gerusz @ gerusz @ttrpg.network Posts 0Comments 34Joined 2 yr. ago
Yeah, he was a condescending sexist prick to the Kiyoshi warriors (initially), and while it did earn him some beatings, it didn't get him a restraining order and he even got with Suki in the end. That's high CHA alright.
The basic setup will be quite simple: after ruining the country's plans to set up proper anti-dragon defenses in the capital, he will land on top of the city hall and tell them that he is bored of random raids and now demands the respect and tribute that a dragon deserves. Namely, one million gold pieces and 20 of "their young" per month. First delivery expected in 15 days.
Diplomacy would be viable, if the party could somehow convince the country to give up a significant chunk of their GDP and 20 children per month. But I doubt they would do that.
After which, they will have those two weeks to cross the frozen northern wilderness (a hex crawl with 100 traversable tiles) and confront the dragon directly. There are a number of set encounters and locations on those hexes (the most notable is Clawhold, the only permanent settlement of the Tabaxi tribe who populate the north, and the 13 abandoned mountaintop fortresses that they might come back and clear out even after they take care of the dragon). The dragon himself is nesting in the far northeastern corner of this map (the party starts from the southwest, obviously) in a mountain named the Pillar of Lights.
Not a global reputation yet because he is fairly young (he is growing much faster than the average dragon due to the great nutrition he receives, namely a steady stream of adventurers from the nearby city) but he has been the bane of a small country (~the size of Luxemburg) for the last few months, and killing him is getting urgent because it's already spring but the fields are still frozen solid due to his influence on the local climate.
Though a famed dragonologist did notice that his behavior changed considerably; instead of randomly raiding villages he started targeting Skyfleet installations up north, pushing the city's Skyfleet back and getting them away from his mountain.
Well, I don't think my players are here but I'll put it in spoiler tags anyway. Those playing in a world called Yphilios, don't expand this.
You can get something like 75-76 with the appropriate buffs.
- Level 20 Rogue, expertise in Stealth, 22 DEX (Manual of Quickness of Action), nat 20 = 38
- +Pass Without Trace = 48
- +Bardic Inspiration from a similarly high-level Bard, max roll = 60
- +Weal from a Stars Druid, max roll = 66
- +Guidance from someone (maybe even the Stars Druid), max roll = 70
- +Flash of Genius from the Artificer = 75 or 76 if they also read the appropriate +2 book.
The most evil combo vs. a single enemy (or possibly a group if you can catch them in the spell radius, though you can only ensure a kill on a single one) is at a higher level, usually nicknamed the microwave oven: Sickening Radiance (plus maybe a Silvery Barbs for good measure) in the ring to be cast by the Familiar, Wall of Force or Forcecage from the caster, prep Counterspell in case the fucker wants to teleport out of the area, then sit back and cast Silvery Barbs whenever the target makes the CON save until it reaches 3 levels of exhaustion. (Then it will have disadvantage. You can still SB them if you wish.)
So yes, the Spell Storing ring can still be a problem.
(Giving it to the melee martial character loaded with Steel Wind Strike is also fun. Monks are possibly the best for it, they can rush into the middle of the enemy group with Step of the Wind and still cast the spell. Then end the turn next to the enemy wizard.)
And this is why my DM made an enormous mistake, giving my wizard (with a familiar) a ring of spell storing.
My wizard: Fireball!
Enemy wizard: Hahahah counterspell!
Nick the owl: Hoot hoot ho-hoot hoot! (Translation: counter-counterspell up your cloaca you absolute son of a cuckoo!)
Enemy wizard: Well, OK. Still, I made my saving throw!
My wizard: Hm... care to try again? (Silvery barbs.)
Enemy wizard: Uh... explodes
Being able to take two reactions or concentrate on two spells is a tiny bit gamebreaking.
There's also an amulet somewhere earlier that gives you a few free castings per day.
Anyone who has played any of the Divinity games knows that Speak with Animals is a must-have. Pet Pal was also the best perk in DoS / DoS 2.
Permanently Deleted
Hm...
- One Decanter of Endless Water
- Two items that you can attack to this decanter
- Two castings of Magic Mouth on these items:
- Condition: "(The decanter is uncorked and thrown, then gets within 1 foot of a creature other than who has thrown it OR six seconds after someone says 'Geyser') AND nobody has said 'Frixfraxfrux' in the last six seconds". What to say: "Geyser".
- Condition: "Six seconds after someone says 'Geyser' AND nobody has said 'Frixfraxfrux' in the last six seconds." What to say: "Geyser".
- Resilient Sphere in a Ring of Spell Storing given to the familiar.
Tell the Familiar to ready an action: cast Resilient Sphere on a given enemy just as the decanter is within 1 foot of them. Then uncork the decanter and throw it at the enemy.
When the Decanter is within 1 foot of the enemy, your familiar casts Resilient Sphere to encase the enemy, and MM1 activates, saying Geyser. The decanter starts producing 30 gallons per round because MM1's activation activates MM2, and MM2's activation activates MM1 again. And so on.
I'll switch to metric because I like units that actually make a modicum of sense. Let's say a medium creature is at most 8 feet tall, that's 2.4 m, the enclosing sphere has a radius of 1.2 m. The decanter produces 30 gallons per round, that's 113 liters. The enclosing sphere's volume is 7.23 m^3 which is 7230 liters. A bipedal medium creature that tall is likely going to weigh around 150 kilos, if it's a humanoid then its density is roughly equal to water's so that's 150 liters of the sphere occupied by the creature. This leaves us 7088 liters to fill which is unfortunately much more than what the decanter can fill in 1 minute. In fact, it would take around 6 minutes to fill the sphere.
Bummer.
Maybe you can tie together 10 decanters?
(Though TBF a bit of alchemy could likely create a CO-producing bomb. Doing that with the familiar-spell-storing-ring trick could work, enclosing the enemy in a sphere of lethal gas for 1 minute. But even that is an awful lot of prep for suffocating someone when you could use the same spell slot to summon an azer and hug the enemy to death or 4 magma mephits and roast them in their armor.)
I'll have to put it in series of comments. Lemmy doesn't seem to have a comment length counter but it has a comment length limit. Even then, this is the TL;DR version of the full document.
Dates are given as BAR meaning Before Auberentian Reckoning, the time in the game currently is 1622 AR.
You're right, though they still have to make the save first. I recommend pairing it with a Ring of Evasion in that case. Though both the ring and the shield master feat use your reaction so even that is less than ideal.
I have a 10-page summary of the rise and fall of the Third Civilization, starting from the Soul War ~500 000 years ago, then the Age of the Giant Kings, the Curse of Forgetting, the antique era, the Age of Conquest, the Dark Age, the Empire of the Diamond Vault, the Arcane Age and the Ascendancy Period, and finally the Collapse.
The game takes place in the Fourth Civilization, 10 000 years after the Collapse.
Shield master doesn't work against fireballs, it only works against single-target spells.
As for tieflings... well, a wizard with the elemental adept feat can just ignore fire resistance (and ensures that the minimum damage on the fireball is bumped to 16). Or a Scribes wizard can just have Spirit Shroud in their spellbook, cast necroball, and be done with it. Or a sorcerer with transmuted spell can use another elemental type too, though for them it costs SPs.
"I've run Call of Cthulhu with less ghastly-sounding monsters"
It's a game, not a simulator. I mean, how would I handle fireballs then? Would I roll for lung damage due to the targets breathing in hot air (enforcing realistic consequences), or would I just disallow the spell because magic is not realistic? Or if the enemy gets shot by an arrow, would I roll for organ damage?
And of course you have to account for the fun of all players. Would it be fun for the wrestler player to take out any humanoid in two turns? Probably. Possibly. Would it also be fun for the archer and the swordsman who still have to play by the normal game rules instead of the power fantasy of a "hurr durr wrestling is da ultimate martial art" player, and have to actually use their attacks to overcome the enemies' AC and whittle down their HP? Doubtful. What's the point of having them around if the wrestler can just choke everything because that's the part of combat that the DM suddenly starts simulating realistically?
Either enemies can survive a dozen arrows, being roasted alive in their armor for a minute, being stabbed with a rapier a lot, etc... and they can last long enough versus a wrestler that just choking them doesn't become the dominant strategy, or they can be choked out in a realistic timeframe but they can also be instakilled by an arrow or a sword.
If you only take one element of the game and turn it "realistically" OP while the rest remain fantasy, you're liable to fuck up the whole game for everybody else. Now there could be a merit in playing "dark and gritty, all damage is super lethal" games but then that's not really D&D anymore, something like Mörk Borg might be better for it.
The problem with this is combat balance. I wouldn't want to give players an ability that can take out an archmage in 2 turns, no save, without any resources used.
I'm not a wrestler or a wrestling fan, so no clue for most of them. Bars and holds... well, I think the automatic damage to the grappled creature that is dealt with the unarmed fighting style is meant to symbolize damage dealt by various holds and bars, so that would apply here.
Airway chokes are extremely impractical in D&D; every creature can hold their breath for a number of minutes equal to their CON modifier with a minimum of 1, and that means 10 rounds. I wouldn't bother trying to simulate that, just deal the 1d4 damage and move on.
Blood choke... well, that's a different matter entirely. I would most definitely require the grappler feat and the unarmed fighting style for this. Say, you forgo the automatic damage to the grappled target and instead force the target to make a CON save, DC = 8 + your PB + your STR mod. If the target fails, it gains a level of temporary exhaustion (that lasts while you're choking it), if it fails by more than 5 then it gains 2 levels, and if it hits 6 levels it falls unconscious.
I don't think that's in the rules. Like, at all. The unarmed fighting style allows you to deal damage to a creature grappled by you, the grappler feat allows you to pin a creature you grappled (which is just fucking useless since both of you become restrained), and you can make a shove attack to push a creature prone. But there's nothing in the basic rules about an unarmed attack that deals damage and knocks the target prone.
The alternatives for flavoring are:
- Battle Master fighter, trip attack. Technically it must be a weapon attack, but if you have the unarmed fighting style, a natural weapon, or are a monk multiclass, I'd be inclined to allow it.
- Open Hand monk, Open Hand technique. This is probably the best alternative that is 100% RAW.
Of course a more permissive DM (like me) could allow you to make a fairly hard athletics check once you have grappled the orc and have two free hands, then resolve it as a 2d6+STR bludgeoning damage attack.