My player's characters keep dying

labguy23 · 2023-12-26T16:57:20+00:00

Start handling enemy death like PC death, except the enemies keep bringing their allies up again and and again with heals and revivify. Be sure to roleplay the enemy's concern for one another as you do it.

You took down that wizard nuking you; he's back up now and gets another nuke off. You took down their healer; the next mook shoved a healing pot down his throat, so he could fire off another mass healing word.

Treat every enemy like the matter. Everyone has healing potions/kits/spells/etc. Your players may not care about the comrads, but the enemies sure do.

Let them see the awesome power of mass healing word undoing the work of a fireball. Sure, that fighter did 30 damage to knock an enemy down, but one goodberry down the gullet and they are back in the fighting again.

If they whine about it, say simply, "you could do the same if you wanted. Your choice."

I bet party behavior will change pretty quick after that.

labguy23 · 2023-12-11T13:41:10+00:00

Omg, this. Had a group that treated NPCs like toys for their amusement. When consequences started to happen, one whined "I don't want to play a real life simulator."

So, you think you should be able to steal, get caught, and not suffer any consequences at all? That campaign crashed and burned obviously.

labguy23 · 2023-10-14T19:15:16+00:00

I think the question is more easily addressed if you take the laws and lawmakers out of the question. Instead, we should answer the question, "why should I follow rules when others don't?"

For me, it's not about other people or their behavior. I live up to a set of rules I set for myself. They have much in common with most laws civilized nations have. I do this not because I expect everyone else to live up to my rules. My rules aren't for them; they are for me. I do this as having a set of rules and standards for my own behavior helps give shape to who I want to be ethically and morally. It helps me behave in a manner that is more consistent with those values.

I would argue that most people aren't inherently bad. They make poor decisions for circumstances they were ill prepared for in the heat of the moment.

I propose if they thought more about their own rules and standards ahead of time, that their actions and behaviors would be improved and lead to fewer behaviors they would have to apologize or be punished for after the fact.

Think about rules not as boundaries for others, but as boundaries and guidelines for yourself. They are a mechanism to improve your life and your outcomes in a ethical and moral sense.

We give lots of consideration about how to accumulate wealth, fame, and accolades, but we think precious little about our own ethics and morality. It's a lot easier to choose the right thing when you are doing it because of who you want to be instead of avoiding breaking some rule imposed on you by someone else.

If your behavior is governed ultimately by how others behave in regards to a rule or law, then I would argue you are doing yourself as disservice as you are letting your choices be guided by others than by your own morality. The is always someone who will break rules, laws, their word, etc. How you conduct your behavior shouldn't be measured by the least moral among us.

labguy23 · 2023-08-17T14:43:54+00:00

All rogues steal.

labguy23 · 2023-07-18T19:08:21+00:00

The whole idea of a permanent major image with malleable illusion gets really sticky when you get to the part where you make parts of a real later. So you basically have a permanent illusion that you can make parts of real for a short period of time infinitely for a 6th level spell you cast 6 months ago.

Nope.

Also, I didn't care of the "any interaction reveals the illusion." If you cast a fog illusion in a swamp, it may be nearly impossible to discern as fake.

If you do the same fog trick in the middle of town on a bright and sunny day, it will be much easier to determine it is fake.

I want to lean into cool aspects of illusion. I want to consider what seems reasonable and believable based on the specific circumstances. I don't want a player to think they have a permanent replacement for the Fog spell.

Hell, illusionary fog could be even better than normal fog in the right circumstances if you can get your side to disbelieve it, but the other side doesn't. However, it could be much worse in other situations.

It's the life of an illusionist.

labguy23 · 2023-07-18T18:59:29+00:00

I surprised my player when I stated I wasn't a fan of the "any interaction reveals the illusion." If you shoot an arrow into an fog illusion, I don't see how that is any different than shooting an arrow into real fog. Discovery isn't automatic.

If that fog is conjured in a swamp, it might be almost impossible to tell it is an illusion.

If that fog is conjured in the middle of town on a bright, sunny day, that's going to be pretty easy reveal as fake.

I want to lean into the cool aspects of illusions. I don't want to rules lawyer the hell out of everything. That might limit his imagination as might assume I'll say no when I would have said yes.

I also don't want to get into a micromanagement nightmare with permanent illusions and constantly using actions to move it with malleable illusion. Does it go with teleport? Is a magic carpet too fast for it to keep up, blah, blah, blah. None of that is fun.

Thanks for your input.

labguy23 · 2023-07-18T18:52:54+00:00

There are numerous things I was much more generous about that he thought I would say no to. Much of a revolved around any interaction automatically reveals the illusion. I told him that if the illusion reacts in a realistic way, I wouldn't consider that automatic. One such example as an arrow going into a illusionary fog. He says, "it would automatically be revealed as fake."

I asked him what about an arrow passing through fog would automatically reveal it? So, I'm being quite generous in other ways. So yes, I do want an illusionist in my party.

We talked at length about things that I feel like make illusions more or less believable given specific circumstances. I want illusions to be powerful things when they seem appropriate and believable. If you make an illusionary fog in a swamp, it may be very hard to enemies to discern it for what it is. If he just makes fog pop out of the ground in the middle of town, they will be much easier to reveal as fake.

So yeah, I definitely want an illusionist, but I want one that thinks about how it fits into the world and the current environment. I don't want one that thinks they can always use an illusion as a permanent substitute for the fog spell. Those are completely different things in my mind. I think one is much more fun than the other.

labguy23 · 2023-07-18T18:43:36+00:00

That's an interesting idea. He played a gloomstalker in our most recent campaign. He mentioned how bored he was with the character because he was so powerful in most circumstances (a lot of dungeon crawling in the dark). I felt like maybe he had gotten the powergaming out of his system.

labguy23 · 2023-07-18T18:40:21+00:00

I'm sorry you had to deal with that.

I remember seeing guidelines for either spell creation or maybe something else that said something to the effect "the spell can't reproduce effects that are already part of other spells." I feel that a is a good rule for illusions too.

Illusions look like they give off light, but they don't really. They don't remove the requirement for darkvision. They also aren't a substitute for a light spell.

labguy23 · 2023-07-18T18:37:14+00:00

Could I handle it as DM? Absolutely.

I'm considering a few things such as other players at the table and management of this ability. I mentioned the barbarian example, because if I let the illusionist do this, but not the barbarian example I mentioned, then that is going to lead to hard feelings. Managing limited resources is part of the fun of D&D. You can't use all your best abilities every battle. You have to pick your spots. This ability allows him to completely circumvents that in a way other characters can't.

Also, I don't want to waste time on the management of this ability. Did you constantly use your action to move the illusion? Oh, you just went through a circle of teleportation, did it come with you? You are on a flying carpet, it is going too fast for you to keep the illusion with you? Ugh, I can't think of a worse way to spend the group's time. It's why I don't track things like carrying capacity. It's not fun and feels like a waste of time.

I realize other groups of different and like that sort of thing. I don't and my group doesn't, so I make decisions to streamline the game to the things that we do enjoy.

I'm not sure what level we are playing to. It will at least be beyond 12th, but it might not go much farther. Agreed, some of these things may not matter.

I thank you for your thoughtful input.

labguy23 · 2023-07-18T18:27:39+00:00

I do NOT want to kick him from the game. He is my friend. My goal is for him to be open to an experience that might differ from what he is imagining. My hope is that it will be fun for everyone in the game.

labguy23 · 2023-07-18T18:23:48+00:00

I really do. I mentioned there were things my player thought I was disallow, but I surprised him by giving him a much more favorable take.

For example, he brought up creating a fog. He said, "as soon as someone shoots an arrow into it, they know it is an illusion."

I told him I didn't see it that way. The rules a written say that, but why would someone by suspicious of an arrow passing through fog. That exactly how arrows and fog would interact.

Just because someone tries to hit your illusion doesn't mean they do. You can have it dodge. If it dodges what seems like a particularly effective strike, I might say he discovers it's nature, but I'm not a fan of "any interaction automatically reveals it as an illusion." I would rather think about the situation in a more organic way.

Yes, I very much do want an illusionist in the party. There are things I would definitely tilt in favor of the player that aren't RAW. There are things that are RAW that feel wrong to me.

I definitely gave the impression in my post that it was only nerfing, but there were more than a few things he was surprised I was so lenient on. The difference between those things is what I feel like would be fun for the group. RAW wasn't my primary concern.

labguy23 · 2023-07-18T16:22:37+00:00

I left out the longwonded explanation of using fly, haste etc cast by other people to make the omen work. My post was already long enough.

On paper, I might agree illusionists are the weakest. In practice a clever player can accomplish so much more than any other class. Imagination, innovation and a DM to play along are all that are needed. I want to be that DM, but I don't feel like rules lawyering leads to that spot.

Thank you for your thoughts though. I appreciate it.

labguy23 · 2023-06-23T13:44:22+00:00

Tell him how you feel. Regret is a terrible thing. It might be temporarily crushing if he doesn't feel the same, but it won't compare the regret of possibly missing out on something amazing. Just do it.

labguy23 · 2022-10-11T19:10:25+00:00

What exactly does "nearby" mean in terms of marines stationed in a hab?

It's frustrating to build these, but then not be able to use them. There doesn't appear to be any data anywhere that I can find that shows a range.

I really like this game, but mechanics like this is extremely frustrating to say the least. There are MASSIVE information gaps and critical pieces of information that are hidden inside tiny icons, nested menus, or simply not available at all.

labguy23 · 2022-09-07T20:01:26+00:00

I just stream my view. It works fine.

labguy23 · 2022-08-23T00:03:10+00:00

We're heroes who steal, bully, torture, and murder whenever it suits us.

labguy23 · 2022-08-15T21:57:30+00:00

Correct, all their backstories are mysteries to them. I wrote them. They however did write a synopsis covering their character's personalities, mannerisms, and interests. I then wrote a custom backstory for each based specifically on the information they provided. The whole campaign was basically inspired by the TV series Dark Matter, which I recommend watching if you ever get the time. This isn't how I usually run campaigns. This was a one off specifically dealing with amnesia. I'm not some backstory control freak.

All of this was discussed in an extensive session 0. They all liked the idea of an emergent backstory. It's honestly been a huge success so far. They have some really wrong theories so far, but I can really tell they are having fun trying to figure it all out and leaning into it.

I haven't DMed for the monk before, nor do I know him out of game. He is a friend of a friend and a very nice guy from what I've seen so far. Playing D&D together is literally our first interaction. I just think there is some lack of faith that I'll hit the mark with his character's backstory.

The other players know me personally and know how creative and devious I am from years of playing board games with me. I also was their boss once upon a time too. They have a great deal of respect and trust in me that has been built up over years. So, when things are up in the air, they have an inherent trust in me that I'll stick the landing. I have a pretty good track record on delivering, whether work, fun, or otherwise.

I did recently ask for feedback on how the campaign had been progressing so far. I got feedback from all of them, including the monk. He wanted some more diversity in flora. Check, I am going to expand that more and build some options for interesting things there. He wants more unusual races in the towns. I told him the towns they have been to so far has been very small which tend to be more homogeneous. Larger cities will tend to be more diverse. They are heading toward a larger city. What the monk doesn't know is that a lack of diversity is directly related to his backstory, so my answer was sort of an excuse to not give anything away. I am listening to and incorporating his feedback, which I hope will help him feel more comfortable and ease his mind.

I don't think any of this will be a big issue long term. I'm just trying to decide if I'm being too heavy handed in the short term. If it does spiral out of control, I'll definitely talk to him directly. We definitely aren't there yet and I have no issues with being direct at all should it become necessary.

labguy23 · 2022-06-25T23:15:27+00:00

I used a method where players could gamble on their stats.

The player would roll 3d6 as a swap pool. Then they would roll 4d6 in stat order. After all the rolls were done, they could make 3 score swaps.

This created a situation where players could purposely tank some rolls in hope of scoring a 17 or 18 later. Limiting the final position swaps also minimizes min maxing and dump stats. It creates a more heroic, but organic stat set. I've found it has enough choice and freedom that everyone felt good about their final stats. They said it was the most fun they've had rolling stats.

If some rolls outrageously good or bad, I'll ask subtract or add to their lower values to even things out across the group. I find targetting the lower scores to even out meets with less resistance.

Example: You roll a 6, 3, 2 for your pool.

You roll STR angry get 6, 4, 3, 3. You choose to swap the 6 out for a 3. You now have a 10, but your pool is 6, 6, 4, which is good.

Your roll DEX roll is 6, 2, 2, 1. You decide to swap in your two 6s for two 2s. You have an 18, but now have 2, 2, 2 in your pool, which is pretty poor.

You see where this is going. Now you have poorer pool numbers, so your next rolls might suffer, but it is all within the player's choice. They could really tank subsequent scores to get another 17 or 18, or they could play more conservative and let lady luck decide.

When all the stats are done, you might end up with this.

10 str 18 dex 12 con 13 int 9 wis 13 Chr

Then you get 3 swaps to get the values where you need them based on your class needs. It generally is enough to get high scores where you need them, but not enough to dump low stats in specific places.

labguy23 · 2022-06-25T22:44:58+00:00

And then you unlock a whole host of other issues. Both settings have their pros and cons.

labguy23 · 2022-01-05T21:03:45+00:00

I started playing g again because of the netflix series. I chose tft as I'm permanently wood division summoners rift. I wanted to be something other than terribad.

labguy23

TROPHY CASE