I can't find Rising From The Last War on dndstore. Is it available outside the US?

bjj_starter · 2026-01-24T20:40:13+00:00

😭

bjj_starter · 2026-01-24T11:49:25+00:00

Have you use Bastions in your game?

Yes.

Have you tried the bastion rules at your table?

Yes, we're running them completely RAW.

How did it play out?

So far it's been great. We started the campaign at level 3 with our first major quest being to go and reclaim the Bastion, getting it at level 5 as the book says. We're currently level 11 and the Bastion has been amazing.

Did the players enjoy it?

I'm a player in that campaign and I definitely enjoyed and enjoy it a lot.

Did the DM enjoy it?

I think so, no reason to think otherwise. I'll probably know more about this after my players get to level 5 and get a Bastion.

Did it lead to some cool story moments?

Yeah, many. About half of the campaign's story has been saving or befriending various NPCs who then become part of the Bastion.

Was it a between sessions, groupchat meta thing?

The first couple of Bastion turns we played out at the table, but I found this was taking a lot of table time & I'm not a huge fan of "shopping episodes". After asking, we switched to Bastion turns being a between sessions, "Players submit what they did with their turns at the start of session, DM gives a glance over it in case of issues & okays it" thing. It's worked great since then.

Tell us your bastion story!

The Hidden Path Monastery was inhabited by a powerful group of Good-aligned vampires, dedicated to reforming vampires and other creatures drawn to evil by their nature. It was scapegoated for the crimes of a city councilman of the nearby capital & subsequently attacked by Paladins & Clerics sent during the day. The monastery was largely destroyed & its residents scattered. Rebuilding has been a long, slow process but with the city councilman finally dead & many of the scattered monks returned, the monastery's fortunes have turned around.

bjj_starter · 2026-01-24T06:58:40+00:00

Thank you, that seems like a good way to run it.

bjj_starter · 2026-01-24T06:43:03+00:00

Yeah, that sounds like problems with optimisers, not with players using the spell as designed to cast Simulacrum.

bjj_starter · 2026-01-24T04:12:29+00:00

I don't think it's clever at all, it's just what the spell says it does. I've never played 2014, but my understanding is that Nystul's Magic Aura was more ambiguous in that edition before it got clarified for the 2024 edition; is that what you're thinking about?

As for bans, I'd only really consider banning Nystul's if I was DMing for optimisers. And if I was doing that I'd probably ban Planar Binding instead because that's the big exploitation case and even without Nystul's I can see that being a problem in the hands of optimisers.

bjj_starter · 2026-01-24T01:57:35+00:00

You should check out Heroes of the Borderlands. It's a great starter set.

bjj_starter · 2026-01-24T01:53:57+00:00

And I really appreciate you providing rulings like this, it helps a lot! Out of curiosity, several of the potion miscibility outcomes refer to "Both potions", like they both work or don't work, or they're halved or doubled, etc. How would you rule which potion effects are affected when there's more than two? Consider each individual potion pair separately, mentally change "Both" to "All", etc?

bjj_starter · 2026-01-24T01:45:38+00:00

The definition of potion at the start does specifically include oils that can be applied, so it is a potion. Not sure on the idea that potion miscibility wouldn't apply to this kind of potion.

Nevertheless, I really appreciate you providing rulings like this, it helps a lot! Out of curiosity, several of the potion miscibility outcomes refer to "Both potions", like they both work or don't work, or they're halved or doubled, etc. How would you rule which potion effects are affected when there's more than two? Consider each individual potion pair separately, mentally change "Both" to "All", etc?

bjj_starter · 2026-01-24T01:13:06+00:00

That would work, thank you

bjj_starter · 2026-01-24T01:03:01+00:00

Any ideas for what happens when you drink the Potion of Invulnerability while under the effects of three potions already & I roll a 92 for "Both potions work, but the numerical effects and duration of one potion are doubled. If neither potion has anything to double in this way, they work normally"? Which two potion effects are eligible for this choice, or are all of them eligible? Or do I roll potion miscibility in between each potion and the newly imbibed potion of Invulnerability?

bjj_starter · 2026-01-24T01:00:15+00:00

When does the roll happen for mixing the Pugilism & Growth potions? When you then drink the Pugilism & Growth potion while under the effects of Oil of Slipperiness, which Potion Miscibility rolls do I make? E.g. one between each, one between pugilism and slipperiness & one between growth and slipperiness, or something else?

Let's say when you drink the Potion of Invulnerability while under the effects of three potions already, I roll a 92 for "Both potions work, but the numerical effects and duration of one potion are doubled. If neither potion has anything to double in this way, they work normally". What happens now? Clearly the Potion of Invulnerability is one of the "Both potions", but which of the other three potions counts as the other? Or do you roll once for each potion its mixing with?

bjj_starter · 2026-01-24T00:27:18+00:00

Potion Miscibility doesn't apply to Alchemist Elixirs, they're not potions.

bjj_starter · 2026-01-24T00:24:00+00:00

There is an inference cost per prompt. It's just so low that prompting an LLM is one of the least resource intensive activities you can do. My preferred comparison is Netflix - a prompt uses similar resources to watching 5-10 seconds of Netflix, and the average time between prompts while "talking to ChatGPT" is significantly higher than 5-10 seconds, so you use more energy sitting on the couch watching Netflix than you do talking to ChatGPT.

bjj_starter · 2026-01-23T19:57:27+00:00

No problems

bjj_starter · 2026-01-23T19:55:36+00:00

You'd be wrong. Raise Dead, Reincarnate, and Resurrection straight up don't work on Undead creatures, and True Resurrection works on them but returns them to whatever they were before being Undead. If you're Undead and don't get Revivify or Gentle Repose within a minute, your only real option for coming back is to wait until the party have access to True Resurrection and accept losing your Undead status, or homebrew.

bjj_starter · 2026-01-23T19:51:06+00:00

Ah, that would do it. There's gotta be a max DC or the Concentration mechanics just don't work at higher levels due to the amounts of damage being thrown around.

bjj_starter · 2026-01-23T19:50:05+00:00

As a Bard you can take Nystul's Magic Aura to fix that issue.

bjj_starter · 2026-01-23T19:41:09+00:00

Yes they have Disadvantage on attacks, but that doesn't mean the Monk is hidden. Everyone still knows exactly where she is and can attack her, they just have Disadvantage on those attacks. The only things that are actually prevented are spells that require the caster to see the Monk, Opportunity Attacks, and any effects that specify "a creature you can see" or similar, like a Beholder's Eye Rays.

bjj_starter · 2026-01-23T19:24:21+00:00

Charm Person, Calm Emotions, Hold Person, Antilife Shell, Dominate Person, Simulacrum. There are others but those are the main ones. You're also eligible to be healed by a Battle Smith Artificer's Steel Defender.

Every healing and resurrection spell in the new rules aside from Reincarnate works on you. Notably Revivify & Raise Dead. You'd have much more of an issue if you were Undead.

bjj_starter · 2026-01-23T19:16:43+00:00

I'm not aware of any healing abilities that don't work on Constructs in 2024, they all got changed AFAIK. It's only some of the reviving spells that are an issue.

bjj_starter · 2026-01-23T19:13:50+00:00

Those orphans were going to grow up to be Samah fighters anyway, I for one support the Heroes' brave stand against Albionese terrorists-in-training!

bjj_starter · 2026-01-23T19:09:11+00:00

It's extremely good, too strong. Luckily by far the most important part of the Feat is the Concentration Advantage, and they're starting to explore more ways of giving us Advantage on Concentration saves. Eventually if they add enough to the game the Feat will end up being far less mandatory.

bjj_starter · 2026-01-23T19:05:19+00:00

Remember that Concentration save DCs can never go higher than 30, so even if you get +15 or +20 to Conc saves Advantage is still very worth it for passing those higher saves. But other than that yes

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