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D&D 5E Discussion

Lhynn

Arcane
Joined
Aug 28, 2013
Messages
9,823
Generally speaking fumbles are the only thing ive changed. If you get a 1 on your roll you will get another roll to determine how bad the fumble is. Generally speaking if you roll above 11 fuck all happens, if you roll below increasingly shitty things can happen, from a disadvantage on your next roll or an advantage to the enemy, to getting your weapon stuck somewhere, breaking it or swinging at close ally (In which case you roll again, with your str modifier but without proficiency, to see if it lands), depending on how low you got.
These are the "inevitable mistakes" that happen in extended engagements that can tip the balance in favor of one or another side. I find this works well in 5e.

Hindering doesnt work, its burdensome (Haha) and never really goes anywhere interesting. Maybe the players spend one or two weeks moving the treasure they just found, so thrilling. But i will enforce it if it adds to the situation, for instance a character carrying another character while climbing or how much you can carry into an expedition to the desert, considering it directly impacts your survivability.

Maiming in general i only use when the players beg for it (By being fucking stupid and rolling low enough that ive got the excuse), though i dont forget about those missing limbs, i offer opportunities to do something about it. Prosthetics, adventure hooks to regrow it, even chances to turn that limb into something different.

End of the day i believe a character should be more about the character choices (What happens in the story and what they do about it) than the player choices (What they have planned to pick for level 3, 4, 5). Making a balance this means every member of the party ends up hitting above their weight class, but i dont care for balance.


This is a far cry from 3.5e, where the disparity between classes was so huge that you were forced to prop up non-casters while neglecting casters. Where you were forced to make it high magic because the usefulness of a fighter without magical items in a mid-high level encounters is such that you are better off just summoning disposable units than a fighter you will have to resurrect or spend all your healing on later.
 

Larianshill

Arbiter
Joined
Feb 16, 2021
Messages
1,719
Generally speaking fumbles are the only thing ive changed. If you get a 1 on your roll you will get another roll to determine how bad the fumble is. Generally speaking if you roll above 11 fuck all happens, if you roll below increasingly shitty things can happen, from a disadvantage on your next roll or an advantage to the enemy, to getting your weapon stuck somewhere, breaking it or swinging at close ally (In which case you roll again, with your str modifier but without proficiency, to see if it lands), depending on how low you got.
So as fighter gets progressively higher level, he becomes a bigger danger to himself and the party?
 

Lhynn

Arcane
Joined
Aug 28, 2013
Messages
9,823
So as fighter gets progressively higher level, he becomes a bigger danger to himself and the party?
I wouldnt see it that way. But theres a reason you step back from two people having a duel, or keep a safe distance from your friend by flanking the opponent. If its 9 dudes wailing on another dude, you bet your ass theres a chance a stray swing may hit one of them.
 

Larianshill

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Joined
Feb 16, 2021
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I wouldnt see it that way.
But that's exactly how it is. As fighter gets more attacks, he gets more opportunities to fumble, break his weapon, stab his friend and do something else straight out of Looney Tunes. Do wizards, who don't usually use attack rolls, also get fumble tables?
 

Lhynn

Arcane
Joined
Aug 28, 2013
Messages
9,823
But that's exactly how it is. As fighter gets more attacks, he gets more opportunities to fumble, break his weapon, stab his friend and do something else straight out of Looney Tunes. Do wizards, who don't usually use attack rolls, also get fumble tables?
They have plenty of ranged to hit attacks, cantrips, rays, etc.
I guess i could add something, like players adding their proficiency to this fumble roll, meaning they would generally get better results the more experienced they become and make embarrassing failures a thing for people that dont know how to handle the weapon or for very inexperienced adventurers.
Or the roll only being made if the fumble is on the first attack every round. Its good that you pointed it out.
 

Gyor

Savant
Joined
Dec 11, 2017
Messages
731
Well apparently wotcs got a new survey thats giving random sets of people a special video and questions but making you agree to a nda.

Word on the street is its just them doing their own virtual table top which is anything like mtg arena it'll probably suck.

Also apparent 4 more setting books from my understanding 2 being classics and 2 brand new non mtg settings.

Supposedly people saw Flint of dragonlance on the video thats behind nda. So I guess Dragonlance is back but I think this is going to be without weiss or hickman.

I rember them reciving and making side comments about wotc so unless the hatchet got barried between the two groups I think they're trying to kick the two to the curb.

Its actually 5 more setting books, there is a return visit book as well (obviously the Forgotten Realms to replace the highly flawed SCAG).

So for upcoming setting books we have Stroxhaven: Cirruculum of Chaos, 2 Classics, 1 Revisit, 2 new setting books, for 6 setting coming (although 3 of them could still get cut if something goes wrong, but so far they are doing great).

Honestly the only one I really give a major shit about is the FR one, although I'll probably add the rest to my collection as well.

And I think one of the new settings will be the Domains of Delight, as mentioned by the new adventure. Basically a more fairy tale Feywild setting Mirror to Ravenlofts Domains of Dread setting.
 

Bara

Arcane
Joined
Apr 2, 2018
Messages
1,320
What was so bad about the SCAG book? I hear this a lot that's its horrible but never really looked at it.
 

Gyor

Savant
Joined
Dec 11, 2017
Messages
731
What was so bad about the SCAG book? I hear this a lot that's its horrible but never really looked at it.

The book was too small, especially for all the different things it tried to be. Most important areas outside the Swordcoast got a paragraph or less in it, so it was uselessly outside of the Swordcoast. The mechanics of many of the subclasses were broken or just too weak. Some favourite Gods were left out. Major cultures were explored only shallowly at best. There might be other complaints. As a bonus through no fault of its own, its now out of date too as events progress after it was published.
 

aleph

Arcane
Joined
Jul 24, 2008
Messages
1,778
Most important areas outside the Swordcoast got a paragraph or less in it, so it was uselessly outside of the Swordcoast.

Well, it is the Swordcoast Adventurer's Guide after all, not a FR Campaign Setting book. But I agree, it will probably be replaced by a real FR setting book, just like the Wayfarer's Guide to Eberron was.
 

Larianshill

Arbiter
Joined
Feb 16, 2021
Messages
1,719
The subclasses are not very good. Crown Paladin is terrible, Battlerager is so bad people don't remember it exists, Bladesinger is actually very great, but not at the thing it's supposed to be great at. Purple Dragon Knight is an actual spit in the face of everyone who wanted warlord, monk subclasses are weak, Undying patron is so notoriously awful, warlock received a new "I can't believe it's not Undying" patron in another book.
And then there's Swashbuckler. Swashbuckler is good.
 

NJClaw

OoOoOoOoOoh
Patron
Joined
Aug 30, 2016
Messages
7,513
Location
Pronouns: rusts/rusty
Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture
Whenever someone talks about the Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide, the only thing I can think about is the Druid illustration:

6qS8xUs.png


What the fuck. WHAT IS THIS
 

aleph

Arcane
Joined
Jul 24, 2008
Messages
1,778
Larianshill What's wrong with Purple Dragon Knight apart from the fact that it is not Warlord, which it probably never was supposed to be?
 

Larianshill

Arbiter
Joined
Feb 16, 2021
Messages
1,719
The proper question would be, what is right with Purple Dragon Knight. It completely pales in comparison to every other subclass fighter has, especially the Battlemaster, which is the benchmark to compare all fighter subclasses to. A healing feature that can't even help downed party members, an ability to grant one attack per short rest. Is this something worth taking the subclass for? I'd pick a Champion before I'd pick Purple Dragon Knight. With a Champion, I'd actually feel my class features making a difference.
 

odrzut

Arcane
Joined
Apr 30, 2011
Messages
1,082
Location
Poland
I wouldnt see it that way.
But that's exactly how it is. As fighter gets more attacks, he gets more opportunities to fumble, break his weapon, stab his friend and do something else straight out of Looney Tunes. Do wizards, who don't usually use attack rolls, also get fumble tables?

I like how Warhammer FRPG does this. You have certain amount of dice that increases with your level. You can roll some or all of them when casting a spell and the sum must be higher than the spell cost to sucessfully cast a spell. So the more dice you use the easier it is to cast the spell.

But it means you're bruteforcing it - and magic in Warhammer is inherently linked with chaos. So if you roll the same number on 2 of the dice you get a minor chaos manifestation - you roll what happens from a table. If you get the same number on 3 of the dice - it's a different (more dangerous) table. And so on.

So each spell you cast you make a tradeof between risk of not doing anything and risk of opening a permanent portal to the demon plane :)

Wild magic in D&D is a little similar but for some reason only applies to some classes. Spellcasters have higher upsides and scale better than fighters so their critical fumbles should also be more devastating. One way to do this is to make them roll arcana when breaking the concentration - on a failed roll use the wild magic tables or something homebrewed.
 
Last edited:

Gyor

Savant
Joined
Dec 11, 2017
Messages
731
Most important areas outside the Swordcoast got a paragraph or less in it, so it was uselessly outside of the Swordcoast.

Well, it is the Swordcoast Adventurer's Guide after all, not a FR Campaign Setting book. But I agree, it will probably be replaced by a real FR setting book, just like the Wayfarer's Guide to Eberron was.

That is the perfect analogy.
 

Lhynn

Arcane
Joined
Aug 28, 2013
Messages
9,823
You arent playing diablo. You dont roll that many times in any given adventure or even in a campaign. In 5e especially combats tend to be quick, generally not lasting more than 4-5 rounds.
You dont really do a perfect attack that cannot be avoided once every 20 swings either, theres an abstraction there, fumbles, as great successes, are a part of it.
 

Stella Brando

Arcane
Joined
Oct 5, 2005
Messages
8,968
Location
Castle Volkihar
Purple Dragon Knight

My problem with this sort of class is: Who walks down the street wishing they could be a purple dragon knight? Who wanted to be a purple dragon knight when they were a kid?

Do people just choose classes because they like the statistics, without imagining they are the character?
 

Stella Brando

Arcane
Joined
Oct 5, 2005
Messages
8,968
Location
Castle Volkihar
My kids were still teenagers when I ran a game for them that began with goblins raiding a local farming village. Their response was to talk to the goblins and find out why they were raiding. I already had a backstory, complete with no goblin children, in case they decided to hack and slash their way through the story. The goblins had fled because the evil temple in the caves had been taking their children to force the goblins to obedience. The goblins in question were the advance scouts and the rest of them (including most of the non-combatants) were still working their way down through the caves from the High Vale where they lived.

The characters negotiated a peaceful coexistence between the goblins and the local halfling farmers (who also required some convincing), then waited for the pass to clear, went into the high vale and rescued the goblin children from the temple.

This is what I did with the Caves of Chaos. The caves were spread out over a huge mountain vale and the prime evil was the temple of the Crawling Chaos that was hidden in one of the caves. Some of the non-humans were willing followers of the cult. Others were reluctant. Even within the caves of the willing followers, they were able to find dissenters and helped to free them and to help them to take over their communities.

Based on the actions of the characters in that first story, I was able to turn a somewhat problematic module from the Basic D&D days into a story that ran all through the first tier (we take a long time to level so that was several complete stories and one game year). Not only that, it was a story that allowed to characters to fight evil, while supporting the non-evil elements within each community. The only pure evil they encountered was the temple itself and the illithid scouts who were spying on the area (which they defeated with the help of a friendly flumph who was anxious to end the illithid thread before it came to the attention of the "great flumphtilla" that was passing through space nearby with flumphs the size of castles). It culminated in an old dwarven mining community that had fallen under the control of the orcs over the last two centuries (a mash-up of Quasqueton and the Forge of Fury). Even as they killed many orcs (who were threatening to invade the low-lands once their rivals in the temple had been defeated), they were looking for a reasonable orc leader they could support who would lead their people back into the orc caves and out of the fortress so the dwarves could reoccupy it.

You can have the same sorts of adventures in D&D without the colonialist narrative that you can with that narrative. Trust me. There was plenty of combat and treasure seeking to go along with the role-playing and negotiation.

TSR - TSR3 Blames Widespread Pushback On WotC | Page 39 | EN World | Dungeons & Dragons | Tabletop Roleplaying Games
 

Stella Brando

Arcane
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Oct 5, 2005
Messages
8,968
Location
Castle Volkihar
I like how they sound like the fantasy CIA, messing around in Central America or the Middle East on behalf of the US government. What could go wrong?
 

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