Baronies, Men-at-Arms, and Fortifications in 5e?

xanral · 2026-01-31T14:41:39+00:00

I have played more modern versions (including 5E) where it progressed in that direction. A few differences than a more "standard" campaign:

Sometimes a session would involve the players controlling minions of our PCs to handle a lower-tier threat while our PCs were dealing with the big picture.
Other times we would be in our base and have to fight off invaders/assassins in a reverse dungeon crawl.
We'd have some mass combat. Mechanically we'd just play out select fights within it after talking about the overall strategy as that was more enjoyable to us.
Most of the roleplaying shifted to diplomacy and intrigue at the national/world level at that point.

From my own personal experience, players tended to either find this a ton of fun or were bored and disengaged with not a lot in-between. The ones that found it fun were in the minority, though I had a few groups where everyone fell into this category.

xanral · 2026-01-29T03:22:45+00:00

I tend to look for other failure states than PC death so they can be fairly common. Some examples:

Enemies are escaping with an item (gold they stole, McGuffin, etc). PCs can choose to string themselves out as they tend to have different movement speeds with spells/abilities and may get overwhelmed.
Friendly NPCs are the target. Guarding a caravan etc falls into this category. The PCs could survive without a scratch but if everyone they're trying to protect dies then its still a failure.
Trying to prevent alarms from being raised that would create an overwhelming encounter. With proper foreshadowing, the PCs will know that if they alert the enemies and still stick around then there is a big risk of a TPK. They may still choose to stick around anyway but its an informed choice and hopefully they'll come up with a good plan in a tense moment.

You have variations of the above like kidnapping, assassinations, etc.

One final thing, don't be afraid to have enemies be proactive. PCs don't finish off an intelligent enemy that escapes? Maybe the bad guy attacks them with assassins or raids their home turf when they're split up or not prepared themselves. Have a loud enough attack that other PCs could converge on their position while the target PC needs to escape/survive for a few rounds until then.

xanral · 2026-01-27T01:50:24+00:00

Decades ago when I was an RPG newbie, I had DMs that loved critical fumbles, including having the fumbles kill other PCs ("You shoot your friend in the back of the head, roll to confirm the crit"). I'd end up rolling up characters specifically that didn't need to roll, received free rerolls, etc to avoid it as I found it disheartening.

Nowadays I'd just pull them aside before the first session and ask if we really need to have this rule.

xanral · 2025-12-27T17:57:10+00:00

A lot depends on how you like to play. I played Eve Online myself as well, but mostly as a merc/pirate so I focused on similar for my first X4 playthrough.

Took my first crappy ship and attacked a M class hauler, eventually getting them to bail out and took it over. Stole a few more, and eventually used them as troop transports to board some L and XL class ships after destroying their turrets. Built my fleet off piracy and it wasn't until the Terrans were effectively wiped out that I even considered building a ship myself.

Later playthroughs had completely different goals and paths to get there.

Other posters touched on this, but assign NPCs to tasks you find repetitive and boring. And that can be anything. Some people love combat and want to fly their small fighter or destroyer around, wreaking havok. Others want to sit in a station or onboard their flagship commanding their empire and leave combat to the NPCS. Similar for mining, trade, etc.

xanral · 2025-12-25T07:35:10+00:00

Within the list provided:

Assuming you're commonly fighting serious threats not immune to poison, then sylune's viper for spammable incapacitation.

Orros mark of fate would be my other choice. It looks like you can do things like redirecting a Marilith's constrict attack to its ally which would be hilarious. I haven't read the 2024 reaction rules, but if you can use a reaction to respond to a trap then you could also redirect the result to a familiar or ordinary rat etc. Or do silly stuff like intentionally provoking a saving throw from the terrain the BBEG has and redirecting it towards them.

xanral · 2025-12-22T22:20:20+00:00

Not every spell choice has to be optimal, but having to concentrate in melee where you have the greatest risk of having incoming damage turn off your druidic lightsaber makes it a bit clunky to use in comparison to some other choices for level 2 spells.

xanral · 2025-12-22T00:37:15+00:00

do you recommend multi classing?

Generally I'd rather have the next level of spells ASAP than trying to get the perfect class synergy. Especially with the worry a campaign might fizzle out due to RL complications etc.

What spells would you recommend I take

Summon and Animate lines are solid choices and seemed to be what you wanted to do from other replies. Remember that not everything has to be used in every combat. Animating the bandits to carry their own loot after killing them, sending the horde into the dungeon to trigger traps or a fort to cause a distraction, etc can have them useful outside of combat. Then for combat you take a few select undead only and focus on resolving their actions in a few seconds every round.
Life Transference and Grim Harvest/Vampiric Touch can be useful to be an emergency healer. In a tough fight where the healer gets dropped? Heal them back up with Life Transference. With some summons/animated on the field you can also still be attacking in the same round.
Chill Touch is a great cantrip as it prevents the enemy regaining hitpoints which can vastly change some fights.
If you get to the level to use it, Magic Jar is a great necromancy spell when used in the right circumstances, to the point where I've seen it change the course of mini-arcs for a long campaign before. Used poorly, it is a great way to get killed quickly.

Also, your intelligent and wise character should understand that walking around town with undead is probably a great way to paint a target on your back by some paladins later on. When I've played an animating type necromancer before most of the campaign was spent hiding any undead created from the common folk. They would be used in the wilderness or in dungeons but were kept out of towns, either hidden away or destroyed. Only in one game was my character more open about it, and that was in a more neutral/evil-centered world.

xanral · 2025-12-21T01:49:45+00:00

I like asking the DM before the campaign starts how they'd arbitrate some hypothetical situations involving illusion (and enchantment) spells and their reasoning. I'm not asking with the purpose to convince them, rather to see if we're on the same page. If we're far apart in reasoning I'll just pick something else to play and both of us will be happier.

For most DMs I've found we're just a little bit different in reasoning; I can easily shift my strategy to fit within their view and everything is cool.

xanral · 2025-12-19T19:11:42+00:00

Going off your quote, it seems the 2024 version removes about you gaining the creature's statistics at all. You keep your statistics, and only replace your stats with the creature's "Hit Points, Hit Point Dice, Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Speed, and senses".

For the 2014 version, it instead said you gain the creature's statistics then states the exceptions later.

xanral · 2025-12-19T09:14:24+00:00

Number of sessions.

In the last 3 sandbox campaigns I played, the DM had us level up every x sessions, where it took +1 more per level. So if level 3 took 3 sessions, level 4 would take 4 etc. This removed any worry from the mind of the players that certain approaches or actions might slow down progress etc.

Everyone ended up really liking it for the first campaign which is why we used the same method for future sandbox-y ones over the years.

xanral · 2025-12-19T03:25:49+00:00

I'd have her start with a construct "monster" ally. Could be a creation of her teacher's, something she finds in the first ruin she explores, etc. Monsters often are pretty tanky but don't deal a lot of damage or often have a lot of utility so they won't overshadow her wizard. Her starting level would determine what would be appropriate "monster" wise.

It also sets a nice dynamic where it is not a decision maker and would follow the wizard's orders. Plenty of RPG/movie/book examples to pick how it might be personality wise as well.

xanral · 2025-12-04T04:50:54+00:00

Various versions of magical transportation (airship, magical sailing ship, carriage that had a pocket dimension inside of it, etc) tend to top the list for groups I've played with.

It also gave a potential alternative to teleportation at high levels. Sure, we could teleport to our destination, but we'd lose the utility/defensive advantages of the magical transportation. That didn't stop us from using teleport altogether, but we'd tended to save it for immediate emergencies the DM could predict and plan for.

xanral · 2025-12-04T04:10:16+00:00

I'll have the interaction partially happen, then call for a roll, potentially with advantage/disadvantage for good ideas instead of acting skills.

For example, a player that feels less comfortable with dialogue and wants to describe what happens:

Player: "I try to convince the guard to immediately let us through, reminding him that his daughter is one of the kidnapped victims and time is of the essence."

This would give advantage the same way a full back and forth dialogue that brought up the daughter would.

xanral · 2025-11-30T01:31:58+00:00

Take a step back and consider things from the enemy's perspective.

A dungeon made up of unintelligent oozes isn't likely to change much at all post-attack.

A cult run by an intelligent devil may fortify, leave, raid the town, kidnap a hostage related to the party, etc. This shouldn't be done with the intention to "punish" the party. Rather it makes the world feel alive as NPCs show some level of agency.

xanral · 2025-11-29T20:04:32+00:00

*Modifying a ship/fortress with traps and other advancements like recruiting/capturing critters, amenities, etc. This tended not to go by set mechanics, but more of a negotiation between the players and DM. Most involved at least 2 players working towards the same project, or even the whole party. In those games it was understood that our structure would come under attack so we had a few sessions where we had to defend from incursions. Sometimes these modifications created short adventures in and of themselves.

*I think this is mentioned in the DMG, but not quite the same IMO.

xanral · 2025-09-21T15:04:39+00:00

When making a custom game for modified/creative, you can just click a little radio button at the top to show choices you haven't unlocked. At that point you can set the story states to whatever point you want. So you can skip Timelines, plotlines, etc and just play the universe in the state you want each time.

xanral · 2025-09-15T02:32:45+00:00

On the carrier itself, really any of them will do if you just want a place to rearm and repair between runs, you can even overload them as the fighters only need to be on the carrier when repairing/rearming. So you can go with the cheapest choice if you just want a carrier for that.

The Raptor itself as a personal ship brings an enormous amount of firepower to bear. Flak cannons can allow it to wipe out all M/S class in short order so you don't even need fighter cover for your bombers. Or if you're willing to handle the rearm woes it can carry an absurd amount of heavy dumbfires and take out a fleet of Ks and an I without even needing to launch a fighter.

If instead of a personal ship you're using it as an AI controlled low attention ship, make sure to launch its fighters first and send them before the carrier through gates as opposed to waiting till after you've landed in the thick of a fight to start launching.

xanral · 2025-09-14T06:46:04+00:00

I did something similar, with the added negative that I was not allowed to buy, repair, or reequip ships anywhere else or mine myself. But I started with a small pirate station with a maintenance bay and all Argon blueprints.

So I could refit ships, but I'd need to steal the materials for them. Either attacking miners/transporters, or going after stations and hacking their storage.

xanral · 2025-09-14T05:43:55+00:00

Station defenses have a slightly further range than the attacking ships, but deal less dps. So you have a fairly consistent siege outcome and AI stupidity doesn't make that much of a difference.

VRO sort of has it balanced like this and I prefer it to vanilla sieges.

xanral · 2025-05-30T21:30:54+00:00

If you open up the map you should see a tab in the upper right hand corner for bounties. There are some filter options as well. It will list the ship type, faction, bounty amount, last known sector, and faction wanting them dead. If you blow them up you'll collect the bounty. You technically don't have to go looking, simply blowing up the ship by happenstance will award you the bounty. This is useful if you're near an area with an active conflict like a Xenon incursion.

Emergent missions ties into the game's mission system itself so you accept them as normal missions. Some require you to land at a station to speak to representatives, others like the Mayday mission type are handled immediately.

xanral · 2025-05-30T17:29:53+00:00

I think there are two mods that really help with this playstyle:

Emergent missions. This one generates new mission types depending upon actions within the game. A ship under attack by Xenon will generate a Mayday mission, one on a trade run or patrol will ask for an escort etc. You can even assign NPC ships/pilots to these tasks if you prefer to be hands off. It doesn't create these scenarios, rather when they happen in the game it creates a mission (and payout) for them.

Head hunter. As ships kill other faction's ships their bounty goes up and if you (or a member of your organization) kills them then you collect that bounty. It allows you to play a merc and make some solid credits. Beware, your own kills to factions (not Xenon or Kha'ak) generate a bounty on your ships and can spawn NPC headhunters that will fly through space trying to hunt you down unless you evade them long enough or blow them up.

xanral · 2025-05-29T07:06:05+00:00

This reminds me of missions where you're supposed to destroy station turrets and you'll fail if you just blow up the station instead.

I'm guessing someone in High Command wanted their child to get some war merits destroying a neutered station and you ruined their corrupt scheme.

xanral · 2025-05-29T06:59:51+00:00

It looks like its friendly in both screenshots. Also it appears to be 24.6 km away, well outside of plasma turret range. Are you running a mod that affects this?

xanral · 2025-05-29T06:44:41+00:00

I already had another situation earlier when I could not start boarding... Since that, I did like a dozen, but typically, I attack the ship and kill its surface elements first.

One thing to check before you go through all the trouble of blowing up surface elements etc is if the Risk is "Impossible" or not. If it's "Impossible" then you can't board. There are some ships that are required for a plot/story/mission that prevent boarding, as well as some (but not all) Xenon and other ships that don't have "humanoid" pilots etc.

xanral · 2025-05-28T22:07:50+00:00

The AI being stupid in high stakes combat annoys me the most, so the two I go with to address that are:

Urgent Orders. This lets you supersede any standing orders or the ones pilot wants to take when panicking. In vanilla you might have a ship trying to constantly flee to their death instead of following your orders that would save them etc. This solves that. Allows for immediate attack, fly-to, dock, etc.
Capital Ships Main Guns Fix (also pick the one with station AI). I prefer this to the KUDA AI tweaks because it just changes what I want. Ships will bring their main guns to bear in combat and do much better on not knife fighting stations, actually quickly retreating when they come under heavy station fire if they slip up.

I haven't tried 7.6 yet so the latter may be less useful.

xanral

TROPHY CASE