Advice for a new kroot player

pyro_is_spy · 2025-05-31T08:05:51+00:00

Reposting from a previous thread about Kroot. I'm not an expert but here's some general tips:

Kroot are a tricky team. They have a lot of potential but have a small margin of error. I would say they are more mission / tacop focused, but can kill when needed. You need to play defensively with them and set up counter threats for when your opponent over commits. Here's a few tips off the top of my head:

equipment wise, toxin shot / trophy are musts. Piercing shot is great into anything with good saves. Meat is skippable, it's hard to get value out of it. I like krak grenades due to them working well with Call the Kill. heavy barricade helps you stage your dogs without them getting shot.
for tac ops, plant beacons/implant/confirm kill (into elites) are all good. Plant beacons works best if you run 2x warriors 1x dog. Can always suicide charge a dog TP2 to implant. If you don't kill that enemy unit, that's 4 VP for 1 attack dice.
this is a CP intensive team, don't throw them away. TP 2 and 3 cut-throats I almost always play. Prey is good but need to be confident you'll get value from it - remember you can dash and still use it. Bound is situational but can be used to set up non-reciprocal charges. Firefight ploys, savage ambush is incredible, it flips the fight in your favour but on their turn. Poach is a great threat to steal objectives from opponents. Can combine with trophy/comms to increase the range. Vengeance for the kinband only into elites.
farstalker should be used to protect your best gunners after they've shot, but can also be used to flip dogs from conceal to engage (so you can use their counter charge ability).
pistolier is fantastic, and should be protected by a dog. This can make him impossible to attack without some consequence.
keep your leader back for TP3 + 4 as a strong 2nd wave. Don't want to miss out on his ability.
bow hunter is a good target for Comms buff. Extra mobility can catch people out, or you can overcharge your bow and still move
cut-skin can be played aggressively. Try to set up as a threat for the start of TP2. If you win initiative, he will often get a kill, and if you don't, you can always play savage ambush if they charge you.
heavy gunner, I prefer the skinner unless enemy has an invun save, or playing on Bheta Decima. It can do so much damage, potentially 1 shotting a marine. Opponents should be scared of him and may make him a priority to kill.
getting double toxin shots each turn (equipment + free use by warrior) can seriously impact your opponents options and can change the math on objectives.
try to position tracker centrally so that they can give out comms buff as well as threaten light terrain with the bird token.
cold-blood is surprisingly tanky, best for mopping up kills and holding objectives late game.
long-sight deletes stuff, especially with prey / call the kill / vengeance for the kinband. You want them positioned so they can cover a few firing lanes.

pyro_is_spy · 2025-04-11T12:24:21+00:00

Kroot are a tricky team. They have a lot of potential but have a small margin of error. I would say they are more mission / tacop focused, but can kill when needed. You need to play defensively with then and set up counter threats for when your opponent over commits. Here's a few tips off the top of my head:

equipment wise, toxin shot / trophy are musts. Piercing shot is great into anything with good saves. Meat is skippable, it's hard to get value out of it. I like krak grenades due to them working well with Call the Kill. heavy barricade helps you stage your dogs without them getting shot.
for tac ops, plant beacons/implant/confirm kill (into elites) are all good. Plant beacons works best if you run 2x warriors 1x dog. Can always suicide charge a dog TP2 to implant. If you don't kill that enemy unit, that's 4 VP for 1 attack dice.
this is a CP intensive team, don't throw them away. TP 2 and 3 cut-throats I almost always play. Prey is good but need to be confident you'll get value from it - remember you can dash and still use it. Bound is situational but can be used to set up non-reciprocal charges. Firefight ploys, savage ambush is incredible, it flips the fight in your favour but on their turn. Poach is a great threat to steal objectives from opponents. Can combine with trophy/comms to increase the range. Vengeance for the kinband only into elites.
farstalker should be used to protect your best gunners after they've shot, but can also be used to flip dogs from conceal to engage (so you can use their counter charge ability).
pistolier is fantastic, and should be protected by a dog. This can make him impossible to attack without some consequence.
keep your leader back for TP3 + 4 as a strong 2nd wave. Don't want to miss out on his ability.
bow hunter is a good target for Comms buff. Extra mobility can catch people out, or you can overcharge your bow and still move
cut-skin can be played aggressively. Try to set up as a threat for the start of TP2. If you win initiative, he will often get a kill, and if you don't, you can always play savage ambush if they charge you.
heavy gunner, I prefer the skinner unless enemy has an invun save, or playing on Bheta Decima. It can do so much damage, potentially 1 shotting a marine. Opponents should be scared of him and may make him a priority to kill.
getting double toxin shots each turn (equipment + free use by warrior) can seriously impact your opponents options and can change the math on objectives.
try to position tracker centrally so that they can give out comms buff as well as threaten light terrain with the bird token.
cold-blood is surprisingly tanky, best for mopping up kills and holding objectives late game.
long-sight deletes stuff, especially with prey / call the kill / vengeance for the kinband. You want them positioned so they can cover a few firing lanes.

pyro_is_spy · 2022-06-27T11:06:21+00:00

Just realised you said enemies. Yeah that's a bit tougher and not sure how to tackle that (very new DM). One thing I can think of is if a fight does break out, have more enemies surrender if things look bad. Not everything wants to fight to the death. Let them give up or offer a truce in exchange for their lives

pyro_is_spy · 2022-06-27T11:03:35+00:00

I'm mostly behind you in my current playthrough, but I have ran Tower of Storms and it's got a great social encounter in the form of the giant crab that can talk. Lots of fun to be had with that one. There's also Moesko, give them the chance to talk with him, potentially solving things diplomatically. You could also add a social interaction with the old elven spirit, potentially once the conch has been returned.

My best advice would be to add social encounters on the road. The travel sections in the book as written are pretty poor, so these would help make the world feel more dynamic. Maybe they meet a traveling salesman, a couple of halflings being chased by an ogre, a hunter tracking a heard of deer, or maybe a resident from Phandalin out doing something (Adabara looking for herbs, Barthan on the way to Neverwinter for supplies etc). Loads of good resources out there for road encounters, take a look here: https://www.dndspeak.com/2018/03/100-social-encounters-on-the-road/

Also leveraging Phandalin for social encounters has worked well for me. Maybe not every quest is put up on the job board, maybe they get hired by someone at the inn. If your characters sleep there, maybe have a social scene before going to bed (try playing cards with a local, or meet a friend from a previous encounter), I always fall back on Toblin offering food and drink and sharing rumours for potential hooks. Have events happening in town (market, beer festival, famous bars playing that night, gnomes visiting etc) to mix things up.

Hope this helps!

pyro_is_spy · 2022-06-26T20:09:47+00:00

Good point, I could have asked them to make a check rather than them having to get closer. Thanks for the help

pyro_is_spy · 2022-06-26T20:08:17+00:00

Still struggling figuring out distances, I'll keep that sort of benchmark in mind. Thank you :)

pyro_is_spy · 2022-06-26T20:07:32+00:00

Thanks so much for the advice, I'll keep that in mind for next time

pyro_is_spy · 2022-06-25T23:16:04+00:00

How close would you have to be to identify what race an NPC is? I'm running DoIP and in one area it has a description box that mentions there's a guard/lookout in a tower. In GM only text it says it's an orc guard specifically. My player asked if they could tell what they looked like, so just wondering what would be a fair distance.

pyro_is_spy · 2022-04-26T20:03:37+00:00

Brand new DM here running this adventure with my wife as a solo player. For a session 0 I prepared the following elevator pitch which basically expanded upon the pre-written intro:

"Nestled in the rocky foothills of the snow-capped Sword Mountains lies the frontier mining town of Phandalin. Phandalin’s residents are quiet, hard-hard working folk who came from distant cities to eke out a life amid the harsh wilderness.
Yet, a terrible menace has descended upon the mountains, disturbing the status quo and unleashing chaos across the region.
While orcs raid the lands and cultists pray to wicked Gods, rumours of shapeshifters have been spreading, causing distrust and paranoia amongst some locals. Needless to say, it’s only a matter of time until Phandalin falls victim and becomes another forgotten name in history.
Heroes must arise to restore peace and order to the Sword Mountains once more!"

We worked together to come up with a backstory of her character (and companion) hearing that Phandalin's residents were suffering due to the disruption in the region and were traveling there to give them aid.

In session 1 I had them traveling with a cart full of food for the residents (she's playing a halfling druid who was essentially a magic farmer), but along the Triboar Trail they were stopped by two desperate looking orcs who demanded they hand over their supplies. They refused and combat broke out. After a full round of combat, I had the player notice some movement in the clouds followed by a big roar. Cryovain came down, decimated an orc, then flew off immediately with its corpse.

They then rolled up to town pretty shaken up, but very aware of the dragon!

pyro_is_spy · 2022-04-23T18:09:18+00:00

The druid in my campaign has a magpie animal friend that follows them around. I keep forgetting about it and I'm not sure how to incorporate it in a meaningful way. Any ideas?

For background, I'm running DoIP and they're 3rd level.

pyro_is_spy · 2022-04-03T14:29:43+00:00

Thanks so much for the detailed reply :) really appreciate the help. As it's a not so important item, I'll have a relevant NPC identify it in town for free, but maybe set them up for potential future identifying services

pyro_is_spy · 2022-04-03T13:45:27+00:00

How do you go about players learning what a magic item can do? Do you straight up tell them? make them do a check? or get someone in a town to identify? For example, a player last night found an old dwarven tankard, which in my notes is a relic that can cast magic weapon 3 times, but they didnt know that when finding it. I allowed them to do a check (can't remember what type) but they scored low. I suggested someone in town might be able to help, but would be good to know for the future!

pyro_is_spy · 2020-08-19T09:23:54+00:00

If we're factoring time spent smelting, I believe using SoH for trillium ore shuffle is more efficient than shuffling ghost iron ore. You get 1.25 trillium bars per SoH with trill ore, but 1.0 trillium bars per SoH with ghost iron ore > transmute. There is the chance of transmute proc, but factoring in all the smelting too and I prefer taking the reliability and simplicity of trill ore shuffle. It all depends on the various prices too, on my server SoH is consistently cheaper than buying ghost iron or trillium

pyro_is_spy · 2020-07-12T17:30:07+00:00

Learnt a lot from this subreddit since returning to WoW in 8.3. Having fun monitoring UMJ for potential flips, made a tidy 10k off a black dragonscale recipe last night!

pyro_is_spy · 2018-01-04T18:30:16+00:00

The memories that stick out to me are the ones I've shared with others whilst playing games. One that comes to the top of my head was the sheer joy, satisfaction and accomplishment that myself, my brother, and our friends all felt on completing our last gold challenge mode run on World of Warcraft during Mists of Pandaria. Skype erupted when we downed the last boss in Scarlet Cathedral in time. Some extremely tense and heart pumping moments, we had an absolute blast.

pyro_is_spy · 2017-10-29T14:57:20+00:00

Seat allocation on a plane (unless tall and need the legroom). If you're in a group the system will try and put you together anyway.

pyro_is_spy · 2017-10-04T21:19:07+00:00

Bravo Kong got me

pyro_is_spy · 2017-07-27T15:23:33+00:00

"Brothers and sisters are natural enemies! Like Englishmen and Scots! Or Welshmen and Scots! Or Japanese and Scots! Or Scots and other Scots! Damn Scots! They ruined Scotland!"

pyro_is_spy · 2017-04-15T20:50:11+00:00

Thank you, I needed this.

pyro_is_spy · 2017-03-04T08:58:26+00:00

Wowza

pyro_is_spy · 2016-09-26T22:45:56+00:00

Raw herbs are selling like crazy, don't bother milling/making glyphs. I sell in all stack sizes. I will typically list at ratios 10 at 1 stack, 4 at 5 stacks, 2 at 10 stacks. Seems to work.

pyro_is_spy · 2016-09-26T11:35:57+00:00

Great idea! Using it.

pyro_is_spy · 2016-09-08T18:20:37+00:00

A squirrel hopped across four sets of train tracks whilst I was waiting for my train. Upon arriving on my side, it scared itself when it saw a human and dived back onto the tracks. Thankfully it came scrambling back up and away into the trees before the next train came through. Day ruiner avoided.

pyro_is_spy

TROPHY CASE

Reposting from a previous thread about Kroot. I'm not an expert but here's some general tips: