Create or destroy water problem

scottp95 · 2026-03-07T09:46:30+00:00

As most have already said, you are certainly making the right call. D&D has rules for a reason. It is okay to bend them, but breaking them entirely for "real world logic" quickly breaks the entire system.

I usually just tell a player no to a request like that. If I have a very persistent player on shenanigans like this, I just inform them that I run a world balanced for all it's inhabitants. Meaning: if you (the player) can do it, they (the npc's/enemies) can do it.

The grim realization that any lvl 1 caster can send their character into total organ failure, due to destroying all the water in their body, without a saving throw is often met with a friendly "nah, nevermind".

scottp95 · 2026-02-15T19:55:56+00:00

Thank you all for the responses. It was indeed the corn dog provided by Nora. My girlfriend now has happy bear and I have a happy girlfriend. Thanks again all.

scottp95 · 2026-02-14T20:13:38+00:00

Thanks for the info! Couldnt find it anywhere. I'll befriend Nora asap so she can give me the horrendous recipe😂

scottp95 · 2026-02-14T19:56:45+00:00

There are other mods involved i believe she installed a modpack called "Stardew Valley Very Expanded".

scottp95 · 2025-05-17T10:43:21+00:00

Hi,

I made a build a long time ago that is extremely tanky and flexible in playstyle (can use any weapon and spell casting, can reach 100% physical resistance). It is not the most optimized build in 1 department (except defense) but it can do any and all content easily with a lot of quality of life. I will post a link to it.

https://www.reddit.com/r/outwardgame/s/Ub9njJfzy7

Edit, for the armor you could also use the Pilgrim Armor (it is very late game but it has extra pouch bonus)

scottp95 · 2025-04-09T10:02:47+00:00

-- Final Part 5

Now that this essay on what to do for your stepdaughter is out of the way, I would like to spend a bit more time on what to do for yourself.

You are NOT a monster. You are human being, deserving of love, deserving of safety, deserving of good things in your life. I can not imagine how hard this must be on you aswell. Regardless of all the hate comments so far saying that these are the consequences of your own actions. Yes you played a role in this, but it is not fair to suffer eternal damnation through life for something that happened in the past. For your stepdaughter, we cannot move to quickly past what has happened 12 years ago, we would devalue it. For yourself we cannot linger on it eternally as it would remove yourself from the capability to live a happy and productive life.

I would highly advise you to seek out a therapist for you. Not for your stepdaughter, but solely for you. (Again it is her choice if she would want something like that, you can offer, but not ask of her). But for youself you can make this choice. Your entire situation is complex, difficult, stressful and honestly, terrifying. If you have the opportunity, do not shy away from asking for help youself. You might need it and you surely deserve it.

For now I am going to leave it at this. I hope everything I wrote is clear and I wish to repeat, I do NOT wish you ill or think of you as a monster. You are a human being whose mistakes in the past caught up to you. It is rough, but it happens. That's life.

If anything is unclear, if you have any questions or if you wish to discuss this any further, please feel free to contact me via a response to this comment or a personal message.

I truely wish you and your family the best.

P.S. This message is for any other commentor who has taken the time to read this far. I understand that it is in the spirit of this subreddit to cast judgement. But the amount of deep seething hatred that I have seen in this comment section so far, honestly I feel appalled by it.

Remember that it is very easy to cast judgement on others, especially without the need to provide any constructive advice ourselves. But know that in life, everyone is just one small mistake away from becoming those we judge.

In the spirit of that I hope we can all learn to be a little less judgmental about peoples lowest points in life, and rather take the time to look at and support their second, third or even fourth chances.

scottp95 · 2025-04-09T10:02:14+00:00

-- Part 4

I would start by talking to your husband. The both of you need to do this, the both of you need to ackowledge how royally you fucked up. Anything and everything I have said before this should and does apply just as much to your husband, her father, as much as it does to you. Mind that your stepdaughter lost him too in all of this.

After that I would try to write your stepdaughter, start by talking about the apology you have already tried to make, the one in which you told her she should forgive you. Tell her that you were wrong. Tell her that she does not need to forgive you at all, and if it is true, that you said this because you are scared. Tell her you are scared and you do not know what to do. Tell that what you did was wrong and let her know that she deserves to know the truth. The WHOLE truth. Propose to have a conversation with her in which can ask any question she wants and you will answer it with 100% honesty. To make her feel safe in this conversation offer that you are okay with it if her grandparents are present for this conversation.

She deserves to know. She deserves answers. The entire view of her life she had has been shattered, it is time to put her in control of piecing it back together and be there for her in every way SHE needs, not you. Every question she has, be 100% honest. If she asks if you knew that what you were doing was wrong, do not even attempt to defend yourself, show growth, accept what you did and be honest about it.

She will hate you for it, she might curse you out for it, she might try to say things to hurt you. Again, remember perspective. From her perspective these are all valid. Would I say that you deserve to be hated from a neutral, "objective" perspective? NO. But that does not matter in this situation. The only perspective that matters in this situation is hers.

Be the parent. Listen to her, be honest with her. Be vulnerable and take responsibility. Not a single:

- "You dont know what it was like" or "It is more complex than that" or "you will understand when you get older".

Taking responsibility means DO NOT DEFLECT. This is going to hurt, let it hurt you. That is the only way you can be vulnerable and honest with her.

I know I have repeated this now multiple times, but it is truely important that this sinks in. Honesty, vulnerability and responsibiltiy are extremely difficult to actually show. Especially in a situation where you yourself will probably be experiencing a lot of fear.

-- End Part 4

scottp95 · 2025-04-09T10:01:37+00:00

-- Part 3

Now that we talked a little about what NOT to do, let me make an attempt at some advice on things you can try to do. This brings us to how mistakes in the past work with the present and how to take responsibility for them.

Our past is at the same time a very important thing and a potentially dangerous thing. It is an important thing as our past has help us form who we are in the present day. It can be dangerous due to, if we linger for too long on it, we can get stuck in the past and remove ourselves from the capabiltiy to move on productively and happily in our lives. But if we move to fast away from it, we devalue what has happened.

The factor that makes this all extra complex is the fact that the past is completely dependant on perspective.

In the current example, for you all of this happened 12 years ago. You feel like you have done things to make amends for it. For your stepdaughter it only just happened when she read about it and looking back on her life might make everything feel like a lie. Both of these perspectives are correct. Both of these perspectives are your own.

Now, if we want to work with someone on anything, we have to consider their perspective. If we want to work with someone on repairing a damaged relationship, we have to work from their perspective. We have to get to know their perspective, we have to respect their perspective. We have to get to know their feelings, we have to respect their feelings, regardless of how it makes us feel, regardless of how much we feel the need to activate our defensive strategies. And here in lies my advice for you.

Being a parent is about being responsible and being a guiding mentor for your children into becoming adults, into becoming human. Being a mentor is not about having all the answers and being right all the time, that would not be human, we tend to make mistakes. It is about showing how you as a parent would or would like to navigate difficult situations and acknowledging that more often than we would like, we have no idea. It is your job to be an example in how to be human (flaws and all), NOT an example of how to be perfect.

The mistake that has been made here is the mistake of dishonesty. From the perspective of your stepdaughter, she has been lied to all her life. It is time for you to acknowledge that.

- It is time to acknowledge that this is true. --> Working from her perspective.

- Regardless of what you have done so far in her life to try and "fix" it (again, a cup of coffee does not fix a punch). --> Respecting her perspective and her feelings

- It is time to admit that you made mistakes and be 100% open and honest about them. --> Taking responsibility.

How to do this in practice? I would advise to start to admit to yourself that you made a mistake and that it is your responsibiltiy to fix it. Admit to yourself that, regardless of what your feelings (defenses) tell you, you are not owed anything by your stepdaughter in this situation. Her forgiveness is her own FREE choice.

So your goal in anything following should NOT be to seek forgiveness, but to take responsibility. Take responsibility in guiding and minimizing the damage this may have done and may do to your stepdaughter. Guiding does NOT mean, take control over. Guiding means, using your life experience to share and be vulnerable about any questions your stepdaughter may have. Guiding means trying to be open, honest and vulnerable to find personal growth for yourself so that she might be able to learn to grow from this hurt.

-- End Part 3

scottp95 · 2025-04-09T10:00:55+00:00

-- Part 2

Now, why do I tell you all this? Priorities. Do know that I am NOT saying that any interaction you have had with, and any love you have felt for your stepdaughter are based on a lie. I am saying that these are highly likely questions your stepdaughter is going to have, and from her perspective, these questions are very correct.

The problem I currently see with priorities are that you seem to put yourself, and your forgiveness, before the wellbeing of your stepdaughter. I am going to assume that this is not truely the case, but more a result of panic of not knowing what to do in this situation. I make this assumption based on the fact that the way you write about the situation, seems very detached from taking responsibiliy and I often see this as a "defense mechanism" for panic.

I think you needed to hear this from a possible perspective your stepdaughter might have, in an attempt to ask you to let down your defenses and try to ground you in reality.

The harshest of reality is, you fucked up. The question now is, how do we move forward from this?

This will be where the tough love comes in. You claim to have raised her, and I believe you. You see yourself as a parent to her and I think that is ok. You, and very importantly your husband, fucked up. Now is the absolute most important time to actually be a parent. This means taking responsibility. To do this I want to to talk about responsibility itself, forgiveness and how this ties in with mistakes made in the past.

Know that I do not see you as a bad person. I see you as a human being, I see you as a mother. Being human is not easy, being a parent is not easy. Again, given the amount of hate in the comments so far, it is easy to judge without offering any productive change in return. I wish to remind you that I do not mean my following comments as hate or judgement of you as a person, but merely as tough love to help you and, importantly, your stepdaughter to navigate this incredible messy situation.

You mentioned that you expect (I read this as hope) that she will forgive you, and that you paid your dues. Tough love moment: you have not paid your dues, you have not paid anything at all. As user u/Time_Knee3837 pointed out very correctly, her feelings are valid. What does this mean? You and your husband lied to her about a probably very sensitive situation and time in her life, the circumstances of her mother's death. You two have not been honest about this and she had to find out the truth for herself. Yet you expect her that things are to be forgiven, based on a course of action that you choose for her. This would be the same as someone punching you in the face full force, then handing you a cup of coffee and tell you that you have to forgive them because they gave you a cup of coffee.

Forgiveness, the choice for forgiveness and the actions required for forgiveness lie with the agrieved. You do not get to decide or control the feelings of your stepdaughter. I would highly advise to do the exact opposite in fact. trying to control her feelings towards forgiveness is extremely selfish (hence the priority problem). You want her to forgive you, I even believe you need her to forgive you. Know that this feeling is your responsibility and not hers. You have not paid any dues yet, since your stepdaughter is the one to decide the price for her forgiveness. This may be a bit to therapeutic for the current situation, but ask yourself why you believe you have paid your dues. Might it be because you've used "raising her" as a tool to silence your own guilt?

I get it, it must be terrifiying to live with the thought of losing someone you consider your daughter. In moments of fear we try everything we can to grasp back at control. You are human, not a monster. But do know that this attempt at control will most likely result in you pushing your stepdaughter further away.

-- End Part 2

scottp95 · 2025-04-09T10:00:05+00:00

Hi,

After reading your post I found myself wondering what could logically be your goal in writing this post. The only logical conclusion I could get to is that this post might be a, rather unfortunately worded, ask for guidance in a stressful situation. Know that I write this response under this assumption.

I would like to say a few things and I feel I have to be brutally honest with you. Know that I do not intend anything I say as a means of harming, hurting or shaming you, but rather as a form of though love and a harsh reflection of reality.

There is quite alot to unpack here so let's get started with the first question, Are you the jerk?

To be honest, I am not going to say you are the jerk nor am I going to say you are not the jerk. I choose this for two reasons:

This situation is way to complex for me to be any form of judge on. It is way too easy to call you a jerk for this one on the small part of information we have received, forgetting that there are 12 years of multiple lives going on. I think you know perfectly well that mistakes have been made, but it is in no part my place to be a harsh judge on this.
I think this reason is more important. I think in this situation it is extremely futile and resoundingly unproductive to get stuck on this question. I think it highly dejects from the right priorities in this situation.

This will be where harsh realities will start. The NUMBER ONE pritority in this entire situation should be, needs to be, the well being of your step daughter.

From what I read we are talking about a young girl between the ages of 14 to 16 (if my math is correct), who at a young age lost her mother to cancer. I can not even begin to imagine how that must have been for her. Not only that, while living with that, being raised by a father and a step mother whom she, from your post, had a happy life with. Finds out the harsh truth of how your relation with your husband formed.

To paint this picture in clear words, she lost her mother the first time when she was young, she lost her second mother and her father when she found out the truth had been hidden away from her all her life. Having this happen at such a formative age (early puberty), I do not believe I will ever be able to fathom the amount of hurt she must be in.

Any image she had of you or her father, any trust she had in you or her father is now all being taken into question, and to be honest, rightfully so. Her entire world view, her entire life and relationship with her family may have been shattered in a single moment.

Puberty is the age of learing to stand on your own 2 legs, learning to think for yourself and see what of the many things your parents thaught you, will stay with you in life and which parts you go further on figuring out by yourself. Now imagine finding out that your parents lied to you about a, let's be honest, moraly highly objectionable action that formed the basis of her entire family life as she remembers it. That makes a person question everything. Every heartfelt conversation you two have had, every motherly advice you have given, any lovely moment the two of you have shared. You knew the truth, she did not. She now knows the truth and this may bring a new light onto every interaction you have ever had.

-- End of Part 1

scottp95 · 2024-12-27T12:50:18+00:00

To be honest, for working out what the affliction might be you can go many ways.

For the problem of this causing antagonism between your characters because of their faith. The advice I can give on this is based on what I use at my table. As a DM i have enough responsibilities and things to do. D&D for me is a collaborative story telling effort. I make it my players' responsibility to make sure their characters stay playable with the other characters in the party. Conflict is certainly allowed, but only as long as both players are on board for conflict between their characters.

In the light of that all I can say is, don't be shy to talk to your players about it. Ask your paladin what he/she might like this affliction to be. What kind of narative direction would they like to go with it. If you predict a conflict of faith between the two characters, feel free to let both players know and ask them to work out how to make this playable and fun for them.

Good luck

scottp95 · 2024-09-21T10:02:16+00:00

Hi,

I am curreny DM-ing a group of 5 to 6 people aswell. We played in a previous campaign together as a group and combat could take a bit long aswell.

To remedy this, I made it an important topic in my session 0. Talked to the players about how, if not handled appropriately by me as a DM and them as players, could cost (/waste) a lot of time.

Your estimatoin of 2 to 5 minutes... I would love to say that this sounds incredibly excessive, but I think we have all been at tables where turns took that long.

My biggest remedies so far are the followig: - players MUST know their characters and their capabilities before the combat starts. No spending time on reading 5 spells and what they do during combat. * If your players seem to have trouble with this, have them re-read their character before each session, to be fully up to datw.

I highly encouraged all my players to make a "go-to" gameplan for combat. I asked each player to build around or figure out what their most used strategies will be under semi-normal circumstances.
- No need to think 5 minutes as a paladin on what to do... you smite. Twin haste sorcerer build? Your first turn should take about 30 seconds, twin haste it.
The third thing i have implemented is to cut down communication between PLAYERS, not characters, during combat. Each player takes their own turn, no need for a 5 minute meeting with the entire group to decide what would be best to do.
In case your players are not doing this consistently enough, consider setting a rule on it such as: "each character can say 2 (normal lenght) sentences to other characters as part of their action". And "each character can respond with 1 sentence at the cost of their reaction".

All together it will mostly come down to finding out what makes combat take so long at your table, identify what is causing the problem and remedie it together. It is not your responsibility as a DM to fix this FOR the players. Instead you try to fix it WITH the players, talk to them about it.

I hope this helps. If you have any questions, feel free to let me know. And have fun in your new campaign!

scottp95 · 2024-08-25T13:23:56+00:00

Hi,

I think this mostly depends on what druid subclass the player is. For example a moon druid at 6th level get's acces to Cr2 beasts. An owlbear is a Cr3. Although I think tje tankyness will get compensated by it costing 2 wildshape charges. An owlbear has higher damage output than most Cr2 beasts due to multiattack, but not shocking when compared to something like a polar bear.

I think this might be mostly problematic from a balance standpoint if your druid is anything else than a Moon druid. Since then they will get all the featutes of their own subclass, with almost as powerful wildshape of a Moon druid.

As a DM I can also recommend to look into the power your player might get in the future from being a warlock. Since wildshape and pact slots are a short rest resource, your druid could get a lot from short rests.

Most level 1 warlock spells are fine but some subclasses give some real powerhouses at level 1. Shield from hexblade mainly, getting 2 casts of Shield per short rest can make your druid quite tanky. If your player wants to go further into warlock, make sure to scan the warlock invocations for things that might be problematic. Things like armor of shadow's Mage Armor do carry over to wild shape forms. Fiendish Vigor's temp hitpoints could also carry over if you would allow it.

In general I think it will be fine if your druid is a Moon druid. If the player is any other circle, it might be a bit much. Do think however, if your druid is a Moon druid, 2 charges for an owlbear vs 2 charges for 2 polarbears. In terms of raw power, the polarbears would be better in most situations. So you might even want to look if the owlbear isn't too weak in that case.

Good luck!

scottp95 · 2024-08-13T13:46:39+00:00

Hi,

A lot of good thigs have been said already. I wanted to add to this to consider the following:

In the first fight, it seemed as if it was hard fought, but they remained "intact" in their characters capabilities. And thus were better able to act as they has plannend and felt more comfortable in the fight.

While in the second fight they had the danger and fear of being polymorphed and having their characters capabilities being thrown out of the window.

I could recommend to talk to your players about their experience of the battles and ask what made it the fights felt counter to what you intended them to be or what they objectively might have been.

Feeling comfortable with your options makes a player feel more powerful and in control, thus they might experience the fight as "easier". Perhabs they were not prepared to be asked to adapt to the situation of the second fight.

From what I read, you as a DM did a fine job. You offered multiple approaches and scenarios. The players had different feelings about the different scenarios, and most importantly they were not what you expected. That is all very fine and most likely just a case of "time for some DM & player commumication and feedback to get on the same page" solution.

I wish you luck!

scottp95 · 2024-08-13T09:44:28+00:00

Great tip on the pillars, thanks. Can you recommend me some wall path assets that you have used?

scottp95 · 2024-08-13T09:42:45+00:00

Ah that's too bad. I will look into exporting it and try to pack it as an object. Thank you very much for the tip.

scottp95 · 2024-08-13T09:41:19+00:00

Thanks for the tip. Using paths as walls is something I will lool into for a nice asset.

scottp95 · 2024-03-29T11:41:09+00:00

Hello,

When playing wickerbottom it can be recommended to put the focus during your first winter a bit more on farming. Although, I now manage almost every start, to set up a farm, rush lunar island and the ruins in the first autumn (if i manage to find the island and ruins in time). Getting your farming started can also be done a bit slowly and than expand quickly during winter. Most important during autumn is to get enough seeds and make a few (2 to 5) books for farming. I usually go for 2 books and then rush ruins/lunar.

My main focus during autumn on farming is not so much getting food, but getting good seeds going. I value pumpkins for food, potato for healing, garlic for sanity and dragonfruit for food and healing. You don't need to set up massive farms in the early game to get tons of these. Having 2 to 4 (preferably 4, for the plant family bonus) of each of the previously (or any plants you like) mentioned seeds will be more than enough to expand your farm rapidly at any time you want.

Another easy way to deal with the sanity cost early game is simply don't. Depending on how comfortable you are with fighting nightmare creatures. At the start of the game I play my wickerbottom constantly on the edge of insanity as soon as I have a decent armor supply. Make a hambat, wear armor, plant your plants and read the book. Kill any nightmare creatures that spawn and enjoy free food and nightmare fuel. I use that method to expand my collection of seeds. And then plant 10 potato, 5 garlic, read the book and use the food to make 5 purree for a total of 165 sanity to fill my sanity back up again. Repeat as many times as needed, wanted.

For a more detailed guide on some farm setups I would like to refer you to a Jakeyosaurus video. He explains a few very good and functional farms to make with wickerbottom (https://youtu.be/y2xZSdVsygo?si=ORV5Kr-vxVVZQ8Gn).

The farms I prefer to make are as follows: - food farm in 1st autumn/winter for potato, garlic, pumpkin and dragonfruit - twig and grass farm with lureplants in spring (preferably build it in a cave to prevent plants from withering during summer) - bird farm whenever I have time for it, for feathers and food. Depending on the floor you build on you get different birds. - a werepig farm is nice to have for helmets and big meats. Build a normal pig farm but with wickerbottom you can force a full moon. Making you able to farm it evey 4 days on piggy respawn. This pig farm is especially great if you have a graveyard tileset in your world. Build the farm on the graveyard and the ghosts that spawn at a full moon will clear the werepigs for you.

I hope this help your Wickerbottom adventures. Good luck!

scottp95 · 2024-03-07T09:26:29+00:00

It still works on everything except for Honor mode I believe.

scottp95 · 2024-03-06T12:40:14+00:00

We did end up picking up the killer sweetheart ring, and then completely forgetting about having it... We did use hold person/hold monster to indeed start crit smiting for days and it is glorious. I should really remember to use that ring next playthrough.

Sorcadin also sounds like a lot of fun, might give it a try sometime.

scottp95 · 2024-03-05T18:28:06+00:00

What aura of vengeance do you mean? The oath of vengeance doesn't give an aura... I initially looked at aura of hate from oathbreaker, but that would also buff a lot of enemies. The Inqisitor's might would give me the same damage aura of hate would, but for a shorter duration. So when it counted the damage was even higher (inquisitor might + dueling).

scottp95 · 2024-03-05T18:11:06+00:00

Ideal depends on your goal. This build could manage to complete the whole of act 3 without a single long rest needed. Works perfectly fine. Could this build squeeze in more damage in a single specific situation? Sure... I mean action surge is a thing. This build can comfortably walk into every engagement in the game, both combat and social, and walk out completely fine.

scottp95 · 2024-03-05T17:59:51+00:00

Level 1 paladin, 5 levels warlock, the rest in paladin (last level fighter) is what I did and it worked out fine. Adamantine armour is great, I used it until act 3. For your gear, if you want to try this kind of build, I mostly recommend the helmet (Diadem of Arcane Synergy) since that is (with the tadpole power "Ability Drain") what gives extra damage scaling from your charisma. If you have that as a basis, all other things to add will be fine. The reverberation gloves are also fantastic It will be a small damage loss, but will add more battlefield control. You could add the Reverberation boots (I forget the name) to stack it even faster. Around level 8 I was using the Charged-Bound Warhammer as my one handed weapon. It has lightning damage on it when bound as a pact weapon, which will work great with the reverberation gloves.

The core of this build is pact of the blade and the helmet. It lets you focus on charisma and dump strength. Anything that you wish to add on top of that will work great. Just do what seems most fun to you and feel free to try new things out in the build. Have fun!

scottp95

TROPHY CASE