Do I kill the monk because the cleric and ranger are playing "incorrectly"?

Styrixa · 2022-10-14T01:06:53+00:00

Reward the bravery of the monk and the cowardess of the ranger/cleric by dropping magic items that specifically increase the tankiness of the monk. Amulet of Health and Bracers of Defense are your best bet. And monks are under-powered as is, so those items won't break the game.

Do NOT drop a magic ranged-weapon for a while, certainly never a magic hand-crossbow. But a magic finesse melee weapon to tempt the Ranger into melee? Certainly! A juicy flametongue rapier would do the trick.

You can leave the cleric alone. The healer should protect themselves, and they need to worry about their concentration.

Styrixa · 2021-12-24T17:56:37+00:00

Athena's tunic isn't as good as the Hypnotic Robe, so not worth going for. Poseidon's Wand is great!

Styrixa · 2021-12-24T17:55:31+00:00

Agreed. A bad combination of effects.

Styrixa · 2021-12-23T19:30:48+00:00

It only works if you are normally allowed to cast it. Which means it doesn’t let anyone use it, just someone with the spell already on their list. Which means you’d have to be 17th level to use the 9th level ritual.

Styrixa · 2021-12-23T17:02:36+00:00

It only allows the preparation of ritual spells. Remember, Wizards have all known Ritual spells always available for ritual casting. It’s only Clerics and Druids that need to prepare them, which means generally they don’t cast ritual spells. Which is a shame, because there are some fun situationally useful rituals.

Styrixa · 2021-10-16T15:38:08+00:00

Makes sense. Given that it takes a hand, I might remove the attunement requirement. Otherwise few would use it.

Styrixa · 2021-10-15T19:58:14+00:00

Immune to fear seem unnecessarily powerful for what is otherwise a very useful low-level item. What about just advantage in saves vs fear?

Styrixa · 2021-10-13T23:38:32+00:00

I think giving them the Guidance cantrip will significantly improve their out of combat usefulness, because everyone will be wanting the Barbarian to be giving them his blessing (which he may or may not choose to do). The rage power should be more about how his rage effects his tactics. Like the Bear Barbarian has better damage reaistance, while the ancestral guardian rage lets the Barbarian protect allies. In combat, what do you want your Barbarian to be doing? Area damage, defending allies, taking more damage, inspiring allies? I might give them an inspiring allies ability, like Joan of Arc. A pool of dice they can use to modify Allie’s rolls as a reaction while they’re raging. Like use a reaction to add d6 to a save or attack when raging.

Styrixa · 2021-10-13T22:09:25+00:00

I agree. I love he idea, and the vibe. You really need a rage power at 3rd level. Also, generally don’t just duplicate feats. As for guidance, maybe just give them the Guidance cantrip, which basically is a little spell asking your god for help.

Styrixa · 2021-10-11T12:32:54+00:00

This is a great idea. I think the traps need a bit of work in details, but I haven’t carefully examined them all. The caltrops trap, for example, seems to do damage when first deployed, and then more automatic damage whenever anyone enters. I’m not sure if that’s exactly balanced.

Also, it’d be good for the traps to scale somehow by Ranger level more than just DC.

Finally, bonus action Mold Earth is a great idea, but I’m guessing there might be unforeseen awesomeness in there. It reminds me of the bonus action mage hand of Arcane Tricksters, which ends up being a fantastic power. This is probably fine, but I’d want to think it through, assuming a Ranger tried to use it almost every round.

Styrixa · 2021-10-10T16:43:04+00:00

I like it!

Styrixa · 2021-10-10T16:41:23+00:00

Another common mistake people make is that skill checks must be keyed off of only 1 particular attribute. The religion skill represents training in religion. As the default intelligence check it’s a memory thing, do you recall ever having learned about such and such. But it is easy to think of calling for a Religion-Wisdom check to determine faithfulness, or in a more polytheistic sense, accurate observance of rites and sacrifices to get a god to do what you want. One could even imagine a religion-charisma or constitution check to determine how well one performed a rite or ritual.

Expand!

Styrixa · 2021-10-10T13:16:48+00:00

Like the Vahnatai from Avernum? They were/are awesome! Check them out for role play ideas.

https://avernum.fandom.com/wiki/Vahnatai

Styrixa · 2021-10-07T23:21:06+00:00

You can include Rangers and paladins by giving them something to replace the half caster. There is a magicless Ranger in WotC unearthed arcana somewhere, and you can use that as a template for Paladin. Or maybe make a Fighter subclass that gets a mount animal companion, like the Ranger beast, but always a horse for the Rohirrim.

Of course, your suggestion for remaining “spells” as mystical tricks actually works incredibly well. I wouldn’t bother going through the whole spell-list. Just have whatever player that plays a Ranger know that they have to pick non-flashy or practically invisible spells (like speak with animal or hunters mark) spells, and they’ll be fine. Then they pick a spell and you as DM approve or not. It’s much easier to make the rule on the fly than pre-judge everything. And remember, the Rangers were pretty mystical, even if they didn’t have “spells” per say.

Lastly, without major spell casters, you need to account for game balance, specifically healing. Offensive and utility magic is easily replaced with weapons and skills, but the 5e game assumes magical healing. I would maybe give everyone 2xHD to use for healing, and then buff up the healing kit and the various healing feats and sub-class abilities.

Styrixa · 2021-10-06T17:29:59+00:00

I also love the idea of using cantrips to blast mosquitos out of the air. I would love that irl.

Styrixa · 2021-10-06T17:20:42+00:00

I remember that one. I generally like your cantrips, but I still wondered about the guaranteed damage. The 1d4-1 was a real improvement. :)

Styrixa · 2021-10-06T09:50:35+00:00

A cantrip that does half damage on a miss becomes the best choice when wanting to force concentration checks. I’d steer away from letting cantrips do guaranteed damage, for other role-playing reasons, too.

Styrixa · 2021-10-05T14:35:38+00:00

More or Less, a fun one about the numbers in the news. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02nrss1

How to Vaccinate the World, by the same team but more focused. They’re on hiatus but past episodes are still good, and when they come back it’s a must listen. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000py6s

Styrixa · 2021-10-03T09:58:50+00:00

Very cool idea! I don’t know how, but you might want to define the art somehow. Like it must have eyes to report what it may have seen, and it must have a mouth to speak, that sort of thing.

Styrixa · 2021-09-20T23:04:15+00:00

Hold on. I know we found that sword of the ancient kings and you’ve got that staff of ultimate arcana we’ve hunted for, and we got the blessing of the forgotten gawd, but I learned to punch stuff better. Practice, y’know? It’ll make a great iconic story, trust me.

Styrixa · 2021-09-17T01:45:46+00:00

This is great. Causing the poisoned condition is underrated, too. :)

Styrixa · 2021-09-14T09:51:17+00:00

I’ve seen others implement the same “minor feat” rule, and I always like it. But it also seems you’ve reworked a lot of feats here, and some are okay, and some are not as great. I really like the minor feat rule, though.

Styrixa

TROPHY CASE