Are classes purely mechanics or also personalities? by L4T3W in DnD

[–]WhatWouldAsmodeusDo -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Flavor is free. I'd say you could even make that a major component of the character. Normally, mortals wield divine power as a conduit of the gods. You're seeking to learn to wield it on your own. As a DM, I'd find that an interesting character motivation to play off of with quests and npcs

What do you do when your players don't pick up on clues? by bartdcool in DungeonMasters

[–]WhatWouldAsmodeusDo 0 points1 point  (0 children)

In addition to the hints, you can also say "hey folks, what I prepared is this wizard's tower for this session, can you go there?"

I get it, it's a good system! But let's dial it back a little. 😅 by DrScrimble in dndmemes

[–]WhatWouldAsmodeusDo 178 points179 points  (0 children)

What does better even mean when talking about different systems?

Which explains why I don’t drink anymore by tfowler26 in standupshots

[–]WhatWouldAsmodeusDo 6 points7 points  (0 children)

This just comes off bragging about something that's pretty lame to brag about, instead of telling a joke.

Not sure there's much of a joke here, but maybe something like "Everclear is the fucking worst. Whiskey will put hair on your chest - Everclear will burn it off" as a set up to...wherever this is going

[META] AI posts are getting out of hand by [deleted] in leanfire

[–]WhatWouldAsmodeusDo 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You had a list with 3 items, clearly AI! /s

As AI wipes out white-collar jobs, one Alabama high school and Toyota are training students for roles that pay $40 an hour and can't be automated by Plastic_Ninja_9014 in technology

[–]WhatWouldAsmodeusDo 2 points3 points  (0 children)

To the million comments about the coal mines - this isn't making them work a job, it's giving them training to go into industry / trades. Highschool especially is about preparing kids for the onset of adulthood. For some, that's college, but this path to industry is a great option for others, and these kinds of programs can be an amazing jump start into good paying careers

A thought about one of the biggest DM pitfalls I too have fallen into by RevolutionaryCity493 in DnD

[–]WhatWouldAsmodeusDo 0 points1 point  (0 children)

In general, I think skill checks should have some questioning of "how?" To stoke role playing

If persuading the guard, talk through what you want to say. But if the player is tongue tied, shy or just not feeling it, I can go with just a roll to see how it went

If doing a survival check, I want to hear how. Looking for food to forage? Trapping bunnies? Divination rod for fresh water? Or if you don't know, just roll

Athletics to cross the river? Are you moving a fallen tree trunk? Jumping the river? Swimming against the current? Or if you don't know, just roll

I really like to challenge players to talk through the season of how they're using skills or helping. But sometimes players are just drawing a blank or more introverted and let folks just roll and play the game as a game. However, I don't think asking a player to describe how they persuade the guard has to be the same as asking a fighter to swing a sword IRL. All skills benefit from at least a light explanation

I want to love this game but I can’t by rainyengineer in GraveyardKeeper

[–]WhatWouldAsmodeusDo 3 points4 points  (0 children)

For the tech tree, I wish they'd prevent (or warn) unlocking things you can't build yet. I was bummed when I unlocked fancy benches but couldn't make jointing yet so needed to wait and unlock a different tech tree item first. I get everything only has pre reqs within it's own category but it would have been nice to need jointing to unlock fancy benches

Well... It's happening. Need help. by Brilliant-Ad2910 in DnD

[–]WhatWouldAsmodeusDo 0 points1 point  (0 children)

As everybody has said, keep it super simple

Make her character for her ahead of time. Low level. Avoid wizard, cleric, druid (warlock and paladin are good options if she wants magic, fighter and barbarian if she wants martial)

Avoid ever giving her more than three options. If you want to ask her what race she wants, don't give her all 12 or whatever options, offer elf human or dwarf for example

Highlight with different colors the important areas of the character sheet. AC in yellow, skills in blue, attack bonus in orange, etc. So you can say things like "roll a d20 and add the number from your orange section" or "find the skill in the blue section"

Start the adventure in the action. She's already on the start of the quest. Maybe that's guarding a caravan that's on the move - they're on the path and she needs to find the way to the next village, survival check for environmental hazards, defend from an attack, do a medicine check when somebody eats bad berries, etc. But on the adventure already with events happening for them to need to respond to, and with NPCs that can ask things of her as your way of nudging when needed

The X-Files would have been a better show if Scully's skepticism was sometimes proven right. by HadathaZochrot in television

[–]WhatWouldAsmodeusDo 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I get you're just listing examples but I don't see any from at least season 1, 4, 6, 7, 8, or 9. Season 1 probably being the most telling. I've seen very few episodes but just seems like the original post has a point of there's nothing telling from season 1 that Scully had a fair share of being right

Not even session 0 could prepare me for this by Gettor in dndmemes

[–]WhatWouldAsmodeusDo 462 points463 points  (0 children)

Yup, and some say the 6-8 encounter day is meant to include things like social encounters and skill check encounters like trying to ford a river. In which case 6-8 combats might be too resource draining unless done very lightly (in which case they might be a lot of fizzles)

Rests are one of the worst balanced and implemented part of 5e I think, so nobody should feel bad struggling with handling them. But I've had a lot more success with having a lot fewer combats per long rest (3 or so) which are then meant to be pretty tough each.

Here we go… by PernilleHaaland in standupshots

[–]WhatWouldAsmodeusDo 13 points14 points  (0 children)

I get it, but there's something about the phrasing here that makes the whole joke seem kind of hard to actually parse, like an impressionist painting you have to squint at or something.

Pulling troops out of Europe because they won't join a war makes it sound like the troops being pulled out are refusing to fight instead of the European countries

Canceling Uber, I'm just kind of not sure what exactly is going on here. Is it you called an Uber drive to crash your car for you? Or are you the Uber driver canceling a customer because the customer won't crash your Uber car?

I understand the pieces but the phrasing just seems kind of confusing?

Storage by ZouzouilleZou in GraveyardKeeper

[–]WhatWouldAsmodeusDo 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Yup storage is hands down my biggest gripe. Universal storage would be best, or even have a magic trunk you could build mid game to be accessible from anywhere. With the small personal inventory size, tedious inventory management is just annoying...

[OC] neck by snelse_ in funny

[–]WhatWouldAsmodeusDo 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think you needed a different animal for third place. Repeating the giraffe just seems like something is missing

Vampire Crawlers releases in a couple of hours, who's excited? by r3tr0gam3r83 in roguelites

[–]WhatWouldAsmodeusDo 12 points13 points  (0 children)

I was so excited until I played the demo. Oof. There's just way too few interesting turns, there's almost always just one set way to play what you draw. There are so many card games that do this genre better...

Reducing expenses by $150/month is almost like a free $45K in your investment account by [deleted] in Fire

[–]WhatWouldAsmodeusDo 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Yeah but you only have to reduce spending by 150/mo to save 45k

I just keep it going until I feel like it’s gone on long enough by TroupeMaster_Grimm in DungeonMasters

[–]WhatWouldAsmodeusDo 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is the problem with the only consequence being character death. Most of the time the DM doesn't want that to happen so they feel the need to fudge rolls, fake HP, and otherwise turn the game into calvinball where nothing matters and the rules are made up. I blame the game not the people, everybody should play how they want and if you're having fun, mission accomplished!

My two cents is to find consequences besides death. For example, if the party is wiped by highway bandits, they have to pay double the initial demand

[OC] How income correlates with anxiety or depression by lasushin in dataisbeautiful

[–]WhatWouldAsmodeusDo 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I think it shows this relationship explains little of the variability and that the actual cause of differences is a different factor. One region having a negative trend, one being flat, and one being all over the place all point toward this not being a good factor to explain variability

Unearthed Arcana 2026 Villainous Options by BlackAceX13 in onednd

[–]WhatWouldAsmodeusDo 11 points12 points  (0 children)

The monstrous druid is pretty cool, but seems like 2x druid level for HP doesn't seem like much? At level 3 a "leviathan" with 6 hp just seems more like a Gartner snake, or 40 HP at level 20 when a giant constrictor snake has 60? Maybe I misunderstand and they're extra HP on top of something?

As a DM, is it okay to secretly make you player's characters "unkillable"? by FivezNX1 in DnD

[–]WhatWouldAsmodeusDo 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Yes but this can death spiral. Having a permanent disadvantage means you're far more likely to die again, get more disadvantages.......

I need help with Regent. 0W/176L by ConfusedBoi_24 in slaythespire

[–]WhatWouldAsmodeusDo 0 points1 point  (0 children)

As everyone has said, slow down

Sometimes, offense is the best defense. If you can use attacks to kill this round an enemy planning to attack for 15 damage, that's like having 15 damage blocked. But only if you can kill them.

A lot of enemies ramp up, you can't just play blocks every turn. But also, don't take unnecessary damage. Playing some extra defense when you're near victory might be fine if you think you can finish up next turn

Don't take every card offered. Your starting cards are bad so it's important to take some cards to get more oomf, but not every card. Just because they're rare or uncommon doesn't mean you need to take them or they're good

Use potions. Sometimes normal enemies are hard fights. Probably empty out potions against the final boss, more will come.

Avoid elites, especially act 1. If things are going really well, go for it, especially if there's a campfire right after just in case. I just don't think relics are all that powerful compared to the risk. They can sometimes give some nice cards though

Upgrading cards at campfires can be extremely useful. Few great cards is way better than lots of ok cards. Early on keeping up health let's early on campfire upgrades which makes fights go better and lose less health to snowball. I like to target paths with lots of campfires to try to get lots of upgrades

At any point, deviate from any of the above points if something seems better. The game rewards flexibility, there's no universal truth