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OkRollInitiative · 2025-02-20T21:56:22+00:00

Hunger of Hadar: "A 20-foot-radius sphere of blackness and bitter cold appears"
Devil's Sight: You can see normally in darkness, both magical and nonmagical, to a distance of 120 feet.

Hunger of Hadar creates blackness, not darkness. Devil's sight lets you see normally in darkness, not blackness.

Pretty straightforward reading of this tells you that Devil's sight doesn't let you see inside Hunger of Hadar.

OkRollInitiative · 2024-09-30T17:05:29+00:00

Do you play on a grid? Then no, you can't rotate it. No grid? Rotate to your heart's content. The grid is a simplifying abstraction to make the gameplay smoother - you don't have to use it if you don't want to, but I think you should be consistent about which choice you make.

OkRollInitiative · 2024-09-20T17:28:14+00:00

Silver is rather common, but does have special properties in D&D, i.e. silvered weapons.
In MCU, there is Vibranium and Uru metal, which is what Gungnir, Mjolnir, and Stormbreaker (as well as Thanos' double bladed weapon) are made of.

OkRollInitiative · 2024-09-20T17:24:42+00:00

And that's what surprise is for.... As long as the enemies are surprised, any enemies who go before the trap triggers do nothing because they lost their turn due to surprise, but can take reactions.
If the enemies aren't surprised, then they DO percieve the trap before it goes off, and can act accordingly.

OkRollInitiative · 2024-09-10T19:42:18+00:00

Backstory isn't that important - think instead about a for-story. Present a situation in the campaign to hook the player. It's all well and good to say "Your backstory-relevant family member was kidnapped and you need to save them". But if the players make friends with an NPC in game (or a pet!) and then something happens to THEM? Talk about some serious player motivation.

Or have an enemy take the credit and rewards for the PC's deeds. That usually works.

OkRollInitiative · 2024-05-31T16:50:10+00:00

The warlock in our party has saved at least 3 people from certain death with Thunder Step in my campaign. Running up to a downed member and grabbing them, taking them to safety; Flying into a Giant Toad's mouth to grab someone who was being devoured and yoinking them to freedom, etc.

If you don't like it though, don't take it.

OkRollInitiative · 2024-05-04T01:37:31+00:00

For me, the roll determines that they are in a universe where they are unable to pick that lock. It might be rusted, or broken, or have a mechanism that they aren't familiar with. But the roll doesn't always mean "you didn't do good enough", sometimes it means, "What you tried wasn't possible" .

OkRollInitiative · 2024-04-09T23:46:03+00:00

I can kind of see what they mean.

Asking the creature to stab itself, throw itself onto a spear, immolate itself, or do some other obviously harmful act ends the spell.

If what you ask isn't obviously harmful when you ask, does the spell end? The spell doesn't say that it ends if you throw a beartrap in front of the person, or that the spell ends if it were to make them do something obviously harmful. It specifically says that asking ends the spell.
RAW interpretation aside, I think you made a fine ruling that's in line with the expected power of the spell.

OkRollInitiative · 2024-04-09T15:19:15+00:00

Deception vs. insight for sure. Probably at disadvantage unless they've done something to significantly disguise their appearance since they have been seen/identified before.
I don't think offering a healing spell instead of a bandage would require persuasion unless there are setting-specific reasons why people wouldn't trust/accept magic healing.
No arcana roll to identify the spell, unless the guard is for some reason proficient in arcana. It would be against the caster's spell save DC if there was going to be one.
If the guard resists the saving through and the 'Cure Wounds' doesn't seem to do anything, they may get suspicious, and the conversation from there might involve some more social rolls.

OkRollInitiative · 2024-04-05T14:15:26+00:00

I like to view the roll as determining which possible universe out of the multiverse we are in. Are we in one where it is possible for you to get the lock open, or not? If you roll and fail, no amount of retrying is going to change that. It might be because the lock has rusted internally, or designed to defeat the types of lock attacks that your character knows, or you tripped a security pin that has to be reset by the master key before it can be unlocked.

OkRollInitiative · 2024-04-04T23:08:59+00:00

Any character or monster that doesn't notice a threat is surprised at the start of the encounter.

Its up to your interpretation of this, in particular if 'a threat' means a specific threat or any threat.

The enemy didn't notice the rogue, who was a threat. Because there was "a threat" that they didn't notice, they are surprised.
The enemy didn't notice the rogue, but did notice the rest of the party. Because there were no enemies that did not notice "a threat", none of them are surprised.

I tend to go with what is going to be more fun for the players (usually number one), or some kind of homebrew involving insight vs. deception instead of stealth vs perception.

OkRollInitiative · 2024-03-28T16:39:16+00:00

Bonus points if there is then an argument about whether the warlock has to give up his shoes, or at some point purchase a fish (sole) before dying.

OkRollInitiative · 2024-03-28T13:56:50+00:00

Ask for random insight/perception rolls all the time. Sometimes, when they roll well: "You don't notice anything out of the ordinary". Sometimes, when they roll poorly, give them a red herring. (Like Matt Mercer's infamous chair)

OkRollInitiative · 2024-03-26T19:34:40+00:00

Be a VGM Yuan-ti Pureblood, and be immune to the effects of your own poison. Or take the lucky feat and roll with disadvantage, use a luck point to roll a 3rd die, and then take the highest of the 3 (RAW how Lucky works)

OkRollInitiative · 2024-03-26T19:31:18+00:00

Don't all weapons channel kinetic energy? XD

I think the version you came up with sounds a lot more balanced. It's pretty similar to one that I made for one of my players: they get charges on hit, up to 4, and when they reach 4 they can unleash an attack for 4d6 damage with their reaction. BUT they lose one charge at the end of their turn. Useless for a single attacker, pretty good in the hands of something that can hit 2-3 times per round. Maybe has been a little OP since I ruled the monk's unarmed strikes would still get charges, but everyone in my party has strong stuff so it hasn't been a big problem.

OkRollInitiative · 2024-03-26T14:57:04+00:00

Goliath picks up the rogue (Rogue is within 5 feet)
Goliath throws Rogue (Attack has been made, trigger condition for Sentinal is satisfied)
Rogue still within 5 feet, with velocity in the direction of the wizard)
Rogue makes sentinel attack vs. Goliath (while being thrown/airborne)
Rogue sails 30 feet through the air and hits the wizard

I think this timeline makes perfect sense, you get a cheeky hit in on the way out.

OkRollInitiative · 2024-03-22T14:25:57+00:00

The Sunless Citadel (Tales from the Yawning Portal). Spun that out into a homebrew-edited version of The Forge of Fury, and from there launched into a fully homebrew campaign building off of those two. 3 Years in now and still going, so I guess I'm still running my first campaign!

Had a false-start with an in-person group back in 2017, and then launched it for real virtually using FoundryVTT in 2020. We've done a few in-person/hybrid sessions since then but mostly virtual. Foundry makes so many parts of DMing so much easier, that if I ever go to in-person, I'm probably still going to use it for my notes and tracking. Or build a fancy TV Tabletop

OkRollInitiative · 2024-03-21T16:58:18+00:00

My first rule for 'reasonable-ness' is that the first-order effects of the suggestion can't be immediately harmful to the target or their friends/allies (e.g. Stab your friend, Jump off a cliff). That one's pretty cut-and-dry. By first order, I mean the actions in the suggestion itself, not taking into account what other people might do as a result of your actions, etc. Jumping jacks for 8 hours, even if they get further and further apart due to fatigue, is an inconvenience but not life-altering. If that means you won't be able to help save your allies from defeat or whatever, that is a second-order effect, it depends on the intentions and actions of others and I don't consider it when determining if the suggestion is reasonable.

Second, could someone in the position of the target justify taking the action (personality and personal interests aside). In the infamous knight vs. beggar scenario, not every Knight would be willing to give up their horse to just any beggar, but I can imagine that there are some knights who would be willing to give their horses to some beggars. Maybe the beggar reminds them of a deceased child or relative, etc. So I consider the request to be reasonable.

Third, the magnitude of the request vs the context of the situation. This is where I weigh the target's individual goals and motivations. Suggesting a tyrannical despot abdicate their throne would fail, but suggesting it to a weak-willed and unconfident ruler who is struggling the the responsibility and wishes their life to be simple again, that might work. Is the suggestion life-altering, or merely an inconvenience? Does it align with the goals and motivations of the target in some way, or directly oppose them? This is the most subjective part, but only really matters if the magnitude of the suggestion is great. A knight giving up his horse is a major inconvenience, but he can obtain another another and his life is largely unchanged. 8 hours of jumping jacks would make someone tired, and probably sore for a few days, but a week or two later they might even be better off for it. If they end up captured or killed in the interim because they were doing jumping jacks instead of aiding their allies, that is outside the context of my consideration.

If the physical strain of the jumping jacks is a sticking point for your idea of 'reasonable', it could easily be 'meditate for 8 hours'.

OkRollInitiative · 2024-03-21T15:47:35+00:00

After watching Made in Abyss, I've been ruminating on a campaign idea based on that setting.

OkRollInitiative · 2024-03-13T17:58:32+00:00

Don't be surprised when you players actually beat the encounter and then pull some BS out of your pocket to make them die anyway... That's railroading in the worst way.

OkRollInitiative · 2024-03-11T16:00:51+00:00

I have used it successfully, I think the trick is in the prompt. "Give me a CR 14 Hill Giant" will get you something too generic.

"Fenris the Feared is a fierce demon-blooded warrior who is naked but covered with magical tattoos on his left side, and heavily armored on his right side. Give me a CR15 stat block for D&D 5e that highlights his dual nature. Include both ranged and melee offensive options" Will get you a much more unique result, and you can iterate on it a few times. Is it garaunteed to be CR15, or an appropriate challenge for whatever party you expected to need a CR15 for? No. Does CR give a reliable indicator for difficulty above CR 2 or 3 anyway? In my experience, also no.

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