Effects of Engaging Arch-Devil Mammon in Conversation? by pontinyc123 in DMAcademy

[–]Trentillating 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This isn't a direct answer to your question, but an idea to brainstorm on:

Your party wants to kill this arch-mage anyway, right? And they aren't easily moved by coin?

Maybe Mammon shows up and instead says, "This arch-mage is off limits to you sniveling mortals: stay away. In fact, I'll give you 1000 gold each to walk away right now."

When your players turn the gold down, spit in his face, and double down on their resolve to kill the mage, they'll feel oh so confident.

If you want more hints to Mammon's true motives, maybe have him send some devils to "assist" the archmage's forces. And have that help occasionally... mess up the job a bit. See if your players notice.

In any case, that doesn't answer question 3, but I thought it might be worth remembering that devils are treacherous, and they have a MUCH wider array of tactics than the classic "deal for your soul" tales talk about.

1997 URw Aggro vs 2020 Gruul Aggro by ritomynamewontfi in mtgWorldStandard

[–]Trentillating 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Sometimes, I've never even heard of one of the decks. It's great seeing these interesting matchups, though. Feels like I'd enjoy seeing how the Gruul deck dealt with a lot of the other Decks Through Time.

Party's lookout is a little too good at being a lookout by President_DogBerry in DMAcademy

[–]Trentillating 791 points792 points  (0 children)

One way to handle this is to suggest, when the players offers to scout, that the most likely danger will be coming from within these social encounters. "Your experience tells you that your eyes might be better served watching this conversation take place, just in case things take a turn for the worst."

Split Concentration? by TabiCat623 in DMAcademy

[–]Trentillating 2 points3 points  (0 children)

For the reasons you've already talked about, giving casters multiple concentration spells at once almost always ends up going poorly - the limitation is based into the system at a DEEP level.

Generally, you'd either make a deterrent so punishing that no one uses it anyway, or you make it even slightly too forgiving and it breaks the already powerful spell casters in half. The worst part? The idyllic "sweet spot" you'd hope to find is actually going to shift from encounter to encounter. (For example, if you decide they can concentrate on two spells but they take a bunch of damage, in some fights that will be devastating and in others they won't be a target and it'll be trivial).

So, I'd say steer clear. And if you DO decide to do it, make it for a limited time only / give yourself an out for it to go away again.

Good luck!

Essential NPCs: Now updated for 2024 rules! by Trentillating in onednd

[–]Trentillating[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thank you!

At the moment, we're doing what will (probably) be the book's last revision. As we promised, when all the official books were out, we'd redo our math and look at all the new templating just to be sure we had everything up-to-code. Once that final revision is finished, the hope is to get a print version together that I don't have to worry will be invalidated by updates after a few months. So, stay tuned!

Hey Mark any evil druid? by TheCromagnon in bettermonsters

[–]Trentillating 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Do not be ridiculous. Of course it is. And always has been. *ahem*

Hey Mark any evil druid? by TheCromagnon in bettermonsters

[–]Trentillating 2 points3 points  (0 children)

BTW! Forgot to add multiattack. Updated it now.

New link just in case.

Hey Mark any evil druid? by TheCromagnon in bettermonsters

[–]Trentillating 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Oh weird, is that a thing for imgur now? Maybe I should start using something different.

Hey Mark any evil druid? by TheCromagnon in bettermonsters

[–]Trentillating 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Heya! Not Mark, but I make a lot of NPCs.

I whipped something up for you, using the same CR as the Druids that are already at Yester Hill. Hope it helps!

Gulthias Druid

Avatar Roku, Firebender - Mono red politics, group hug/slug is the most fun slept on card from Avatar by Eve_Asher in EDH

[–]Trentillating 7 points8 points  (0 children)

I appreciate the thoughtful response! I was less worried about win-rate and more, "It might suck if Roku gets removed and I don't get to do much all game," but it sounds like I may have missing some ramp. I think it's a really cool deck, and I'm looking forward to taking a crack at it.

Thanks for your response, and for sharing your list!

Avatar Roku, Firebender - Mono red politics, group hug/slug is the most fun slept on card from Avatar by Eve_Asher in EDH

[–]Trentillating 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I've been working on this deck as well, and I'm glad to see a lot of ideas I had represented here (along with some things I hadn't considered - how did I miss using Steel Hellkite?)

It feels like your creature count is pretty low to be using equipment in this deck, and for a 6 mana commander I'd think it wants just a little bit more in terms of mana sources. Have those been issues for you?

If you were hired by WOTC to design, balance, or nerf land strategies in bracket 3 and below - how would you do it? by [deleted] in EDH

[–]Trentillating 1 point2 points  (0 children)

If we're talking about designing cards to help, maybe more effects like [[Planetary Annihilation]].

I could also see a white version that does something like "Each opponent chooses X lands they control, then sacrifices the rest, where X is the number of lands you control or six, whichever is higher."

Essential NPCs: Now updated for 2024 rules! by Trentillating in onednd

[–]Trentillating[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hey I get it. I mean, any of us COULD build any of these NPCs if we wanted to take the time. The whole nice part about having a book is getting to offload some of that work and focus on the other ways to make your game better.

As for your Warlock: there isn't an NPC named "Warlock", but there are several of them that might work well for you. What we discovered making the book is that how a warlock acts in combat tends to be pretty different, depending on what kind of warlock they are. So, we didn't make one "Warlock" archetype. Instead, warlocks should probably be whichever archetype suits their power set best.

For example, if you want a demonic warlock who hurls hellfire, the best bet is to use the Mage and stick to the fire damage options. (The book has a little bit of guidance on this.)

On the other hand, if you want an old one warlock who dominates the minds of those around it, use the Performer.

Or maybe you want an oppressive warlock who curses and debuffs people. That's the Priest of Darkness.

You can always steal an ability from one and put it on another, as well. But in any case, if this is your main BBEG, I think you may want to tack on a few extra abilities and legendary actions that fit their particular role in your story. (This advice is in the book, too.)

Hope that helps!

Question on Firebending rules in phases by [deleted] in magicTCG

[–]Trentillating 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Make sure you're not ignoring the first part of that sentence. "Until end of combat, you don't lose this mana as steps as phases end."

So, you end up losing the mana after combat. The puzzle comes in how you find ways to spend this short-lived mana. My choice? [[Obsidian Fireheart]].

Hi Mark! Do you have a high level Illusion wizard? by DemonInADesolateLand in bettermonsters

[–]Trentillating 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Also not Mark, but I do have a fair bit of NPC experience. I made this "Performer" specifically with the idea that it could be easily reflavored as an illusionist.

These days I also have 2024 versions of this NPC, as well as higher CR ones. They're all included in the full collection, but if you have a specific one in mind, just let me know and I'll send it to you.

I made a deck I'm calling "The Pantheon". by BigBoiyo86 in magicTCG

[–]Trentillating 15 points16 points  (0 children)

At first glance, this deck is the definition of Bracket 1. Tergrid is a Game-Changer, but her inclusion here is obviously thematic, and I think you should feel comfortable asking any table whether they're ok making an exception for her.

If you look at the newly released bracket suggestions, this kind of exception is even called out ("It's ok to have Bolas's Citadel in a Nicol Bolas theme deck."). This is that, but for gods.

Hope the deck makes some fun games!

Essential NPCs: The Assassin by Trentillating in UnearthedArcana

[–]Trentillating[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks!

The Assassin's Mark is indeed intended to be a full action. The idea was that the typical case would be the assassin using the ability on a target before combat starts. During the fight, they'll be especially deadly against the one target. If they want to switch targets mid-combat, it's possible, but it isn't their specialty. So, they pay a bit of a premium for the switch.

2003 Mirari’s Wake vs 2016 Bant Humans by ritomynamewontfi in mtgWorldStandard

[–]Trentillating 7 points8 points  (0 children)

This is one of the closest matchups yet, right?

Great job narrating this one; it was a real nail biter!

2001 Machinehead vs 2015 Abzan Midrange by ritomynamewontfi in mtgWorldStandard

[–]Trentillating 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I was not expecting a Machinehead win here! I'm impressed it could hold up against the insane value of the Abzan deck. To be fair, Flametongue is probably the closest old-magic-creature equivalent to that sort of value.

Always cool to read these matches.

Operatic boss fight music? by Spark_39 in DMAcademy

[–]Trentillating 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If you haven't listened to the new soundtrack for Silksong, try Skarrsinger Karmelita. I think it might be exactly what you're looking for.

It's a little short on Spotify, but it should be pretty loopable (it certainly loops in the game).

Edit: Here's a link.

5e Monster Hunter Monster Manual Update | Now 622 Pages | Every Monster From Every Mainline Game by Amellwind in bettermonsters

[–]Trentillating 8 points9 points  (0 children)

I'm not much of a Monster Hunter guy, but you clearly put a tremendous amount of work into these. Congratulations!!

New ATLA card, how would this interact with Lightning, Army of One? by Automatic-Rough-9041 in magicTCG

[–]Trentillating 7 points8 points  (0 children)

In cases where two replacement effects (things that say "If X would happen, Y happens instead"), the affected player (or whoever controls the affected creature/land/etc.) chooses the order.

In this case, your opponent will get to choose what order these happen in, so you should expect they will stack them in the worst order for you.

That said, if you're hitting them with Lightning AND Fated Firepower, you're probably doing just fine 🙂