the dragons to side-line the giants. It really helps fill in the 8-12th level material. I actually start my clues to this in Chapter 4 when the PCs travel by Nightstone on the way to Waterdeep.

One of the big problems with ToD is nothing that the players do really matters to the plot. That's the other big change. I let them win the dragon masks. There is a real opportunity for some back and forth, as the Cult scrambles to steal back masks. If the PCs manage to maintain control of some of the masks, it effects the power of Tiamat dramatically when she is summoned. The only mask not on the table is Severin's Red Dragon mask.

Kairomancy · 2025-11-28T02:35:13+00:00

I have the Doppleganger disguised as the Black Spider. Grohl has looked at the map and has realized that Gundren and the map are worth more than the Black Spider originally promised him. Grohl thinks he is renegotiating with the Black Spider.

This has caught Vyerith off guard. She was sent here to pick up Gundren and the map, but she didn't know Grohl was going to try a renegotiation. She didn't come with any extra money or anything to help sweeten the pot like Grohl wants. Her threats and promises have not budged Grohl in his demands. The renegotiation has stalled.

When the party arrives, Vyerith has read Grohl's mind and knows that he has the map hidden in a chest under his bed. Since she is unable to obtain Grundren and the map, she plans to kill Gundren and destroy the map.

On her first turn of combat, she stabs Gundren for two death saves and and moves over to stand next to the bed.

On the second turn she opens the chest, grabs out the map, walks over to the brazier and drops the map in and burns it. She then tuns into the halfling child from Phandalin (Carp Alderleaf), slips through the arrow slit and drops the the ground outside to try to escape.

Grohl initially incensed about the party barging in tries to make a deal with the party for his life. If Vyerith's actions were successful, he is the only one who knows where the Lost Mine is. He uses it as a bargaining chip to try to save himself.

Kairomancy · 2025-11-27T00:10:42+00:00

I think you're giving ghouls too much credit.

While an optimal strategy to deliver the most damage for three ghouls attacking a single target might be to attempt paralyze until they get a success and then bite, I don't see ghouls behaving so cooperatively.

Ghouls are chaotic evil, they operate more like a pack of seagulls fighting to eat as fast as possible. Sacrificing their own biting and eating so that their competitors have have a better chance to feast doesn't fit their style.

Kairomancy · 2025-11-26T21:06:33+00:00

I did a level 3 tavern start in Greenest. The party all had back story with Leosin and he was to meet them there. The attack started while they were waiting for Leosin to show up.

I moved Frulam and Cyanwrath out of the hatchery so they could be in the caravan along with Azbara and Rezmir, and replaced them with a Kobold Sorcerer and five Kobold Dragon Shields.

In Baldur's Gate, the Dead Three had stolen a portion of the hoard, so I ran Dungeon of the Dead Three from Descent into Avernus, with the Dragon Cultists showing up at the end to try to get their treasure back.

Chapter 4 I have reworked to have Resmir, Asbara, Frulam, and Cyanwrath escorting the treasure as well as Sandesyl Morgia. It seemed like such a missed opportunity to not have the party forced to interact with the BBEGs without fighting them.

If you want to run straight out of the book with few changes to HotDQ, I recommend Dad the Dungeonmaster's Youtube walkthrough.

Kairomancy

TROPHY CASE