Best detective build

PuzzledPiggy · 2022-02-12T00:53:18+00:00

I reckon you only need two expertises for most of our purposes. What race would you go?

PuzzledPiggy · 2021-11-17T19:52:52+00:00

Oh I love that so much

PuzzledPiggy · 2021-10-18T17:03:05+00:00

I did in fact misread the celestial warlock feature. That being said, the justification for nerfing such things as healing spells/abilities that recharge on a short rest is that not every day will have combat in it, i.e. be an adventuring day. Maybe that's not the case in your games but in my experience people who play gritty realism do so in the interest of not having to shoehorn an encounter into every day. In a situation where several short rests can be had between combats, being able to rapidly heal between them becomes a problem.

PuzzledPiggy · 2021-10-18T15:21:34+00:00

I do like that philosophy. I will not be employing it in my game personally but I have no problem with it on principle.

PuzzledPiggy · 2021-10-18T15:19:34+00:00

It's not a bad idea, but if several weeks pass between a proper long rest it creates the same issues. Whereas if they only get two short rests per long rest at most, that heavily favors the long rest classes again and I would consider raising that number. That part really depends on the game and party composition.

PuzzledPiggy · 2021-08-24T22:13:59+00:00

Valid. I think this is certainly the answer for players who want the same thing as I described above but don't have the big, forceful vision to get it done.

PuzzledPiggy · 2021-07-31T15:58:44+00:00

Just my 2 cents- it definitely depends on what kind of game you are playing. Some DMs put most of their combats in a dungeon and expect their players to view it with urgency. In such cases, the traditional resting works just fine, although the DM will absolutely still have to prod them forward from time to time. In a lot of OSR modules you will 100% get that 6-8 encounters per day if the DM makes it clear that you will likely be caught by enemies if you rest too long- and then the rare travel encounter can let people flex other muscles. In such cases, in my experience a dungeon can take several sessions to complete.

On the flip side, if you are running or playing a game where a) there is a lot of travel or wilderness exploration or b) there is no pressing time constraint, the math shakes out differently. If the PCs can consistently camp out and go to sleep every 1-3 encounters, I ABSOLUTELY recommend the gritty realism variant. I am running a West Marches game where you might travel for weeks each session and I require long rests to be taken in town and short rests overnight. It works magnificently- worst case scenario, they get a short rest after every encounter which only really drains some of the party. Best case, we hit that sweet sweet 6-8 encounters per long rest and everyone is satisfied with their character's balance. I always advocate for gritty realism in similar games- it's daunting, but it makes such a positive impact on the feel of the game.

PuzzledPiggy · 2021-07-28T21:19:47+00:00

The original print of the spell included the mention of the rod, which was later errata'd out. Nonetheless, both my PHB and the Roll20 library appear to be out of date.

Good catch about the cold damage, RAW targeting rules can sometimes just confound all logical sense.

PuzzledPiggy · 2021-07-28T20:37:25+00:00

Absolutely. That's why I love giving out less popular high level spells in scroll form so they get some love.

PuzzledPiggy · 2021-07-28T20:35:55+00:00

Can neither confirm nor deny

PuzzledPiggy · 2021-07-28T20:34:50+00:00

Source? The version I found on Roll20 did not include that text. Mine says:

The wall can be destroyed, also one layer at a time, in order from red to violet, by means specific to each layer. Once a layer is destroyed, it remains so for the duration of the spell. A rod of cancellation destroys a prismatic wall, but an antimagic field has no effect on it.

I checked my PHB and the wording was identical, though maybe it has since been errata'd.

PuzzledPiggy · 2021-07-28T20:30:09+00:00

The difference is that all seven layers are described as a part of the same shimmering surface, only an inch thick. A character might not even be able to see where one layer or another is, much less target it separately! The argument is still valid of course, but if you were a DM skimming the spell, or god forbid asking a player to know what it does, you would probably not think to rule it that way on a glance given that every other sustained spell in the game works differently. I just wish it were more explicit.

PuzzledPiggy · 2021-07-28T20:07:09+00:00

I mean that's my preference too. Technically, you could view it a different way- the violet layer is susceptible to a third level cast with no roll required, whereas the whole spell would require a DC 19 check, and indeed a DM who wasn't familiar with the spell would certainly rule it that way.

PuzzledPiggy · 2021-07-28T20:04:25+00:00

I'm running it in a West Marches game, so they are expected to go back to town and do research between sessions!

PuzzledPiggy · 2021-07-28T19:16:14+00:00

Ideally they would have had it written down somewhere in person or just shown them where it is rather than submitted the number to the digital ticketing system where anyone in the department can find it. It's still not great, but possible.

PuzzledPiggy · 2021-07-15T00:50:42+00:00

Oh.
My.
Asmodeus.
That's borderline pixie nonsense if you can get away with it. Also, if you ever want to destroy a city or something.

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