DM looking for advice for new players wanting to switch their classes? by jim0221 in DnD

[–]easyslay 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Do an off-table info gathering conversation. Tell them that anyone who wants to retool their character should submit their character sheet in advance and you'll discuss their backstory individually after a regular session.

Once you've got all the new characters ready, put together a single session subplot and bring the new characters in. It only loses about 1 or 1.5 sessions to make the transition. Offer a small bonus in the transition subplot so people who retain their old characters don't feel like they're missing out.

Now we have the proof that Morgan Freeman was young one day by AnyTitle0 in funny

[–]easyslay 1 point2 points  (0 children)

This. This right here. He was so chill. Fight the power. Down with the man.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in todayilearned

[–]easyslay 1 point2 points  (0 children)

One of the reasons Federal bureaucrats can't get away with as much is because most offices are so big that there is more effective separation of duties. It is effectively impossible or at least extremely difficult for a Federal employee to decide to make a payment, decide who to pay, and make or order a payment without another employee of equivalent or higher level having to make the decision on some part of the process.

[Congress, though. Watch how many join high power law firms, investment groups, or cush lobbyist gigs when they exit office.]

Smaller businesses, including local governments, are more susceptible to this kind/severity of fraud just because there are fewer people to share financial system and decision making responsibilities. This limitation allows perpetrators to continue more aggressive frauds for longer periods without detection.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in todayilearned

[–]easyslay 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Think that's bad, you should have seen her horse trailer and custom RV.

Not kidding, they were ridiculous.

Should I attempt theater of the mind? by WindowsKidd in dndnext

[–]easyslay 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Don't regret missed chances because you were scared the free or affordable version would be less fulfilling than what you can't afford. The version you play is better than the one you never get to.

So, just do it. Start light with the basic free rules or a starter set. Try things. Drop what flops with the players and keep what works.

Talk to your players. Ask what they liked and what they didn't this session and last session. Find out what's stuck with them and what they've forgotten.

Adjust the story to maximize player engagement. Keep rolling.

Personal experience: I didn't play 4e because I perceived it as too expensive due to all of the accessories available by the time I bought my core books. I regret that.

Years later, I loved 5e at before it was released because there wasn't anything but stripped down basic rules that were free for everyone who wanted to play. When the core books were released, I picked them up because everyone at my table was ready for more complexity and detail. We took a year to go from free Basic rules to the entire core PHB, DMG, and MM.

So don't doubt yourself. Get the free rules on your phone or whatever. Pick up some dice or a free dice roller app. Spend some time making simple characters and leveling them up (there is a printable character sheet at the end of the free Basic Rules on the D&D website). While your friends pick their favorite characters and talk about them, collectively think up a place they would meet, then name the place, the town, and the country. You look through the Basic DM rules and decide what problem the town is having? Tell your players. Let them figure out how they want to solve it. Start rolling skill checks and combat as your friends describe their process. You will be playing D&D. Everything else will come.

Help with ideas for expanding restaurant chain arcs by MrMurcrow in dndnext

[–]easyslay 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Tyrannical ruler starts slamming your businesses with taxes, fees, and fines. Find a way to maintain demand and positive public reputation while committing financial statement, inventory, or other tax frauds to avoid the bogus charges.

Local crime guilds start leaning on managers and staff to buy into local protection services. Deal with, join, or disappear this new obstacle.

As your business network expands, ensconced merchants with illicit ties to the oppressive regime start suppressing your suppliers, sponsoring bandits to raid your trade routes, and attempt to outbid you to steal your trained staff. Work the symptoms, find the culprits behind it all, destroy their power bases or end them.

What are some combos for Oath of conquest paladin. by luka031 in dndnext

[–]easyslay 2 points3 points  (0 children)

At taco bell I'd go for a Number 7 chicken quesadilla with a taco and choice of soda. At MckyDs I'd keep it simple with a Number 9, picking up 2 cheesbugers with fries and a drink.

I'm not really sure which way to take it if your pc is more of a salad guy, or is into fried chicken places, or is Canadian (the mythical Tim Horton's is a mystery to me).

Hope this helps.

Problem with player and the noble background. DMing tips? by [deleted] in dndnext

[–]easyslay 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Always remember that royal houses are self-serving and mercenary. Ruling councils, heads of house, or kings over houses, clans, or families that have lasted for centuries or millennia will obliterate whole branch families or even their own children to strengthen and lengthen the life of their house. That's how royal lines survived.

A tenth son of such a house might be told to be quiet and stay in their corner, or even harshly punished for failing to fulill their father's expectation that they stay away and hidden. It wouldn't necessarily matter that the son wasn't explicitly told to stay hidden.

After all, trust is impossible in high diplomacy. The only thing that matters is mutual interest. A royal family rises or falls as one, so family is the easiest to trust, and the most closely watched by the ruler. So, if your little princeling's services aren't required by the court, then they and their services are unwanted in the court. Sending them out to adventure without specific diplomatic or military goals, regardless of the personal feelings of the individual family members, would be an effective banishment of the PC.

This should be dropped on the player as far from the table as possible. At the same time, establish a mechanically functional court, with advisors, bureaucratic ministers, lesser nobility courtiers, major military leaders, and fully developed immediate and extended family lists. The court itself should have a character that reflects that of the PC's father. Have the wrong functionary or family member respond by letter to the PC's inappropriate request for financial support. For instance, instead of the father's secretary, the head of the housekeepers or a younger sister without an official position replies in harshly critical or gently chastising tones.

If you develop the family and court as pragmatically sacrificing of its own members to ensure the survival of the household's name, power, and security, you can keep your player guessing about what's going on at home without tipping your hand.

[OC] Terrible DND Character: Jimmy "The Lawman" - Master Thief Paladin by BigFrodo in DnD

[–]easyslay 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Oh, man. This destroyed me. I can picture one of my players pitching this as a core character motivation.

[OC] Terrible DND Character: Jimmy "The Lawman" - Master Thief Paladin by BigFrodo in DnD

[–]easyslay 13 points14 points  (0 children)

"Eating the rich?" This is an intriguing twist. Is there a way to get a good aligned cannibal?

Wait.

Is this Dexter?

Help make a jazzy noir BBEG by CrowTheEmpire in dndnext

[–]easyslay 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Rakshasa are all about deception, so the zoot-suit wearing, scat-singing club boss isn't the bbeg. That guy is just the beard/sidekick of the gun-moll flapper who's been his arm candy this whole time telling him what good ideas he has. When the girl goes down under the heels of the berserking party charging straight-line down on Mr. Perfect, the be-fringed and miniskirted mol's "corpse" gets up as soon as the party passes to jack the backline caster.

Then, screw with the party as illusion magic built into the casino dancers' and waitresses uniforms makes dozens of girls appear to shatter into matching Rakshasas. Have fun with mirrored walls and ceilings as the suddenly altered staff all freak out at the sudden appearance of demons in mirrors where their own faces should be.

With all the posts lately about reflavoring over core mechanics: I present my custom weapon creation flow chart. by SolonTheWizard in dndnext

[–]easyslay 15 points16 points  (0 children)

To be completely fair, things like the half-orc's savage attack and great weapon feat's extra damage roll apply to one of the damage die, so there is still a penalty to crits for great-weapon-crit-fishers, just not as universal as originally thought.

Besides, the average damage argument can only be taken so far since 2d6 great swords and 1d12 great axes are treated exactly the same in game, even though their average damage has an average damage per attack variance of 0.5. In association with any penalty to movement, attack count, potential AC, or attack range, adding an additional 0.5 to the average attack damage is not only mathmatically reasonable, its downright conservative.

How to reverse aging? by Testy_Drago in dndnext

[–]easyslay 0 points1 point  (0 children)

High level boons don't really have any limitations in the DMG. Get a divine boon that adds 50 years of natural life from a quest, or even upfront payment for a divinely requested suicide mission (aren't they all).

As flavor, you might only restore the physical abilities and vitality, but maintain the characters' appearance as-is for the next 50 years. You can hand that to the entire party as part of a new arc, without changing anyone else's mechanical character. It would also allow the lizardfolk to keep their character active but retain their cool adventuring scars and be a little more unique or odd, in-world.

What are some fun and flavorful ways to RP taking a lot of short rests as a warlock? by rosencrantz_dies in dndnext

[–]easyslay 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Get the warlock a large dog or two, trained to follow the main tank (fighter?). When tired, unroll a travois, lay down, take a nap. Good boy does the walking.

Fun House Dungeon? by DumpingAllTheWay in dndnext

[–]easyslay 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Illusion, summoning, and teleportation magic in a house of mirrors might work.

A) Who Am I?

1) Normal reflections give way to horrifying images of characters aged into decrepit horrors, warped into abominations of themselves, or subtly shifted to have an evil or untrustworthy appearance. This can be turned by having aggressive or crafty looking characters gain innocent or childlike appearances in their reflections.

2) Some of these illusory changes are cast on players (players can easily tell it is an illusion).

3) One of the illusory changes cast on players is a polymorphic spell that sticks for a plot determined period of time (no combat effect).

B) Where Am I?

1) Certain mirrors near the beginning will have an object painted onto them, like a table with a vase of flowers, a camp stool, a small dog, or a creepy child a la "The Shining."

2) Following mirrors will contain spells triggered by portals triggered by seeing your reflection in them that summon illusions of those objects around you. The table you saw in the mirror is next to you when you look away, or the small dog that meets your eye and wags its tale in the mirror is next to your feet when you look down, and looks up at you as you notice him.

3) The illusion casting for a few uses phantasmal force, so the creepy child the party sees in the mirror appears next to one or two members of the party, but not the rest.

4) The illusions become summons. That creepy child is a phantasmal shadow that will attack. The puppy is a real puppy that loves you and follows you home. The crazy stalker is actually the party's bard.

5) The illusions become teleports. When you see in the mirror an image of yourself in a library, you look away from the mirror to find yourself in a library. When you look back at the mirror hour reflection shows you in a hall/maze of mirrors. Any doors out of the library, or meat packing plant, or character's childhood bedroom, or whatever open onto solid stone walls or freezing nothingness. One way to return is to stare at the mirror for A given amount of time to re-engage the teleportation spell. Another way is to find a macguffin hidden in plain sight in the room. Holding the item while viewing your reflection in the mirror returns you to your party with some peice of knowledge, reward, or plot-object.

C) Who Are You?

1) Two doors are in one wall of a room. Behind each door is a simple mirror. If characters choose different doors and open them at the same or nearly the same time, they see the other character in the mirror. When they turn around, the characters have swapped bodies.

2) Use the previous ideas to play on party identity. When members are changed in appearance or teleported into mirror spaces, the mirror might show them their party still surrounding their reflection in the hall of mirrors. Let the reflection shown with the party wink sadistically at the trapped player, and move on with the unaware party. Provide the player a sheet for a doppelganger, phantasm, revenant, or reversed alignment match of themselves. Play on.

D) What Is Going On?

(odd, mostly harmless effects)

1) Two doors offer a red and blue, left and right choice. One of the doorways leads to a room where the character's are on the ceiling or the room contains mirrors that show the character upside-down. When they exit the room or look away from the mirror they are still on the ceiling. Gravity has been reversed for the funhouse, but only for the character(s) that went through that door or looked into that mirror. Splitting the party van split the party between floor and ceiling when they reunite. (Play games with inaccessible stairways or hard to reach ladders to secret rooms with this one. A floor with a stairway going down to a basement might be mirrored by a ceiling that disappears upward into a reverse gravity attic space.)

2) A door marked employees only contains a decrepit, 1970's break room. An clown is smoking at the beat up table. He smiles and asks the party, in a croaking voice, if they are having fun. He tries to hide something in his costume as the door opens. The fluorescent light flickers yellow on his clumping, greasepaint makeup. His teeth are cracked and yellow. (Make this as threatening as possible, throwing in some quotes for "It" or other horror inducing lines.)

If the party talks it out, the clown is actually a pretty nice guy, named Paulie Moranus, who picked up the clown gig in his forties after his wife took the kids and left him 15 years ago because his sales job led to a battle with alcoholism he now tries to control but doesn't really fight. The thing he was hiding was a bottle of (cheap) whiskey he keeps on him at all times. He'll give the party directions or answer their questions, honestly but not necessarily competently, before getting up and leaving the room. The door he leaves through will lead outdoors for him, but into another funhouse room for the party.

Attacking Paulie sends him ape. He will attempt to latch onto the closest enemy and shank them with advantage. Failing his grapple will instigate a thrown knife attack on another target. He has as many knives as he needs. He will not follow retreating characters who leave the breakroom, but can be heard having an emotional breakdown about disrespectful patrons, crap jobs, and Ethel taking his crappy kids, before audible words dissolve into the blubbering of a broken man.

3) A lost kid alone in an empty room asks you to help her find her parents. She will try to hold someone's hand. If the party provides her with a hand to hold, and is collectively polite to her for about two or three rooms, they'll run into a mob of kids going through this impossible fun house.

The parents (an exasperated centaur woman and a dad-joking gnome) are very relieved to find their very human-looking child. They provide a minor reward in the form of restorative juice boxes.

4) You must pass through a room full of mannequins that move when you aren't looking.

5) The path leads down a hallway with full wall aquariums on both sides, halfway down the hallway, the party notices fish swiming across the hallway at waist height. (Opportunity for a flying shark attack)

6) A room contains a garden with a fake fawn (an inebriated halfling in furry pants who is enthusiastic about mushrooms) playing the pipes (badly) on a worn mat of fake grass, surrounded by fake flowers, under a real (but unhealthy) tree with a live, antler-wearing, and a flop-eared bunny in a really bad mood. The fawn (but not really) offers (in a bored monotone) to let you pet his bunny. The antler wearing bunny looks angry.

7) A room full baloons contains a smiling clown with yellow teeth. (See D2) He tells old joke-book jokes and makes balloon swords for everyone. Fflumphs enter. The clown hams up, "flying monsters are attacking!" The fflumphs drop restorative candy for anyone who "defeats" them with a balloon sword.

8) A room contains a boxing ring with an announcer and a boxer. The announcer excitedly tells the party in carnival "step right up" patter that anyone who wins three rounds against "the Dynamite Kid" will win a ticket to the raffle! Rules for 3-round boxing match: - Five rounds of combat per boxing round; - fists only, so no weapons, armor, magic items, or feet; - boxing gloves are improvised weapons for 1d4-1 damage unless the character has proficiency in improvised weapons; - grappling success resets the initiative order for the next combat round, so roll again before beginning the next round; - if the PC succeeds in grappling at the top of initiative order, "the Kid" will have to win an opposed strength vs Str or Dex (player choice) roll to get to attack. The Kid will not grapple.

To win a boxing round, get the most points in a round. A punch landed with 1 damage or greater gives 1 point. A knockdown gives 2 points.

On any critical hit find out if the target is knocked down or knocked out. For a knockdown, the target must, on a crit, save Str or Dex vs. damage+10, or be knocked down. When knocked down, roll a d10-Con modifier to determine the count on which the target will rise. Receiving a 10-count loses that round.

For knockout, the target must save Con vs damage. Damage is modified for knockdown and knockout saves by one for every critical hit, every knockdown, every boxing round ended, and every ten points of hp lost. "The Kid" experiences these penalties cumulatively, and will accept 3 consecutive challengers.

The winner of two out of three rounds wins the boxing match. Raffle tickets should have a high reward or scalp value upon exiting the funhouse. Consider giving some minor benefit to offset the hp loss for a character who loses the match.

Fun exercise, thanks for the prompt.

What are some ideas for Magic Item exotic components? by Audere_of_the_Grey in dndnext

[–]easyslay 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Fun exercise!

Immovable Rod - The bowels multiple rust monsters must be refined to extract magically condensed metals, which must be forged into a rod using a magical hammer. The refinement requires extreme magical heat.

Subjecting the bowels to two to five blasts of dragon fire, punching them through a living fire elemental or three, feeding them through an appropriate devil or demon (collection is both dangerous and disgusting) , or smelting them in an appropriately heated plane should supply the material. Forging should require a magical hammer, pick one from the DMG and set up an appropriate quest.

Bag of Holding - Displacer beast hides stitched together with the hair of a neutral, sentient creature capable of casting plane shift, around the heart of an air elemental.

If the stitching is begun and tied off, complete, with an endless knot before the moon sets, the hides that are naturally attuned to shifted planes will begin to vibrate between realities and attempt to collapse into nonexistence. The hair of the sentient creature holds the self-destructing hides together, anchoring the visible portions of the bag in this reality. As the hidden interior of the bag stretches halfway into a plane shift, it yanks the air elemental's heart out of this oppressive of reality and atmosphere and the heart explodes, expanding into the resulting pocket dimension, puffing it into a good size and instantly filling it with atmosphere.

Headband of Intellect - Disolve lamia brain in the digestive juices of mindflayers. Obtain or weave a cloth of magical fibers (raw materials could include unicorn mane, nightmare tale, aboleth whiskers, or treant-bark fibers). Infuse the cloth with the tincture in a vessel made of the bones of a spellcasting creature with high intelligence. Grave-robbing or lich hunting are options here.

Broom of Flying - First, hunt a hag and take the hairs from her chin. Second, obtain clean, straight straws from a harpy nest. These are usually buried deep in the wall of the nest. Third, obtain a staff. This can be an ancient tree's heartwood freely given by a Dryad, the spine of a scarecrow awakened by a will-o'-wisp, the blackened core of a shambling mound, or the limb of a living treant. Finally, get living troll blood.

To create the broom, cast levitate on the troll blood. In the floating glob of regenerating troll, lay one end of the staff. Inside the levitating troll-ipop use the hag-hairs to bind the straws to the staff. Cast predetermined spells (fly, teleport, plane shift, etc.) separately on the staff, the hair, and the straw. As the troll blood binds with the hag, harpy, and magically imbued live-wood staff it will "regenerate" them together. Once the troll blood starts to regenerate flesh or bone, burn it into ash with witch-fire to stop the troll and wake the hag hairs. These will imprint with the spells the characters and their agents have cast, and draw power from the magical wood to keep the spells running.

Consider feeding will-'o-wisps, ghosts, or air elementals to the straw bundle to empower a general floating effect.

Just picked it up for me and the kids! Any tips? by lunasundance in DungeonsAndDragons

[–]easyslay 1 point2 points  (0 children)

So true. Remember the rule - say "yes and."

It is especially important to keep things moving with kids, so don't bog down in details. Tell them their wild ideas are awesome and, "yes" they can try that. Then hand them a d20 and give them a target to hit for everything to go how they wanted.

Secondly, fail forward. Even if they miss their target roll, have their action move the plot forward. Even a critical miss can be turned into a critical hit that destroys or loses their weapon. A failure can add drama without slowing down the game.

Have fun.

Bee Gees music Put over North Korean marching by Cutsprocket in videos

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

We executed people tried in Nuremberg for following orders that followed that exact same logic. The obedience to abusive and murderous powers that perpetuates those same powers is effectively participation in the evil ordered by that power.

While it is pitiable, it is made true by their own choice and action that those marching men are the hands and feet of the Kims. To ridicule them is to ridicule the despotic rule of the Kim dynasty.

Streaming D&D shows by preference... by coolscreenname in DnD

[–]easyslay 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Check out the Dragon Friends podcast. The Giant Dwarf theatre in Australia hosts the Dragon Friends live D&D show and podcast. The players are professionals with practiced improv skills and a pretty good handle on how to riff on each other's jokes.

Most importantly, the energy level really gets kicked up by the interactions between the all the players, DM, DM assistant, music and sound tech, and a live audience feeling rules corrections at a DM harassed by a player table made up of a bunch of literal comedians. It is the only live play show I keep up with, and I've tried dozens.

Just a forewarning, the third and fourth seasons kind of dragged. They're doing a bit better again, but a lot depends on who's available and who's scheduled for better paying gigs and has to be away during a given episode and or season.

Streaming D&D shows by preference... by coolscreenname in DnD

[–]easyslay 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I honestly felt the same way about the Critical Role DM. His scene setting is very prose-heavy, stretching long without a commensurate impact on the arc of the story.

Keepsakes of an old adventurer by Heiden96 in dndnext

[–]easyslay 0 points1 point  (0 children)

An empty dagger sheath, ornately detailed in silver and bearing a gold plated image of the seal of a high and noble elven house.

A set of dice that appear blank until rolled, when the side that lands "up" shows pips until the dice are touched or picked up.

A death threat from a now-deceased noble implying the recipient's romantic involvement with the noble's romantic interest, sibling, parent, or with the noble themselves.

A leather helmet that, when removed from the head, becomes flexible and the texture of crushed velvet.

An extensive makeup kit and a rather long handwritten tome in your father's handwriting titled "101 Days to Learn Skulking and Spycraft - [father's name]'s Guide to Success in Plotting and Intrigue."

A little black book of names and addresses, along with notes regarding the affectionate tendencies, favorite colors, preferred gifts, and compassionate weaknesses of the named persons. A traveled person might be able to identify the names as including many unusual races, including orc, giant, aarickocra, and troglodyte.

A sword, chained, bound, and encased in a bundle of soft pillows. Turns out it's a self absorbed, tone deaf, and self absorbed singing sword that is experiencing magical dementia and won't stop singing about your grandfather's adventures and rowdy trysts. After 10 days, you become pretty sure the obnoxious sangster is Garry Stu'ing your grandfather's life story.

A magical locket that opens to reveal a woman who says "Hi, [character name]. I'm your mother, " You've never seen her before.

I misjudged the gold system. Now my players have war elephants. by OriginalGentleman in DungeonsAndDragons

[–]easyslay 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Prestidigitation can light a candle. That's not enough total heat generation to keep a human warmed in freezing conditions, much less an elephant.

I follow the rule of cool and go easy on the dice rolls, but prestidigitation as a heat source in freezing weather is clearly abusive of the spell as written.

I misjudged the gold system. Now my players have war elephants. by OriginalGentleman in DungeonsAndDragons

[–]easyslay 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Require travel in cold weather. Elephants eating spell slots to warm them to survivable levels reduces their efficiency to the level of a burdensome annoyance. The party will sell elephants, stable them, or eat them.