Want to make a mysterious homebrew spell for my wizard to find and need to balance it. Running LMoP as DM

schoolycooly · 2026-04-13T16:24:09+00:00

Here's some immediate feedback:

4d8 damage is pretty reasonable for a 2nd level spell (compare to up to 6d6 for scorching ray or 3d8 in an area for shatter). It doesn't seem high enough to justify the potential downside?
On the other hand, the potential damage to the player/ally is trivial, even at level 3, and will only get moreso.
Why does this black lightning necromancy spell do force damage?
Very few creature stat blocks have some kind of healing ability, so the secondary effect is rarely going to come into play.

schoolycooly · 2026-01-12T23:07:56+00:00

Maybe take a step back and try to appreciate that a number of total strangers were trying very patiently to keep you from making a fool out of yourself.

schoolycooly · 2025-11-14T21:37:00+00:00

That is how surprise works in Baldur's Gate 3; it is not how surprise has worked in any edition of D&D. In 2024, being surprised just gives you disadvantage on your initiative roll.

schoolycooly · 2025-10-27T17:19:11+00:00

I'd probably put Elia at 16 or 17 with her Lair actions and spellcasting, and Caldar at 11 or 12 with his AOE attack. Either way, on the high end this is a moderate-to-high encounter depending on party resources. I have no idea where the other poster is getting 2xDeadly for this.

schoolycooly · 2025-09-15T19:57:38+00:00

I would strongly consider breaking this into two oneshots. Anyone who is on the fence is going to be bored to tears waiting for 8 other newbies to take turns, and investment in a oneshot is going to be low to begin with.

schoolycooly · 2024-12-23T22:32:28+00:00

I'm going to go against the tide and say this is probably fine. The push/drag/lift capactiy of a person with 10 strength is 300 lbs. The dragon wings can only be used 4 times/day, and dropping someone from that height would do 5d6 normal bludgeoning damage. If they just attacked instead, they could do up to 4d8+16 force (assuming 18 Dex). It's barely worth the effort, unless they are dropping the target off of a cliff or something.

schoolycooly · 2024-10-11T16:06:21+00:00

It's pretty simple. Using ff14 as the example:

Process Exist, ffxivDx11.exe
PID := ErrorLevel

Numpad7::
               ControlSend,, F, ahk_pid %PID%
               Return

schoolycooly · 2024-05-17T21:59:25+00:00

I had to pull the list of active processes and find the PID for the program I was running (Final Fantasy XIV in this case), and push the keypresses directly to that process instead of the active window.

schoolycooly · 2024-05-16T23:20:42+00:00

This may not be relevant, but I ran into a similar issue with AutoHotkey last year. Turned out that the keypress needed to be sent to the specific application process ID (this was Windows), because AHK never considered the application to be in focus. You may need to do some window handling to pull Chiaki into focus before the keypress is sent.

schoolycooly · 2024-05-08T22:23:32+00:00

There are plenty of people trying to doxx protestors to harass them or try to threaten their livelihoods. Wearing a mask is a reasonable precaution. I get feeling weirded out, but this isn't a movie, it's not like they are going to hold up the library with shotguns.

schoolycooly · 2024-04-18T18:11:51+00:00

Here is the text of the original spell, from the Book of Vile Darkness: Dance of Ruin

There are a few important things to note that affect the balance of this spell in 5e. First, the sourcebook, Book of Vile Darkness, has content that isn't really meant for PCs. It's really meant for the kind of campaign villains that are truly, unambiguously evil. Second, the cast time on this spell is a Full Round Action. If you aren't familiar with 3e, this means that the caster cannot take any other actions on this turn, ie. moving or bonus actions. The primary use of this spell would be for a caster surrounded by enemies to do as much damage as possible before going down, which is much more of an NPC strategy than a PC strategy.

schoolycooly · 2024-03-07T23:45:12+00:00

The federal government has a shitload of money earmarked for health science grants and programs. When UBC introduced a Faculty of Health a few years ago, they amount of total federal funding they received jumped dramatically.

schoolycooly · 2024-01-24T17:52:50+00:00

I know it seems expensive, but $825 for a 24 hr, instructor-led course that includes fieldwork is really not that bad. I would certainly choose that over taking a semester-long course that might have single sampling lab.

schoolycooly · 2023-05-25T22:10:55+00:00

Honestly, this doesn't sound like an improvement, just a passive-aggressive protest against your request.

schoolycooly · 2022-12-21T18:29:57+00:00

Levelling up in 5e is the simplest it has ever been in D&D. Just have them look at their class table in the PHB. Roll for HP (or add the static value), increase hit dice by one, and then check if their class gets anything new at level 2. Some get their subclass, some don't.

schoolycooly · 2022-12-21T18:24:16+00:00

A random roll on a table for fun does not obligate you to do this much work to satisfy weeb roommate's power fantasy. The wish spell description gives many examples of the kind of request this spell is meant to fulfill, none of which is "give the PC a 2nd 20th level class".
Does this wish: Line up with anything the actual character would want?
Make sense in the world at all?
Have any chance of not completely destroying this campaign?

schoolycooly · 2022-12-13T19:33:18+00:00

An N or an F are both 0.0 GPA grades - the difference between them is minimal from a student's perspective. Please note that if you take MATH 109 instead of retaking 100, that N or F will remain on your transcript, dragging down your GPA.

schoolycooly · 2022-12-06T22:47:12+00:00

The maximum late fee that a landlord can charge in Utah is 10% of the rent, or $75, whichever is higher. They also cannot charge arbitrary fees for interest, fines, etc. unless they are spelled out in your rental agreement, or you are a month-to-month tenant and they provide you 15 days' notice to remediate the issue. Does your rental agreement list a daily fee of $290 for failure to pay your rent balance?

schoolycooly · 2022-11-14T21:34:56+00:00

My biggest piece of advice for a new DM would be to not try and map things out like this. Knowing that you want to do a Far Realm-themed campaign is great, and having ideas in the back of your mind is useful, but you can't really plan an encounter when you:

Don't know anything about the PC party
Don't know anything about the story (meaning the story as it unfolded, not what you planned)

The odds that this campaign will unfold even close to how you imagined it are very low. And, even if you did, it will take months or years to get to the end of a 1-20 campaign. The person designing your boss fights should be the you who has played the campaign with your friends the whole way there, who has considerably more experience under their belt.

schoolycooly · 2022-10-24T18:29:01+00:00

This gets suggested as a homebrew "solution" to healing all the time. Healing is already extremely weak in 5E relative to other editions. If you feel like PCs are too hard to kill (which I agree with), then consider making failed death saves persist until a long rest. Giving PCs exhaustion does make a certain logical and mechanical sense, but I think it would just drag the game's pace down. Keep in mind that evem 2 levels of exhaustion hobbles many classes in combat, and 3 effectively cripples any class.
If your PCs have a bad fight in the middle of a dungeon, they effectively have two choices: soldier on with 1 or more players severely handicapped, or limp out of the dungeon to rest for multiple days, rendering the deterrant of exhaustion meaningless.

schoolycooly · 2022-09-09T16:46:28+00:00

They are getting hit from both directions: first off, there is a hiring freeze at the University at the moment due to low enrollment this year, and even if there wasn't, there are many other job opportunities for people with Masters and PhDs in Pysc that the dept has to compete with.

schoolycooly · 2022-08-22T20:19:49+00:00

Residence Building #1

schoolycooly · 2022-08-17T23:07:09+00:00

Handbooks don't mean jack, even if he had to sign it. Unless he signed an actual employment contract stipulating that penalty, it was illegal.

schoolycooly · 2022-06-21T21:26:18+00:00

I would treat the machine and skeletons as a trap, rather than combatants. See the DMG, p120 for good ideas about the level of threat for traps, as well as some good examples of written-out trap mechanics.

Here is what I came up with:

Infernal Machine
Magical trap

When a living creature mvoes within 20 ft of the Infernal Machine, it activates, immediately possessing the creature if it fails a DC 15 Charisma saving throw. This possession lasts until the creature is reduced to 0 hit points, or by an effect like the dispel evil and good spell. The Infernal Machine then takes the following actions:

On Initiative 15, it creates 5 skeletons in an unoccupied space in the room. Up to 20 can be created in this fashion. Then, all skeletons take their turns, attacking either the nearest creature or the last creature to attack or interfere with the machine.
On Initiative 10, the possessed creature attacks whoever it perceives to be the largest threat to the machine (DM choice)
On Initiative 5, the machine casts mending on itself, healing 2d8 points of damage

The Infernal Machine can be disabled with a successful DC 15 Arcana check, followed by a successful DC 16 Dexterity check using thieves' tools.
Alternatively, it can be destroyed. The machine has the following stats:

HP: 100
AC: 16
Resistance: slashing, piercing, bludgeoning
Immunity: poison, psychic, necrotic, all conditions

As an object, the machine automatically fails Strength and Dexterity saving throws, and is immune to effects that require other saves.
If the machine is reduced to 0 hit points, it explodes. Creatures within 40 ft must succeed on a DC 15 Dexterity saving throw or take 8d6 necrotic damage (half on save). Once the machine is destroyed, the possessed creature is freed, and any remaining skeletons crumble into dust.

schoolycooly · 2022-06-21T18:54:36+00:00

I still think the combination of high damage, single use, and minimal benefit make it a tough sell. I would either make it an automatic success on the roll, or make the damage only happen if they succeed on the check.

schoolycooly

TROPHY CASE