So we have seen the new UA and it includes the thri-kreen but I have a question about that I hope someone can answer . Thri-Kreen telepathy
communicate mentally with any number of willing creatures you can see within 120 feet of you. A contacted creature doesn’t need to share a language with you, but it must be able to understand at least one language. Your telepathic link to a creature is broken if you and the creature move more than 120 feet apart, if either of you is incapacitated, or if either of you mentally breaks the contact (no action required).
So first can other telepathically linked creatures communicate with each other? In the case if that is true that could be a little bit too strong
The feature does exactly what it says it does. The thri-kreen can communicate telepathically with anyone within a hundred and twenty feet of it. Other people aren't the thri-kreen, unless they have a feature themselves that allows them to telepathically communicate, it's doubtful they can even talk back to you without using their meat voice.
The Soulknife rogue gets the ability to set up a network as a class feature, we know what that language looks like from WotC. The Thri-kreen doesn't mention networks at all. Their telepathy is a substitute for their voice, as they do not have a voice. They cannot speak regular kith languages, though they can understand them. It's a Han and Chewbacca situation, with the caveat that Chewbacca in this case can communicate telepathically when Wookie Growling doesn't work.
The thread was about their telepathy, not their overall power balance as a species. The question was whether the thri-kreen's telepathic ability allowed everyone within 120 feet of the thri-kreen to communicate telepathically with each other, as opposed to with the thri-kreen. The answer is no - the thri-kreen does not set up a mesh network of brain chatter, it is simply able to communicate as it pleases with anyone within a gfiven range of itself, the way a regular ordinary human can. There are many advantages to the thri-kreen's method of communication, but their inability to create loud vocalizations ('they communicate with each other by clicking their mandibles and waving/positioning their antennae') and their inability to communicate at all with anyone 121 or more feet away can sometimes be detriments, as well.
The species is indeed very mechanically powerful. It is also a Monstrosity, and a DM should be wary of allowing thri-kreen to get away with being treated as ordinary Joes in settings outside of Athas. Eight-foot four-armed psychic bugmen would be considered a Problem in places dominated by not-those-things and which are unfamiliar with thri-kreen, and should generally be treated as such.
It's a Han and Chewbacca situation, with the caveat that Chewbacca in this case can communicate telepathically when Wookie Growling doesn't work.
Or a Luke and R2D2 situation.
Thri-kreen have their own language, but it’s mostly mandible clicking and antenna positioning (kinda like dog language). Thri-kreen are also traditionally Psionic as well.
Thri-kreen Telepathy states:
“You have the magical ability to communicate mentally with any number of willing creatures you can see within 120 feet of you.”
It never says that those other creatures can mentally communicate with the Thri-kreen.* As far as I can tell, those other creatures still have to use words and actually talk to Thri-kreen with which they wish to communicate. Most features explicit state if they do or do not allow two-way communication, this version of this trait omits that detail. However, since the instances of two-way telepathy are always so explicitly stated as such, and seeing as this trait lacks that specification, I find it unlikely that it was intended as such. If two-way communication was intended, it would have been specified. As examples: • The message cantrip grants the Target the capacity to respond secretively, and states that explicitly. (✅) • The Aberrant Mind Sorcerer’s Telepathic Speech feature (which replaced the UA versions Invasive Thoughts feature): ✅ (✅) • The Soulknife Rogue’s Psychic Whispers portion of their Psionic Power feature (which replaced the Psionic Talent feature from the UA, which had replaced the Psionic Enhancement feature from an earlier UA): ✅ (✅, ✅) • The Lurker in the Deep Warlock Patron as it appeared in UA (now replaced by the Fathomless) had a Scion of the Deep feature (now replaced by itself be Oceanic Soul feature): ✅ (N/A) (In fact, the only instance I am aware of in which it expressly forbids two-way mental communication, instead of expressly allowing it, is the Telepathic feat, including the UA version.)
The UA says "You have the magical ability to communicate mentally with any number of willing creatures you can see within 120 feet of you"
Yes - the thri-kreen can do so. Assuming the communication is two-way (and as Sposta states, this seems unlikely), the thri-kreen can send to as many people as it likes and those people can reply to the thri-kreen. An example, for clarity.
Alice, Bertrand, and Cell Jr. are in a party together, and Cell Jr. would like to speak to them. Cell Jr. is within 120 feet of Alice and Bertrand, and can thus speak to Alice, Bertrand, or both Alice and Bertrand at once using its telepathy. If the communication is assumed two-way, then when Cell Jr. speaks to Alice, Alice can respond to Cell Jr. When Cell Jr. speaks to Bertrand, Bertrand can respond to Cell Jr. When Cell Jr. speaks to both Alice and Bertrand at once, then both Alice and Bertrand can respond to Cell Jr. At no point in this interaction can Alice speak telepathically to Bertrand, or vice versa. Nor can Alice or Bertrand initiate telepathic communication with Cell Jr. unless they have their own means of speaking telepathically. They can, at best, think really hard and attempt to get Cell Jr.'s attention physically in the hopes that Cell Jr. picks up on their intent, initiates communication with them, and that the DM will not squint-eye them too hard when Alice and Bertrand ask "did Cell Jr. pick up what we were thinking about?"
Remember - the ability to pick up surface thoughts and passively* read the minds of those around oneself is a function of a second-level spell. Thri-kreen do not have the innate ability to Detect Thoughts, they effectively have a more potent version of Message. This is absolutely a strong benefit, but the feature also does exactly what it says it does and no more.
Yes. I absolutely believe a DM is capable of imposing that sort of logic on a thri-kreen. Because I would do so, and wouldn't even have to think about it. Under ordinary circumstances the thri-kreen would be assumed to be speaking to their entire party, and party members would be assumed to be speaking verbally to each other and to the psychic bugman. Until and unless the psychic bugman states they're directing communication to a single individual, no issue. And the party does not get the benefit of silent mass communication - if they're chattering amongst each other in general, they're assumed to be doing so verbally.
It's not any more difficult to keep straight than any of several dozen other skills, spells, or abilities players can throw out at the DM, and working logically through the ramifications of things the players have/do is the DM's job, ne?
I read it as that other can communicate back to the Thri-kreen. My main point of comparison was the Ghostwise Halfling, where it says "You can speak telepathically to any creature within 30 feet of you," where the Thri-kreen feature, like Aberrant Mind and Soulknife, says with.
I'm expecting the wording of the feature to get adjusted before final publication, though, so I'm not sweating it, though. But if the survey's still open it'd be a good thing for someone to note.
The UA says "You have the magical ability to communicate mentally with any number of willing creatures you can see within 120 feet of you"
Yes - the thri-kreen can do so. Assuming the communication is two-way (and as Sposta states, this seems unlikely), the thri-kreen can send to as many people as it likes and those people can reply to the thri-kreen. An example, for clarity.
Alice, Bertrand, and Cell Jr. are in a party together, and Cell Jr. would like to speak to them. Cell Jr. is within 120 feet of Alice and Bertrand, and can thus speak to Alice, Bertrand, or both Alice and Bertrand at once using its telepathy. If the communication is assumed two-way, then when Cell Jr. speaks to Alice, Alice can respond to Cell Jr. When Cell Jr. speaks to Bertrand, Bertrand can respond to Cell Jr. When Cell Jr. speaks to both Alice and Bertrand at once, then both Alice and Bertrand can respond to Cell Jr. At no point in this interaction can Alice speak telepathically to Bertrand, or vice versa. Nor can Alice or Bertrand initiate telepathic communication with Cell Jr. unless they have their own means of speaking telepathically. They can, at best, think really hard and attempt to get Cell Jr.'s attention physically in the hopes that Cell Jr. picks up on their intent, initiates communication with them, and that the DM will not squint-eye them too hard when Alice and Bertrand ask "did Cell Jr. pick up what we were thinking about?"
Remember - the ability to pick up surface thoughts and passively* read the minds of those around oneself is a function of a second-level spell. Thri-kreen do not have the innate ability to Detect Thoughts, they effectively have a more potent version of Message. This is absolutely a strong benefit, but the feature also does exactly what it says it does and no more.
Do you seriously believe some DM is going to run through that logic, even if was the actual intent of the designers? Assuming a DM allows this species into a game (I would never), they will simply handwave to "if you can see one another you can group chat."
What this potentially comes down to is A lies to B verbally, while A thinks what is really on its mind to C, and then B says something to A, while thinking to C "this is what I really want to say to A". This entire thing breaks down into the equivalent of school kids passing notes back and forth.
I would absolutely allow Thri-kreen PCs. (It’s been my favorite race since 1990-something when I first discovered Dark Sun.)
IMO, any DM who doesn’t run everything through that level of conscious, critical analysis through logic is not a DM who’s table at which I would want to sit. The hand-waving is the problem.*2
Now, for stuff like rations and ammo, if another DM chooses to close one eye and put those in the blind spot, I get it. For some, the risk of starving to death isn’t exciting enough to make up for the tedium of the bookkeeping. (I disagree.*3) But if they decide to turn a trait like Thri-kreen Telepathy into an infinite use, always on, no time limit, “better than” version of message + Psychic Whispers +Telepathic Speech all rolled into one, thereby comparatively diminishing the value of an entire spell and two subclass features, I say “nay ,nay.” At that point they are either too ignorant to understand the difference, too lazy to bother, or too careless to care, then I have better things to do than play at that DM’s table.*1 That’s a DM who is clearly phoning it in (to put it politely), and I ain’t got time to waste on bad D&D.
As to your analogy, it would be more akin to A says something to B in Common, then says something else to C in any other language not spoken or understood by B. I don’t speak Vietnamese, but the ladies in my local Vietnamese market do. I can talk to them in English, they can talk to each other in Vietnamese and then answer me in English, and I can turn around to my dad and explain what they said in Italian so he can keep up with the conversation.*4 Note, not one single note got passed in that example.
*(Like alphabetize my sock drawer, or repeatedly smack myself in the dangly bits with a frying pan just so it can feel better when I stop.)
*(I even insist players track rations and water, ammunition, spell components with specific gp values, and where among their possessions each item is kept. If someone picks their pocket, I need to know what’s in their pockets. If they leave their backpack at the inn, they need to know what they don’t have with them. If they don’t have rations, and don’t find other sources of sustenance, they will start suffering exhaustion until it kills them. I don’t care how many gp they have, unless they happen to have incense, herbs and charcoal valued at a minimum of 10 gp, and a bronze brazier in which to burn them, they cannot resummon fluffy, without a “gem encrusted bowel (or I’ll accept a chalice) worth at least 1,000 gp,” the heroes will have to forgo their feasting and settle for the rations they had better be tracking.)
*(Frodo and Sam almost starving in Mordor was nail bitingly tense, and every time Spider-Man’s web shooters go *fizz* instead of *thwip,* you always know he’s in trouble. 🤷♂️)
*(He’s in his mid-‘70’s, hearing impaired, and English is his third fourth language (after his native Italian, the French he learned as a second language in school, and Spanish (since it’s so darned close to Italian it got bumped to higher in the list). He’s allowed to struggle to follow English spoken in a thick Vietnamese accent.)
I wonder how many DM's will simply handwave away the part about "creatures you can see". Because that precludes talking through a door, invisible creatures, around corners, etc. This is a highly problematic species to be adding to the stable of playable species.
If "people might play it wrong" were an argument against a proposed mechanic, we wouldn't have a game to begin with. Wonder about how many DMs will handwave something all you want, but it's irrelevant. As for highly problematic, it's UA - we'll see what version survives to get published officially.
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Yeah, I don’t seem to have those problems. I’m not even my groups “main GM,” just “Alt DM1.” Our main GM (Thorsday) treats a PC’s backpack as akin to a component pouch regarding stuff like rations, water, torches, and ammo as things the PC just manages without player direction or financial expenditure. (After all, when both the PCs and the Players are counting gp by the hundreds, a couple dozen cp is 455-wipe money.) For the past year however, I have been in the DM’s chair, and I require those things be tracked. Meanwhile, Drak (our “Alt DM2”) has been covering sessions I cannot by running his own west marches-esque campaign, and he doesn’t require that stuff be tracked either. In a little while (hopefully by the end of the year) I’ll hand the DM screen back over to Thorsday and nobody will be required to track any of that stuff anymore. For the past year, whenever I have said “mark off a day’s rations,” everyone just does it. Of the 4 other players at our current weekly table, 3 of them think tracking rations is “un-fun,” but they do it anyway. Why? Because we are a group of adults, who happen to also be longstanding friends, and we have respect for one another and can therefore show a modicum of common curtesy to each other. Namely, whoever is GMing that session gets to decide what needs to be tracked and what doesn’t, so everyone does what the DM requires out of polite curtesy if nothing else. (Just like back in school when one professor didn’t care if you ate during class but another did, you ate during the class where it was allowed if you needed to, and didn’t eat during the other prof’s class. It’s not a concept that should be challenging to grasp.)
And seriously, it’s not like PCs subsist off of rations. Whenever the PCs are in a town they are likely renting rooms, and therefore also likely ordering meals. If a DM montages travel sequences, the party will likely spend at least every other night in an inn. So if they traveled for 1 week to bet to their destination, they would only have to track 3-4 days rations all at once at the end of the minute long montage. Before they leave town they just have to say “on our way out of town my character stops at the dry goods store and stocks up on supplies.” To which the DM should be able to simply respond, “okay,” with the expectation that they are capable of adding rations and subtracting expenses for themselves. It doesn’t have to be a hassle or anything, so it really isn’t all that much of a “fun suck.” Heck, waiting around for your turn to come up during combat is a muuuchh bigger source of fun entropy.
Not to mention that either: A) hitting the little “—” sign under rations, or B) erasing the number on the page and replacing it with a number 1 digit lower is only ”hard” it someone either A) has some physically disability that prevents one from using ones hands, B) failed to grasp second-grade arithmetic, or C) is too stupid to play D&D in the first place. What in the nine hells is “hard” about subtracting an Integer from another integer?!? If they can add well enough to correctly calculate damage for a weapon attack, then correctly calculating rations once every few days cannot be hard, and those wooses really need to ovary-up or else the real world will crush them with IRS audits and inattentive/stupid/dishonest cashiers.
In addition, non-DM players outnumber DMs a gazillion:one. They’ll likely have a harder time finding another table than you would have filling their seat at yours. If those players don’t think your style of game is “un-fun” to the point that they leave, then that’s pro’ly for the best as they were not a good fit for your table, and it best they find tables that fit better and vacate the seats at yours to make room for players who do fit your style. (As to that example of Warding Flare, good luck to that player to find a table at which nobody understands the action economy, or if they do they don’t care. And good riddance as well because if they were inclined to rage-quit over that then they were likely gonna be a bigger pain in the 455 about a whole lot more than that.)
By the way, I get the impression that if Thri-kreen Telepathy makes it into the official print version unedited that message will end up appearing on a fairly high percentage Thri-kreen character sheets somehow or other if they don’t also happen to be either a Soulknife or Aberrant Mind. (Just a hunch.) Convenient that the ranges are identical, it’s almost as if that might have possibly occurred to someone at WotC…. 🤔
As a final note, regarding all those other DMs who handwave things without concern for anything, I have a piece of parental wisdom that has handed down throughout the ages that applies perfectly to the situation: “if ‘everyone else’ jumps off of a bridge, that doesn’t mean you have to follow them.” 😉
Necro-posting af here but if any of you deigned to read the description of Thri-kreen you would realize that they cannot speak, nor HEAR without telepathic communication, because they do not have real mouths nor ears.
Thri-kreen speak by clacking their mandibles and waving their antennae, indicating to other thri -kreen what they are thinking and feeling. Other creatures find this method of communication difficult to interpret and impossible to duplicate. To interact with other folk, thri-kreen rely on a form of telepathy.
They can hear. Their native language includes clicking their mandibles. They can totally hear, they just cannot form words that non Thri-kreen can understand.
Thri-kreen speak by clacking their mandibles and waving their antennae, indicating to other thri -kreen what they are thinking and feeling. Other creatures find this method of communication difficult to interpret and impossible to duplicate. To interact with other folk, thri-kreen rely on a form of telepathy.
Nothing in that trait description mentions their inability to hear.
So we have seen the new UA and it includes the thri-kreen but I have a question about that I hope someone can answer . Thri-Kreen telepathy
communicate mentally with any number of willing creatures you can see within 120 feet of you. A contacted creature doesn’t need to share a language with you, but it must be able to understand at least one language. Your telepathic link to a creature is broken if you and the creature move more than 120 feet apart, if either of you is incapacitated, or if either of you mentally breaks the contact (no action required).
So first can other telepathically linked creatures communicate with each other? In the case if that is true that could be a little bit too strong
The feature does exactly what it says it does. The thri-kreen can communicate telepathically with anyone within a hundred and twenty feet of it. Other people aren't the thri-kreen, unless they have a feature themselves that allows them to telepathically communicate, it's doubtful they can even talk back to you without using their meat voice.
The Soulknife rogue gets the ability to set up a network as a class feature, we know what that language looks like from WotC. The Thri-kreen doesn't mention networks at all. Their telepathy is a substitute for their voice, as they do not have a voice. They cannot speak regular kith languages, though they can understand them. It's a Han and Chewbacca situation, with the caveat that Chewbacca in this case can communicate telepathically when Wookie Growling doesn't work.
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The thread was about their telepathy, not their overall power balance as a species. The question was whether the thri-kreen's telepathic ability allowed everyone within 120 feet of the thri-kreen to communicate telepathically with each other, as opposed to with the thri-kreen. The answer is no - the thri-kreen does not set up a mesh network of brain chatter, it is simply able to communicate as it pleases with anyone within a gfiven range of itself, the way a regular ordinary human can. There are many advantages to the thri-kreen's method of communication, but their inability to create loud vocalizations ('they communicate with each other by clicking their mandibles and waving/positioning their antennae') and their inability to communicate at all with anyone 121 or more feet away can sometimes be detriments, as well.
The species is indeed very mechanically powerful. It is also a Monstrosity, and a DM should be wary of allowing thri-kreen to get away with being treated as ordinary Joes in settings outside of Athas. Eight-foot four-armed psychic bugmen would be considered a Problem in places dominated by not-those-things and which are unfamiliar with thri-kreen, and should generally be treated as such.
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Or a Luke and R2D2 situation.
Thri-kreen have their own language, but it’s mostly mandible clicking and antenna positioning (kinda like dog language). Thri-kreen are also traditionally Psionic as well.
Thri-kreen Telepathy states:
It never says that those other creatures can mentally communicate with the Thri-kreen.* As far as I can tell, those other creatures still have to use words and actually talk to Thri-kreen with which they wish to communicate. Most features explicit state if they do or do not allow two-way communication, this version of this trait omits that detail. However, since the instances of two-way telepathy are always so explicitly stated as such, and seeing as this trait lacks that specification, I find it unlikely that it was intended as such. If two-way communication was intended, it would have been specified. As examples:
• The message cantrip grants the Target the capacity to respond secretively, and states that explicitly. (✅)
• The Aberrant Mind Sorcerer’s Telepathic Speech feature (which replaced the UA versions Invasive Thoughts feature): ✅ (✅)
• The Soulknife Rogue’s Psychic Whispers portion of their Psionic Power feature (which replaced the Psionic Talent feature from the UA, which had replaced the Psionic Enhancement feature from an earlier UA): ✅ (✅, ✅)
• The Lurker in the Deep Warlock Patron as it appeared in UA (now replaced by the Fathomless) had a Scion of the Deep feature (now replaced by itself be Oceanic Soul feature): ✅ (N/A)
(In fact, the only instance I am aware of in which it expressly forbids two-way mental communication, instead of expressly allowing it, is the Telepathic feat, including the UA version.)
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Yes - the thri-kreen can do so. Assuming the communication is two-way (and as Sposta states, this seems unlikely), the thri-kreen can send to as many people as it likes and those people can reply to the thri-kreen. An example, for clarity.
Alice, Bertrand, and Cell Jr. are in a party together, and Cell Jr. would like to speak to them. Cell Jr. is within 120 feet of Alice and Bertrand, and can thus speak to Alice, Bertrand, or both Alice and Bertrand at once using its telepathy. If the communication is assumed two-way, then when Cell Jr. speaks to Alice, Alice can respond to Cell Jr. When Cell Jr. speaks to Bertrand, Bertrand can respond to Cell Jr. When Cell Jr. speaks to both Alice and Bertrand at once, then both Alice and Bertrand can respond to Cell Jr. At no point in this interaction can Alice speak telepathically to Bertrand, or vice versa. Nor can Alice or Bertrand initiate telepathic communication with Cell Jr. unless they have their own means of speaking telepathically. They can, at best, think really hard and attempt to get Cell Jr.'s attention physically in the hopes that Cell Jr. picks up on their intent, initiates communication with them, and that the DM will not squint-eye them too hard when Alice and Bertrand ask "did Cell Jr. pick up what we were thinking about?"
Remember - the ability to pick up surface thoughts and passively* read the minds of those around oneself is a function of a second-level spell. Thri-kreen do not have the innate ability to Detect Thoughts, they effectively have a more potent version of Message. This is absolutely a strong benefit, but the feature also does exactly what it says it does and no more.
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Yes. I absolutely believe a DM is capable of imposing that sort of logic on a thri-kreen. Because I would do so, and wouldn't even have to think about it. Under ordinary circumstances the thri-kreen would be assumed to be speaking to their entire party, and party members would be assumed to be speaking verbally to each other and to the psychic bugman. Until and unless the psychic bugman states they're directing communication to a single individual, no issue. And the party does not get the benefit of silent mass communication - if they're chattering amongst each other in general, they're assumed to be doing so verbally.
It's not any more difficult to keep straight than any of several dozen other skills, spells, or abilities players can throw out at the DM, and working logically through the ramifications of things the players have/do is the DM's job, ne?
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I read it as that other can communicate back to the Thri-kreen. My main point of comparison was the Ghostwise Halfling, where it says "You can speak telepathically to any creature within 30 feet of you," where the Thri-kreen feature, like Aberrant Mind and Soulknife, says with.
I'm expecting the wording of the feature to get adjusted before final publication, though, so I'm not sweating it, though. But if the survey's still open it'd be a good thing for someone to note.
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I would absolutely allow Thri-kreen PCs. (It’s been my favorite race since 1990-something when I first discovered Dark Sun.)
IMO, any DM who doesn’t run everything through that level of conscious, critical analysis through logic is not a DM who’s table at which I would want to sit. The hand-waving is the problem.*2
Now, for stuff like rations and ammo, if another DM chooses to close one eye and put those in the blind spot, I get it. For some, the risk of starving to death isn’t exciting enough to make up for the tedium of the bookkeeping. (I disagree.*3) But if they decide to turn a trait like Thri-kreen Telepathy into an infinite use, always on, no time limit, “better than” version of message + Psychic Whispers +Telepathic Speech all rolled into one, thereby comparatively diminishing the value of an entire spell and two subclass features, I say “nay ,nay.” At that point they are either too ignorant to understand the difference, too lazy to bother, or too careless to care, then I have better things to do than play at that DM’s table.*1 That’s a DM who is clearly phoning it in (to put it politely), and I ain’t got time to waste on bad D&D.
As to your analogy, it would be more akin to A says something to B in Common, then says something else to C in any other language not spoken or understood by B. I don’t speak Vietnamese, but the ladies in my local Vietnamese market do. I can talk to them in English, they can talk to each other in Vietnamese and then answer me in English, and I can turn around to my dad and explain what they said in Italian so he can keep up with the conversation.*4 Note, not one single note got passed in that example.
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If "people might play it wrong" were an argument against a proposed mechanic, we wouldn't have a game to begin with. Wonder about how many DMs will handwave something all you want, but it's irrelevant. As for highly problematic, it's UA - we'll see what version survives to get published officially.
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Yeah, I don’t seem to have those problems. I’m not even my groups “main GM,” just “Alt DM1.” Our main GM (Thorsday) treats a PC’s backpack as akin to a component pouch regarding stuff like rations, water, torches, and ammo as things the PC just manages without player direction or financial expenditure. (After all, when both the PCs and the Players are counting gp by the hundreds, a couple dozen cp is 455-wipe money.) For the past year however, I have been in the DM’s chair, and I require those things be tracked. Meanwhile, Drak (our “Alt DM2”) has been covering sessions I cannot by running his own west marches-esque campaign, and he doesn’t require that stuff be tracked either. In a little while (hopefully by the end of the year) I’ll hand the DM screen back over to Thorsday and nobody will be required to track any of that stuff anymore.
For the past year, whenever I have said “mark off a day’s rations,” everyone just does it. Of the 4 other players at our current weekly table, 3 of them think tracking rations is “un-fun,” but they do it anyway. Why? Because we are a group of adults, who happen to also be longstanding friends, and we have respect for one another and can therefore show a modicum of common curtesy to each other. Namely, whoever is GMing that session gets to decide what needs to be tracked and what doesn’t, so everyone does what the DM requires out of polite curtesy if nothing else. (Just like back in school when one professor didn’t care if you ate during class but another did, you ate during the class where it was allowed if you needed to, and didn’t eat during the other prof’s class. It’s not a concept that should be challenging to grasp.)
And seriously, it’s not like PCs subsist off of rations. Whenever the PCs are in a town they are likely renting rooms, and therefore also likely ordering meals. If a DM montages travel sequences, the party will likely spend at least every other night in an inn. So if they traveled for 1 week to bet to their destination, they would only have to track 3-4 days rations all at once at the end of the minute long montage. Before they leave town they just have to say “on our way out of town my character stops at the dry goods store and stocks up on supplies.” To which the DM should be able to simply respond, “okay,” with the expectation that they are capable of adding rations and subtracting expenses for themselves. It doesn’t have to be a hassle or anything, so it really isn’t all that much of a “fun suck.” Heck, waiting around for your turn to come up during combat is a muuuchh bigger source of fun entropy.
Not to mention that either: A) hitting the little “—” sign under rations, or B) erasing the number on the page and replacing it with a number 1 digit lower is only ”hard” it someone either A) has some physically disability that prevents one from using ones hands, B) failed to grasp second-grade arithmetic, or C) is too stupid to play D&D in the first place. What in the nine hells is “hard” about subtracting an Integer from another integer?!? If they can add well enough to correctly calculate damage for a weapon attack, then correctly calculating rations once every few days cannot be hard, and those wooses really need to ovary-up or else the real world will crush them with IRS audits and inattentive/stupid/dishonest cashiers.
In addition, non-DM players outnumber DMs a gazillion:one. They’ll likely have a harder time finding another table than you would have filling their seat at yours. If those players don’t think your style of game is “un-fun” to the point that they leave, then that’s pro’ly for the best as they were not a good fit for your table, and it best they find tables that fit better and vacate the seats at yours to make room for players who do fit your style.
(As to that example of Warding Flare, good luck to that player to find a table at which nobody understands the action economy, or if they do they don’t care. And good riddance as well because if they were inclined to rage-quit over that then they were likely gonna be a bigger pain in the 455 about a whole lot more than that.)
By the way, I get the impression that if Thri-kreen Telepathy makes it into the official print version unedited that message will end up appearing on a fairly high percentage Thri-kreen character sheets somehow or other if they don’t also happen to be either a Soulknife or Aberrant Mind. (Just a hunch.) Convenient that the ranges are identical, it’s almost as if that might have possibly occurred to someone at WotC…. 🤔
As a final note, regarding all those other DMs who handwave things without concern for anything, I have a piece of parental wisdom that has handed down throughout the ages that applies perfectly to the situation: “if ‘everyone else’ jumps off of a bridge, that doesn’t mean you have to follow them.” 😉
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Wait! I don’t? 😳🤪😜🤡
Wisea$$ DM and Player since 1979.
I mean, you can if you want to. But you don't have to.
Please do not contact or message me.
Necro-posting af here but if any of you deigned to read the description of Thri-kreen you would realize that they cannot speak, nor HEAR without telepathic communication, because they do not have real mouths nor ears.
They can hear. Their native language includes clicking their mandibles. They can totally hear, they just cannot form words that non Thri-kreen can understand.
Nothing in that trait description mentions their inability to hear.
Creating Epic Boons on DDB
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