The reason people want similar abilities ported or adapted over to other characters is because there are only so many ways to skin a cat, and some martial features are just very basic in order to function.
I alluded to that at the end of my post, and I'm not sure mechanically how that would work, but I think it would be a super cool idea if there was a "martial ability pool". Similar to spell lists martials could pick from, I think you're spot on with your observation.
Thanks for sharing this, gonna be running my first 5e campaign in a couple weeks and the anxiety of it started to get to me, but you’re absolutely right in that having fun should always be at the core of it and even if everything I’ve planned goes completely out the window I know I’m still gonna have a good time with my friends.
I hear where you're coming from, and I think if this were a newer group I'd agree. I don't think this is good blanket advice to give as "the only real solution" in this case though.
I've got a group of IRL friends I play with (and have for years), and I also have been playing some different online games with strangers and I can offer this.
Thematically I think it makes the most sense, and allows you a lot more flexibility in the type of player you are. When I think of most of the caster classes, they all seem to have a thematic stat that relates to them. (Druids, Clerics, and Rangers are all wise types, Wizards are booksmart, Sorc's use Charisma because their magic comes from their personallity, etc.) Warlocks get their magic from *somewhere else* and often use it to enhance stuff about them. So allow you to be smart, wise, or charismatic gives a lot more flavor.
I have an adventure I run for all my new groups - it's pulled from an old module from Dragon Magazine (couldn't for the life of me remember the name of it)
It seems like it's possibly easiest to just not include it - but the mechanic of the blood hunter you're going to have issue with is exchanging HP for casting. You can remove that HP in any thematic way that makes sense for the group. The default flavor tends to be cutting, but you could reflavor it any way you want - a headache that comes from the mental activity of casting or something similar. Or you can not flavor it at all, make it a simple mechanical exchange - "I take x amount of damage and my sword is engulfed in flame".
You could modify the training rules. They need a trainer. It takes 10 weeks of downtime minus the intelligence modifier and costs 100 gp per week. Each week they have a 10% chance of error, poisoning themselves for a following week and making that week a failure (requiring an additional week). At the end of the process they have poison resistance (not immunity).
RAW there is no benefit at having Performance proficiency if you play a musical instrument you are proficient with, although the musical instrument would be more limiting (the crowd boos because the last five jackasses have played lutes, they want something different).
I’m a female and it’s my first time running a campaign I’ve been apart of a couple. Anyways all of my players have to play females and I want them to go through school. I’m looking for ways I can keep things lighthearted and how I can really bring together the “highschool” cliques effect .
Firstly I'm hoping you had a session 0 or talk with your players beforehand about the requirement for your game. Assuming you did your due diligence to hopefully prevent conflict in the future. Here is a few ideas!
I only have a vague concept everything is still very loose so this is helpful thank you . I understand things can get out of hand easily with a lot of the guys playing females but everyone should be on the same page
How do you deal with players who don't think through their actions before doing them? I have a "WTF did you expect to happen?" moment practically every other session. Examples include:
There are a few ways to go about solving this problem. All of them valid, all of them different so you'll have to take them each with a grain of salt and consider your players cause ultimately I don't know the table.
If your players knew they were doing a skill challenge and what the win state was, then "it would've been the same no matter what we did" just sounds like something people say when they're mad about losing. Like complaining that Mariokart is rigged when you get blue shelled. He's right, technically: in a situation where success is locked behind a dice roll, they could've described any course of action, rolled a 1, and experienced the same outcome.
I think you're pretty spot on with this assessment. There definitely was an element of "The dice screwed us" coupled with the fact that they spent a lengthy amount of time that session trying to work through the failure to get what felt like an inevitable outcome due to the fact that the deck was stacked against them.
They had options so that's not railroading. Also, stuff like "X person gets kidnapped" is just the beginning of an adventure. Are they complaining they have to be adventurers? lol
Well to be clear and fair to them, the comment about "I felt like no matter what we did" was a throwaway line to the table not so much a direct line to me.
The top thing for me by far was to switch from 5e to other games. I didn’t like GMing 5e. It was always very stressful for me. I thought for sure it was just that I didn’t like GMing but once I started running other games, I learned to love it.
This has been a pretty common sentiment. I think its in part because people assign too much value to DnD over other systems. The more lax approach people have to running a completely unknown system works great if you apply it to 5e too. I think the expectations and stuff from how popular DnD is does play into its lack of approachability in that regard.
I agree with all of this! I am running two campaigns at the moment and there was a period of a few months from last October to December where I was feeling the same way. What got me “out of the funk” was taking time off and actually playing again. It really helped reset my batteries.
The count has hired a small-time wizard who was more charismatic than he was smart. Poor fellow summoned a demon in their basement and couldn't contain it. They've had this demon locked downstairs for some time, and its begun to have some nasty effects on the people of the keep as its dark energies eminate through the floor.
One way doors could be useful here. Doors that the party can open that lock behind them when they shut them, likely close to the cells or containment area in the dungeon. That way if people try and make an escape they find themselves in another prison.
Some advice I haven't seen is make them powerful. So powerful in fact, that he doesn't even regard them as a threat. That'll really get under the players skin.
The reason people want similar abilities ported or adapted over to other characters is because there are only so many ways to skin a cat, and some martial features are just very basic in order to function.
The reasoning for all martials doing things similar is because people want martials to have a “pool” to pick from.
I alluded to that at the end of my post, and I'm not sure mechanically how that would work, but I think it would be a super cool idea if there was a "martial ability pool". Similar to spell lists martials could pick from, I think you're spot on with your observation.
I know this an insanely unpopular opinion here, but I think the new Warlock is better.
Oh hey, it's you again. Hi!
Point Buy / Standard Array / ASIs Rebalance
I have to hard disagree on your first point about stats.
I thought their ability to pick a skill each day to be proficient was a nice touch?
Hey! Sub is a little dead - but glad to see a post :)
Thanks for sharing this, gonna be running my first 5e campaign in a couple weeks and the anxiety of it started to get to me, but you’re absolutely right in that having fun should always be at the core of it and even if everything I’ve planned goes completely out the window I know I’m still gonna have a good time with my friends.
Best of luck! If you run into any hiccups, or have questions, my DM's are always open for advice.
I very much share your view and notion that the session does not have to be perfect in every aspect to be very entertaining.
It's possible in an attempt to keep the post short I didn't fully qualify what I meant.
The ones that don’t get heavy armor proficiency from their domain
Was reviewing top threads in this sub and came across this comment.
I’ve been there. Sometimes your players don’t inspire you. The only real solution is to get better players.
I hear where you're coming from, and I think if this were a newer group I'd agree. I don't think this is good blanket advice to give as "the only real solution" in this case though.
And I would rather the opposite.
I've got a group of IRL friends I play with (and have for years), and I also have been playing some different online games with strangers and I can offer this.
Thematically I think it makes the most sense, and allows you a lot more flexibility in the type of player you are. When I think of most of the caster classes, they all seem to have a thematic stat that relates to them. (Druids, Clerics, and Rangers are all wise types, Wizards are booksmart, Sorc's use Charisma because their magic comes from their personallity, etc.) Warlocks get their magic from *somewhere else* and often use it to enhance stuff about them. So allow you to be smart, wise, or charismatic gives a lot more flavor.
I have an adventure I run for all my new groups - it's pulled from an old module from Dragon Magazine (couldn't for the life of me remember the name of it)
I've only come to the Sub when I've played (or planned to play) a session with the Playtest.
This Tuesday I have my first session 0. What all should be discussed there?
Looks like other comment got you covered on Session 0 - allow me to share how I prep for game-time sessions.
What's the pressure to include them?
Missed the point. Have a downvote.
It seems like it's possibly easiest to just not include it - but the mechanic of the blood hunter you're going to have issue with is exchanging HP for casting. You can remove that HP in any thematic way that makes sense for the group. The default flavor tends to be cutting, but you could reflavor it any way you want - a headache that comes from the mental activity of casting or something similar. Or you can not flavor it at all, make it a simple mechanical exchange - "I take x amount of damage and my sword is engulfed in flame".
I'm sad that I had to scroll past 2 comments that said nothing except "why" and one comment that was also useless to find this one.
You could modify the training rules. They need a trainer. It takes 10 weeks of downtime minus the intelligence modifier and costs 100 gp per week. Each week they have a 10% chance of error, poisoning themselves for a following week and making that week a failure (requiring an additional week). At the end of the process they have poison resistance (not immunity).
This is the best take you will find in this thread.
RAW there is no benefit at having Performance proficiency if you play a musical instrument you are proficient with, although the musical instrument would be more limiting (the crowd boos because the last five jackasses have played lutes, they want something different).
Advantage! Thats the answer I was missing. 10/10 this is why I go to reddit.
I’m a female and it’s my first time running a campaign I’ve been apart of a couple. Anyways all of my players have to play females and I want them to go through school. I’m looking for ways I can keep things lighthearted and how I can really bring together the “highschool” cliques effect .
Firstly I'm hoping you had a session 0 or talk with your players beforehand about the requirement for your game. Assuming you did your due diligence to hopefully prevent conflict in the future. Here is a few ideas!
I only have a vague concept everything is still very loose so this is helpful thank you . I understand things can get out of hand easily with a lot of the guys playing females but everyone should be on the same page
I've played girl characters before and sometimes it can be weird, other tables (like my thursday game) don't blink twice.
How do you deal with players who don't think through their actions before doing them? I have a "WTF did you expect to happen?" moment practically every other session. Examples include:
There are a few ways to go about solving this problem. All of them valid, all of them different so you'll have to take them each with a grain of salt and consider your players cause ultimately I don't know the table.
If your players knew they were doing a skill challenge and what the win state was, then "it would've been the same no matter what we did" just sounds like something people say when they're mad about losing. Like complaining that Mariokart is rigged when you get blue shelled. He's right, technically: in a situation where success is locked behind a dice roll, they could've described any course of action, rolled a 1, and experienced the same outcome.
I think you're pretty spot on with this assessment. There definitely was an element of "The dice screwed us" coupled with the fact that they spent a lengthy amount of time that session trying to work through the failure to get what felt like an inevitable outcome due to the fact that the deck was stacked against them.
They had options so that's not railroading. Also, stuff like "X person gets kidnapped" is just the beginning of an adventure. Are they complaining they have to be adventurers? lol
Well to be clear and fair to them, the comment about "I felt like no matter what we did" was a throwaway line to the table not so much a direct line to me.
The top thing for me by far was to switch from 5e to other games. I didn’t like GMing 5e. It was always very stressful for me. I thought for sure it was just that I didn’t like GMing but once I started running other games, I learned to love it.
This has been a pretty common sentiment. I think its in part because people assign too much value to DnD over other systems. The more lax approach people have to running a completely unknown system works great if you apply it to 5e too. I think the expectations and stuff from how popular DnD is does play into its lack of approachability in that regard.
I agree with all of this! I am running two campaigns at the moment and there was a period of a few months from last October to December where I was feeling the same way. What got me “out of the funk” was taking time off and actually playing again. It really helped reset my batteries.
As always rule 1 is communication! :)
The count has hired a small-time wizard who was more charismatic than he was smart. Poor fellow summoned a demon in their basement and couldn't contain it. They've had this demon locked downstairs for some time, and its begun to have some nasty effects on the people of the keep as its dark energies eminate through the floor.
One way doors could be useful here. Doors that the party can open that lock behind them when they shut them, likely close to the cells or containment area in the dungeon. That way if people try and make an escape they find themselves in another prison.
Some advice I haven't seen is make them powerful. So powerful in fact, that he doesn't even regard them as a threat. That'll really get under the players skin.
Runesmith has a great example on how to use guards in DnD.