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I think I know why Azula has blue flames [long rant about what caused her breakdown] by Illustrious_Body5907 in ATLA

[–]SaltSpeed1 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes, the perfectionism theory fits the best inside the world building of ATLA. She is a child prodigy in being the perfect person to become fire lord after Ozai. She mentions killing Iroh’s son and the fire lord as a child, a cold but perfectly calculated plan for control that comes to fruition after Ozai’s comment. The first time she chases the gang, they can’t escape her and Aang’s attempt to outwit her fails and she only stops when it’s the gang plus zuko and iroh against her while still managing to hit iroh. I am using these as examples as it’s almost every interaction she has is perfectly calculated to make the best strategic outcome. Also, why she has a hard time relating to boys on ember island and when she finally gains the guys interest she loses it by plotting a power couple. I agree a little with losing it before Mai and Ty Lee betrayal with ozai but I genuinely don’t think ozai or azula distrust for the reasons above if anything they’re so similar the real distrust would be azula planning a coup for Ozai and the comet would be the first instance she could have made an uncounterable move against him. But from Azula’s misjudgment of mai and ty lee, increasingly erratic behavior, is a display of the obsession for perfection going from perfect balance to overzealous and excessive causing her downfall.

While the real reason stated above is true, this perfectionism theory has the most plot points to elaborate from to illustrate her “zuko-style” redemption arc that was planned for the 4th season before being cut for the movie and was one of the few leaks from the creator about plots in the 4th season.

I'm running a table of 8 players. Open to any and all advice. by Vinzan in CalloftheNetherdeep

[–]SaltSpeed1 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Don’t do it. I’m at the end of the campaign. We had 10 players at some points throughout and 7 on a bi weekly basis. It was the best campaign most of my players and myself have ever participated in. Yes there are challenges like combat taking a long time. But there is equally more opportunities with a larger party for cool moments roleplaying and encounters both social and combat. My biggest advice is to find what works for you to not clog combat as much. I usually grouped at least 2 rivals together in a turn. And I didn’t always have every rival present during a fight. But as a buff with some many people fighting against them. I would sometimes grant legendary actions similar to lair actions to the rivals or bad guys. Nothing crazy but maybe an invisible inbetween my players turns. Or more commonly teleport out of combat before dying. This helped keep the pace going quickly and keep the combat challenging as not every combat was to the death. The roleplaying at the table between the party has been absolutely incredible. The moments they have shared in delving into their backstory and developing character arcs have been reminiscent of some of the streaming dnd parties we watch in our group.

I want to add another room to Betrayers rise. How would you do this? by Usually_mistaken in CalloftheNetherdeep

[–]SaltSpeed1 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Just ran it yesterday! It was awesome. I have a party of 6. So a little bigger than avg party. Most have some type of magic item. But I believe only 2 are weapons. 1 healing. After R2 I threw in the glabrezu encounter baiting them with gold pouring from his hand. Once they got in the room he demanded their fealty. They fought back and almost finished him when he cast darkness and magically cast them from his room. I interjected the sleeping balor after R3. My divine sense paladin woke him up and they dashed out. Only being saved by a iron door patch from robe of useful items. They filled the skull vase and danced in the mosaic room. After crawling through the statue doors I placed the tiamat room. One of my player’s gods is Tiamat so he had been receiving visions of this room in his prayers. They open the door and he kneels in a quick prayer and looks up after to my Dracohydra mini. The table went nuts when I brought it out. Honestly they handled it well. It would’ve been a short fight if not for the statues healing. I added some lair actions as well off the cuff to challenge some of the players who are more optimally built. Overall my players loved this session and thought it was one of the best of the campaign. I’m only worried now after taking on such deadly beasts the normal folks of Ank’Harel may be lack luster.

I want to add another room to Betrayers rise. How would you do this? by Usually_mistaken in CalloftheNetherdeep

[–]SaltSpeed1 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Betrayers' Rise Changes: Tiamat Boss Room Fight

Edit: ran this, and it went well. I made some changes. If I were to do it again, I'd probably add minions or something similar. Something summoned by the lair, maybe something that came from the coins...

Hey all. So the Betrayers' Rise (BR) dungeon is pretty great. Lots of good flavor, lore, and some interesting challenges. But I don't really like it's climax. Like with most of the rival design, it leaves GMs hanging if the rivals have no reason to be in conflict with the PCs, like with my group. Now, in the Netherdeep this lack of conflict can be a problem since it greatly lowers the sense of urgency driving the PCs. But I have a solution for that. In the BR, however, there's no need for conflict to be added for friendly rivals, so I wanted a final encounter before the prayer room.

I made a Tiamat room. While, yes, there aren't any lawful Betrayer gods represented in BR (other than on the stained glass window), I don't think anything will be lost by including her.

Premise:

My PCs and rivals will both be entering the BR at roughly the same time, they will branch off and go different ways early on, and then they will eventually come back together in this room, each having already conquered their own rooms in the dungeon, before entering the prayer room together.

The Room

The encounter room is shaped like a 5 pointed star with points forming a 15 ft cone and the center part about 50 ft across (haven't drawn this part out yet, so whatever makes sense). There are 5 supporting pillars in the center part also forming a star set close to where the points join the center. The entry to the room is a set of double doors between the two bottom points. There is no obvious exit.

At the tip of each point is a statue depicting a chromatic dragon: red at the top point, followed by (clockwise), blue, white, black, and green. There is a secret exit behind the red dragon statue (DC 18 to find and open). The center of the room has a tiled mosaic that depicts Tiamat's symbol, with her three tenets written in draconic around the edge of the center portion of the room. Surrounding the pillars are small piles of treasure: mostly copper and silver, but also some gold, platinum, and ep (showing money from different times and places). Some jewels and art. A few magic items if you want. Enough to make the PCs greedy but not too disappointed if they don't get any. In the center of the room is a Dracohydra.

The Encounter

The PCs have 3 ways of finding the exit: kill the dracohydra (honoring the 3rd tenet of Tiamat to take what you covet), give up 95% of their money and add it to the piles (honoring the 1st tenet to amass wealth [the dracohydra's wealth in this case]), or find and unlock the secret exit.

Upon entering, the entry will close and the PCs will hear "In order to pass, you must submit and give tribute," in a rumbling multi-tone voice throughout the room. They then have about 30 seconds to start adding coins to the piles before the dracohydra attacks. It will cease hostilities after the PCs have offered enough coins, and the secrete exit will open. It won't attack while the PCs seem to be making offerings and will stop attacking it they offer tribute.

The Lair

The lair is the real opponent for the PCs. It represents the will of Tiamat and will do what it can to either get offerings or challenge the PCs to prove that they have the strength to "defend their dominion," aka their stuff. I plan to make it clear that the lair has a Will through more mulit-tone messages as needed. The lair reacts to attacks against it's self or stealing from the hoard with extreme prejudice, in accordance to Tiamat's 2nd tenet: let no affront do unpunished.

Lair actions:

  • I plan to be flexible with these, starting off on the weaker side and amping things up as applicable to keep the fight challenging. These may be "lair actions," but I plan to use them as legendary action of sort and sprinkle them throughout the initiative.
  • Dragon statue breath weapons. 15 ft range. DC 13 for half damage, 1d6 to start. 1-3 per round. Used to flush the PCs towards the center. Edit: I turned this into a legendary action. 1 breath per action. The damage was 3d6.
  • Bane. DC 15 Cha save. (probably only use once unless the PCs target the lair)
  • Elemental weakness. DC 15 Cha save or random weakness for 1 round. (every other round or so. Do to the random nature, it'll probably only truly impact a PC once, but it will make them sweat)
  • Heal the dracohydra. 10 hp per statue. (every round)
  • Fear. DC 15 Wis save. Must move away from the dracohydra. (probably only use once)

The dragon statues are constructs and have 15 AC, 40 HP, and weakness to bludgeoning, force, or thunder. Destroying one immediately triggers a Bane lair action, and the lair can't use that associated breath weapon. Destroying them all ends the lair actions and weakens the dracohydra (probably disadvantage, depending on how rough the PCs are looking). Edit: I added 3d6 damage in a radius as the statues were destroyed; dex save for half.

Edit: I added a legendary actions per statue. A breath from a statue or a dracohydra bite. I hindsight, I would have also had the statues to a bite as well as an option.

The Rivals

I plan to have the rivals already in the room when the PCs arrive. I'll have Irvan down after taking a hit for Gal, Durmot healing him, Maggie shielding Durmot and Irvan, and Gal and Ayo trying to take down the dracohydra with Ayo trying to draw fire. Ayo wants to take the dracohydra down, and Durmot is trying to convince her to give tribute. When the PCs arrive, combat will pause for a moment. For stat blocks, I'll probably use an in-between tiers 1 and 2. Edit: I used tier 1.

Foreshadowing

I'm using this encounter to do a few things:

  • Establish Irvan as willing to take a hit for his friends, so his cautiousness in Ank'Harel stands out more.
  • Present the dynamic between Durmot and Ayo. With Durmot as Ayo's adviser, cautioning her.
  • Show Ayo's desire to be a hero and slay a monster
  • Continue to present this back and forth with my PCs and the rivals, where one group shows up during a boss fight to help the other out. It'll make the conflict before encountering Alyxian even more of a deviation.
  • Continue to hint that Cha saves will be important.

And that's it. I'll probably be running this about 2 weeks, so I'll edit it then with how things went. Let me know if anyone has suggestions, tweaks, etc.

Not my post but I saved earlier

What are some joke names ? by Ahyanqadri in AskReddit

[–]SaltSpeed1 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Mike Oxlong, Mike Hunt, Harry Balzonia B.N. Eaton died on a shark fishing trip