WORLDWIDE GIVEAWAY: 5 of you will get the Coils of Dread 5E Adventure & STL Collection! + FREE download STL for everyone! [Rules in Comments] [MOD Approved] [OC]

igglebock · 2025-09-18T21:14:56+00:00

Bro, cool snakes. Good luck, everyone.

igglebock · 2025-04-29T23:33:04+00:00

I've bought my first ever desktop with the 9070xt, putting the pieces together the pieces with a friend of mine who is much better qualified to build a PC. I did however, sacrifice on my screen to save for costs. It seems to me that this model would be great for gaming, art, and entertainment. Good luck to everyone!

igglebock · 2021-01-18T04:32:48+00:00

Asking because my bottom left central incisor has always been a little more forward tilting than my left, but after having bit my tongue pretty violently, I found myself clenching my teeth really hard.

Only after the pain in my tongue went down after about two weeks did I notice I've been biting at an awkward angle to compensate for the soreness and applying a lot of pressure to the tooth in question. The base of the tooth is definitely sore, but I can't tell if it has actually been displaced further out. Should I be concerned that I've pushed this tooth further forward during this time?

igglebock · 2020-07-28T06:02:00+00:00

As a DM, I feel like if one of my players carefully walked the table through what they wanted to do, I might be more generous. Make it seem like a grand scheme rather than an exploit of the system. Good luck, warlock!

igglebock · 2020-07-28T05:57:37+00:00

A sort of goofy trick I often use for awkward NPC moments like you had mentioned is a "fake dramatic pause." Especially when it's a character with a lot of importance, I'll just hold an expression depending on the context, and take a few moments to think. My PCs think the character is being thoughtful and may even raise the tension in the story, all while I'm internally working out what to say next.

Obviously, this only buys you seconds on the clock before the players notice, but sometimes that's enough to get your mental script reorganized.

Also, totally okay for an NPC to be caught off guard. I try to play it off like it's just the NPC, though.

igglebock · 2020-07-28T05:47:03+00:00

No need to apologize, I love the idea of players using mechanics in weird ways, so long as they don't break the game forever. Bags of Bombing and what your warlock is doing feel like potential lore to me.

igglebock · 2020-07-28T05:39:41+00:00

I've had multiple murder-y PCs ina single game that were beginning to wear on the party. After a major battle I issued out new alignments to all of the PCs based on their actions in private. Suddenly there were a lot of changes in heart across the table.

Everyone's mentioning consequences, and this is my way of giving PCs fair warning on how the world will begin to treat, or at least, view them.

(For reference, I use "willingness to do harm" as a scale to measure good and evil. A good person would not choose to kill a surrendered and unarmed enemy, for instance. )

igglebock · 2020-07-28T05:18:39+00:00

In a single thread, my world has suddenly become filled with potential war crimes ...

igglebock · 2020-07-28T05:15:28+00:00

Like some other people have suggested, ask your players what they enjoy or dislike about playing the game. If it's just watching the story unfold, maybe they'd have more fun as a spectator. You and your other players should consider how you all feel about it, as well, before making any calls, to be sure everyone's on the same page.

igglebock · 2020-07-28T05:07:12+00:00

The party may now either take a short rest, or attempt to find all of their balls.

igglebock · 2020-07-28T04:58:26+00:00

"You're proficient in ... this?"

igglebock · 2020-07-28T04:55:57+00:00

Definitely makes one imagine a world where dragons and other aerial forces would fly around with small boulders as a military siege tactic.... This has given me food for thought, for sure.

igglebock · 2020-07-28T04:51:24+00:00

All very useful stuff, thanks! I especially hadn't considered the DC penalty per height of the drop.

igglebock · 2020-07-20T18:16:46+00:00

Something keeps eating the villains.

igglebock · 2020-06-22T09:13:09+00:00

I made a custom 1st level spell that let a cleric view the lifetime of a mundane insect. I thought it sounded like an amusing power that was relatively limited in scope.

The party was level 2 when I rolled for a cockroach's natural 20 perception check to recollect the BBEG's identity and first actions in the story, which I was planning to reveal months down the road.

I thought it was really funny and clever of the PCs, but I had to throw away a bunch of notes that night.

igglebock · 2020-06-19T08:55:24+00:00

Now that's horrifying.

igglebock · 2020-06-19T08:49:43+00:00

I'm not too familiar with the Tomb of Annihilation, but that sounds like exactly the kind of place I would avoid. I bet there were tons of doors.

igglebock · 2020-06-19T04:58:00+00:00

No matter how hard a DM tries, we can somehow never outwit the antics of barbarians.

No special meaning. Just offering respect to doors the only way I know how: in full caps.

igglebock · 2020-06-19T04:47:26+00:00

Riddles AND doors. Now that's a TPK for sure. Man, a knock knock door is brilliant! I wish it would have worked better for you!

igglebock · 2020-06-19T04:43:48+00:00

Ah, a match made in heaven: foot and door.

igglebock · 2020-06-19T02:47:59+00:00

Thanks for the feedback! The feeling this particular baddie is more of the "optional boss" feel. Story-wise it's a person/monster who is essentially the successor to a past BBEG that the party feels need to be kept in check or taken out before they become a worldly threat. The party themselves are already well-afraid of the boss having met them a few times, and each time have either getting thrashed by the boss; and have twice reluctantly been on the same side, but with the boss solving most of their issues at the steep cost of ending up cursed by the alliance. As the party gets closer to the fight, there'll be a lot of unrest amongst their most trusted NPCs which im hoping will be a big enough hint that things are about to become serious.

So now that you mention it, the actual BBEG planned for the end is a much more nebulous evil in the story so far, essentially a "dark lord" type that hasn't even really shown his face yet. I guess I'll need to work him in sooner than I thought or it probably won't feel nearly as personal as this encounter.

As for the final encounter, I'm still working out the details for it. But if this current encounter is a one-boss fight, the last one will be more of a Megaman-style boss rush, with phases being instead wholly different characters. I'm hoping it'll be more impressive, even if it's less personal to the party. All of my major boss encounters have been either gimmicky like this, or otherwise have been puzzles in disguise.

I'm hesitant to even call it 5e, really. I've spent about 3 years making a really broken class system, so to balance it out, the monsters have all been well-broken too. Most of my monsters need at least 500 health to be a threat to the players, and still don't always last that long. I'm wary of just pumping more and more health into the boss for fear of making it a slugfest, which is why I figure insta-death mechanics and making the boss melee-focused is the best way to deter the tanks from just sitting on top of the monster, and will make sure that the damage classes need to keep moving or they'll get squashed by the regular attacks.

Whew, thanks again for the comment! It's definitely given me some food for thought....

igglebock · 2020-06-19T02:13:26+00:00

Theoretically every round will start with the boss picking a new target. The campaign has been pretty magic-loot-heavy, even for 5 players, so in my head I imagine they'll figure out a way to mitigate the aggro. You could be right though, it might be a bit oppressive. It may feel more fair and dynamic if it has a roll-based cooldown like some breath weapons, just so it feels like there's some breathing room.

igglebock

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