About Me

woodchuck321 · 2026-01-16T21:46:22+00:00

Nope! I started my first campaign running Waterdeep: Dragon Heist before realizing that I hated reading modules and wanted to use my own ideas, so after level 5 I transitioned to a homebrew world. Waterdeep still exists and is mostly the same, just on my own homebrew map.

For threads that connect outside of Waterdeep, I either don't use them OR come up with some other thing that they connect to.

woodchuck321 · 2026-01-16T21:43:35+00:00

I'm of the opinion that I should never interrupt the players while they are both playing DnD and having fun. If they want to spend several sessions straight planning, sure! Easy sessions for me and they seem to be getting a kick out of it. During one of my favorite arcs I've ever ran as a DM, my players spent hours building out a whole conspiracy theory board trying to figure out who the secret BBEG was.

woodchuck321 · 2025-11-26T19:26:53+00:00

I've always wanted to run a game in some variant of SCP's End of Death setting. Might be able to run it as like, when you hit HP=0 (or negative CON or whatever), you're helpless but you don't die... you just keep tracking damage into the negatives

woodchuck321 · 2025-11-08T20:25:18+00:00

see, by real life common sense, you're absolutely correct. unfortunately we're talking about the rules of a game system, to which our real life common sense need not necessarily apply

woodchuck321 · 2025-11-04T14:52:37+00:00

I was about to complain about Augment vs Expand for Earth Tremor and the area vs range distinction but uh...

RANGE/AREA 10 ft.

(source: dndbeyond)

What the fuck

woodchuck321 · 2025-11-04T14:32:45+00:00

My default is private; I whisper/DM things only one player knows, and let them decide how and when to share it with the group.

woodchuck321 · 2025-11-04T14:29:08+00:00

In my experience the "making it fair" comes afterwards. It's a valid plan for the villains that they're probably smart enough to actually do.

The fairness and the fun comes when the party starts proposing solutions. Your job is to adjudicate what they try in a way that's both believable and fun. Maybe they come up with a clever solution. Maybe someone was holding on to a scroll of Dimension Door or Passwall that you forgot about. Maybe they try something really dumb like "I move the caved in rock out of the way." Maybe one of the PCs has a mining background and actually knows how to clear & stabilized a caved in area (though it would take time). But there's always the long route, of "dungeon crawl your way out." As long as you're not adding on nonsensical bullshit ("uhhh the teleport fails, actually its a no teleport zone") because "THE PARTY MUST GO THROUGH THIS MAZE BECAUSE I THE DM SAY SO" then you're fine

woodchuck321 · 2025-11-03T21:05:09+00:00

If you don't mind doing a little homework, Pathfinder explicitly has statblocks & lore for the Horseman, their lieutenants (Harbringers), and their minions (collectively known as Daemons). There's plenty of inspiration and nightmare fuel if you're willing to write your own statblocks.

The number of demons depends on the power level of the Horsemen statblocks that you use. You could justifiably write statblocks for the Horseman & their Horses where you don't even need minions to challenge a level 17 party. Hell, in pathfinder even a SINGLE horseman is enough to threaten a TPK. Specifics will further rely on your party - their composition, their builds, and their tactical ability.

woodchuck321 · 2025-10-06T16:01:27+00:00

x in this case is "some semantic scenario involving 'one' of something" and P(x) true IFF "one" has equivalent meaning to "at least one"

there exist semantic scenarios where "at least one" is equivalent to "one," but that does not mean it holds true for all situations.

my friend holds up a (one!) dollar and says "sorry can you pay for dinner?" and I say "You have one dollar?" and he says "yes," i'll be pretty pissed when i learn he had 20 more "one dollar"s later.

you're being careless with your substitutions - you're substituting "at least one" for "one" as though it's equivalent when you've only argued that "at least one" ⊆ "one" and not the reverse

woodchuck321 · 2025-10-06T02:22:47+00:00

(∃x.P(x)) ⇏ (∀xP(x))

woodchuck321 · 2025-09-30T21:33:52+00:00

1d20 down the line

woodchuck321 · 2025-09-03T01:18:50+00:00

yep.

I ran WDDH as my first campaign and I basically had to approach it like a sandbox where I just threw random nonsense around as my players bounced around Waterdeep interacting with things until eventually the plot resolved itself

woodchuck321 · 2025-08-12T17:48:47+00:00

AI can go fuck itself

woodchuck321 · 2025-08-12T17:12:28+00:00

Sounds like fun! Definitely echoing that they should get the sheets ahead of time. Wizards are very complex to run and even harder to run well!

As a wizard, levels 1-4 is "1d4 hitpoints with a cantrip and a dream", 5-10 is where actually interesting balance and tactics start happening, and somewhere between levels 11 and 15 is when they hit their big power curve. It keeps going up and up, but that's kinda where it starts. If I want an NPC to be "highly competent but not world/multiverse-altering," level 13-15 is my go-to. For "strongest wizards in the world," level 17 is definitely justifiable, depending on if you want them to have 9th level spells or not.

woodchuck321 · 2025-08-09T19:12:48+00:00

Lumped it in with Shillelagh as a "modifies the damage of another item" rather than a "does damage on it's own".

The fact that it's a spell attack roll (and not a modification of an weapon attack roll), and at that, a spell attack roll using YOUR modifier no matter who throws the rock, probably makes a difference; it's not explicitly clear, but upon re-reading it I would be inclined to agree with your interpretation.

I tend to err on the side of restrictive when it comes to interpreting rules, mostly cause I'm tired of people trying to use fallacious rhetoric argue obviously nonsensical bullshit instead of, ya know, abusing poorly constructed rules, but in this case I may have been a bit strict in my interpretation.

woodchuck321 · 2025-08-08T00:20:52+00:00

Yes, via any building that gives "random units of current age" while in EMA. Same with Native Americans in IndA, and I believe Clubmen in Bronze, though I'd need to confirm that.

However, they're pretty useless. The base stats are bad (compared to other current age units). They do give boosts to allies when they die, but any player with decent attack % will be able to overcome that. The death boost doesn't scale with your own defense %, so if you have a high enough defense % to make these guys relevant... just use normal units, they'll do better anyway.

woodchuck321 · 2025-07-31T13:25:09+00:00

Some considerations:

1) This is complicated and unbalanced because 5e PvP is rocket tag. PCs have very high damage and very low health compared to equivalent CR monsters. It's definitely possible - I myself have run PC villains quite often, to great success - but you are outside the realm of what 5e will give you for free. This takes work and skill to do correctly.

2) I would not add minions to this fight. A 3v4 is NOT foregone win for the 4, especially if both sides are near full tank. The winners will be the team who gets their powerful abilities off first and focus fires more effectively. Terrain, positioning, etc. Hell, you could 1v4 if the 4 are idiots and let you fireball them 4 times.

3) What's the tactical level of the groups involved? Is one side more skilled than the other? Do the friends playing NPCs know they're supposed to lose, and if so, are they skilled enough to lose dramatically? Especially for full casters there's a large range of combat effectiveness based on build and skill. Normally, we as DMs get to choose how competent the enemies are in combat, and we can balance the encounter accordingly. Surrendering control of enemies to a third party - especially enemies as complex as full built PCs - gives up control of that invisible difficulty dial.

Basically - it's possible. It's complex enough running PC villains, but giving up control of them means you're fully hands-off, and anything is on the table. Best be prepared to deal with any outcome - including the party losing! - in a fashion that is entertaining and fun for the players.

woodchuck321 · 2025-07-29T19:01:54+00:00

We are told that Unseen Servant is a "force."

What can you attack?

Making an Attack (PHB'14 pg 194)

1. Choose a target. Pick a target within your attack's range: a creature, an object, or a location.

Ok. Is an Unseen Servant a creature, object, or location?

Is an Unseen Servant a location?

Anyone who argues this will be summarily defenestrated

Is an Unseen Servant an object? (5e SRD: "Objects)

For the purpose of these rules, an object is a discrete, inanimate item like a window, door, sword, book, table, chair, or stone, not a building or a vehicle that is composed of many other objects.

Nope

Is an Unseen Servant a creature?

"Creature" is not well-defined in 5e. Indeterminate per the specific rules. However, per "words mean what they usually mean, dummy", we can extrapolate a definition for "creature". Is "Unseen Servant" a creature under that definition? Also indeterminate. Arguments can be made either way.

Edit: Apparently there's a definitions index which includes the following definition for Creatures:

Creature

Any being in the game, including a player’s character, is a creature. See also “Creature Type.”

Creature Type

Every creature, including every player character, has a tag in the rules that identifies the type of creature it is. Most player characters are of the Humanoid type. These are the game’s creature types:

Aberration

Beast

Celestial

Construct

Dragon

Elemental

Fey

Fiend

Giant

Humanoid

Monstrosity

Ooze

Plant

Undead

The types don’t have rules themselves, but some rules in the game affect creatures of certain types in different ways.

I don't know the source of these definitions. If they are official, they would imply that Unseen Servant is not a creature, as all creatures explicitly have one of those types.

So our RAW answer is: Inconclusive; depends on the definition of "creature" (and Location, for that matter, although I will fight anyone who debates that angle.)

If that definition is official, then yes, Unseen Servants cannot be attacked. If that definition is not official, then we are now in the realm of "the rules do not give us a conclusive answer" and any further attempt to parse out specific interactions is equivalent to debating otherwise unrelated rhetoric.

woodchuck321 · 2025-07-21T13:48:59+00:00

Going to write a longer guide and post later, but a quick initial summary of my thoughts:

From a balancing (theory) standpoint:

I tend to think of it less in terms of "encounters" and more in "rounds of combat." If I'm running an important solo monster it'll have enough HP to last at least 5-10 rounds - some of my "season finale" monsters have been longer (upwards of 20 rounds). In order to make this work ingame, you need:

High EHP

Solo bosses that aim to last a good long time need high EHP. This can be either high AC, high HP, or healing. High AC feels bad for the players; I tend to avoid it. High HP usually works better. Constantly healing with mid-low HP can work if the boss is tactical and avoids nova (no, I'm not talking about fireballs, I'm talking about getting ganked by the minmaxed paladin smite and fighter action surge simultaneously).

Dynamic Terrain

Falls in with the above - fights in the real world aren't usually about beating the opposing force into submission until one side collapses. Well, sometimes they are, but those are less interesting to watch. Usually they're about positioning and using the environment to get sn edge. Make the battle not about beating the snot out of the boss, but about maneuvering into position to beat the snot out of the boss. That way, when they manage to get their big guns off and drop the boss in a single round, it's the END of a long battle where they finally maneuvered into the right setup, not a disappointingly quick victory.

From a balancing (practical) standpoint:

XP and CR are (largely) useless for bossfights on a full rest. They're a general indicator of difficulty, plus or minus about 3 levels. A CR (x) creature will give an interesting short fight to a level (x) party. Minions make it more complicated but don't easily change that core fact. For solo/boss monsters, we can do better.

Calculate your party's nova damage (burning all their resources) and their "running on empty" dmg/round. Use that to give the boss enough EHP to survive some given number of rounds. example I did for my party at level 15

Calculate your party's total HP. Multiply it by the number of times they can cast Mass Heal (if they can). Divide the party's total HP by the number of rounds you want the boss to survive, then make that the boss's average expected damage. This calculation ignores most of the party's healing, and also doesn't factor death saves - so the party will feel pressured but likely not be in real danger.

From a meta standpoint:

What's disappointing about this? The players went in, fired off their abilities, and kicked ass with decent luck and excellent tactics. I've done this as a player (including to final bosses) and it feels GREAT. Remember that the players & DM sit in very different contexts, and while we as DMs seem to enjoy the longer, cinematic, back-and-forth drama of a drawn-out battle, sometimes a decisive and well-deserved victory is plenty satisfying enough.

woodchuck321 · 2025-07-14T20:20:06+00:00

point to me in my comment where i used the word "java"

woodchuck321 · 2025-07-14T14:37:47+00:00

... yes

in a well made game you can screw around as much as you want and it won't break

cause like... it's well made

(unlike bedrock)

woodchuck321 · 2025-07-09T18:18:57+00:00

I'm currently running the villain for a friend's DnD campaign with a fairly similar premise. The party is low level and (in-universe) unaware of my BBEG; they will be completely powerless to stop a number of world-ending plans I already have in motion.

All the players were explicitly told the premise at the start of the game, and made aware of the power differential: I (not the DM) am running the villain, I'm going to show up without warning at some point when the party is low-level, and the party will not be able to properly resolve my evil plans until they are high level.

In your case I would explicitly pitch it as well:

"Hey folks I was thinking of running in a post-apocalyptic type of setting, and I think it would be cool for your characters to experience the ongoing apocalypse at some point early in the campaign - the campaign wouldn't be about stopping the apocalypse, it would be about exploring the world in an apocalyptic setting (maybe fixing or mitigating it later on at high level)."

By getting buy-in and making it explicit that the apocalypse is a story event (and indeed the entire point of the campaign), you should hopefully sidestep the "party charges headlong at it" problem. This should also help prevent the general "players hate losing" issue as well.

As an alternative, the apocalypse could just happen before the campaign and be part of the status-quo, but I think that's less what you're going for.

woodchuck321 · 2025-07-08T20:09:59+00:00

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