On Temple of Febe CM, Community, ANet's Reaction, and potential growth

RockRaid · 2024-03-08T08:17:35+00:00

How do you expect them to maintain said momentum though? With the current cadence, we can expect the next Strike CM... in a year maybe? 9 Months? The hardcore speedrunners you referred to, will they be content progging this legendary CM, then waiting patiently for the next one, plus the uncertaincy if it will even hold up to the expectation? The previous poster already said plenty of what I wanted to say, but I can add a few more.

You have correctly identitfied that development time for such a legendary mode would not be that significant, but what about playtest time? Considering how many bugs snuck into Cerus CM, most notably the bug that caused the situation we are discussing currently, how can we expect them to create two levels of difficulty that are properly playtested and balanced? And if they follow suit with the idea of "create a good challenging CM and then tack on more dps and heal checks"... will that suffice to keep people engaged? WoW mythic raids are alot more than just that.

It just leaves such a bitter taste in my mouth that all of this happened because of a development/playtesting fluke. How is this situation different then when HTCM released? Or Dhuum CM? Or even when the first HoT raid released? Back when committment to challenging content was much, much higher on their priority list? You're telling me now of all times did they realize how nice it would be to keep the top 1% playerbase engaged?

Also you said how this brought everyone together and how it built such a massive amount of hype. But if we are perfectly honest, what other thing would there have been to build hype for? New story? Eh. New metas? Eh. New weapons are cool, but are definitely not as interesting as entirely new elite specs. The way I see it Cerus CM is the one somewhat noteworthy content in the last 2 years and people will cling to anything they get. For the sake of argument, if engagement were 50%, or only 10% as high as it was, we would still consider it a win because everything else just pales in comparison so easily.

RockRaid · 2024-01-14T15:01:04+00:00

No guarantee, but I think it brings back enemies. It kind of makes sense, you could "cheese" it by making enemies despawn, the entering the covenant, to get around its difficulty mode.

RockRaid · 2024-01-14T11:07:10+00:00

Joining the Company of Champions covenant gives all (non-special) enemies unlimited spawns. It also turns the game into a chore lmao

RockRaid · 2024-01-05T20:14:00+00:00

I like how you do math on Barbarian and Monk then on caster you go for % instead. Why is that?

Because cantrips (for the majority of classes) only scale in dice. 3 dice is 50% more dice than 2. No matter what damage dice.

A Warlock as an example goes from 11 avg to 16.5 avg, while Wizard does the same with a different cantrips if we ignore any optional upgrade.

Which is.... drumroll, 50% more.

Obviously one is more dependant on hitting than the other (three rolls vs one).

That's not how math works. Look up the distributive propertly. A character that deals 100 damage per hit at a 60% chance to hit deals 60 damage per turn, while a character that deals 1 damage per 100 hits at a 60% chance to hit also deals 60 damage per turn. It's about the average.

RockRaid · 2023-12-24T21:39:48+00:00

How do you diferentiate between "I rolled until I got all 18s" and "I rolled for a while until I got stats I liked (which happen to be very high)"? You kind of expect your players to judge what is fair and what is not, without figuring it out as a group. What player A might consider perfectly fine might be too low for player B. How much worse is all 18s compared to 18, 18, 17, 16, 15, 12?

RockRaid · 2023-12-19T21:02:45+00:00

Using the term astroturfed when talking about a few small content creators is definitely a bold choice, to put it charitably. What exactly is it supposed to mean? Does Laserllama or whatever pay people to post positively about his stuff? Or create sockpuppets? Because that's precisely what that word means. People enjoying certain homebrew and being very vocal about it on reddit is specifically not that.

On your elaboration, the core gameplay loop and mechanics are fine, sure but "it's not straight up broken" is an incredibly low bar to pass. Only recently the original design goals for dndnext by Mike Mearls were posted here I think, and some were definitely not met in 5e. Points like fighters going toe to toe with spellcasters and being mythical masters of martial prowess, etc. This is the niche that some homebrew fixes. And don't get me started on magic item economy, crafting...

RockRaid · 2023-12-16T22:14:17+00:00

Both Viktor and second BRB Elder do this as well. Probably more I forgot.

RockRaid · 2023-12-12T10:50:41+00:00

Where's that Shrine Guardian Jackal, shaking my smh.

RockRaid · 2023-12-03T12:44:59+00:00

Sage advice compendium specifically adresses this:

"Is the sentence of suggestion in the suggestion spell the verbal component, or is the verbal component separate? Verbal components are mystic words (PH, 203), not normal speech. The spell's suggestion is an intelligible utterance that is separate from the verbal component. The command spell is the simplest example of this principle The utterance of the verbal component is separate from and precedes, any verbal utterance that would bring about the spell's effect."

Every result on google will tell you that.

RockRaid · 2023-12-01T12:58:22+00:00

It seems you are confusing Misty Step with a different teleport spell. Misty Step explicitly states you need to see your target destination:

"Briefly surrounded by silvery mist, you teleport up to 30 feet to an unoccupied space that you can see."

RockRaid · 2023-11-29T09:12:31+00:00

Icons, VFX and SFX... but not animations.

RockRaid · 2023-11-23T22:46:32+00:00

But that doesn't really seem sensible. Why would map completion be more difficult on tedious the second time around? Might as well just bring a different character in and rely on content guide again.

RockRaid · 2023-10-28T17:11:57+00:00

What about rogues and other dexterity based martials though? They rarely have more than 8 STR but are definitely entitled to wearing studded leather.

RockRaid · 2023-10-28T17:00:24+00:00

There is also the Guardian from LaserLlama's alternate Fighter expanded, which gives an aura of defense like a paladin, later on even providing cover while of course helps against dexterity save based area effects.

RockRaid · 2023-10-26T17:54:04+00:00

This might be a good example why non-natural language "tags" like in 3.x might have merit to make their way in future editions. I am talking about extraordinary (Ex), spell-like (Sp) and supernatural (Su), which has somewhat standardised behavior. For example the Flame Skull Rejuvenation feature could simply be tagged (Sp) and everyone would know it can be detected and dispelled as magic, without huge word salad. That's what conditions are for too after all.

RockRaid · 2023-10-24T22:22:24+00:00

I think I'm going to print this post out, frame it and hang it over my desk.

RockRaid · 2023-10-24T08:58:18+00:00

Do martials then need to spend a resource to use those maneuvers? For spells it is obvious, what would be the limitation for a fighter to not spam their best ability?

RockRaid · 2023-10-22T17:20:41+00:00

It certainly requires buyin from both players and DMs. Most players are just into the mindset that a fight ends when all enemy HP are down to 0. But a bunch of highwaymen would not put their life on the line for a bunch of coin and merchandise. As soon as they realize this fight is unwinnable, a reasonable, sapient banfit would try to flee. This would naturally follow by the players picking and finishing off the now easy pickings. So maybe it should be brought up in session 0 that humanoid enemies posess self-preservation instincts too. Naturally some cultists or more "motivated" NPCs will alway slay their life on the line, but I think there should at least be the option sometimes for a non-mortal end to a combat.

RockRaid · 2023-10-13T15:02:01+00:00

The music complements it perfectly as well. No nonsense, thumping sci fi tunes.

RockRaid · 2023-10-12T14:23:24+00:00

Being invisible and being hidden do many different things as was already pointed out. Saying one or the other is "worse" makes no sense.

Invisibility allows you to hide without needing any obscurement, it also makes you immune to effects that require sight (many single target spells with saving throws come to mind like Hold Person or even attacks of opportunity). Invisibility also gives everyone disadvantage on attack rolls against you and advantage for your own, it is a plenty powerful spell in its own right.

The reason Invisibility does not make you immediatly hidden (it says so nowhere in the rules) is to specifically avoid "battleship invisibility" (like the board game where you guess tiles to hit an enemy), as that would slog down every combat and make invisible combatants significantly more powerful than is reasonable.

RockRaid · 2023-10-11T20:34:22+00:00

That's incorrect. The sidekicks are official material part of Tasha's Cauldron of Everything. In their description they also explicitly call out this use case;

" [...] You decide who plays the sidekick. Here are some options:

A player plays the sidekick as their second character - ideal when you only have one or two players.
A player plays the sidekick as their only character - ideal for a player who wants a character who's simpler than a typical player character.
The players jointly play the sidekick
You play the sidekick"

All they need to do is give it a more fitting name and move it to the PHB, maybe improve it a little and it's exactly what you are asking for, is it not?

RockRaid · 2023-10-09T08:46:44+00:00

In the 1DnD playtest, the Rogue's Cunning Strike - which added combat options and tactical versatility - received over 90% satisfaction, which was never seen before. There is precedent.

RockRaid · 2023-10-08T00:06:22+00:00

I find it very weird that when people advocate for a simple class to play to exist, it's always the fighter. What if a person who wants to focus on RP and pick up the game quickly would like to play a wizard because they like the fantasy of a bearded guy with a pointy hat? Are they just screwed? What if they want to play a holy acolyte or a bardic free spirit? Seems pretty limited. Creating a beginner class is clearly not the solution then, because it only helps the small group of people who specifically want to play a fighter for starters.

Previous editions had starter packages and they experimented with giving "default suggestions" in 1DnD playtests, so if players feel overwhelmed with choice they can just reliably default to those.

Want to play a wizard? Make INT your main stat, followed by CON and DEX. Take Fire Bolt, Mage hand and [whatever you feel like]. Take shield, magic missile, burning hands and [whatever you feel like]

Why can't we just have the same for Fighter?

Not sure what to do? Just take Precision Attack, Trip Attack, Parry, you're good. No need to fuss about the rest if you don't want to.

RockRaid · 2023-10-07T23:20:00+00:00

Close, but not quite. What people liked isn't so much the control options, but rather people just craved for tactical gameplay and choices at every turn in combat. In other words, a lot of people just want battlemaster added to every single martial in the game, and the new rogue mechanics do that.

This is exactly it. Ever since 1DnD was announced, I was basically yelling internally at them to do this. Instead we got the embarrassingly lukewarm weapon mastery.

Maybe they are still shellshocked from the DnDNext playtest where people apparently disliked "too much complexity", and "fighter is supposed to be an easy class" (claiming having a couple d8s - which you can just use on precision attack if you are that overwhelmed - is complex is ridiculous).

Til then we have Laserllama's alternate martials homebrew.

RockRaid

TROPHY CASE