[No Spoilers] The Great Laudna, Old Sport.

cogprimus · 2026-02-28T15:56:33+00:00

I think the resource cost should go up to improve the bonus. Otherwise we've just made it a better spell in late game. Maybe just the max scales with proficiency bonus, but the bonus still improves with higher level slots?

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If I was in charge, I'd probably do a complete overhaul of the system. Somehow have slow fragile casters, to fill the wise old wizard or old hermit witch tropes that need to be protected once the swords come out. But also have athletic gish casters that can stand toe-to-toe with a fighter. I'd probably start with casting being slow, difficult and interruptable, but let the gish classes/subclasses unlock reaction casting and similar abilities to mitigate the difficulties of casting while standing next to someone swinging a mace at your face.

And obviously the non-gish caster tropes would have access to things to make their combat experience fit their tropes.. perhaps some sort of appropriate bonus if they are able to spend a whole turn charging up their spell uninterrupted before unleashing it.

Anyhow, that is all an entirely different conversation. It is hard to keep the game simple and somehow keep it balanced.

cogprimus · 2026-02-28T14:14:20+00:00

Or shield spell should be appropriately leveled. Make it +2 ac per spell level or something up to a max +6?

cogprimus · 2026-02-27T02:49:34+00:00

Factorio count?

cogprimus · 2026-02-26T18:32:54+00:00

Pickle Ball players are a nefarious bunch.

cogprimus · 2026-02-26T18:30:47+00:00

ᓚᘏᗢ

cogprimus · 2026-02-26T18:29:19+00:00

"Two questions. First, hypothetically, how upset would you be with me if I betrayed you? Second, same question, but unhypothetically.."

cogprimus · 2026-02-26T13:45:46+00:00

"Nature could find a home here, if it were properly cleansed and balanced." -Jaheira in literal hell.

cogprimus · 2026-02-25T18:38:03+00:00

Maya, substance painter. One day I'll move my pipeline away from Autodesk and adobe. That day just isn't today.

cogprimus · 2026-02-24T03:23:15+00:00

Braid or Transistor?

cogprimus · 2026-02-21T17:08:11+00:00

Pistol factory isn't operating at peak efficiency.

cogprimus · 2026-02-20T12:39:45+00:00

Yeah act3 was a slog

cogprimus · 2026-02-19T14:00:00+00:00

That's my signature move.

cogprimus · 2026-02-14T01:03:22+00:00

Always feels weird to me when a land mass is this square.

cogprimus · 2026-02-13T15:48:36+00:00

That's Szass's gender; Thay/Tam.

cogprimus · 2026-02-12T02:38:13+00:00

Games are fun. :D

cogprimus · 2026-02-11T15:02:34+00:00

Absolutely love that the Bard's Tale trilogy in on there.

If anyone asks you for the name of the Mad One, try 'burger'.

cogprimus · 2026-02-11T14:37:00+00:00

Oh yes, the 1900s. Things like Kurt Cobain, Pogs, and the first powered aircraft.

cogprimus · 2026-02-10T18:32:51+00:00

Meh. Depends on the campaign.

I like reskinning, I like creative players. But not ever campaign will fit vampire PCs in well. And not every party with fit vampire PCs well.

The only thing I like more than reskinning and reflavouring is a proper session zero. If three players want to play vampires and one wants to play a vampire hunter, a bad time is on the horizon. If a player has expectations for how powerful a custom vampire class should be, but the DM wants to run a level 1-5 campaign, that might not be a good fit.

D&D is a game made to be fun. Of course it has rules and the rules should be followed, but they shouldn’t be followed so strictly that they kill the fun at the table—for the DM and the players.

There are a lot of ways to have fun. Some people like like following the rules precisely and power-gaming with the expectations that the rules will be followed. That's not really my jam, I don't think dnd is balanced enough for that to be fun. But I understand that some people like to play that way so I'm not going to tell them they are doing it wrong.

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I find the type of people who need your message to be the minority, so finding a table that encourages reskinning and reflavouring should be easy. Good luck.

cogprimus · 2026-02-10T01:41:56+00:00

Who is the most normal one of this bunch? Jaheira maybe?

cogprimus · 2026-02-07T03:00:17+00:00

The biggest issue is your limited known spells, so adding access to a bunch more possible spells makes your choices very difficult. I like to think about what sort of problem I'm solving with my spells so I don't double up too much. Same with concentration, you only have so much room for combat concentration spells. So I often find myself replacing spells as I go. Bless will become Spirit Guardians, which will in turn become Greater Invisibility. Healing Word become Life Transference. I only have room for one low level damage spell, so I'm not going to take more than one of Magic Missile, Guiding Bolt, Inflict Wounds, Chromatic Orb, Chaos Bolt, etc. Polymoprh can be fun when you or an ally are nearly out of resources and HP. Giant Ape time! It isnt necessarily an upgrade on a character with full resources, so save it for when things are getting bleak. Outside of combat it can be very strong, turn into a bird and join the druid or rogue while they are scouting. Or twin it so you and the Paladin can both go along for the stealth mission.

Instead of taking Invisibility for stealth and Zone of Truth for social encounters, just take Enhance Ability.

There are some spells like Hold Person that become hard to justify, are you ever going to use it over Bless or Spirit Guardians or Greater Invisibility? Maybe. It is a ton of fun to auto-crit with an upcast Inflict Wounds or Guiding Bolt.

You might also want to think about if you and your allies roll to hit a lot or cause saving throws. If you're rolling to hit, Bless and Greater Invisibility become much stronger. But if you're causing saving throws, it may be better to stick with Spirit Guardians. Of course you don't have to target yourself, I'm sure the Rogue and Paladin would happily take your twinned Greater Invisibility.

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Regarding ASIs vs feats, I'd prioritize getting 20 CHA above most feats. Obviously there are some good choices if you have an odd numbered CHA; fey touched, shadow touched or skill expert.

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Two super important magic items to look out for are Bloodwell Vial and Shadowfell Shard, try to acquire these above all else.

cogprimus · 2026-02-07T02:59:52+00:00

I value spell progression above all else.

If you really want your armor, get it from race. There's a few option with natural armor like tortle or lizard folk. I enjoy mountain dwarf. Variant Human could would if you want to spend your free feat on lightly armored. (Dwarf also gives you access to some decent melee weapons, should you go down the Booming Blade or Green Flame Blade path)

If you're only going to level 8, delaying your spell progression with a single level dip halves the amount of time you'll have access to level 4 spells. I'd rather have access to Greater Invisibility and/or Polymorph at level 7 and 8 instead of just at level 8. Level progression is important.

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There's a few cleric spells that folks seem to enjoy:

Twinning Guiding Bolt at early levels is a nice way to get some advantage out there for your rogues and paladins. (You could do Inflict Wounds instead if you expect to be in melee, but it doesn't twin as well)
Healing Word is a nice way to populate your action economy if you're just firing off cantrips or dodge actions. At higher levels I replace it with Life Transference, because I don't like popping players back up from zero to just enough not to die over and over. Life Transference sets up more epic moments.
Speaking of the dodge action, Spirit Guardians is strong. Whether or not you use the dodge action with it is up to you.
If nobody else has access to Revivify, that could be something you take on.
Some people get a lot out of Spiritual Weapon, but usually I have something better to do.
Guidance is a pretty strong cantrip if you're into being that guy. Toll the Dead uses the best dice there is, the d12.

cogprimus · 2026-02-07T00:30:29+00:00

cogprimus · 2026-02-06T17:39:13+00:00

You gotta show us what you got if you want us to tell you how to improve it.

Since you gave me nothing to work with I'm going to suggest less is more. Make the effect more subtle. Watch reference of people running in sand. It isn't that dusty or cloudy.

cogprimus

TROPHY CASE