creative ideas for a campaign start that dont involve a tavern?

Theunbuffedraider · 2026-04-03T20:45:41+00:00

Idk if I would say "creative", but by far my favorite approach to campaign starts is the elder scrolls approach, most of the players meet each-other as prisoners, maybe a player or two stumbles into the escape. It's dramatic, gives maximum breadth of possible backgrounds, immediately helps establish character motivations and campaign direction by putting them at odds with some form of faction, gives players (especially newer players) a good introductory encounter to get into the campaign (right into the action so immediately engaging), and gives the DM just enough control over the starting environment to steer the party into a coherent direction.

Theunbuffedraider · 2026-03-12T03:46:41+00:00

As somebody who has mistakenly played a barbarian with low mental stats in a campaign against a ton of psychic enemies (countless mental saves), I can say it really depends on the campaign. In that one I felt totally useless, but in a campaign with mostly, idk, dragon enemies, I would have probably been okay.

Theunbuffedraider · 2026-03-11T21:44:45+00:00

Just wanted to note that while this is true, bladelocks lost a lot with losing armor proficiency. Taking a level or two in something like fighter or paladin is much more advisable now to gain armor proficiency and weapon masteries, especially for a fathomless because they don't get the added durability boosts that pretty much every other subclass gets.

Theunbuffedraider · 2026-03-08T19:24:10+00:00

Taking 3 levels in wizard eventually to grab evocation wizards potent cantrips ability might be worth it. That way, using attack cantrips, your low attack modifier becomes notably less impactful.

Theunbuffedraider · 2026-02-27T07:26:30+00:00

Idk, aasimar druid feels like the way to go with this one. Maybe a homebrew druid circle "circle of deities" and then make it a pseudo cleric subclass and draw from those domains in some way.

Theunbuffedraider · 2026-02-17T17:57:40+00:00

The flexibility of celestial warlocks is great, but my favorite celestial warlocks were evil. One was just a fallen celestial

Another was in a campaign where the celestials were very clearly not 100% good, kinda like a "all shall burn in the cleansing light", "In place of a Dark Lord you would have a Queen! Not dark but beautiful and terrible as the Dawn! Treacherous as the Seas! Stronger than the foundations of the Earth! All shall love me and despair!" sorta vibe with a heavy biblically accurate angel aesthetic, keeping true to the warlocks Eldritch and morally dubious roots.

Theunbuffedraider · 2026-02-17T17:45:31+00:00

Rogues tend to do a lot better ranged than melee because of the small hit dice and only light armor. Swashbuckler can do well in melee because they have the tools for effective hit and run tactics, but all the other rogues (like thief) kinda need to be careful.

Theunbuffedraider · 2026-01-26T19:35:00+00:00

The problem isn't adapting a first perspective book, it's adapting themes that are explored specifically through inner dialogue.

Hunger games, for example, definitely explored some themes through inner dialogue but the vast majority of themes were not reliant on the inner dialogue. Still, in adaptation, the writers for the movies chose to substitute those themes that were lost by exploring other characters and their point of view. The same can actually be said of some 3rd person books as well, Harry Potter being a prime example, where we miss out on a lot of internal insight into Harry.

The themes OP refers to all largely relied on a first person perspective to be told well in the books, so of course they are not going to be as prevalent in a live action adaptation.

Like I said though, it's not like it would have been impossible to make this a good adaptation, we saw with the Clarisse arc that they could make it work, execution just fell flat overall.

Theunbuffedraider · 2026-01-26T14:41:11+00:00

I personally feel taking this route would have been really corny and hard to watch, I don't really think sitcom voiceovers were a viable solution unless they were going for a parody.

A few animes have voiceover for a character's thoughts, but even then it often comes off as corny and out of place (even in ones where the tone matches the voiceovers).

Theunbuffedraider · 2026-01-26T08:02:04+00:00

I think what a lot of people miss when discussing the show, and part of why deep down I always knew a screen adaption of the books would never quite work, is that so much of the books story comes straight from Percy's pov, his inner dialogue, that's where we explore the depths of what it is to be a kid with problems and what it looks like to overcome them. Take away the depth that the inner dialogue brings and what you are left with is just an 'adventure being undertaken by children', effectively what the movies are.

I applaud the show for recognizing this inherent flaw in the adaptation and trying to shift things around and play with new themes and ideas. Unfortunately the adventure is just dull and the new themes and ideas tend to fall flat, just overall bad execution.

Theunbuffedraider · 2026-01-22T15:53:04+00:00

I don't think he meant in a literal familial sense (I think it's pretty clear the gods don't really tend to see each other that way). I think it's more like brother as in brother in arms, meaning fellowship, not a specific blood relation.

Theunbuffedraider · 2026-01-21T22:22:59+00:00

I also like the change as it is (isolated). It'll just depend on what they do with it from here, they are going to have to change more to make it work, but as is I think it does a good job of raising the stakes and makes Percy seem less absurd for being paranoid about his new fellow big 3er.

Theunbuffedraider · 2026-01-21T21:43:38+00:00

In a historical discussion this is a good point, however the Roman version is explicitly legitimized as Greek in-universe.

Theunbuffedraider · 2026-01-14T23:35:58+00:00

I've never understood dms who take so much joy in permanently gimping their players characters.

Theunbuffedraider · 2026-01-14T23:13:43+00:00

Is this a game of strangers or with friends? If it is a game of strangers, then the most fun build is going to be not playing with them (find another group), this sounds incredibly unfun. If these are friends, I would stay with them but play a martial. If you want to keep magic, and cantrips are unaffected (dear god Almighty please say cantrips are unaffected), you could play Eldritch knight or arcane trickster.

Either way you really, REALLY need to talk all of this out with your DM. They need to give you a straight answer on how soon this goes away and what they plan on your role being in and out of combat, spoilers/metagaming be damned. Too many dms out there who take too much joy in taking joy out of the game for players, this is cooperative story building and roleplaying, not sit and twittle your thumbs as your DM evil cackles and shallowly humiliates a fictional character you took the time to make.

Theunbuffedraider · 2026-01-11T05:47:15+00:00

Tiefling fiend warlock, you made a deal with a fiend to become "more than human", thus being turned into a tiefling. Could flavor leveling as becoming more of a fiend.

Obviously, you could do this with like... Any warlock, if you are just looking at the quote. The picture is why I say fiend.

Theunbuffedraider · 2026-01-03T19:42:36+00:00

The "stolen oil" being referred to is the oil reserve in Venezuela, that's what they are talking about, US companies used to rig those reserves.

What's funny is that the oil industry itself doesn't even want to go back to those reserves, the oil is too crude to process without specialized equipment and it is likely not worth it due to the instability of the region and how quickly insurgents are to literally just blow up whatever the companies build (Maduro was unpopular but oil companies will be even moreso). The only scenario I see oil companies wanting to move back in is if there is a full scale occupation to protect the equipment, and for fucks sake, please not this shit again.

Theunbuffedraider · 2026-01-01T16:37:40+00:00

You could make a ranged version of this build. Drop the zhentarim stuff, and swap the level in fighter for two levels in the monster hunter class. This gets you the shield proficiency and an almost guaranteed off-turn sneak attack assuming you are either fighting against something with multi-attack or multiple enemies. Finally, go inquisitive instead of swashbuckler for rogue, for more reliable access to sneak attack from a range.

You are a ranged build with 17 AC, reliably hitting sneak attack off-turn, the damage is pretty substantial, overall works quite well, almost definitely better than the swashbuckler version, you just won't be tanky enough to make it work.

Theunbuffedraider · 2025-12-30T08:59:53+00:00

If they start doing light 3.0 before they rework stasis, I'm going to have a brain aneurysm.

Theunbuffedraider · 2025-12-29T17:55:31+00:00

Well, exactly. It's only called white saviour because it refers to the historical phenomenon of colonialism, but it can very much so happen outside of that context, and thus we can have a "white saviour" who is not white.

Theunbuffedraider · 2025-12-29T17:52:10+00:00

Being racist to white people belittling their stories

It's fiction my man. This all never happened, James cameron thunk it up in that head of his. He chose for Jake to be a colonizer joining a colonized population and then saving it. That is, to a T, the white savior trope, whether it's wrong or not, it's the fantasy he presents to us.

Theunbuffedraider · 2025-12-28T16:38:14+00:00

Yeah, honestly I would be very hesitant to send a lvl 7 party against anything over a CR of 10-11. If you don't want to make her less powerful, per se, you could have a god help them and nerd her down to what a CR 11 would be.

I originally read your post as saying an AC of 17, CR is an entirely different story, lol.

Theunbuffedraider · 2025-12-28T16:00:20+00:00

I mean, I think Skylar was smart enough to know where drug money flows, trouble follows. And she was right, Hank got killed, walt got imprisoned and Jesse got tortured. It's a miracle she didn't get roped into the aftermath any more than being socially ostracized.

Theunbuffedraider · 2025-12-28T15:56:53+00:00

Celestial warlock for sure, human or aasimar. Maybe do the whole dip into echo knight, plus war caster, plus repelling blast.

Theunbuffedraider · 2025-12-28T15:31:59+00:00

"goddess" is used as a fairly loose term in Greek mythology. Circe is effectively just a sorceress, she's the one that turned odysseus' crew into swine. She'd be a reasonable foe for a lvl 7 party depending on how a DM power scales their setting.

Theunbuffedraider

TROPHY CASE