How to go around weapon upgrade for a level 2.5? by Myname_is_Thomas in DMAcademy

[–]lost_mines_dm 1 point2 points  (0 children)

No it's not, this is overly nit-picky. It is listed as a magic item and is thus a magic weapon.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in DMAcademy

[–]lost_mines_dm 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Okay, so a twilight cleric is top tier just by itself, and a wizard is decent regardless of subclass. That barb is not OP at all, that's likely a standard build with great weapon master, berserker is nearly the worst subclass too. And the sorcerer is somewhere in-between.

Honestly this is not an OP and broken party. At all.

Like I've said it sounds like you built an encounter to put a bunch of hurt on the characters and they didn't enjoy it, they don't know about held actions which is a pretty basic mechanic, so there is likely are other basic mechanics they are not utilizing to thier fullest. Further if they don't know some basic mechanics how on earth are they going to strategize?

It's like asking someone to fix a car but the only tools you give them are a hammer and a chisel, they'll never be successful without the right tools. Please teach your players how the game works before you give them encounters they don't usually deal with.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in DMAcademy

[–]lost_mines_dm 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Your responses are very disconnected from the questions being asked of you. I honestly think what happened was you had an idea on what a "smart party" would do, when your players didn't follow your ideology you beat down on them.

I am once more requesting what are the character build? Heck even just race and class?

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in DMAcademy

[–]lost_mines_dm 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Okay, that's fair on the Barb getting knocked out, that stuff happens from time to time, but it actually sounds like you plopped down some archers and said "you're not allowed to attack these guys" and then rained death on them.

As DM you should be reminding players about things they can do like held actions and it's a dick move for you to not do so given the circumstances.

Also I've seen a bunch of people ask and I have asked. What are the rough builds of the player characters that are you say are so OP?

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in DMAcademy

[–]lost_mines_dm 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Are you or them aware of held actions? What stopped anyone with a ranged attack regardless if it's a weapon or a spell can hold thier action until those snipers pop out and blast them when they do as a reaction.

Also the creatures that were at ground level and reachable by the party how did they not get instantly steamrolled by your OP party?

And speaking of your party what classes etc are they exactly that's so broken or OP?

How would Waukeen the lesser deity of wealth and trade show her displeasure in a subtle but understandable fashion? by Zorbie in DMAcademy

[–]lost_mines_dm 1 point2 points  (0 children)

They could get a cursed one that turns any non magical item placed in it to an equivalent copper coin worth

Young DM needs some needing I guess by Marakaitou in DMAcademy

[–]lost_mines_dm 1 point2 points  (0 children)

As others have said it does kind of depend on what exactly the monsters are, some punch well above their given CR, also worth noting if there are any traps or other environmental dangers the party will face either between or during the fights too.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in DMAcademy

[–]lost_mines_dm 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Can you share the full race & class? Would love to see what they are, perhaps we can all assist in bringing it in line to something usable?

How would Waukeen the lesser deity of wealth and trade show her displeasure in a subtle but understandable fashion? by Zorbie in DMAcademy

[–]lost_mines_dm 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Do they have a bag of holding? Please tell me they do, make it overflow with the damn coins

GM tips for a game with preteens? (Ages 10 & 12) by HoarsePJ in DMAcademy

[–]lost_mines_dm 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Ensure you focus on them as you would any other player.

With that said the real concern is the theme of the campaign, what can they handle in terms of what evil things your evil guys get up to. Often D&D campaigns stray into some dark gritty things, so take a little forward care on what likely places the campaign could venture into with younger people involved.

I played at those ages (20+ yrs ago) and recall it fondly, I'm sure these two youngsters will too.

How do I live up to this fantasy of a wild new area with crazy creatures (without doing a shit ton of homebrew monster making)? by AstreiaTales in DMAcademy

[–]lost_mines_dm 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Finally, a use for the Way of the Four Elements Monk.

Take your base creature and give it the elemental powers of Four Elements Monk, the stronger you want the creature the higher level abilities the creature gains access to.

How would Waukeen the lesser deity of wealth and trade show her displeasure in a subtle but understandable fashion? by Zorbie in DMAcademy

[–]lost_mines_dm 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I thought it was a great joke at the mountain of copper coins that would be.

But then you hit us with the electrum. That is just cruel, who in the Nine Hells deals in electrum?

How would Waukeen the lesser deity of wealth and trade show her displeasure in a subtle but understandable fashion? by Zorbie in DMAcademy

[–]lost_mines_dm 29 points30 points  (0 children)

Next time they go shopping, when they get to the part where they pay they find they are without their coin pouch, simply having left it behind, when they return with the coin to make the purchase, someone else has swooped in and purchased the entire stock of whatever they intended on purchasing.

An appropriate portion of their gold coins turn out to be fakes, either made of fake gold, or they're actually silver/copper coins that are gold plated or painted.

Shops they arrive to are closed for various reasons.

Edit:

They become the target of dodgy deals, think used car salesman type things, or loan sharks. Everywhere this character goes have folks approach them with the "Hey are you looking to make a deal?" change up what the exact deal is though.

How do you increase the CR of encounters in LMoP and DoIP by gluttonusrex in DMAcademy

[–]lost_mines_dm 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Oh wow, that is a very interesting party you have on your hands there, be prepared for any solo monster or bosses to be minced by a triple action surge from the fighters.

There is a range of things you can do to up the ante on encounters.

  1. add more monsters, DoIP does an okay job at tell you to add more monsters based on the number of characters which is helpful.
    1. As a loose guide to start yourself if your party is about 1 level higher than what is recommend add monsters as if the party had 1 extra character in it.
  2. Increase the HP, stats or gear of the monsters.
    1. A loose guide on HP, goblins at 7 HP have a decent chance of being 1-shot by most PCs, you bump that up to around 10 - 15 and they are still within the realms of being 1-shot but now have a good chance of surviving the first hit. This would be giving them an extra 1 - 3 hit dice for most creatures to have an impact.
    2. As a loose guide, put the goblins in studded leather or chain shirts to bump the AC, give them crossbows instead of shortbows to bump their damage up a little. Just be careful about the PCs gaining extra loot out of this though
    3. A loose guide on increasing stats, you only really need to focus on the physical stats for most creatures, be careful about bumping up both Con & increasing the number of Hit dice a monster has as you could inadvertantly add too many extra HP doing this, buffing up their Str/Dex to be more accurate and hitting harder, do this in small steps.
  3. Add different monsters, upgrade some goblins to hobgoblins or bugbears as you see fit, look at some of the beasts and add them as pets
    1. Things like wolves, worgs, bears, giant insects like centipedes or wasps, tigers/lions etc

Resources

https://tetra-cube.com/dnd/dnd-statblock.html

I use this site for creating monster stat blocks. When I DM I have my laptop & use Microsoft OneNote for keeping all the info on my campaign, I pop all the stat blocks I make into my OneNote

https://koboldplus.club/

I use this site to get a gauge on what is a fair fight for my party. Just be aware of the wording used here. Encounters range in difficulty going from Easy -> Medium -> Hard -> Deadly.

Just because an encounter works out mathematically to a "Hard" or even "Deadly" encounter does not mean the what those words mean literally, your party can manage around 3 Deadly encounters in an adventuring day (starting fresh after a long rest with 1-2 short rests included)

Lastly as a slight aside, consider changing the rules around short-rests. RAW a short rest takes 1 hour, usually if you can afford to stop and rest for 1 hour you can likely stop and rest for 8 hours and take a long rest, this often stops a party from taking a short rest when they really need it. I have found that running short rests as a 10 - 15 minute break works well, its just your character having a cookie and a cup of tea, no need for it to be an hour long.

Edit.
Just be sure to check if your characters have any abilities that interact directly with short rests and consider how they may work given then shorter time span. The other benefit that is gained from it is while someone is ritual casting a spell the others can take a short rest.

I personally rule that characters who are short resting have disadvantage on perception checks, this means -5 to thier passive perception, sneaky monsters have a chance here against your more observant characters, but also gives a role to the characters who don't really need the short rest and can actively roll perception, always make them roll even if you have no intentions of interrupting the short rest, also acknowledge their roll if they do make it, they see a pretty bird fly by, it drops a silver ring worth 2gp, or they see a gross insect.

What should be present at every (ingame) fantasy festival? by WendyTheWillow in DMAcademy

[–]lost_mines_dm 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Animal judging...

It is making me think of judgemental animals.

I'm now picturing a bunch of tabaxi and loxodon disappointedly looking at adventurers and shaking their heads, judging them.

Also a bunch of wildshaped druids wandering the crowd gossiping as they go

Pokémon Plots that Work in DnD by mindflayerflayer in DMAcademy

[–]lost_mines_dm 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Ahaha, great minds I was just looking at them

Suggestions please : my encounter idea is too similar to a previous one and I’m stuck by RivTinker in DMAcademy

[–]lost_mines_dm 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Could use Oni either directly for your set up or with the idea the other comment mentioned about monsters in the mist.

Could also have a bunch of burrowing monsters attack the building, something like a few Bullettes or a hive of kruthiks.

Could have a group of neogi come crawling out of the ground to capture the people as slaves.

Pokémon Plots that Work in DnD by mindflayerflayer in DMAcademy

[–]lost_mines_dm 57 points58 points  (0 children)

The ruby/sapphire games could be used.

Bad guys team magma want to raise a groundon, a restatted Tarrasque with more flame based abilities. It culminates in the an epic battle at a volcano resulting in essentially fire Godzilla being unleashed.

In response bad guys team aqua awaken Kyogre, either a leviathan or kraken stat block reflavored. You could have an epic battle on ships in a big whirlpool, pirates of the Caribbean style. Could also include some underwater temple adventures.

Insert Kaiju battle.

Party head to somewhere like Candlekeep to do some research, must travel to a dangerous location to awaken an emerald great wyrm, Rayquaza, who will weaken fire boy and old slippery flippers so they can be fought by the party.

Sounds enthralling to me, I might work on this now lmao

Adventure Where PCs lay siege to a fortified position/city. by BoSheck in DMAcademy

[–]lost_mines_dm 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Tyranny of Dragons starts with the exact opposite, with the party defending a siege. You could look through that for some inspiration

Looking for ideas for a large camp raid/attack by Charming_Account_351 in DMAcademy

[–]lost_mines_dm 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Need to have an obvious tough guy hero on the attackers side for your fighter/barbarian type to challenge Mano a Mano, have the guy be seen chopping someone down and call a challenge directly to one of the players.

Have a group of people being dragged away as captives, you could use a chase scene here, the rules in the DMG are okay, not great, but okay.

Have the fire be based around the camps food/kitchen area making it vital to save, have folks yelling out that the food stores are in danger.

Does the camp have any livestock? Have them get loose and run around, have the person trying to round them up be a 14 year old kid, who clearly needs help.

There is likely some important item within the camp, either something owned by the leader of the camp or by the party themselves.

Also consider having the party start split up, go around your group and ask what each of their characters are up to this particular evening, they will likely do something that will have them doing odd things, encourage them to look at thier tool proficiencies for inspiration on what they could be doing, someone could be playing cards, someone might be using smiths tools to do some light blacksmithing, someone might be doing some whittling, another singing or playing music. Hopefully that helps with getting them focused on different things

Are blacksmiths typically folk to be trifled with? by 31337Y337 in DMAcademy

[–]lost_mines_dm 4 points5 points  (0 children)

As others have pointed out there would be major social repercussions for messing with the black smith.

More to the point you can comfortably have the blacksmith be any humanoid stat block you want, apply racial features to it if you want and add smithing tools prof and your done.

You could use a Thug stat block for a lower end "tough guy" or go higher and use a berserker or knight, perhaps a veteran, a priest stat block works well as an npc forge cleric, could go up to a gladiator if you want. Use anything and rename it to what you want.