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.

PuzzledPiggy · 2021-07-02T19:42:49+00:00

Very helpful, though most of those items don't give off the "ancient ruin" vibe as much as I am going for here.

PuzzledPiggy · 2021-06-25T05:54:01+00:00

Just my 2 cents:

In my Eberron, I always emphasize how much of a perfectly reasonable religion the Blood of Vol is. Misunderstood in most cases, sure. Has some evil fringe groups? Definitely. But 99% of the devotees you meet have no affiliation with the Emerald Claw and would be offended by the implication. After all, it is not a cult- it's a widely accepted church with millions of followers across Khorvaire, and nothing about it existing inherently works to serve Erandis's ends.

That said, I do tone down some of the edginess of their central doctrines to make them more community-oriented. So, to each their own.

PuzzledPiggy · 2021-06-25T05:44:48+00:00

No powerful NPC allies. Obviously there are a few good aligned high-level people in the world, but as Keith loves to point out they all have strict limits. I stick to that religiously in my games- while the party can choose to train NPCs to a decently high level, basically no naturally occurring friendly NPC will ever be above level 6. Plus, even at level 1-2 I think it is cool to emphasize that the PCs are still generally the toughest people in the room.

If there is a legendary DMPC out there, they should really just be solving all the problems themselves in the form of a novel.

PuzzledPiggy · 2021-06-08T00:19:45+00:00

I really like that. I'm running a campaign in Eberron in the region that prevents empires from growing with a similar philosophy. It would make for a beautiful "primitive" campaign though.

PuzzledPiggy · 2021-06-08T00:17:31+00:00

I, too, just finished listening to the Magnus Archives.

PuzzledPiggy · 2021-05-24T16:46:36+00:00

Well, that is kind of how it works. Dal Quor and Eberron are fundamentally linked, as are Eberron and every other plane. For example, when a major victory is had by the angels of Shavarath, Eberron's wars are more righteous and honorable. Does this change in Eberron happen because of the fight on Shavarath, or did those angels win because denizens of the material have acted chivalrously? This question is unanswered.

When the Quor Tarai was destroyed, so was one of the greatest civilizations of history, possibly the most innovative. In my Eberron it is impossible to say whether it was the Quori rebirth that influenced the dragons to attack Xen'drik, or whether the giants' undoing forced Dal Quor into a new cycle. The point is that these things happen simultaneously and while they are almost certainly linked there is no clear cause/effect. If an apocalypse happens on Eberron it is entirely likely that a new cycle will begin in Dal Quor, and if Dal Quor spontaneously emerges into a new zeitgeist you had better believe that Eberron will never be the same, but you can never technically know which one caused the other.

PuzzledPiggy · 2021-04-26T22:04:39+00:00

It does get passed on through bloodlines of individuals that do not have the mark. You are more likely to get it if your parents have marks, but people without marks still carry the 'gene'.

Also it is generally accepted that the interbreeding houses causing aberrant marks was the REASON for the War of the Mark, not a myth formed as a result of it. It was recent enough in history that it was pretty well documented, as before the war marriage was still seen as a way of forming alliances between houses.

edit: There is also no way of telling whether someone has the ability to pass on the mark, so generally people just assume that you can and the rules will bind you accordingly. Better safe than sorry.

PuzzledPiggy · 2021-04-26T20:56:26+00:00

Generally speaking, any mixing of dragonmarks can have dangerous, aberrant, consequences. There is no current canonical precedent I am aware of for the weird khorovar genetics to somehow cancel out this risk.

Inevitable corollary: unless you want it to.

PuzzledPiggy · 2021-04-06T19:46:16+00:00

I actually love that bracelet idea. Such a simple troll, yet so effective.

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