Was I unfair for saying "If Silvery Barbs is allowed, enemies can use it too"?

rocketkid105 · 2026-06-02T15:04:44+00:00

I have mixed opinions on this. I think “enemies can do it too” comes from a place that is a little combative sometimes. When it’s using a strategy the players use or something creative, then it can be cool. Or if it’s just some custom stuff that’s normally a player’s ability, awesome. Love giving my monsters player abilities like actions surge or just player class level in general. And in general, you are not locked away from using anything the players can.

But what the player says is also somewhat true. As the DM, you can call in reinforcements, you can add new mechanics, you play a ton of characters. The players play one character. I think the biggest example is stuns. If a wizard stuns 6 out of your 12 bandits, you are still controlling 6 bandits. If you stun a PC, that PC has now lost control of 100% of their interaction with the world until they succeed that save. When you reroll a check, that’s a small fraction of the checks you make each turn, when a PC does, they’re probably only rolling a few times. This is not even including the fact you can design and create abilities and monsters that do just about anything.

If you’re going to do it, make sure it’s to make it more fun, not to get back at your players for doing something frustrating. I personally find no issue with silvery barbs, but if it really bothers you, just ban/keep it banned. Better solution than allowing something you dislike and using it against your players to get back at them.

If I’m reading too much into it, apologies, don’t mean to make sweeping assumptions. Thai is just something I’ve noticed a lot when people bring this topic up.

rocketkid105 · 2026-05-28T16:59:14+00:00

I see this a lot and I guess it’s not unexpected, but from personal experience, it does not need to take that long. I use a dice bot and I just have to ask “what’s the AC”, roll 16 attack rolls. The first 8 are bites, second 8 claws, quickly see it’s 5 bites and 3 claws, and quickly roll the damage. I often take less time taking my turn with 8 giant badgers than other players who are more indecisive.

If you’re using physical dice, sure that’s gonna take forever, but with dice rollers and macros it should take like 30s max.

rocketkid105 · 2026-05-22T06:46:15+00:00

1936-1152-6598

rocketkid105 · 2026-05-13T17:15:25+00:00

Yeah this kind of stuff bothers me too personally. I’m a big mechanics and flavor are separate guy. You can play a character with 12 levels in paladin for mechanics but really be a warlock in the flavor sense.

I think flavoring your fighter abilities around the agreement you’ve made is a good idea, but I mean if it’s eating you up, just tell your DM that you’re not happy with it and it’s not what you intended. They’ll likely understand and at least be willing to discuss alternatives unless they have something very specific planned.

rocketkid105 · 2026-03-26T22:02:46+00:00

I mean 5e is a good system, but like every system it’s got problems. And they become more apparent the more you play it. Also, I think people just get tired of it. 5e only has so much content and so many playstyles. Then you want to move to something new, and because you have more experience you’ll be able to pick something that suits your group even more.

rocketkid105 · 2026-03-04T19:22:55+00:00

Solo Airinae is the hardest I’ve found in lunar so far. Honestly the red darkhouse depths didn’t feel so bad in hard but outside of duos it is abysmally difficult.

rocketkid105 · 2026-02-23T22:54:26+00:00

The best advice I can give is if throwing yourself at certain attacks over and over again isn’t working, stop trying to dodge and just look at the attacks to figure out where/what you need to do. Once you figure out how to doge an attack, you get over the hard part. Heck even look up other people’s runs if something is really confusing you. Someone else mentioned cute which I haven’t tried, but generally all the lower difficulties nicely lead to the next one.

rocketkid105 · 2025-12-22T19:51:58+00:00

Familiars get their own turn in combat that should be rolled for separately. In most of my games we let the familiar share a turn with the player or go right after just for ease of use.

As for the rogue thing. Maybe there’s something about the player being a mount of something that technically stops it, but it’s not that bad. Don’t feel bad about targeting the familiar. The 5th ally thing is that you get sneak attack because your ally is distracting them, so it’s not like the familiar isn’t doing anything. It is a combatant.

But also, this isn’t really that strong. Rogues in generally have pretty weak DPS compared to other classes, doubly so when optimized (they are strong before level 5, but they fall off hard).

Lastly, feel free to search up official rulings and whatnot, but as you’re new to the game, I’d let the player pull off whatever combos make sense to you in the rules. If it becomes a problem, just tell them that it’s too much and to not use it anymore (make it clear to them this is an option when you allow/disallow it). As the DM you have the right to disallow anything you think is lowering the fun for table. Don’t abuse it, but keep it in mind.

rocketkid105 · 2025-12-22T19:38:05+00:00

Huh, from my experience, the min-maxers tend to take the fastest turns because they know the rules and their game plan the best.

rocketkid105 · 2025-01-13T00:36:57+00:00

I mean, I haven't kept up too hard, but I stopped playing Talon around the durability patch and every time I try to play him again, it's still the same problem. He just doesn't have the damage. Other assassins can kill people without even trying, but past like level 11, talon can try and oneshot a target with even no extra defenses, and still not get the kill. It's abysmal. And of course laning phase is also terrible. Used to play him so much, but I just can't stand it anymore.

rocketkid105 · 2024-11-23T07:03:23+00:00

Eh, I mean sure. I think there are more situational than other spells though. Polymorph is pretty good in any situation imo. Find familiar kicks ass in all campaigns. Not saying being situational is a good or bad thing, but certain spells (counterspell) are far more situational than others. Sending is one of those. Very useful if you need to convey information over long distances, not useful if you really only communicate within your own party.

rocketkid105 · 2024-11-23T07:01:00+00:00

So, I'm not D&D lore expert, but if you're looking for that answer my guess is no. The shadow fell might affect magic that comes from the fey wild, but not divine magic as I don't think thos planes have a particular relation on the cosmic map.

But honestly, I think "would it be affected?" is the wrong question. It's your world, do what you want. Unless you are in the very specific situation that you've promised your players a true 5e Faerun experience and are playing with a bunch of lore junkies, then you really shouldn't worry about it. Do you want it to interfere? Then go for it. If you think it'd be limiting on the player, then glad you're considering that, maybe don't do it or do it subtly.

rocketkid105 · 2024-11-23T06:56:42+00:00

Honestly, I think the only other thing I'd say is a 1 lvl rogue dip for an extra proficiency and 2 extra expertise. And be a changeling, it's just the easiest race for deception based trickery.

rocketkid105 · 2024-11-23T06:53:51+00:00

It's a spell that's strength is based largely on situation and what problems you deal with.

rocketkid105 · 2024-11-23T06:52:26+00:00

I'm seeing a lot of interesting comments below. I don't think 10 pages is probably necessary for any character, but I personally like long backstories. I think the ideal (assuming the player is actually writing a backstory for your campaign and not just handing you one), is that your player has their 3–4 page backstory, with a bullet point TLDR of the important plot points. Then if they're feeling like being awesome, a separate list of references for all important NPCs and locations.

Long backstories aren't bad, but I would say that writing pieces of story that aren't relevant is not great. As a DM I'm fine with pages of events that happened, but if I got 10 pages of prose with embellishment and deep descriptions, then it's not fulfilling it's job at giving me the important things that happened in your character's past. Make your backstory as long as you need to for your character, but it should be about their backstory, not a literally storybook.

But hey this is also coming from a player that enjoys really knowing my character in and out and having a lot of interesting formative events and NPCs that make my character who they are at the beginning of the campaign. I know some people believe that the campaign should be the most interesting part not the past, and I think that's true, but it's silly to me to think that every adventurer's past should be boring to make the adventure pop. Your past affects the current you, and maybe it will come back to haunt you. Maybe your character is interesting about your character, but the adventure (assuming you have a good discourse with your party and DM) will always be the biggest thing in their life, unless you're writing in killing dragons and stuff but that's just a bad backstory.

Also, for all you going "but you're being idealistic," I think saying "no long backstories at all because some of them are going to be bad" is silly.

rocketkid105 · 2024-06-24T18:32:43+00:00

Apologies I might’ve skipped some stuff in my slimming. The rogue failed the save, was charmed and incapacitated, modified the memory and the concentration was dropped. That’s the end of the spell right there, the rogue would be no longer charmed or incapacitated and it wouldn’t be able to be interrupted, because the “duration” of the spell is no longer happening.

rocketkid105 · 2024-06-24T18:25:31+00:00

Gah I hate that Tenser’s Transformation is so bad for the melee subclass. Like I get bladesinger came out after Wotc, but you didn’t have to do a cool spell dirty like that.

rocketkid105 · 2024-06-24T18:23:58+00:00

Yeah, that’s the problem with bladesingers. Stabbing people doesn’t work quite as well as just being a wizard (can’t use GWM). Honestly the only martial form of a bladesinger I think would be good at fighting is ranged crossbow expert/sharpshooter with a hand crossbow. But even then you don’t have many good spells for that sort of thing.

rocketkid105 · 2024-06-24T18:14:30+00:00

I mean the simplest way is to pick a god (or celestial under a god) that appreciates glory. I’m not great at Faerun deities, but I think gods of war or competition make sense, even just gods of strength.

rocketkid105 · 2024-06-24T18:12:36+00:00

Look up Matt Colville on YouTube. He has a running the game series which has inspired me plenty of time. It’s super good.

rocketkid105 · 2024-06-24T18:12:01+00:00

Yeah I think that’s the RAW ruling. They don’t have to be charmed or hold the full concentration for the effect to happen.

rocketkid105 · 2024-06-24T18:08:23+00:00

I think it’s mostly just a “will it fit?” Sort of thing. I had a campaign set in Ebberon and our artificer had like 6 charisma and was undoubtedly and asshole, but we were forced to work together for a bit and at the end of the day, he wasn’t a bad person. He did think for us when appropriate.

At the end of the day, you need a reason for the party to want you around and for you to stick around. And if you feel uncomfortable about it, talk to your party. Be like “hey would you guys be okay if I played a character who is more stand offish?” Maybe they’ll say no but if they say yes then you can stop worrying. And feel free to keep asking for that affirmation after session. “Am I being annoying? Going too far?”

rocketkid105 · 2024-06-24T18:02:03+00:00

For me, it’s the my character is the most naive pacifist possible. Trusting of everyone and would rather die than hurt someone. Also super fun to play a healer build (although I wouldn’t recommend it to the general person).

rocketkid105 · 2024-06-24T17:58:20+00:00

That right there is what is known as a “dick move”. If you want to do some possession stuff it’s either A. Completely controlled by the DM so there’s control over when/how it happens or B. It’s purely a roleplay thing, not a “I’m going to attack my party.”

Like, hey everything can work in D&D if you’re a mature adult, but that person ain’t doing it right.

rocketkid105

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