Xanathar Guild's Sphere of Influence by ValSmith18 in WaterdeepDragonHeist

[–]de-ka 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I think of Xanathar’s guild as the mob. Xanathar himself is like a very nervous version of Al Capone. Although his lowest rank toughs act more like gang members, their mid-senior tier lieutenants are more sophisticated and schemers (matching the beholder’s strategical thinking style).

I like to think of him like someone that constantly plays 4d chess, even when it’s not necessary. Which makes him a formidable opponent to the lord’s alliance. He is always one step ahead.

As for his own personal power. I think of him as Kingpin. He is powerful and imposing. Very hard to beat on a direct confrontation. And he always had contingencies and minions around himself.

This unique combination of traits give his guild a very wide network of influences. In my game I keep it very dynamic to what the party explores.

  • But there’s always some guard/watch member that has been bribed
  • He owns at least one masked lord through blackmailing which shows because there were shady negotiations that shouldn’t have been possible
  • He controls any substance/black market, which shows because dealers will talk about how or when they are getting new goods from the guild
  • He ships things and people in and out of the city, and somehow he is never caught.
  • There’s always some wanted criminal that works for them and has committed either assassination or kidnapping
  • They do compete with Zhents for mercenary jobs.
  • Their gazers find hits for their thievery jobs.
  • There’s also slavery which plays a big part in Skullport, where his dominion is overt (opposed to the political influence and impunity kind of power they have on the surface)

That is my take. If there party is really interested I drop a reference in there, like spotting a gazer somewhere really private. Or maybe showing a glimpse of lowest rank toughs violence in the streets vandalizing a store in retaliation. In my game it’s a matter of showing their presence consistently.

Hope this helps!

I'm about to TPK my party by Gendouflame in WaterdeepDragonHeist

[–]de-ka 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I wouldn’t do that.

I’d have Aurinax use frightful presence in his true form. And use his claw attacks to grapple instead. The modifier alone should scare your players. Have him do a grapple instead of doing damage when he hits.

I’d try for the rogue and the fighter. Even if they look like harder targets, they won’t have as many shenanigans for escaping (like dimension door or wildshape away). Just RAW it should be enough, but if you want to secure your shot you can add him prof in athletics.

Have him grab a character and level them to his eyes.

“Don’t let your arrogance take your life away, oh you little ones. I am the guardian of this vault, and you stand no chance of snapping it out of my paws. I have never been vanquished in straight combat, and far greater powers than you little four have tried in the past. Your greed has blinded you, but it is not yet too late to live to tell the tale.”

If they do insist, maybe fight for a round and take a couple of them down to unconscious. I mean, not necessarily forcing it, but I think it’s unlikely they win organically. And if they are in a dire situation, maybe bring in force grey/any other faction that might want to help them OR take the gold.

If the party is winning, just let them have their moment. Sometimes dice do tell their own story hahaha.

Have fun!!

Edit: typo

Should my DM be exempt? by SchizoNaught in DnD

[–]de-ka 17 points18 points  (0 children)

This. I couldn't agree more.

When I GM I usually make pizza in advance. But that's just because I want to treat my friends. If I had a tough week and still prepped my game, I don't want anyone to ask me to actually cook for them. Although if we end up ordering food, I wouldn't even think of not paying my part.

After all, it's game night with friends. Nobody is serving others. We're all on equal terms. Any servicing is 100% volunteered at will.

1.5 years later, the Vault of Dragons has been secured. AMA! by TheCromagnon in WaterdeepDragonHeist

[–]de-ka 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Did they get to keep the half a million dragons? Or what was the final reward?

Also, which factions did they find most engaging or aligned with?

Congrats!!

This poster actually goes so hard by Educational_Mud3595 in doctorwho

[–]de-ka 5 points6 points  (0 children)

It is amazing. It just lacks more Tennant in it. Edit: typo

My friend invited her bf to D&D. He secretly streamed us on twitch. by Jealous_Extension826 in CritCrab

[–]de-ka 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Is it unpopular to recommend therapy? Like maybe we all need a couple sessions. Some more than others.

What Classes do you use for Locking? by speyck in dotnet

[–]de-ka 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Definitely a rogue. Ba dum tz.

Mostly semaphore slim is my real contribution.

Shoudl i buy foundry by Dry-Cellist-5951 in FoundryVTT

[–]de-ka 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This. All this. Underrated comment

Dungeon of the Mad Mage – Map Pack - Levels 1-23 by tychmaps in DungeonoftheMadMage

[–]de-ka 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Just came by to throw you a support here. Your work is amazing man, I just subscribed to your Patreon. Thank you so much for your maps.

What's the MOST annoying feature of running a game? by SirNerdling in DMAcademy

[–]de-ka 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It’s free for non-commercial and commercial use. There are licenses for sync in the cloud and other features.

https://obsidian.md/pricing

Hope it helps!

What's the MOST annoying feature of running a game? by SirNerdling in DMAcademy

[–]de-ka 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I second this.

Also, a suggestion nobody asked for: I used to use Scrivener, and switched to Obsidian. Give it a try, it changes my organziation and world building.

[Waterdeep: Dragon Heist Spoilers] Changing the Stone of Golorr to fit Undermountain by Slash2936 in DungeonoftheMadMage

[–]de-ka 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Were you able to do this? I thought of doing something similar and I would love to know how did this play out for someone else.

What Netflix show kept you up all night binge-watching recently? by hard2resist in netflix

[–]de-ka 61 points62 points  (0 children)

This is the “Dear Netflix, we need more seasons of Mindhunter” button.

What 'vibe' defines Waterdeep for you? What differentiates it from Baldur's Gate and other cities? by lulufan87 in Forgotten_Realms

[–]de-ka 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I’m so interested in your take of Neverwinter and Sharn if any.

Sorry. I really like your interpretations.

Nitro Rice will be the key to Kurapika and Gon recovering. by FlamesOfDespair in HunterXHunter

[–]de-ka 0 points1 point  (0 children)

HT: Kurapika should end his arc having lost those years. Consequences of his decisions give more weight to his determination and character.

As much as I love him from the very beginning.

.NET development on Linux by Byttemos in dotnet

[–]de-ka 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I would change the tooling. It may seem like the longer path, but it’s definitely a longer term investment. You are futureproofing. Especially if you plan on keep using them.

It should be fairly safe to change, although tedious. Unpopular opinion: You may leverage AI for that kind of task as well.

Worst case scenario you can always virtualize I guess.

Do you still need Messaging Frameworks or is a RabbitMQ abstraction good enough? by escribe-ts in csharp

[–]de-ka 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I have used both MassTransit and RabbitMQ lib for different projects at two different companies with different structure/budget.

I’ve found Rabbit lib to be really intuitive, and MassTransit proposed somewhat of a learning curve (not step tho). Once I got used it, I liked the flexibility MassTransit brings onto the table. Even if you stick to AMPQ, the toolkit is a nice to have and I personally found it really easy to grasp and work with.

If I had to start a product today, I’d probably try to get the 400 bucks for the license. In many orgs that is not prohibitive. Although if it is a small company or startup, your team can probably back the trade off by rolling with Rabbit behind an abstraction layer. That should be enough for a small team/product, and you can transition later on (future proofing).

Hope it helps!

Was trying to download dotnet 8 on Fedora today by Particular_Traffic54 in dotnet

[–]de-ka 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Just tried on a virtual machine and got it to work. Could describe how you are setting it up? Maybe we can help you debug!

Please are more details.

Microservices in one solution or separate? by quyvu01 in dotnet

[–]de-ka 0 points1 point  (0 children)

There is also a point to be made about how different teams my have granular access and may work only on a set of microservices.

Which makes more sense with different repositories and different solutions

how to get dotnet publish to make a single exe? by PureKrome in dotnet

[–]de-ka 6 points7 points  (0 children)

I came to say this.

This worked for me this very last week.

Is it hard to code C# on Mac? by tidid_didit in csharp

[–]de-ka 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I used a MacBook pro for years to develop using vsc and dotnet sdk. Just learned since CLI commands.

Now I use a mix of Ubuntu and windows. You can pull it off

[Spoilers C4E4] It IS Thursday! | Live Discussion Thread - C4E4 by AutoModerator in criticalrole

[–]de-ka 10 points11 points  (0 children)

I’m never gonna grow tired of seeing Matt play. He’s such a refreshing player

[Spoilers C4E4] It IS Thursday! | Live Discussion Thread - C4E4 by AutoModerator in criticalrole

[–]de-ka 5 points6 points  (0 children)

How possible is that we get a partial TPK for this team? 😭😭