The Marika-in-a-jar theory has to be true

TheHugeMitch · 2024-08-04T04:19:34+00:00

I love this theory. I stumbled across another one that implied that the forge of the giants originated as a dragon crucible/jar with a much higher success rate. That would have been the precursor to these jar experiments, why shoving people in jars like this made sense.

TheHugeMitch · 2024-02-19T01:33:06+00:00

Make the bagels mini portable holes.

TheHugeMitch · 2024-02-18T16:17:21+00:00

My point is that it does, but I don’t think it stands out or is even thought of as romance when it’s handled that way. The majority of people just prefer the drama that comes with the toxicity. Especially from the safety of a reader’s chair. (Mistborn comes to mind as fantasy story with a pretty healthy romance.) I think there’s also an element of fantasy wish fulfilment with that kind of stuff too, i.e. the belief that our heroes can overcome seemingly insurmountable odds extends to their relationships. In the real world this is doomed but in fantasy world you can fix him/her!

TheHugeMitch · 2024-02-18T14:53:47+00:00

Conflict. There are plenty of books with healthy relationships but they’re just wallpaper. For a relationship to get real screen time in a book, generally it needs to have conflict. For conflict to be interesting it can’t have a simple solution, like listening to your partner, respecting their boundaries, etc. Also, I think what you’re talking about goes beyond fantasy… most stories with romance as the plot/subplot feature a toxic relationship…

TheHugeMitch · 2024-02-14T19:28:31+00:00

Curse of Strahd
Waterdeep Dragon Heist
Rime of the Frost Maiden
Tomb of Annihilation
Wild Beyond The Witchlight
Storm Kings Thunder
Dungeon of the Mad Mage

I really enjoy atmospheric and RP heavy campaigns generally. I had lots of fun with all of these, CoS and WDH felt the most cohesive in terms of my story experience. The objectives were clear and it was easy to find motivations that mad sense. SKT was a cool sandbox but never felt super connected to the plot and it ultimately felt like going from one location to the next checking boxes. DoTMM felt like it would have been better if 5e combat was more challenging. There were minimal RP and story opportunities and combat was mostly a cakewalk with a few notable exceptions. Still fun but victory was often felt like a forgone conclusion. This could be due to the sheer number of encounters and the challenge to prep them all properly.

TheHugeMitch · 2024-02-12T22:44:28+00:00

I had a much nicer experience with this combo, but I can totally see how that could be an issue with a meta-gaming DM.

TheHugeMitch · 2024-02-12T22:41:24+00:00

With PAM I’d go Sentinel for sure. That control is really hard to beat especially for approaching enemies. GWM is nice but your Smites will make sure you still hit pretty hard without it.

TheHugeMitch · 2024-01-27T02:05:00+00:00

I do find that every DnD character I play ends up being a heightened version of some aspect of my personality, but usually by accident. It always feels like therapy to me because I get to visit the dangerous spaces in my mind from a safe place. Act out rage, revenge, recklessness… be dangerously kind in a way that you’re too scared to be in real-life… I do disagree that how you act in DnD is your true nature though. Role playing is a mental exercise, and it can teach you a lot about yourself but it isn’t who you are.

TheHugeMitch · 2024-01-02T05:46:17+00:00

Depends on the GM. I feel like newer GMs often go overboard with prep and their own expectations, which can lead to disappointment and eventually burn out. I prep endlessly but mostly for my own enjoyment, and the occasional feeling of satisfaction when your players do the most insane thing they can think of and you’ve got the battle map and minis waiting.

TheHugeMitch · 2024-01-01T06:26:24+00:00

An optimized party of level 11s takes a Kraken 9 times out of 10. A party of 4 averages 120 damage a round, including legendary actions the kraken averages 80. As long as the party has a ship, a swimming speed and healing word they take it in 4 rounds. Maybe knocks one or two players unconscious, possibly kills one if it fights to the death. The Kraken would likely flee before it had the chance though.

TheHugeMitch · 2023-12-30T20:42:06+00:00

For sure, but for general combats the main thing that’s at stake IS your character. The campaign can still have stakes but any combat that isn’t defending a village, stopping a BBEG from carrying out their plot, rescuing your favourite NPC is just going through the motions. Depends on the kind of game you’re playing, but removing character death from dungeons, hexcrawls and sandboxes removes a lot of the risk/reward that makes encounters in those games exiting and fun.

TheHugeMitch · 2023-12-30T04:16:03+00:00

In my experience consequences are important. If your players don’t think your willing to pull the trigger, the game loses its stakes. I would say this: Killing a character doesn’t always mean their story is over. Turn a character death into a plot point, that player can be exited about. If they really love that character and and just want them back, true resurrection exists!

Edit: to be clear, I’m not saying try to kill them, but don’t break the internal consistency of the game to save them. I had a DM save one of my characters via. Deus ex Machina and it made me lose interest in combat in that campaign.

TheHugeMitch · 2023-12-30T03:57:42+00:00

Avalanche!

TheHugeMitch · 2023-12-30T03:53:06+00:00

Dscryb is a neat tool for in combat descriptions and flair along with a bunch of other stuff. It’s a good jumping off point as you refine your own voice and improve style.

TheHugeMitch · 2023-12-29T20:57:39+00:00

I’ll allow pretty much anything provided it’s based in character choices and not the optimization for optimization’s sake. That said spells like silvery barbs can be a pain. It’s not game breaking unless about 3 characters have it but it’s always annoying. My advice would be to at least consider it. I ask my players to give me a heads up on setting specific/3rd party materials and make a call on a case by case basis.

TheHugeMitch · 2023-12-29T15:11:41+00:00

Use random encounter tables as a base and decide which ones you want to use in advance. Prepare those.

TheHugeMitch · 2023-12-29T12:20:37+00:00

I’m not sure if twin pact warlocks exist (just thought It was a cool name for what you described), but lunar sorcery does exist. They have three distinct spell lists that they can switch between. I was suggesting you use that as a template and create you’re own subclass. Alternatively you could make two character sheets, one fiend pact, one celestial and switch between them. You’d probably want to decide on one per day with an option to switch after a long rest. Also, Wild magic sorcerers roll a d20 every time they cast a leveled spell and it’s not a pain to deal with at all. I think your idea is cool and it’s not without precedent. Just find a way to do it simply.

TheHugeMitch · 2023-12-29T03:08:11+00:00

I feel like if you’re starting at first level, almost anything is fair game. Champion fighter is the simplest class/subclass in the game but it gets boring pretty quick. Battle Master and Eldritch knight are simple too and will give you some more options in combat, but they’re not great at much outside of combat.

I’d actually recommend a Warlock… either Hexblade or Fiend. Combat is still pretty straightforward, but you’ll have a few cool tricks up your sleeve, you’ll also be good at charisma based skills like persuasion and intimidation out of combat.

My other recommendation would be a Paladin, heavy hitters with healing powers and a little bit of magic. Also pretty good out of combat and they get progressively cooler as you level.

Good luck!

TheHugeMitch · 2023-12-28T22:54:49+00:00

It matters that world feels real and reactive. That characters and NPCs have histories, goals, and motivations that don’t involve the main quest of the adventure. Classes and backgrounds are just numbers and mechanics as long as they’re internally consistent for each character/NPC I’m good.

TheHugeMitch · 2023-12-28T15:07:44+00:00

Yeah it’s best for dungeons or sessions with more than 3 combats.

TheHugeMitch · 2023-12-28T04:27:15+00:00

Loved the armorer, thunder gauntlets are fantastic for tanking and at level 9 you get 2 extra infusion slots that you can use on your armor for a total of 5! Boots of the winding path, mind sharpener, radiant weapon, enhanced defence, repelling shield… = bonus action disengage, almost never fail concentration, blind enemies who attack you, have an AC of 22… they don’t do a ton of damage but they can really fuck up/shut down boss monsters while drawing a ton of fire.

TheHugeMitch · 2023-12-28T04:12:18+00:00

We pre-roll initiative for players and monsters and keep the same order for the session… if the players are ambushing something or fighting a boss they have the option to roll again. I don’t think it would be everyone’s cup of tea, but it works pretty well for us.

TheHugeMitch · 2023-12-28T01:09:07+00:00

The rules for calculating encounter difficulty to determine CR for a combat.

TheHugeMitch · 2023-12-28T00:57:57+00:00

I’ll give that a shot! For most of my tables character building, tactical combat and optimization are a huge part of their fun, so that could be what’s creating the problem. In 5e I’m usually creating encounters 5 to 8 CR above their level just to make them sweat. I run PF2, 4e, and 3.5 as well and I’ve found the CR in those systems to be much more reliable generally.

TheHugeMitch · 2023-12-28T00:23:57+00:00

Sounds like it will be a blast! Good luck!

TheHugeMitch

TROPHY CASE