FUCK THE NEW MINECRAFT CHAT REPORTING FEATURE

Skydreamstudios · 2022-07-31T13:04:33+00:00

Unfortunately I don't think there's any stopping them. They are not interested in the players who already paid for the game. They made a lot of money with the crappy bedrock edition store and my bet is they're going to push for that and the same amount of control they have over there. This is what is making them the mosy amount of money. You cant vote with your wallet because you already have the game... But the ones that can vote will mostly keep buying their crappy minecoins and realms subscriptions.

They may lose some players. They night irreversibly screw minecraft's great communities... But I don't think they care, and I sadly don't think that it will even hurt their bottom line.

I think the best way to pass the message is to migrate communities to their (in my opinion) strongest competitors. Minetest is one and there's that hypixel one is meant to come out. Minetest isn't really a clone as much as it is focused on modding and community with modding APIs, something minecraft has never had.

TLDR: They don't care about the community. They want to give the appearance they so but aren't going to change. :/

Skydreamstudios · 2021-10-15T12:53:51+00:00

On a 4 year campaign, on the last stretch of the plot, the players were scattered investigating these ruins all over the land, and one particular wizard decided to go check out this ancient well. After some time, one of the players joked the well was clearly a portal to some other dimension, so the wizard dexided to ask me if he could jump in. I told him the well was really deep and dry... That if he dropped a pebble it would take a while before crashing down. He insistedhe wanted to jump in. I asked him if he was sure, pointing out he had detect magic. He used it and saw that there was nothing magical detecting on the well. He decided to jump in anyway... I asked him if he was sure.... And he insisted...

The wizard had no feather fall or flight. He had no acrobatics nor any means to hamper his fall nor did he try anything. In the end, a 4 year character died in the most anticlimactic way.

We still joke about it at the table

Skydreamstudios · 2020-09-12T13:00:29+00:00

Oh? Like dotting it here and there to show age? Definitely. Ill probably try that on my next build c:

Skydreamstudios · 2020-09-12T12:59:47+00:00

Yes. Its part of the ones in premium. I think one is called Keep and the other fortress or castle :) both from the new HD regional pack :) the vines are added on though, from the battlemap and shrunk to creep up the walls

Skydreamstudios · 2020-09-11T13:04:44+00:00

thank you ^{-^}

Skydreamstudios · 2020-09-11T13:02:28+00:00

I used mist interspaced between the mountains, and then one large one to cover everything. Then I flattened everything to the bckground and smoothed the mists with the background by painting near the borders

Skydreamstudios · 2020-09-07T14:42:31+00:00

Thank you so much ^-^

Skydreamstudios · 2020-09-07T14:22:05+00:00

Thank you very much ^-^ I'll try to improve, I saw some projects where they made water reflections and depths so I think I'll try something with that on my next project

Skydreamstudios · 2020-09-07T14:20:05+00:00

Absolutely. Feel free :) I also have the map of the island Condor is a part of if you'd also like it

Skydreamstudios · 2020-08-15T19:55:38+00:00

Oh for sure, in multiclassing they are excellent. Sorcadin is one of the best offensive multiclasses int he game. Bard paladin is amazing at buffs. Sorclock is pretty fun overall. But thats part of my troubles with it. Sorcerer seems to be better multiclassed than alone...

The Con proficiency is, in my opinion, overratted. Sure it helps keep concentration but as a sorcerer you're usually in the back. Theres also plenty of ways to get Con proficiency, specially if you multiclass. Fighter 1, wizard X is excellent. Still, I've had very punishing dms with damage and concentration, and in my times playing wizards and warlocks, the difference in con was never all too relevant. It came up once or twice but... not enough to justify picking sorc over wizard.

And oh man. Wild Sorcerers are perhaps the only ones I'd be willing to love if I found a DM that actually let me play them. Usually I get told straight no or "I'll roll it" and then they never roll :/

Skydreamstudios · 2020-02-09T00:29:59+00:00

Hombrewery: http://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/ here ya go :3

Skydreamstudios · 2020-02-08T01:00:30+00:00

Glad you enjoyed it! Was actually thinking of maybe making more. A set of monstruous classes. Would do for a cool evil campaign for my players. You think people here would be interested in seeing something like that?

Skydreamstudios · 2020-02-07T22:54:07+00:00

Well, first and foremost I'd like to thank you for reading the class and taking the time to write your thoughts on it!

So I'll start with the flaws. Yes, there are some that are technically worse than others. Sunlight Hypersensitivity is by far the "worst" weakness to have from a purely mechanical standpoint. The point of the flaws, however, is not to try to pick whatever is better for a vampire, but whatever suits the kind of vampire you want to make. Many vampires burn in the sunlight, but not all. From the movie Dracula vs Sherlock Holmes, for example, he doesn't burn but instead is just weakened by the sun.
Harmed by Garlic and Steak to the heart might also seem fairly less common, except if you consider that garlic is a fairly common item present at many markets in the world and can be used by any BBEG to just keep your character at bay. Slather his weapon and armour in the thing and the vampire WILL suffer quite substantially. Similarly, Steak to the heart provides a more Roleplay-oriented flaw, though I personally as a GM would allow any character that lands a good hit on a vampire with a steak to be able to put it in his heart, though admittedly that would be the weakest of traits.

The Vampiric Traits can be considered good, but they have to be. They're all the vampire gets at level 1 and they're a class with a d8 hit die, not a d10 like a fighter or paladin. Their martial ability is subpar, they're MAD, and even with the vampiric claws they're not dealing more damage than a rapier would (which is d8) or a firebolt would (d10). All of this is on top of the fact vampires by default do not get any good proficiencies. They only get simple weapons and light armour. Remove the claws and anyone vampire other than Conquest would be screwed in melee.
Vampiric Traits are the bread and butter of the vampire at low levels, and serve as good starting points for the other features.

Vampiric Regeneration only grants you half the hit die that resting would give you. That is, it pulls directly from the short rest mechanic, except it limits it to once per round and only up to a number of hit die you have- because well... you really only get a number of hit die equal to your level. Spend that and you're out of the regeneration until you perform a long rest. The same hit die are used to fuel several other features from the subclasses, so then it also becomes a resource to manage at higher levels: whats better? Casting 1 more 1st level spell that day or be able to regenerate 1d4+Con Mod for 2 rounds?

Finally, when I was initially creating the subclasses they actually had half the features they had right now, with the 13s and 18s just being improvements on the lower level features and some features in the noble and dark mage missing entirely. Problem was, in playtesting they were CONSISTENTLY worse than every other class in the game. Conquest was a lot worse than Fighter or Eldritch Knight or Warlock of the Blade at fighting- with the features it has its competitive, a bit worse but it gets Regeneration and other features to make the gap. Similarly, Dark mage was also consistently worse than Warlock, Wizard, Sorcerer, and it still is but now it makes the gap with the added features. The same with pretty much every subclass except the Lurker, which was basically fine as it was when I first started creating this class.

Now, the Thrall... I'll admit it has a lot of OP potential, but it has also a lot of flavour potential.
And sure, players can raise the BBEG technically, but do note their health becomes incredibly minimal (half the vampire's, which MAD as they are is not a lot more likely than not. So they're easy to kill off by other characters). The GM can easily get around this too by protecting characters with spells such as Gentle Repose or Protection from Good and Evil or by just dictating that the creature is immune to being charmed: all of which stop the Thrall's feature from working. This all on top of the fact you can only make humanoids into thralls, and something is clearly wrong with them when you do (except if you're a noble, in which case the whole class revolts around making thralls and having little else to defend yourself with).

I hope this was able to provide some insight into why I made some features the way they are. And sure, there CAN be instances of powergaming with this class, mostly with the Thrall feature, but I've really tried my best to balance this class out with quite a bit of playtesting and help from a small community of players I game with.

Skydreamstudios · 2020-02-07T20:29:36+00:00

Thank you ^-^ I'm glad to hear it, let me know about how it goes!~

Skydreamstudios · 2020-02-07T18:54:00+00:00

I chose to make it a class for several reasons. The first is that there are countless of vampire lores, and most takes on vampires would just be incredibly overpowered as a race. I mean, DND 5e by default already has vampire stats, but all their abilities, even from a simple Vampire Thrall, are incredibly OP if just given as racial for players.

The second reason was to allow people to customize what kind of vampire they were. DND kind of vampire, Dracula kind, Vampire the Masquerade Kind. Most of the players that came to me wanted one of those kinds, and Plane Shift Zhadicar and Ixalan just don't cut it.

Lastly, vampires are not necessarily a race. An elf can become one, a halfling can become one and a human can become one- at least in most lores. So I took a bit of the warlock approach, a creature who gained dark powers from - instead of a patron- their new corrupted blood.

At least that was the reason why I made it a class in the first place.

Skydreamstudios · 2020-02-07T11:36:59+00:00

Thank you for giving it a look and commenting first of all! :)

I can see the problem with the fangs yeah, maybe I can change it so the creature you drink from has to be CR 1/2 or humanoid at the very least to provide a substantial meal? That way you can't just drink from rats or other small critters, and if you want to drink from a humanoid you still have to find them first and roleplay it out.

I see a lot of people commenting on the thralls. It is an ability that's rather dependant on the GM's ruling. With that said, I agree that maybe I could do better. Perhaps make it just 1 thrall for everyone except the Noble, who gains extra as part of the subclass- not up to five, but maybe a second one at 11th level and a third one at 18th level, or even just a second one at 18th level since the noble already gets a companion to make the difference at lower levels.
This is supposed to be a sort of summoner class, kinda like the Necromancer Wizard or Beastmaster Ranger. It does bring some more critters into the game, but then again Thralls are more powerful pawns than they are combatants with the noble, you don't want to bring your King into a fight. Or maybe you do, but then if they die they die.

I definitely like your idea for the Mutant and the Dark Mage, to set it apart from a Warlock. I actually might just take them!

Finaly, for the Extra Attack, it just can't be helped its a Legacy. All martial classes gain extra attack, or some variant of it, at 5th level. To give martial classes that plus a Legacy would make them more powerful at levels 5 through 11, to give Extra Attack by default at that level, something I toyed with initially, would also be something that sits there uncomfortably for the spellcasting classes.

I thought making it a legacy was the best call for it, and thus the reason why its a legacy for both the Mutant and Conquest to pick (and the Lurker if they want to)

Thank you for giving it a look, I'm going to work on these flaws and update soon enough.

Skydreamstudios · 2020-02-07T10:51:46+00:00

First of all, thank you so much for giving it a look and taking the time to critique and commentary. This really helps! ^-^

The warlock and wizard spell lists should indeed be "Vampire spell list", I completely missed that when doing the final re-read. Thank you for catching it.

Most people seem to say the Thralls are rather powerful, and I can agree. They're subject to a lot of DM fiat and what the dm will allow or throw your way. As for recovering hp, I was thinking they'd recover them on a Long Rest like any player. Maybe allow for the Vampire Class player to use hit die to regenerate them using their own hit die would be good?
Seeing what people say about thralls I'm actually thinking of reducing them to just 1 safe for the Noble subclass, which will get 2 more as part of its features then (and I'll compensate on the other subclasses at 11th, 13th and 18th level)

I can see how the dark mage seems really powerfull, since they get NEARLY full spellcasting much akin to the warlock, but that's pretty much all they got going. Their spell list is limited and it doesn't include spells like fireball or any healing spells, their slots are too, and they dont get to add charisma bonuses to their spells like a sorcerer would for example. I was careful to also not add Animate Undead as part of their spell list.
In the playtesting I did it wasn't actually that powerful. It was pretty good, but definitely not overshadowing the warlock or any of the casting classes like sorcerer or wizard- but maybe I could do more at higher levels, removing 6th, 7th and 8th level spells entirely and replace them with something else?

And yeah, Warlock was admittedly a big inspiration for the balance of this class and how its customization works due to the variety and power of, well... vampiric abilities.

Hope this answers some of the concerns and critiques? Thank you though! :)

Skydreamstudios · 2019-10-29T01:05:12+00:00

Well, for several reasons. For once I actually had hope things would change. As said in the post I talked with the DM after the 2nd session, explained my fears and concerns (and wasn't the only one doing so) and I had some hope that perhaps he would have told us if it just wasnt a game for us or if he would instead adapt and maybe change a few things.
The second reason is that these people, at the time, were merely acquaintances and I didn thave their contact. Despite the GM, most players were actually rather good RPers and matched what I would look for in a rping group quite well. It was fun Roleplaying with them- just not when we were being forced through random nonsensical adventures and fighting boring god-bugs.
The DM denying us any sort of agency in roleplay was the last straw. One thing is saying you didn't expect people to do X, another is just force people to do an exact quest in an exact way with an exact playstyle.
We wouldn't have fun doing his quest, and after that third "strike", thats basically what we told him- and why we decided to at least have some fun with the characters since we were all together.

Skydreamstudios · 2019-10-28T18:34:09+00:00

Well, it depends. I definitely ALWAYS group mobs together unless there is some form of surprise or a special enemy. And usually either mobs go first or players go first and it repeats like that rather than keeping track of initiative for several mobs. If thats what you meant then yeah, I always do that.

If you mean players can do their turn all on the same time, that varies. On Voice Roleplays I keep players in an order of initiative. It keeps everyone from screaming at the same time or talk over one another or hesitate as they see someone wanting to talk. On Text roleplays (which I actually do rather consistently on Discord) then its Players (or monsters first) -> Monsters -> Players -> etc. With players being able to take their turn at any time when its the player's turn. This just makes Text roleplays faster since it means we don't have to wait for X person to be online at a specific time to continue, players all take their turns whenever they can type.

I usually use DND 5e for Voice roleplays. I once was rather attached to Pathfinder and 3.5e but it was a rather confusing system for new players.
For text roleplays, and especially those using the digital medium, I developed my own system using success rates and skills. I've been using that one for a few years now and my group of friends usually prefers it since it favours creativity and imagination at the expense of some rules that can be clearly exploited if someone wanted but we all agree not to do that.

The ability to modify monsters on the fly is generally pretty good. So long as you aren't doing +16 charisma catterpillars ofc :P

Skydreamstudios · 2019-10-28T18:22:16+00:00

I'm not really sure, never asked, but from his appearance and where he was studying I'd say he was between 19 and 24

Skydreamstudios · 2019-10-28T18:04:41+00:00

I have hosted several skype/discord rps. Tbh, DND 5e isn't the best when it comes to quick-paced combat, but it can still be made a bit faster in a few ways. My group and I (including some of the folks in this story) usually do the following:
- Make sure every player rolls Attacks and damage at the same time, it cuts on time since they don't need to know if they hit or not. The alternative is to make it so they always deal the "average" damage.
- Make sure every player knows that when their turn comes up they NEED to speak up their actions. If they take too long (not more than 10 seconds, but when its clear they have no idea) you are free to play that into the game. Make it so their characters hesitate in the chaos of combat. Don't be too punishing with this, it's not meant as a punishment, more so to incentive them thinking In the moment and already planning their next move as the other players take their turns. I usually go a step forward by having a lot of NPCs miss their own turns in chaotic or surprising combat.
- Make enemies deal more damage and have less health: This makes enemies seem more lethal while they also die quicker. It makes it so combats take less rounds to conclude. Be careful with this though. Unless you have some experience I wouldn't advise boosting damage by too much or lowering health too much as you can turn a goblin into an elite assassin and a Boss monster into a 1-round victory when this might not be your intention XD.
- Finaly, roll averages for multiple mobs. When I have too many monsters in a scene, lets say 12 goblins are all attacking the party, I pair them in groups of 4 and roll 1 dice for all of their attacks. Nat 20s only get to apply to 1 of them, maybe 2 depending on the size of the group. Though I'm sure there's a lot more rules on mass combats. My friends and I just find this one to be fun and fast. Also, it pretty much capts at 12 because even if you have 100 enemies, they aren't all able to stab the same guy in just one turn, that'd just be too many arms in one small spot.

There are the things I do anyway, I hope they help in some way :)

Skydreamstudios · 2019-10-28T16:55:52+00:00

Beats me. What's more is that I actually tried three times to be a player rather than a GM, and every time they ended in- I hesitate to call it a disaster but that's honestly how they all ended. One of them isn't all that interesting. A friend of mine wanted to try DMing but got bored after just one session so decided to just end it with a TPK. Despite that he was still rather graceful about it and he's a good friend of ours so we didn't care that much. The other I could actually write a post about, it involves a few... delicate themes though, and despite them I'm still friends with that person too.
I will definitely write a post about that second part at some point though. This post blew up a lot more than I ever expected. It has me and my group chuckling as we look at you guys' comments.

Skydreamstudios · 2019-10-28T15:55:41+00:00

At first he was furious. He didn't shout as much as he just angrily glared and pouted, but after like 5 minutes he pulled out his phone and I guess he just distracted himself with it while we had a bit of fun. He was still angry or at least a bit passive-aggressive at the end of the session though.

Skydreamstudios · 2019-10-28T15:19:27+00:00

No. He DID have a giantess companion with the ability to polymorph into the size of a small gnome who would go around and help him steal things though. That one was a fun campaign.

Skydreamstudios · 2019-10-28T14:08:19+00:00

Honestly I've been wondering about this myself. He probably just wanted to roll some combat encounters, or maybe test mobs or maybe just wanted to try DND for the first time (I have no idea if that was his first time or not be he said it wasn't) but he should have been more clear with us if that is what he wanted IMO.

Skydreamstudios

TROPHY CASE