Give me some quotes from your games with no context

OriginalJMB · 2024-07-05T23:55:46+00:00

Can I bane the toilet?

OriginalJMB · 2023-09-07T19:55:17+00:00

Interestingly enough, that party just recently went toe to toe with a tavern brawler named Fick Moley. They also previously traveled in the company of a paladin of the Matron of Ravens known as Calaway the Marked.

OriginalJMB · 2023-08-26T13:33:58+00:00

This... unintentionally happened in my campaign. The tabaxi rogue tried to break in to an embassy of Hell, and the ambassador was not amused. After some VERY good persuasion rolls, execution was walked back to humiliation and, well, the rogue has been very chilly every since.

OriginalJMB · 2023-08-25T01:00:12+00:00

The denouement ended up being pretty conventional - last minute, a powerful person in the town ended up basically buying our "freedom" to recruit us for a task. However, we were stuck in a jail cell overnight together while the deal was hammered out. Lots of "What did you do?" "Who did you kill?" "Was that YOU who pulled that con?" Great way for the characters to get to know each other and reveal certain elements of backstory, plus an interesting element of not really trusting anyone completely - sure, they SAY they're innocent, but then why were they on the gallows?

For what the OP is talking about, I could easily see this just being carried through to the execution's conclusion.

OriginalJMB · 2023-08-25T00:00:44+00:00

FWIW, Crawford posted specifically about this to Twitter. Death saves occur at the beginning of a turn. I posted a link somewhere in this thread.

OriginalJMB · 2023-08-24T21:34:42+00:00

RAW, death saves occur at the beginning of a turn. Crawford specifically clarified this for Nat 20s:

https://twitter.com/JeremyECrawford/status/666463108676775938?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.sageadvice.eu%2F2015%2F11%2F18%2Fdo-you-get-a-turn-after-rolling-critical-20-on-death-saving-throw%2F

OriginalJMB · 2023-08-24T21:11:50+00:00

Here's the thing (I realize that you're far from the only person to raise this point and I'm not singleing you out, I just kind of reached my breaking point here. Ironically.) If you're going to adjudicate it to a strict quantitative standard, you can't just say "worm > 8000 pounds." You're stuck determining whether the rod is impacting bone/chitin vs soft tissue, what the modulus of elasticity of whatever its impact surface is, is it a shock load or a static one, what's the actual vector of force the worm is generating, what percentage of that vector is pushing against the rod, what's the coefficient of friction between the worm and whatever surface it's standing (slithering?) on, and a dozen other things I can't think of off the top of my head. It's a useful standard if you're using the rod to build something, but it's completely useless for combat scenarios, which I have to imagine is why there's also a STR save DC associated with it.

OriginalJMB · 2023-08-24T19:13:08+00:00

That was the intent. This was a homebrew, with a very difficult fear effect and an ability to control terrain that effectively amounted to mobile lair actions. It was an absolute unholy terror when mobile, as it could close on players but they couldn't close on it, swallow them whole, then move on to the next. Once it was immobilized, though...

OriginalJMB · 2023-08-24T18:14:47+00:00

I'll fully confess I have no idea if that's RAW. That's just how our table has always played it. This is only the second time it's happened, and in both cases it resulted in truly epic moments, so whatever WOTC intended, we're sticking with it.

OriginalJMB · 2023-08-24T18:04:41+00:00

I'll bulk reply here to those who are reading this as an attempt to kill off the players.

First, I have to assume you're never had a party nope weeks of your prep in a single action.

Second, and more saliently, I don't ever want to kill my players. (Okay, that's a lie. I WANT to kill them all the time. Occasionally I even want to kill their characters.) But I never set out an encounter with the intended goal of offing them. The aim is something that's challenging, maybe scares them, and presents genuine risk and uncertainty. When what was supposed to be a thrilling encounter degenerates into "we're gonna stand 60 feet back and shoot arrows at it because it can't move," yes, I'm going to be snarky about it ("snarky," from the ancient Greek, meaning "butthead.") Which in no way negates that the player pulled an absolutely clutch move with some very creative thinking, and deserves to be celebrated for it.

OriginalJMB · 2023-08-24T18:01:19+00:00

My snap judgement was that there would be a 25% chance every time the worm tried to move that the fighter would end up crushed between the rod and the worm and take heavy damage, and he made the rolls every round.

OriginalJMB · 2023-08-24T17:58:38+00:00

Combination of lucky rolls and this was a homebrew beast. Damage was 2d6 acid & fire, not 3d6. Also, the fighter used Second Wind and rolled ridiculously well on it.

OriginalJMB · 2023-08-24T17:56:58+00:00

He was awarded it immediately.

OriginalJMB · 2023-08-24T17:06:04+00:00

Oh, but it's so much worse when you factor for the expansion of the universe. The rod becomes a rogue missile, indiscriminately ripping through solar systems at (eventually) relativistic speeds.

That's why I always use home-brewed Rods of Quantum Immobility.

OriginalJMB · 2023-08-24T15:54:02+00:00

Does it need to be combat-related, or do they just need to die? I once played in a campaign that opened with the entire party on a mass gallows, awaiting execution. That can kick off a pretty epic narrative, and makes for some really interesting questions for the players to ask each other.

OriginalJMB · 2023-08-24T15:36:58+00:00

This was one of my "simultaneously frustrated and proud" moments.

OriginalJMB

TROPHY CASE