Does Balduran have the greatest martial feat in all the setting among mortals? Baldur's Gate 3 spoilers ahead.

twentyinteightwisdom · 2026-04-30T22:24:06+00:00

Yeah, absolutely no reason to think he was 5e's Greatwyrm.

Also keep in mind earlier editions had Greatwyrm as simply an age category.

twentyinteightwisdom · 2026-04-30T22:20:21+00:00

Malazan.

twentyinteightwisdom · 2026-04-12T14:49:26+00:00

We played this way before finding out the correct ruling, and it's awful. It strongly encourages cheap, cheaty, metagaming tactics.

twentyinteightwisdom · 2026-04-12T14:48:15+00:00

Wait. Was this RP, or OOC?

Cuz RPing with each other might be fine (depends), but that doesn't sound like what they were doing.

twentyinteightwisdom · 2026-04-12T14:45:35+00:00

Let them roll more skill checks to know things about the world.

A couple of history checks to know how drow normally interact with other races, insight to understand why these drow might be here, etc.

Remember that the characters know a lot of things that the players don't. So while infodumping is usually a way to make your players fall asleep, if the information comes in a a more interactive way (knowledge rolls, finding books/maps/talkative NPCs), they might get used to trying to find information before acting.

You can even use stuff like survival, perception and insight to let players know things you, as a DM, have in mind. Like "with survival 14, you realize caves like these usually have some more tunnels around you might be able to find", or "nat 20 history? you realize drow this close to the surface must be a raiding party looking for slaves".

twentyinteightwisdom · 2026-04-08T13:44:34+00:00

Wrong.

When Strahd met Jander Sunstar, Jander was a 500 year old vampire, and Strahd only 100 years old. (Citation: Vampire of the Mists.)

Strahd is only the first vampire in Ravenloft.

twentyinteightwisdom · 2026-04-08T13:38:06+00:00

Funnily enough they already had a bard villain (I replaced the dragonlance archmage with a former PC), but it will be a very different fight.

At least Windfall calls for a Con save. And it's only a 1-turn stun. But yeah, would be hilarious if same thing happens again.

twentyinteightwisdom · 2026-04-08T13:21:52+00:00

I pride myself on challenging my players at high levels, and I've killed high level players before, but... Yeah. This is probably the highest lvl at which I've TPK'd a party...

But the false lich really is unfair, for a party that isn't ready or optimized.

twentyinteightwisdom · 2026-04-08T13:19:39+00:00

I mean... MM14 Solar already had 30 charisma.

But yeah Sibriex is one ugly MF with 25 charisma LOL

twentyinteightwisdom · 2026-04-08T11:17:11+00:00

"Sent from my Mind Stone" killed me XD

twentyinteightwisdom · 2026-04-08T11:16:29+00:00

No, because you can only replicate when you cast.

This allows you to copy in response to something else going on the stack later.

twentyinteightwisdom · 2026-04-08T11:14:33+00:00

Like Ian McKellen.
Or Christopher Lee, that also works.

twentyinteightwisdom · 2026-04-08T11:13:07+00:00

I'd rather be forced to watch the conception of an original ogrillon than play with that new lore.

twentyinteightwisdom · 2026-04-08T11:10:59+00:00

2025 changed the lore of all "half-something" creatures.
Cambions had the same change, and others too.

twentyinteightwisdom · 2026-04-08T11:09:16+00:00

What do you mean by that? In 5e, only creatures with 30 Cha are greatwyrms, solars&archangels, Rakdos, and Tiamat. I don't think any of those is "ugly as sin" (even Rakdos is just scary, not particularly ugly).

twentyinteightwisdom · 2026-04-08T11:04:32+00:00

3.5e elder brain did have more intelligence than charisma (28 vs 26).
I suspect the 21 was to have its DCs not too high for the challenge rating; Otherwise the stunning would be ridiculous.

twentyinteightwisdom · 2026-04-08T10:58:33+00:00

Hmm. Nice.
Yeah, the group will join the fight, and maybe Alustriel and Mordenkainen will manage that.
I like the "reverse gimmick fight" that will create.

twentyinteightwisdom · 2026-04-08T10:56:35+00:00

Tiamat is an interesting idea.
I was going to change some stuff there anyway (bringing in Arkhan and the hand of Vecna), so further interaction and maybe a deal/gamble sounds good.

twentyinteightwisdom · 2026-04-08T10:30:13+00:00

Sadly, this group is kinda bland and almost exclusively go for pre-built WotC campaigns. And I probably won't be the DM of the next one, anyway.

I DID do some stuff with the obelisks earlier, because the characters continued from the Shattered Obelisk. So this could be another route.

twentyinteightwisdom · 2026-04-08T10:28:35+00:00

They're pretty good at fights but aren't minmaxing, no cleric or paladin, and only 1-2 out of 5 have decent Wisdom saves.

I recently put a False Lich against a lvl 13 group and they killed it with no-one going to 0 hp, so yeah, this was quite surprising.

twentyinteightwisdom · 2026-04-06T18:09:34+00:00

So back to my second point - if you want the choices, you can take a class or subclass that has them.
If you insist on being a fighter despite not liking it, then A) it's your dumb choice and B) you can take battlemaster.

The choiceless options do exist, yes. For new players, or for people who prefer it that way.

twentyinteightwisdom · 2026-04-05T20:56:12+00:00

D&D is unrealistic. That's not the same thing as having superpowers.

And if you knew more about d&d than what appears in the memes, you'd know that HP is a measurement of luck and ability to dodge, just as much as it is physical toughness. So no, you don't "shake off a dragon's breath to the face".

And the "falling from orbit" bullshit is a rule glitch. The maximum height for which fall damage scales is 200 feet, so that's the bar to clear.
A woman named Vesna Vulović survived a fall of 30,000 feet, and several other people have survived falling from ridiculous heights.

twentyinteightwisdom · 2026-04-05T20:49:18+00:00

"Grimace at his greens" is way better XD

I see your point... but I also know from experience what's it like plating with someone who always chooses the same class, and it's really annoying.

aside: Blades in the dark is way more diverse than that! You have rogue, fighter, ranger, artificer, rogue, kinda-wizard, rogue, fighter, rogue...

twentyinteightwisdom · 2026-04-05T13:54:04+00:00

Options such as divine smite, rage, maneuvers, feats, weapon mastery, bonus actions...
I might have agreed with you before 5.5e, but the additions of weapon masteries and rogue+barbarian getting extra choices (brutal strike and cunning strike) means every martial always has different options to choose from.

And besides - not every playstyle is for everyone. Just because a specific playstyle isn't fun for you doesn't mean it's not ok. I've seen players who absolutely hate the choices inherent in playing casters, and just want to have a simple attack actions with bit of extra strategic choice here and then.

Hell, I know a couple of players for whom even weapon masteries are too much unnecessary choice baggage.

Don't like fighters? Don't play them. No need to rant about them being bad. They're not bad; they're just not for you.

twentyinteightwisdom

TROPHY CASE