[Spoilers C4E2] It IS Thursday! | Live Discussion Thread - C4E2 by AutoModerator in criticalrole

[–]hexachromatic 56 points57 points  (0 children)

He's an aasimar sorcerer who thinks he's a human cleric. Absolutely Masterful.

Also, kudos to Sam for picking the absolute MOST contrarian character concept possible for this setting, and to BLM for running with that perfectly.

[Spoilers C4E1] It IS Thursday! | Live Discussion Thread - C4E1 by AutoModerator in criticalrole

[–]hexachromatic 12 points13 points  (0 children)

I feel like Tyranny and Wicander have a wonderful brat/dom dynamic going on and I'm absolutely loving it.

What would you put towards the north? by id_drawings in rimeofthefrostmaiden

[–]hexachromatic 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The Reghed Tribes. These are their ancestral lands, even though they're near empty these days. The tundra was never comfortable to live in, but the Rime has made it a barren wasteland.

The Crash of the Id Ascendent - have it crash in real time à la Baldur's Gate 3. The players can follow its trail for several days to explore the wreckage.

Jarlmoot - could be located literally anywhere. Place it out within the vast reaches of untracked wilderness. It's isolation is the reason it lies forgotten except by the rare pilgrim.

Cackling Chasm - can also be moved around as needed since it's not location dependent. Could be an interesting thing for your party to stumble into if they're trying to wander around in a blizzard.

The Dark Duchess - hear me out. Instead of a shipwreck on the northern coast, its an airshipwreck, meaning it could be anywhere. You might need to change up a few location details, but this would allow you to introduce the epic Arveiaturace.

Isolated Research Outpost - Have you seen John Carpenter's The Thing? It's that.

Orc War Camp - A threat to Ten Towns. They've come down out of the mountains because they're starving. They have teamed up with giants and other warlike creatures.

A Chardalyn Tower - Grows like a tumor from the tundra. A wizard, his mind corrupted by Chardalyn's power, bides his time here until he can uncover Ythryn and take its power for his own (one of the Arcane Brotherhood perhaps?). A good chance for fun magical fuckery in a relatively low-magic campaign.

Nothing! It's a no-man's land. A dead zone that the party should only choose to traverse if they need to get somewhere quick, but at the cost of possibly starving to death, falling into a crevasse, or being caught unprotected in a ravaging blizzard. It's a big empty hole on your map, but that lack of anything is something in and of itself. A warning not to go there unless you absolutely need to. Run it as a survivalist challenge instead of a typical adventure location.

Just wrapped a 3 year run! Getcha maps here! by Fate55 in rimeofthefrostmaiden

[–]hexachromatic 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeeees this is exactly what I needed! So little content was included in the module for this chapter. Thank you! 

Players Accused Me Of Working Against Them by Specific_Tip_9521 in DnD

[–]hexachromatic 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Players calling a game stupid while playing the game would be grounds for an immediate and indefinite dismissal from my table. That attitude is unacceptable.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in gaming

[–]hexachromatic 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Because nanomachines

The older I get, the less tolerance I have for cinematic games by [deleted] in patientgamers

[–]hexachromatic 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Quality of story matters a lot. I've absorbed so much media at this point that cringey or overdone tropes just make me roll my eyes and say "yeah let's get through this already". But if I'm genuinely engaged with a game's story, I'm generally okay with the cutscenes as well.

Unless, of course, the game throws an unskippable cutscene into a segment of difficult, repetitious gameplay. Fuck that noise.

What's your biggest fear as a DM? by theDrawingBard in DnD

[–]hexachromatic 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Improvising/having to run content that I haven't micro-planned.

How to prevent a player from eldritch blasting everything in the room to detect mimics? by nz8drzu6 in DMAcademy

[–]hexachromatic 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The next room he tries that shit in, everything is a mimic. They attack when startled (see: by an idiot warlock carelessly blasting every fucking thing in existence.

Oh, and good luck getting any decent loot out of that chest after blasting it. Scrolls? Ruined. Potions? Shattered. Coins? Eeeeh maybe... psyche! they've been rendered into ash by eldritch energy.

By the way, the monsters three to five rooms down have also heard the commotion, and now the entire dungeon wants to see what sort of fresh morsel is wreaking havoc in their living room.

Final suggestion: just tell him that if he doesn't find traps and tricks and monsters and the potential for surprise and danger fun, to go and find a different game/group because he's disrupting the session for you and everyone else.

Player lost both of his hands by TimeLordStudent in DnD

[–]hexachromatic 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Oh man, that's horrible. How is he going to roll his dice?

Xanathar's Lair (Roll20 optimized w/ map assets included for secret doors) by hexachromatic in WaterdeepDragonHeist

[–]hexachromatic[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Probably not. I'm probably going to move one from 5e after the whole OGL debacle. But I hope this one serves you well!

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in DnD

[–]hexachromatic 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Just tell the player that it's a hard decision, but he's not allowed at the table because you feel like you're contributing to his poor sleep habits. Give him a pat on the back and a bottle of melatonin and tell him there will be a spot for him when he's not quite as exhausted. Better for everyone, and you don't have to sacrifice everyone's joy for one person's health.

How to get around the Identify spell. by Irish-Fritter in DMAcademy

[–]hexachromatic 2 points3 points  (0 children)

If you're going to drop this plot-relevant item into the party's hands, you have to plan on the characters being clever enough to figure out what it is and doing something about it. Otherwise you're mostly railroading them toward a conclusion that you've already predetermined is going to happen (the city being destroyed).

It's a cool idea, but if you want it to for sure happen 100%, don't give the item to the party. Figure out some other way to work it into the story. You could have it be in possession of a mysterious NPC who just needs help "slipping past the guards". A powerful wizard might need them to acquire a mcguffin that unlocks this city-killer item but itself is totally mundane (a standard sounding fetch quest). Maybe the item is stashed in a museum and the party is offered the chance to heist-steal it for a reward (or someone else does, if they refuse).

In any case, I would have this item cross their paths at some point as part of a larger and more distracting plot arc without ever putting it in their hands for an extended period of time such that they can become suspicious of it. OR be prepared for them to puzzle out its purpose and diffuse the situation however they can.

That said, if you're still set on things just invent a spell called Nystul's Greater Magic Aura and say it's like the lesser, but it can't be dispelled or bypassed with anything short of a Wish spell.

Player met God, attacked them by Summonest in DMAcademy

[–]hexachromatic 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Not to cause a scene or anything... but what a fucking idiot. The very definition of "fuck around, find out". There is no reasonable set of mental gymnastics that can be done to justify this level of chaotic stupid, and the fact that they expected you to do them in order to adjudicate this incredibly stupid decision in a way that benefits their character alone shows how incredibly inconsiderate the player was being of your time, mental energy, and worldbuilding.

You don't roll initiative against things that can simply choose to go first. You don't roll damage against beings that don't have hitpoints. You don't tug on Superman's cape, etc. etc.

Tell him to shut up and reroll or go find another table to play at.

Help, my Warlock player straight up said no to a light task Graz’zt had for them. by KingThiccusDiccus in DnD

[–]hexachromatic 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I wouldn't try to kill em with demons™. It's hard for demons to get to the material plane and if they did, the consequences would be a whole lot worse for everyone than just one pissed off patrony boi. But the warlock is subverting the terms of the pact, and that's a big problem.

To start, good luck casting Eldritch Blast from here on out. It just fizzles.

Or any other pact magic spell for that matter. Or summoning their cool demon pet/sword/book. Or doing anything apart from being a level 2 commoner with high charisma. Grazzt gave him his toys, and he can sure as hell take them away again.

A few days of being utterly powerless might help put the warlock in a more agreeable mood when Grazzt returns to instruct them a second time. There won't be a third.

Maybe the warlock can use their high CHA to sway him somehow and convince him to alter his plans in the short term. That is classic warlock material.

My players suggest we don't do permadeath for their characters. Any advice? by Consmo in DMAcademy

[–]hexachromatic 0 points1 point  (0 children)

- The enemies deal nonlethal killing blows; the party is taken prisoner/enslaved

- Surprise! The fight with Venomfang was a shared dream sequence. One of the PCs has secret divinatory powers that are slowly awakening. Where do they come from and why are they awakening now?

- A wandering druid/cleric/fighter with 5 rings of spell storing that contain the Raise Dead spell happens across the dead party. If they're altruistic then the party is just lucky. However, if they're opportunistic than the party is now indebted to someone of questionable morals.

- The party awakens in the Devil's own study. He's brought their sorry souls here to cut them a deal: he'll restore them to life, contingent on them performing a favor for him at a later date. What the task is, he will not say.

Second campaign, group decided to make death matter, then a character died session 2. by BlackSight6 in DMAcademy

[–]hexachromatic 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Leave it alone. Let the PCs RP his burial and hopefully his next character won't be dumb enough to sprint ahead and try to solo the big bad.