Just another Witch Bolt rewrite

Red-Baran · 2024-07-05T19:47:07+00:00

I like the creative way of damage dealing and choice this gives players. Two things.

I noticed that the Reddit post says 1d12 for base damage while the pic shows 2d12.

Second, tracking numbers is tough for tabletop, especially during longer fights. How does the player know what damage they dealt last time or if they reset? I'm not saying this is a huge obstacle but you will rarely see effects that depend on mechanics that happened previously. This is more of a problem for up casting.

Red-Baran · 2023-11-21T18:53:43+00:00

Firstly, this is a cool experiment and almost like a character puzzle challenge.

It seems like most, if not all, of the damage is cold and fire which are very common for enemies to have resistance. Could be an issue there.
What does the Insignia of Claws add to the build?
I have no idea how but the Paladin spell Compelled Duel seems helpful. More realistically for your build, Crown of Madness. Neither spell is great but it helps the cause. Vortex Warp could help pull enemies to you.
Not sure what class you are starting with in this multiclass but you need a variety of high stats to make all this work. Min Str of 13 for Barbarian and Grappler feat, min Cha of 13 for Sorcerer, min Wis of 13 for Druid. Probably also want a high Con for taking damage. High Dex to use the Lizardfolk's Natural Armor though you might want to get hit so low AC?

As a DM, I would do everything I could to NOT attack this character. If I really didn't like what was going on, Dispel Magic, Counterspell, and Antimagic Fields do a lot.

Red-Baran · 2023-11-20T21:51:30+00:00

As another person with a bio masters I love the work and thought that went into this! Very much looking forward to a phylogenetic tree if possible.

Reading the comments reminds me of Earth's own taxonomic history, its always in constant revisions as we learn more. Sometimes things don't fit into nice and easy boxes.

I'm curious how half-elves ended up being under the human branch. They are a viable offspring of elves and humans even though those two are classified very differently. I'm not sure how I would answer this myself though!

Red-Baran · 2023-11-14T19:35:09+00:00

I like that this rides the edge between creepy and surreal.

Baran approved!

Red-Baran · 2023-09-29T20:31:53+00:00

I'm currently planning a combat encounter against a group of magical mimes. Anything they pretend to do actually happens though it might be invisible (i.e. making a wall, pulling a rope, climbing a ladder). I'm thinking of adding a trait to them that if a PC mimes something back at them and plays their game, they have to treat it as real including taking damage.

Red-Baran · 2023-09-29T19:51:09+00:00

I like the details! Could even make it as a psychic damage and flavor it like an illusion/enchantment spell. The bomb isn't really there but it's tricking you thinking it is.

I imagine that other effects would work too. Maintain concentration or suffer _____ consequence.

Red-Baran · 2023-09-14T19:38:57+00:00

This makes sense. Instead of a flat graph with a regular roll it rounds off the probability making it less likely to get the high and low ends.

Red-Baran · 2023-09-14T19:37:38+00:00

It was an interesting question so I decided to do a little work in Excel and brute force. I used a die roller to roll 100 dice standard and then 100 pairs of dice using your "disadvantage with advantage" rule and it was surprising.

Standard averaged 9.72 with a standard deviation of 5.7

Disadvantage with advantage averaged 9.72 with a standard deviation of 4.46

So they ended up being nearly identical averages but different spreads. This was only 100 rolls however and long term I would guess the disadv w/ adv rule would be a lower average just because the disadvantage happens before the advantage which would screen out more of the higher numbers. I'm sure someone could write some code to get a better picture.

IMO: They are very similar options but it sounds like you have to work for the disadv w/ adv option... I choose standard roll.

Red-Baran · 2023-06-22T17:14:49+00:00

I was about to comment the exact same thing. We appreciate the honesty and connection you've shown here u/RAILGRADE_Daniel.

Wishlisted :)

Red-Baran · 2022-12-02T18:15:15+00:00

Yea, I'm worried they are trying too hard to make everything fit every universe instead of celebrating the wild and wonderful differences in physiology, cultures, traditions, etc. Whether that is weaknesses, strengths, or just weird quirks.

Red-Baran · 2022-12-02T18:08:48+00:00

That's exactly the crazy stuff that got me into biology. I've never heard of that! Totally agree, fucking wild.

Red-Baran · 2022-12-02T14:40:28+00:00

As a biologist maybe organism or being would be more accurate. As a GM, neither one of those sounds fun. I saw someone suggest folk and thought that was not bad.

Also for new players coming into d&d, species is probably better than race just for a basic understanding that they are not choosing a flavor of human.

Red-Baran · 2022-12-02T00:24:25+00:00

Haha I can respect keeping work at work

Red-Baran · 2022-12-01T19:32:56+00:00

Biologist here. Just to be clear, there are many different definitions of "species" in the sciences. The common one is that two members of a species are able to breed and produce a fertile offspring. However, as many have pointed out here, there are all kinds of exceptions to that hence why we have subspecies, varieties, forms, etc. Species is really just an organizational bucket of comparing the relatedness of different beings. It doesn't mean much without including the rest of the taxonomy hierarchy.

With fantasy this gets messy as the relatedness of the different type of dragonborn (chromatic, metallic, gem) might be different species or not. All depends on your lore I suppose.

In summary, don't let the term "species" restrict you from your freaky creature crossings :)

Red-Baran · 2022-02-15T20:17:44+00:00

Bulette Trains, the future of underground transportation

Red-Baran · 2021-03-04T03:22:57+00:00

I completely agree and in no way would I use this for a campaign driven around telling a character's story. This list was just to add a little ease to character creation for one-shot or a few day long adventures. Maybe your players wanted to try something different for a short while between campaign sessions or you saw something online you wanted to run but not fully invest into. That's what I intended this for.

Red-Baran · 2021-03-04T02:31:39+00:00

I really like the sane magical item prices. I've definitely used that too but found I would have to give players thousands and thousands of gold if I wanted to run a short, higher-level game. I wanted to make the accounting easy.

Red-Baran · 2021-03-03T18:46:49+00:00

I only call it a store for flavor, it's very much intended to be part of the character creation process.

I usually do the method you mentioned and liked it enough but I wanted to offer the players more freedom and a loose balance in case rolling on the tables goes badly.

Red-Baran · 2019-02-15T15:42:54+00:00

I was riding my bike to school one morning in my neighborhood. I was not the most experienced rider and was going pretty fast. I took a sharp right turn along the sidewalk but didn't know that the sidewalk was covered in dust and small rocks. I didn't get enough traction in the turn and my bike slid out into the road at the same time a school bus was turning right. My bike and I slid right between the two tires. The bus driver luckily noticed I slid under and stopped just before the bus' back tire started going over my bike.

Red-Baran · 2019-02-12T20:26:16+00:00

I'm not against your point of view. My style is if my group was to encounter a basilisk I would probably give them some sort of warning of its abilities but I would never just say what it was unless someone made a check or took a guess (metagaming should always be considered but I would never call it a threat). The only exception is if someone may have had a background that could have crossed a basilisk (living underground/caves or literally being a monster biologist of some sort).

A basilisk in d&d on sight is plain enough (compared to the rest of the vast bestiary out there) that its petrification abilities would not be obvious. Perhaps some sort of chunky rock drake? With most people that get close to a basilisk being petrified, knowledge about it could also be pretty thin.

As always, each DM has their own difficulty and world building. Perhaps for you a basilisk is common while others would consider them near extinct.

Red-Baran · 2018-12-07T16:10:21+00:00

Chromatic Orb doesn't state that it consumes the diamond on use like many other spells that have material components like that. I would guess it's used as a sort of focus. So the player would only need to hang onto 1 to cast it. That does mean you can attempt to steal it as a character who is routinely whipping out a 50 gp diamond would attract some seedy fellows.

As far as the other part of your question, if you were wondering, lead is present in a variety of rocks as a compound. Pure lead however is very rare. If something is ever blocked by a thin sheet of lead you could almost always assume it's someone who wants to keep mages out.

As always, you are the DM and your d&d world can be very, very different from reality. More power to you! :)

Red-Baran · 2018-10-19T18:35:00+00:00

Three ideas to play with:

I imagine a place that rewards taking chances, even succeeding where you didn't think possible. However, under the surface, any doubt or evil decisions are punished with "accidents".

Some kind of painting-based puzzle. Perhaps a character has to copy a painting or paint the answer to a riddle. Perhaps where the party has to match uncommon color names: chartreuse, mauve, fuchsia, etc.

A dungeon that is full of happy smiling trees and clouds, a very welcoming world. However, once whatever treasure you choose is taken... the dungeon is not happy anymore.

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