Nope, I use very similar narrative cues all throughout my games, I just pick and choose certain words to indicate near miss/hit vs hit/miss. It's extremely helpful when you want to hint at immunities and resistances without simply saying "you hit it with a fireball and nothing happens". Instead "You watch as the fireball explodes, creatures are flung about and burn to ashes, but one stands there grinning, it's clothing singed but his resolve seems firm."
Sounds like an interesting night. It's funny that they took the goblin with them, my group has mostly taken prisoners rather than killing their enemies. Bugbear, Half-Orc, Yuan-ti, Goblin Boss, all captured in various ways. Are they going to get a pet goblin buddy? Sounds like most things went pretty well, even the Spell caster being healed and killing the enemy. Honestly the image in my head for that is like someone sitting straight up while taking a deep breath and just screaming out the spell words as a kind of reaction to the adrenaline still coursing through their system.
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"Where words fail, swords prevail. Where blood is spilled, my cup is filled" -Cartaphilus
"I have found the answer to the meaning of life. You ask me what the answer is? You already know what the answer to life is. You fear it more than the strike of a viper, the ravages of disease, the ire of a lover. The answer is always death. But death is a gentle mistress with a sweet embrace, and you owe her a debt of restitution. Life is not a gift, it is a loan."
Describing attacks and how it makes the enemies look is what I do as well. Then at half HP opponents really show some wear and tear and bleeding. Last 20-25% of HP they're pretty close to death and look heavily wounded by description. I try to get my players to describe what they want to do as much as possible as well... instead of asking for a perception check and such.
"With my realization from leogobsin, I think I'll only really "kill" enemies outright if they go to negative HP equal to their original HP so most "kills" will just be enemies out of the fight really, maybe bleeding out until any sort of rescue comes. Of course I may make exceptions for attacks that do really big damage or one-shot attacks. Thoughts?" Most enemies are just trash and its ok to take them off the board and be dead as soon as they hit 0 hp. The more important opponents could have the same use of death saving throws.. giving a minion of the boss a chance to drag his master out of the chamber for an escape or something. In most cases I wouldn't use it, because it would slow down combat A LOT. So think about the moments where it could add to the drama and tension of the story where it could work. Skip using it everywhere else.
How is the wizard DMPC handled however? Its really tricky as soon as that one gets involved in conversation and decision making since the DM knows a lot more then the players do.
In the heat of the moment it can be difficult to play situations out objectively, even more so for the DM. I can list off about 12 different types of kick that we're taught in Tae Kwon Do, however when sparring in tournaments, I generally only throw 3-4 different kicks. Our brains focus on the immediate and generally don't process more than 1 or 2 moves ahead. I feel, as you get more and more comfortable in the DM chair, that you'll be able to adjust how your NPCs react on the fly easier. Personally I'd have only changed one thing; the wizard would have found a way to retreat and showed a bit of trepidation...he did just get one shot after all. The goblin getting blasted...that's just karma.
You did just fine with your wizard, the fact that you feel he's a bit deus ex simply implies that your party is starting to figure out how to play better. Now you start to change what your wizard does, make his actions more and more support rather than front line. Most people look at the blaster wizard, now we change it up and start to switch to spells that are cc (creature control) or battle field manipulation. This way you're still contributing, but you're adding to the tactical thought rather than the damage dealt.
In regards to hitting 0 hp for your PC's, unless it states so in the spelling description, they regain HP and stabilize from the fatal trauma, but they don't instantly regain consciousness. If your wizard bounding back up just after brushing against death's shoulder seems off, keep him unconscious until the encounter is over. Maybe a little after, as well, forcing your party to either take a short rest in order to get him to recover, or carry him somehow. Stabilized doesn't mean awake.
On the same train of thought, 0 hp doesn't mean dead. Only after 3 failed death saves (or hitting negative digits inversed from their max hp) does a character actually die.
Though you can, in fact, let more important bad guys make death saves, the idea of it is usually circumvented by the player's wanting the villain dead in the first place. I'd imagine 9/10 ten times your party find their main foe unconscious but still breathing after a final battle, they're gonna finish him off anyway, rendering most death saves for enemies an exercise in futility.
Should a villain fall in battle, but have an ally that rushes to him and teleports them out so he can fight another, then it's reasonable to assume they may be resuscitated. Imagine as a player that the hag you ran through caused her coven to flee, teleporting their sister's body with them. Then imagine a few sessions later that the hags return for vengeance, including the one you cut down but never verified if she was dead or not. THAT'S an enemy you would give death saving throws after a fight for (and maybe medicine checks if they had allies or minions that could sensibly stabilize them).
Sounds like an interesting night. It's funny that they took the goblin with them, my group has mostly taken prisoners rather than killing their enemies. Bugbear, Half-Orc, Yuan-ti, Goblin Boss, all captured in various ways. Are they going to get a pet goblin buddy? Sounds like most things went pretty well, even the Spell caster being healed and killing the enemy. Honestly the image in my head for that is like someone sitting straight up while taking a deep breath and just screaming out the spell words as a kind of reaction to the adrenaline still coursing through their system.
It was indeed interesting. Like I said, the players went to sleep in the real world and woke up in the Forgotten Realms so I RP my wizard as not really knowing why or how he has powers. He still looks at his hands after casting Magic Missile and tries to put out the "flames" that remain in his hands after the missiles fly away.
I'm not sure if they're going to keep a pet goblin; I'm still thinking about what they'd do or how their previous captive would interact once they meet again. I'm open to suggestions! I wish I'd read your post before the wizard dead-alive thing happened as I would've loved to make the MM shot kindof like a knee-jerk reaction to being brought back to full health!
Most enemies are just trash and its ok to take them off the board and be dead as soon as they hit 0 hp. The more important opponents could have the same use of death saving throws.. giving a minion of the boss a chance to drag his master out of the chamber for an escape or something. In most cases I wouldn't use it, because it would slow down combat A LOT. So think about the moments where it could add to the drama and tension of the story where it could work. Skip using it everywhere else.
How is the wizard DMPC handled however? Its really tricky as soon as that one gets involved in conversation and decision making since the DM knows a lot more then the players do.
I get what you're saying regarding the 0HP and I won't really be saying that all the time. However, I think most enemies will not die at 0HP, they'll either be bleeding out and will eventually die at a later point, but like in real battles (I think), not all downed enemies are dead-dead but instead unable-to-fight-dead.
As for the wizard, I try to make him an uninvolved as possible. Like when the PCs first interrogated the goblin, we checked to see who can talk to the goblin and I had the goblin stick to his native tongue. We then realized that the wizard can speak Goblin but that he was too far back to really contribute to the interrogation. Once the wizard came 'rounc with the ox-cart and managed to listen in, he was able to participate.... but didn't even realize that he was understanding Goblin or responding in that tongue. The players just looked at him odd and he eventually caught on. THEN he also realized that the Goblin should be able to speak Common and once that was blurted out, the fighter and the rogue were onto him with pointy things and their own interrogation recommenced!
I'm happy where my wizard is with regards to party involvement; he had virtually little say in the arguments and decision making stated above. What I may not be comfortable later on is how much of a damage dealer he is. I know my players, especially my boys, will want to be doing the "awesome stuff" and I don't want to take away from that. Maybe make my wizard more utilitarian than combative? I was initially considering the wizard to part ways with the group later on, but that may be too much.
Personally I'd have only changed one thing; the wizard would have found a way to retreat and showed a bit of trepidation...he did just get one shot after all. The goblin getting blasted...that's just karma.
You did just fine with your wizard, the fact that you feel he's a bit deus ex simply implies that your party is starting to figure out how to play better. Now you start to change what your wizard does, make his actions more and more support rather than front line. Most people look at the blaster wizard, now we change it up and start to switch to spells that are cc (creature control) or battle field manipulation. This way you're still contributing, but you're adding to the tactical thought rather than the damage dealt.
Probably should've done so, but part of me was hoping for a low roll on the D4s, but no such luck. Can you please be more specific with how I'm supposed to develop my wizard? What sort of spells should I go for? I've always played a sorcerer who just blasts things left/right/center with MM and Fireball so any help with CC/battlefield manipulation would be great!
Another option would be to play a really gung-ho wizard, I think, play front-line and not aware of his HP total. That way, he still takes a toll on the group by being a liability and using up healing spells as an offset to his offensive power? Or maybe this will make my players act more cautious or protective of the wizard?
If your wizard bounding back up just after brushing against death's shoulder seems off, keep him unconscious until the encounter is over. Maybe a little after, as well, forcing your party to either take a short rest in order to get him to recover, or carry him somehow. Stabilized doesn't mean awake.
Though you can, in fact, let more important bad guys make death saves, the idea of it is usually circumvented by the player's wanting the villain dead in the first place. I'd imagine 9/10 ten times your party find their main foe unconscious but still breathing after a final battle, they're gonna finish him off anyway, rendering most death saves for enemies an exercise in futility.
Should a villain fall in battle, but have an ally that rushes to him and teleports them out so he can fight another, then it's reasonable to assume they may be resuscitated. Imagine as a player that the hag you ran through caused her coven to flee, teleporting their sister's body with them. Then imagine a few sessions later that the hags return for vengeance, including the one you cut down but never verified if she was dead or not. THAT'S an enemy you would give death saving throws after a fight for (and maybe medicine checks if they had allies or minions that could sensibly stabilize them).
If my cleric just healed him to 1/3hp, I would've done so but going back to full HP, I felt pressured to do something. After all, he is back at peak health!
As for the bad guys, we will see how bloodthirsty my players are. Looks like they're not totally into killing enemies if I'm interpreting their actions with the goblin captive correctly.
Why would I want to do death saving throws after a fight regarding your hag example? I can probably imagine having a memorable underling "fall" in battle only to re-appear at a later fight and say that the party left him for dead but he either stabilized or was rescued by a wandering enemy patrol.... should make for good story moments!
Apologies for the mess regarding quotes and stuff guys! I just wanted to make sure I addressed the interesting points and not leave anything out. Please do keep the suggestions coming; looks like the next game will be this Friday and I intend to be better prepared this time. I may print out the map for the Redbrand Hideout and other places as my players really like the map/grid aspect of the game and I think I have enough on my plate and I'm not good enough yet to pull this into the "theatre of the mind" just yet. They also really liked the handouts I've given for the world map and the town map, so more bling is good! I do have a dry-erase map from the Pathfinder Beginner Box and some markers but I figure printing out the map and cutting it out to sections would be easier plus more eye candy as well.... or perhaps it is time to explore my map-drawing skills? Or get one of my boys to do this?
as for the last paragraph. You could have more family time by doing papercraft. With some simple cardboard and paint you can create great looking set pieces/tiles yourself for fairly cheap. Creating lots of tiles can be done in a few hours in the evening, If everyone does a little you got enough tiles for a complete environment in no time :P
I have thought about that but 1) making them participate would ruin the "fog of war," I think and 2) using generic or modular tilesets is great but then I've lost the great art that went into the module I just bought. My idea is to print out the dungeon as presented in the module but big enough so that each square will fit one model (if it's a 5ft square), assemble the map with glue, then cut out the rooms so that I can present each room as the players explore the dungeon.
Probably should've done so, but part of me was hoping for a low roll on the D4s, but no such luck. Can you please be more specific with how I'm supposed to develop my wizard? What sort of spells should I go for? I've always played a sorcerer who just blasts things left/right/center with MM and Fireball so any help with CC/battlefield manipulation would be great!
Another option would be to play a really gung-ho wizard, I think, play front-line and not aware of his HP total. That way, he still takes a toll on the group by being a liability and using up healing spells as an offset to his offensive power? Or maybe this will make my players act more cautious or protective of the wizard?
Well, I've played casters way too much, I tend to stick to the Sorc as well, just something so satisfying about making thing blow up ya know. However when I played LMoP I was given the wizard prefab, I only cast 1 attack spell the entire adventure, flaming sphere. The rest of the time I used grease, gust, and other spells that would give my party advantages in combat. I decided the wizard abhorred the idea of killing.
So let's look at some things we could do as a CC/Manipulator:
School ideas
School of Enchantment: You can CC a creature starting at lvl 2 with hypnotic gaze, redirect attacks at lvl 6, you can twin enchantments at lvl 10, and make a creature unaware of the charm at lvl 14.
School of Illusion: Messing with the battle field and cc. You can create better minor illusions starting at 2nd lvl, you can manipulate your illusions starting at lvl 6, create illusory clones as a defense mechanism at lvl 10, you can make part of your illusion real at lvl 14.
School of Divination: Tactical play: 2 free rolls each long rest that you can use to make a creature or party member succeed/fail at lvl 2, regain spell slots at lvl 6, greater senses at lvl 10, 3 free rolls at lvl 14.
Spell ideas:
CC spells are any type of spell that will cause a creature to lose a turn, is incapacitated in some way, or simply is denied the ability to join in combat. Batlefied Manipulation spells change what the battlefield looks like, how it works, or what is going on with the terrain. Tactical play is similar to the buff/debuff type but also combines the above concepts or your nuker type.
It is worth mentioning that all of these type do cross over each other many times so you'll get to use your spells in many creative ways.
CC spells: Charms for potentially taking a creature out of the fight or using them for a round or two. Dominates for the same thing. Sleep for removing them from combat. Holds for stopping them from participating.
Battlefield maniuplation spells: Entangle, Evard's black tentacles, Fog, Sleet Storm, Hallucinatory Terrain, Blade Barrier, Darkness, Walls of X, Stone Shape, Move/Mold earth, meld to stone
A lot of these will require some serious tactical usage, but when done properly you can eliminate creatures by targeting the terrain or creatures them selves. It really is up to the imagination of the caster as to how to most effectively implement the spell.
Toss grease into the middle of a pack of goblins, many will fall prone, giving advantage to attacks. Then you call out to your party to retreat and cast firebolt into the grease to create a makeshift wall of fire.
Back a creature into a corner and cast mage hand to grab it by the seat of the pants so it has a harder time moving. This is pushing the envelope of what the spell is designed to do, but it plays off the "rule of cool" concept.
Use Gust to pin a creature against a wall while the group pummels it with attacks.
Use wall of Stone to create a prison around a creature.
Cast Prismatic Spray on a group of creatures followed by Sleep and then Hallucinatory Terrain, then run. The creatures wake from their respective spells to find themselves having to overcome the illusion to follow you.
One of my personal favorites was when I had raise dead cast on a kobold, polymorphed it to look like a goblin, cast the illusion that it was on fire and then ordered it to charge into a room of kobolds. The ensuing chaos allowed us to do a lot of damage to a large army that would have been otherwise a deadly challenge to fight normally.
I hope this gives you something to chew on, I know some of it deviates from RAW but I tend to work more on the RP/Narrative/Story side of DMing rather than what the rules say.
Excellent points, thank you! The old player in me loved the grease+fireball combo but everything else you've suggested seems like everything else that I've ignored or skipped over as a player. Time to make an un-cool wizard then! Can I really not get Fireball when it comes up? Just seems so wrong!
Cast mage hand, have it grab a large rock (baseball sized). Next turn have it move beyond it's maximum distance, this would equal the stone continuing to move at 5 feet per second, which is really fast. Stone hits a creature in it's path....
Now I'm pretty sure that this is completely against what many people would consider appropriate but, come on, the impact of that stone would be amazing! Definitely not a measly 1d4 from an improvised weapon...
Cast mage hand, have it grab a large rock (baseball sized). Next turn have it move beyond it's maximum distance, this would equal the stone continuing to move at 5 feet per second, which is really fast. Stone hits a creature in it's path....
Now I'm pretty sure that this is completely against what many people would consider appropriate but, come on, the impact of that stone would be amazing! Definitely not a measly 1d4 from an improvised weapon...
three miles per hour is pretty darn slow... thats like an underhand toss slow. Example, airsoft bb's are typically traveling at 200 f/s.
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"Where words fail, swords prevail. Where blood is spilled, my cup is filled" -Cartaphilus
"I have found the answer to the meaning of life. You ask me what the answer is? You already know what the answer to life is. You fear it more than the strike of a viper, the ravages of disease, the ire of a lover. The answer is always death. But death is a gentle mistress with a sweet embrace, and you owe her a debt of restitution. Life is not a gift, it is a loan."
The adventure has me rewarding the PCs with various magic items. How does the party know what the items are? It's easy enough if an NPC rewards the party and says "here's a potion of healing" but what about when the party loots chests in dungeons?
I'm guessing the wizard can learn the Identify spell but what if there's no wizard or he does not know the spell? What options do the party have in Phandalin?
Speaking of learning spells, how would the cleric or wizard learn new spells? I don't think the adventure gives them any mentors in town and no mention of anything from Neverwinter, although I presume it would be easy enough if the party decides to go there to find a mentor.
Clerics just know the spells of the level that they can cast. Wizards can pay gold to transcribe spells found in dungeons into their spell books, making them spells the Wizard can now use.
As for magic items, ones with attunement arguably automatically identify themselves to anyone who attunes to them. Otherwise an Identify spell would be helpful or, if you are being very generous, a high difficulty Arcana check might help the party understand the gist of what the item does.
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"The mongoose blew out its candle and was asleep in bed before the room went dark." —Llanowar fable
There are 2 ways to approach identifying a magical item. The first is a newer one where you spend a short rest studying and playing with the item and you learn what it is and can do. The second is to get it identified by someone using the spell. In the case of the second option you can have an NPC charge for services if there's no other option.
The books don't really necessitate the need for a mentor or teacher, that's more of an RP/DM call. Learning new spells as a cleric is easy enough to justify by saying the prayers they make to their diety are rewarded with new knowledge (spells). As to any other class, you can come up with any number of ways that they learn, from the arbitrary "you just know it from leveling" to having to find spell scrolls, books, ancient tomes, and the likes to learn new spells.
Cast mage hand, have it grab a large rock (baseball sized). Next turn have it move beyond it's maximum distance, this would equal the stone continuing to move at 5 feet per second, which is really fast. Stone hits a creature in it's path....
Now I'm pretty sure that this is completely against what many people would consider appropriate but, come on, the impact of that stone would be amazing! Definitely not a measly 1d4 from an improvised weapon...
three miles per hour is pretty darn slow... thats like an underhand toss slow. Example, airsoft bb's are typically traveling at 200 f/s.
lmao...I so did the math wrong when I wrote that...thank you for correcting me!
Yeah, I would like the RP approach to this so I'm thinking they do not level up in the middle of a dungeon -- maybe they level up back at town after a night's rest. Skills or feats (if that's still a thing in 5E) are learned through practice and if it's "advanced," through a mentor. I think there's an old adventurer (Daran Edermath) in town so that'll take care of the fighter and there should be another NPC that can probably be a mentor for the rogue (Sister Garaele?). The cleric, I can do the diety-reveals-it approach although I'm sure there can be a temple in Neverwinter that can cater to both the cleric and the wizard, although that will require a few days' travel.
I hope that by doing this, the characters ROLL play less and ROLE play more.
WRT spells and spell slots -- I know characters know [Y] number of spells but only have [X] amount of spell slots. Do they have to decide which spells go into those slots or can they just fill the slot by using a spell of the appropriate level? Sorry for this basic question but haven't come across this on the book yet and had to write/ask it before I forget.
They chose a list and use the spells in that list as they see fit up to the amount of slots available.
Sorcerer 3rd level, knows 4 spells, can cast 4 first level and 2 second level. Unlike a wizard they cannot prepare spells daily, so you'd probably have a selection of 3 first level spells and 1 second level spell to choose from. In this situation they could maintain that second level slot for the Magic Missile spell they chose as their 2nd level spell, or up-cast a 1st level spell using up their second level spell slot.
Wizard 3rd level, intelligence of 16 (+3), has 6 spells known and can cast 4 first level spells and 2 second level spells. The wizard prepares 3 first level spells and 3 second level spells. They can cast their first level spell a total of 6 times: 4 at first level and 2 up-cast to second level. or they can cast 2 of the 3 spells they prepared at second level and all 3 of their first level spells, leaving a slot open for a second casting of another 1st level spell.
So, another way to look at it, the spell slots are a resource for the caster to choose how to most effectively use their spells known.
Great! It's been a while, but this is different from 3.5/Pathfinder where spellcasters had to choose which spells to put in the slots so if you only prepared one Fireball but needed two, you're out of luck, right? Or am I mis-remembering spellcasting in 3.5/Pathfinder?
So if my Level 1 Wizard wants, he can cast 1,000 Mage Hands (at will, exaggerated for emphasis), correct? With two 1st-level spell slots and four 1st-level spells (burning hands, detect magic, mage armor, magic missile, shield, and sleep), he can cast two MMs or two Mage Armors or any combination of his known spells? He does not need to prepare or commit to any of the spells beforehand?
The list of spells would be prepared that morning (for sake of RP): burning hands, detect magic, mage armor, magic missile, shield, and sleep.
Of those prepared spells he could then cast 2xMM or (Burning Hands + Sleep) or any combination there of. However if he wanted to cast Grease he could not because it's not prepared.
Nope, I use very similar narrative cues all throughout my games, I just pick and choose certain words to indicate near miss/hit vs hit/miss. It's extremely helpful when you want to hint at immunities and resistances without simply saying "you hit it with a fireball and nothing happens". Instead "You watch as the fireball explodes, creatures are flung about and burn to ashes, but one stands there grinning, it's clothing singed but his resolve seems firm."
Sounds like an interesting night. It's funny that they took the goblin with them, my group has mostly taken prisoners rather than killing their enemies. Bugbear, Half-Orc, Yuan-ti, Goblin Boss, all captured in various ways. Are they going to get a pet goblin buddy? Sounds like most things went pretty well, even the Spell caster being healed and killing the enemy. Honestly the image in my head for that is like someone sitting straight up while taking a deep breath and just screaming out the spell words as a kind of reaction to the adrenaline still coursing through their system.
"Where words fail, swords prevail. Where blood is spilled, my cup is filled" -Cartaphilus
"I have found the answer to the meaning of life. You ask me what the answer is? You already know what the answer to life is. You fear it more than the strike of a viper, the ravages of disease, the ire of a lover. The answer is always death. But death is a gentle mistress with a sweet embrace, and you owe her a debt of restitution. Life is not a gift, it is a loan."
Describing attacks and how it makes the enemies look is what I do as well. Then at half HP opponents really show some wear and tear and bleeding. Last 20-25% of HP they're pretty close to death and look heavily wounded by description. I try to get my players to describe what they want to do as much as possible as well... instead of asking for a perception check and such.
"With my realization from leogobsin, I think I'll only really "kill" enemies outright if they go to negative HP equal to their original HP so most "kills" will just be enemies out of the fight really, maybe bleeding out until any sort of rescue comes. Of course I may make exceptions for attacks that do really big damage or one-shot attacks. Thoughts?"
Most enemies are just trash and its ok to take them off the board and be dead as soon as they hit 0 hp. The more important opponents could have the same use of death saving throws.. giving a minion of the boss a chance to drag his master out of the chamber for an escape or something. In most cases I wouldn't use it, because it would slow down combat A LOT. So think about the moments where it could add to the drama and tension of the story where it could work. Skip using it everywhere else.
How is the wizard DMPC handled however? Its really tricky as soon as that one gets involved in conversation and decision making since the DM knows a lot more then the players do.
In the heat of the moment it can be difficult to play situations out objectively, even more so for the DM. I can list off about 12 different types of kick that we're taught in Tae Kwon Do, however when sparring in tournaments, I generally only throw 3-4 different kicks. Our brains focus on the immediate and generally don't process more than 1 or 2 moves ahead. I feel, as you get more and more comfortable in the DM chair, that you'll be able to adjust how your NPCs react on the fly easier. Personally I'd have only changed one thing; the wizard would have found a way to retreat and showed a bit of trepidation...he did just get one shot after all. The goblin getting blasted...that's just karma.
You did just fine with your wizard, the fact that you feel he's a bit deus ex simply implies that your party is starting to figure out how to play better. Now you start to change what your wizard does, make his actions more and more support rather than front line. Most people look at the blaster wizard, now we change it up and start to switch to spells that are cc (creature control) or battle field manipulation. This way you're still contributing, but you're adding to the tactical thought rather than the damage dealt.
In regards to hitting 0 hp for your PC's, unless it states so in the spelling description, they regain HP and stabilize from the fatal trauma, but they don't instantly regain consciousness. If your wizard bounding back up just after brushing against death's shoulder seems off, keep him unconscious until the encounter is over. Maybe a little after, as well, forcing your party to either take a short rest in order to get him to recover, or carry him somehow. Stabilized doesn't mean awake.
On the same train of thought, 0 hp doesn't mean dead. Only after 3 failed death saves (or hitting negative digits inversed from their max hp) does a character actually die.
Though you can, in fact, let more important bad guys make death saves, the idea of it is usually circumvented by the player's wanting the villain dead in the first place. I'd imagine 9/10 ten times your party find their main foe unconscious but still breathing after a final battle, they're gonna finish him off anyway, rendering most death saves for enemies an exercise in futility.
Should a villain fall in battle, but have an ally that rushes to him and teleports them out so he can fight another, then it's reasonable to assume they may be resuscitated. Imagine as a player that the hag you ran through caused her coven to flee, teleporting their sister's body with them. Then imagine a few sessions later that the hags return for vengeance, including the one you cut down but never verified if she was dead or not. THAT'S an enemy you would give death saving throws after a fight for (and maybe medicine checks if they had allies or minions that could sensibly stabilize them).
#OpenDnD. #DnDBegone
It was indeed interesting. Like I said, the players went to sleep in the real world and woke up in the Forgotten Realms so I RP my wizard as not really knowing why or how he has powers. He still looks at his hands after casting Magic Missile and tries to put out the "flames" that remain in his hands after the missiles fly away.
I'm not sure if they're going to keep a pet goblin; I'm still thinking about what they'd do or how their previous captive would interact once they meet again. I'm open to suggestions! I wish I'd read your post before the wizard dead-alive thing happened as I would've loved to make the MM shot kindof like a knee-jerk reaction to being brought back to full health!
Why would I want to do death saving throws after a fight regarding your hag example? I can probably imagine having a memorable underling "fall" in battle only to re-appear at a later fight and say that the party left him for dead but he either stabilized or was rescued by a wandering enemy patrol.... should make for good story moments!
as for the last paragraph. You could have more family time by doing papercraft. With some simple cardboard and paint you can create great looking set pieces/tiles yourself for fairly cheap. Creating lots of tiles can be done in a few hours in the evening, If everyone does a little you got enough tiles for a complete environment in no time :P
https://www.youtube.com/user/TheDMGinfo/playlists
I have thought about that but 1) making them participate would ruin the "fog of war," I think and 2) using generic or modular tilesets is great but then I've lost the great art that went into the module I just bought. My idea is to print out the dungeon as presented in the module but big enough so that each square will fit one model (if it's a 5ft square), assemble the map with glue, then cut out the rooms so that I can present each room as the players explore the dungeon.
Spell ideas:
CC spells are any type of spell that will cause a creature to lose a turn, is incapacitated in some way, or simply is denied the ability to join in combat.
Batlefied Manipulation spells change what the battlefield looks like, how it works, or what is going on with the terrain.
Tactical play is similar to the buff/debuff type but also combines the above concepts or your nuker type.
It is worth mentioning that all of these type do cross over each other many times so you'll get to use your spells in many creative ways.
CC spells: Charms for potentially taking a creature out of the fight or using them for a round or two. Dominates for the same thing. Sleep for removing them from combat. Holds for stopping them from participating.
Battlefield maniuplation spells: Entangle, Evard's black tentacles, Fog, Sleet Storm, Hallucinatory Terrain, Blade Barrier, Darkness, Walls of X, Stone Shape, Move/Mold earth, meld to stone
A lot of these will require some serious tactical usage, but when done properly you can eliminate creatures by targeting the terrain or creatures them selves. It really is up to the imagination of the caster as to how to most effectively implement the spell.
One of my personal favorites was when I had raise dead cast on a kobold, polymorphed it to look like a goblin, cast the illusion that it was on fire and then ordered it to charge into a room of kobolds. The ensuing chaos allowed us to do a lot of damage to a large army that would have been otherwise a deadly challenge to fight normally.
I hope this gives you something to chew on, I know some of it deviates from RAW but I tend to work more on the RP/Narrative/Story side of DMing rather than what the rules say.
Excellent points, thank you! The old player in me loved the grease+fireball combo but everything else you've suggested seems like everything else that I've ignored or skipped over as a player. Time to make an un-cool wizard then! Can I really not get Fireball when it comes up? Just seems so wrong!
Cast mage hand, have it grab a large rock (baseball sized). Next turn have it move beyond it's maximum distance, this would equal the stone continuing to move at 5 feet per second, which is really fast. Stone hits a creature in it's path....
Now I'm pretty sure that this is completely against what many people would consider appropriate but, come on, the impact of that stone would be amazing! Definitely not a measly 1d4 from an improvised weapon...
"Where words fail, swords prevail. Where blood is spilled, my cup is filled" -Cartaphilus
"I have found the answer to the meaning of life. You ask me what the answer is? You already know what the answer to life is. You fear it more than the strike of a viper, the ravages of disease, the ire of a lover. The answer is always death. But death is a gentle mistress with a sweet embrace, and you owe her a debt of restitution. Life is not a gift, it is a loan."
The adventure has me rewarding the PCs with various magic items. How does the party know what the items are? It's easy enough if an NPC rewards the party and says "here's a potion of healing" but what about when the party loots chests in dungeons?
I'm guessing the wizard can learn the Identify spell but what if there's no wizard or he does not know the spell? What options do the party have in Phandalin?
Speaking of learning spells, how would the cleric or wizard learn new spells? I don't think the adventure gives them any mentors in town and no mention of anything from Neverwinter, although I presume it would be easy enough if the party decides to go there to find a mentor.
Clerics just know the spells of the level that they can cast. Wizards can pay gold to transcribe spells found in dungeons into their spell books, making them spells the Wizard can now use.
As for magic items, ones with attunement arguably automatically identify themselves to anyone who attunes to them. Otherwise an Identify spell would be helpful or, if you are being very generous, a high difficulty Arcana check might help the party understand the gist of what the item does.
There are 2 ways to approach identifying a magical item. The first is a newer one where you spend a short rest studying and playing with the item and you learn what it is and can do. The second is to get it identified by someone using the spell. In the case of the second option you can have an NPC charge for services if there's no other option.
The books don't really necessitate the need for a mentor or teacher, that's more of an RP/DM call. Learning new spells as a cleric is easy enough to justify by saying the prayers they make to their diety are rewarded with new knowledge (spells). As to any other class, you can come up with any number of ways that they learn, from the arbitrary "you just know it from leveling" to having to find spell scrolls, books, ancient tomes, and the likes to learn new spells.
Yeah, I would like the RP approach to this so I'm thinking they do not level up in the middle of a dungeon -- maybe they level up back at town after a night's rest. Skills or feats (if that's still a thing in 5E) are learned through practice and if it's "advanced," through a mentor. I think there's an old adventurer (Daran Edermath) in town so that'll take care of the fighter and there should be another NPC that can probably be a mentor for the rogue (Sister Garaele?). The cleric, I can do the diety-reveals-it approach although I'm sure there can be a temple in Neverwinter that can cater to both the cleric and the wizard, although that will require a few days' travel.
I hope that by doing this, the characters ROLL play less and ROLE play more.
WRT spells and spell slots -- I know characters know [Y] number of spells but only have [X] amount of spell slots. Do they have to decide which spells go into those slots or can they just fill the slot by using a spell of the appropriate level? Sorry for this basic question but haven't come across this on the book yet and had to write/ask it before I forget.
They chose a list and use the spells in that list as they see fit up to the amount of slots available.
Sorcerer 3rd level, knows 4 spells, can cast 4 first level and 2 second level. Unlike a wizard they cannot prepare spells daily, so you'd probably have a selection of 3 first level spells and 1 second level spell to choose from. In this situation they could maintain that second level slot for the Magic Missile spell they chose as their 2nd level spell, or up-cast a 1st level spell using up their second level spell slot.
Wizard 3rd level, intelligence of 16 (+3), has 6 spells known and can cast 4 first level spells and 2 second level spells. The wizard prepares 3 first level spells and 3 second level spells. They can cast their first level spell a total of 6 times: 4 at first level and 2 up-cast to second level. or they can cast 2 of the 3 spells they prepared at second level and all 3 of their first level spells, leaving a slot open for a second casting of another 1st level spell.
So, another way to look at it, the spell slots are a resource for the caster to choose how to most effectively use their spells known.
Great! It's been a while, but this is different from 3.5/Pathfinder where spellcasters had to choose which spells to put in the slots so if you only prepared one Fireball but needed two, you're out of luck, right? Or am I mis-remembering spellcasting in 3.5/Pathfinder?
So if my Level 1 Wizard wants, he can cast 1,000 Mage Hands (at will, exaggerated for emphasis), correct? With two 1st-level spell slots and four 1st-level spells (burning hands, detect magic, mage armor, magic missile, shield, and sleep), he can cast two MMs or two Mage Armors or any combination of his known spells? He does not need to prepare or commit to any of the spells beforehand?
The list of spells would be prepared that morning (for sake of RP): burning hands, detect magic, mage armor, magic missile, shield, and sleep.
Of those prepared spells he could then cast 2xMM or (Burning Hands + Sleep) or any combination there of. However if he wanted to cast Grease he could not because it's not prepared.