In the vein of 'this sounds like a list of camping supplies'...
Handaxes.
Many classes offer you a "Choice of simple weapon" when running starter equipment rather than gold. Make one of those weapon choices a handaxe. Handaxes can be used to chop faces, yes. They can also be used to chop wood, or dismantle wooden objects such as crates, chests, or furniture. You can use it as an improvised prying wedge, or reverse it and use it as a slapdash hammer (saving you the weight of the hammer). You could even do some horse trading with your DM to specifically set a handaxe up as a camp hatchet, with a dedicated hammer surface on the rear of the axe head.
You can use a handaxe to do most of what you could do with a dagger - if, admittedly, more clumsily - but you can't do with a dagger a lot of what you can do with a handaxe. Plus, as an earlier poster said, it counts as a backup weapon since it can, in fact, still chop faces.
Handaxes are tools with a hundred and one uses, and even people without any melee capability at all should consider carrying one simply because when you go camping, you take a camp axe. And the 5e handaxe is pretty much a weaponized camp axe.
Axes suitable for chopping wood or used as a tool are very seldom suited for chopping faces. Very different requirements and design. At least in real life. In fantasy land where it only takes a few minutes to done a fullplate of armour, anything goes. :)
In the vein of 'this sounds like a list of camping supplies'...
Handaxes.
Many classes offer you a "Choice of simple weapon" when running starter equipment rather than gold. Make one of those weapon choices a handaxe. Handaxes can be used to chop faces, yes. They can also be used to chop wood, or dismantle wooden objects such as crates, chests, or furniture. You can use it as an improvised prying wedge, or reverse it and use it as a slapdash hammer (saving you the weight of the hammer). You could even do some horse trading with your DM to specifically set a handaxe up as a camp hatchet, with a dedicated hammer surface on the rear of the axe head.
You can use a handaxe to do most of what you could do with a dagger - if, admittedly, more clumsily - but you can't do with a dagger a lot of what you can do with a handaxe. Plus, as an earlier poster said, it counts as a backup weapon since it can, in fact, still chop faces.
Handaxes are tools with a hundred and one uses, and even people without any melee capability at all should consider carrying one simply because when you go camping, you take a camp axe. And the 5e handaxe is pretty much a weaponized camp axe.
Axes suitable for chopping wood or used as a tool are very seldom suited for chopping faces. Very different requirements and design. At least in real life. In fantasy land where it only takes a few minutes to done a fullplate of armour, anything goes. :)
Camp shovel, useful for chopping wood and faces as well as digging holes, just ask the russians
It depends on the DM, but two things I always carry if I can are a field guide and a survival guide.
The field guide has information on common and/or well-known monsters, animals, birds, fish, plants, etc. It makes meta gaming much easier to avoid, by giving me and the DM a way to know what my character knows, and what they don’t. For example, my field guide might mention that trolls are weak to fire and acid, because trolls are a well-known enemy, but it doesn’t say anything about sprites having Heart Sight, since sprites are very secretive creatures.
The survival guide is just what it sounds like. It has basic information on things like wound care, finding water, setting snares to catch food, navigation, emergency methods for building fires, and so on. Because there are almost never any rangers around (why doesn’t anybody ever play rangers?), this helps decrease some of the penalties for not having one. It doesn’t let me (or anyone) replace a ranger, or make us great at survival, but it does occasionally remove the disadvantage posed by trying to do things we don’t know how to do.
I find that most DMs are willing to let me carry one or both of these books, because it allows them to control the flow of information without having to sit down and make a long, hard-to-remember list of what a given character knows.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
I live with several severe autoimmune conditions. If I don’t get back to you right away, it’s probably because I’m not feeling well.
In the vein of 'this sounds like a list of camping supplies'...
Handaxes.
Many classes offer you a "Choice of simple weapon" when running starter equipment rather than gold. Make one of those weapon choices a handaxe. Handaxes can be used to chop faces, yes. They can also be used to chop wood, or dismantle wooden objects such as crates, chests, or furniture. You can use it as an improvised prying wedge, or reverse it and use it as a slapdash hammer (saving you the weight of the hammer). You could even do some horse trading with your DM to specifically set a handaxe up as a camp hatchet, with a dedicated hammer surface on the rear of the axe head.
You can use a handaxe to do most of what you could do with a dagger - if, admittedly, more clumsily - but you can't do with a dagger a lot of what you can do with a handaxe. Plus, as an earlier poster said, it counts as a backup weapon since it can, in fact, still chop faces.
Handaxes are tools with a hundred and one uses, and even people without any melee capability at all should consider carrying one simply because when you go camping, you take a camp axe. And the 5e handaxe is pretty much a weaponized camp axe.
Axes suitable for chopping wood or used as a tool are very seldom suited for chopping faces. Very different requirements and design. At least in real life. In fantasy land where it only takes a few minutes to done a fullplate of armour, anything goes. :)
Camp shovel, useful for chopping wood and faces as well as digging holes, just ask the russians
Well, that's all fine and dandy until the trees start speaking Finnish...
Mundane or nearly mundane equipment my characters carry beyond what is in the standard packs: (with comments)
at L1: ballbearings (1000) in tubes of 200 - I see these as being about 2x the size of a bb, 200 at a time should be plenty. 1GP caltrops (20) 1GP chalk - 10 sticks, 3 as sticks/chunks and 7 sticks as powder in a “druggist’s fold”. 0.5 GP Fishing tackle 1 GP grappling hook 2 GP handaxe & Dagger from the two simple weapons in equipment 3 flasks of oil oh so useful in so many ways 1GP signal whistle - there is a reason they are used by sets and coaches instead of yelling. 0.05 GP 3 empty sacks - just in case you need them 0.03 GP 1 bar of soap - again so useful in so many ways 0.02 GP 1 2 person tent - like modern 2 person camping tents you can fit 2 people if they are intimate, otherwise it’s really 1 person and equipment. 2GP 1 extra water skin - one stays on your pack/mount/etc, one stays with you in the dungeon. 0.4 G 1 Whetstone - and just how were you planning on keeping your hand axe, dagger and other bladed devices sharp? 1 small knife - daggers are 9-15” long, this is a 3”-6” folding or fixed knife - free 100’ string there are soooooo many ways to use string so 10’ is simply not enough - free total cost: 9.02 GP
optional items: flasks (0.02GP ea), vials (1 GP ea), cooks utensils (1 GP ea), pitons (0.05 GP ea), little bag of sand (free),
Mundane items they pick up as quickly as possible: Healer’s kit (5GP) everyone should have one of these - you don’t need medicine or any special skill to use. Merchant’s scale (5 GP) we all to often as DMs use modern buy and sell methods this is for barter and caching rigged sales/scales which is how we should be DMing most transactions. steel mirror (5 GP) acid (25 GP) at least 1 flask for when you need it holy water (50 GP) - not cheap, but very useful if situational antitoxin - this is a non magical version - herbalists and poisoners should be able to create. Again, when you need it you need it and nothing less will do. (50 GP) magnifying glass (100 GP) but when you need to read the fine print … spyglass (1000 GP). Way overpriced but it’s an inexhaustible resource once you have it. Note it should be about 10x not 2x even the first telescopes were better than 2x
common magic items very character should be accumulating unless you can get something better: Boots of False Tracks - your party is now a small herd of deer in the woods ( or giant rats in he dungeon) to anyone tracking you Cloak of Many Fashions - whether you need a cloak for the king’s ball or something that will do a mundane camouflage in the woods this cloak can handle it Clothes of Mending - adventuring is hard on clothes, these fix themselves, nough said! Cook’s best friend - making the camp cook’s life a little easier never hurts Heward’s Spice Pouch - not just helping the cook, guess how a word reacts to a pinch of cayenne in the face Tankard of sobriety - yes getting drunk can be fun but it’s also dangerous this lets you enjoy without ever overdoing. Lantern of investigation - a homebrew item, think of a variable width flashlight for DND
some items that are not worth it or actually dangerous basic fishing gear (spelljammer - 0.01 GP) yes fishing tackle is 100x more expensive but it’s still only 1 GP and you get multiples of everything you need not just 1 cheap pole, a few ft of Line a single hook and maybe some bait Arcane tent (extradimensional space) + bag of holding ( extradimensional space) = unpreped and unplanned spelljammer expedition - you do know the air bubble spell right?
A belt of 4 pouches. Easy to keep on and could hold all you need to survive. This is not the belt to hold up your pants but a heavy belt to hang everything else off of. Like your pouches, scabbards for weapons, hatchets or daggers. It can be used around the waist or over the shoulder. With heavy thigh loops attached it can be used as a climbing rig. A steel belt buckle is half of a fire starter, just find and add flint.
Healers kit. At least a fat first aid kit including a simple healing potion. As they say in the military, use your buddies FAK on your buddy, Use yours on you.
A small 3 to 4 inch knife. Small light and flat. Hide inside the back of your pants belt.Another in a pouch.
Tinder and tinderbox. You might not find dry tinder or have a handy caster close.
50" of rope. Why are you using mine? Plus together we have 100".
Fishing kit. Nothing larger than an altoids tin. Spend the cash and get good quality.
Oil and holy water.
50" of string. Need more fishing line? Or set a trap.
A few door wedges. No need for a hammer to jamb a door just kick into place. You can use a loop of string to pull it into place from the other side.
Chalk and powdered charcoal. For obvious already stated reasons.
Backpack. Spend the extra and get one with a bunch of extra straps on the outside. They can tighten it up around the contents to help keep it from moving around and making noise. With a waist strap it will not bounce around when you run and fight. Its not just a cheap canvas bag with shoulder straps.
Extra cloths. Extra socks help in any situation.
A few sacks or bags.
A couple empty vials.
An oiled poncho. Hood attached and large enough to serve at an impromptu tent, almost to your feet even over the backpack. Hang it by the hood and stake down the edges to make a quick tent.
A few spikes or tent pegs.
A blanket.
A mess kit.
Rations. A few are better than nothing.
Water skin.
Any tools you need.
Any books you need.
A small hatchet or hand axe. Axe on the front, flat hammer side on the back. Nothing more than 2 lbs.
Spend the money to get the better and lighter equipment.
It depends on the DM, but two things I always carry if I can are a field guide and a survival guide.
Having a character carry, say, the Volo's Guide series can be fun, in part because they are a hundred years out of date, leading to various inaccurate assumptions, but the setting of the Realms is surprisingly consistent enough in parts that enough of them remain accurate enough to be useful. Essentially, it adds easy flavour easily accessed by players (and characters), but at the same time still very much allows for plausible deniability on the part of the DM.
Fill it with water so that the bucket is denser than air then pour it out and because the bucket will lose 10 kilos of weight on average from that action and the average bucket weight is around 0.5 kilos you should now have an extra 9.5 kilos of buoyancy, do this several times and you make a wizards fly spell look petty and weak like the buckets always knew it to be.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
[roll]7d6[/roll]
Every post these dice roll increasing my chances of winning the yahtzee thread (I wish (wait not the twist the wish threa-!))
Axes suitable for chopping wood or used as a tool are very seldom suited for chopping faces. Very different requirements and design. At least in real life. In fantasy land where it only takes a few minutes to done a fullplate of armour, anything goes. :)
Camp shovel, useful for chopping wood and faces as well as digging holes, just ask the russians
It depends on the DM, but two things I always carry if I can are a field guide and a survival guide.
The field guide has information on common and/or well-known monsters, animals, birds, fish, plants, etc. It makes meta gaming much easier to avoid, by giving me and the DM a way to know what my character knows, and what they don’t. For example, my field guide might mention that trolls are weak to fire and acid, because trolls are a well-known enemy, but it doesn’t say anything about sprites having Heart Sight, since sprites are very secretive creatures.
The survival guide is just what it sounds like. It has basic information on things like wound care, finding water, setting snares to catch food, navigation, emergency methods for building fires, and so on. Because there are almost never any rangers around (why doesn’t anybody ever play rangers?), this helps decrease some of the penalties for not having one. It doesn’t let me (or anyone) replace a ranger, or make us great at survival, but it does occasionally remove the disadvantage posed by trying to do things we don’t know how to do.
I find that most DMs are willing to let me carry one or both of these books, because it allows them to control the flow of information without having to sit down and make a long, hard-to-remember list of what a given character knows.
I live with several severe autoimmune conditions. If I don’t get back to you right away, it’s probably because I’m not feeling well.
Well, that's all fine and dandy until the trees start speaking Finnish...
Carry some extra vials
Pick stuff up with them, put things down with them,
And when the time is right you can smash them and use the shards as ball bearing caltrops
[roll]7d6[/roll]
Every post these dice roll increasing my chances of winning the yahtzee thread (I wish (wait not the twist the wish threa-!))
Drummer Generated Title
After having been invited to include both here, I now combine the "PM me CHEESE 🧀 and tomato into PM me "PIZZA🍕"
Mundane or nearly mundane equipment my characters carry beyond what is in the standard packs: (with comments)
at L1:
ballbearings (1000) in tubes of 200 - I see these as being about 2x the size of a bb, 200 at a time should be plenty. 1GP
caltrops (20) 1GP
chalk - 10 sticks, 3 as sticks/chunks and 7 sticks as powder in a “druggist’s fold”. 0.5 GP
Fishing tackle 1 GP
grappling hook 2 GP
handaxe & Dagger from the two simple weapons in equipment
3 flasks of oil oh so useful in so many ways 1GP
signal whistle - there is a reason they are used by sets and coaches instead of yelling. 0.05 GP
3 empty sacks - just in case you need them 0.03 GP
1 bar of soap - again so useful in so many ways 0.02 GP
1 2 person tent - like modern 2 person camping tents you can fit 2 people if they are intimate, otherwise it’s really 1 person and equipment. 2GP
1 extra water skin - one stays on your pack/mount/etc, one stays with you in the dungeon. 0.4 G
1 Whetstone - and just how were you planning on keeping your hand axe, dagger and other bladed devices sharp?
1 small knife - daggers are 9-15” long, this is a 3”-6” folding or fixed knife - free
100’ string there are soooooo many ways to use string so 10’ is simply not enough - free
total cost: 9.02 GP
optional items: flasks (0.02GP ea), vials (1 GP ea), cooks utensils (1 GP ea), pitons (0.05 GP ea), little bag of sand (free),
Mundane items they pick up as quickly as possible:
Healer’s kit (5GP) everyone should have one of these - you don’t need medicine or any special skill to use.
Merchant’s scale (5 GP) we all to often as DMs use modern buy and sell methods this is for barter and caching rigged sales/scales which is how we should be DMing most transactions.
steel mirror (5 GP)
acid (25 GP) at least 1 flask for when you need it
holy water (50 GP) - not cheap, but very useful if situational
antitoxin - this is a non magical version - herbalists and poisoners should be able to create. Again, when you need it you need it and nothing less will do. (50 GP)
magnifying glass (100 GP) but when you need to read the fine print …
spyglass (1000 GP). Way overpriced but it’s an inexhaustible resource once you have it. Note it should be about 10x not 2x even the first telescopes were better than 2x
common magic items very character should be accumulating unless you can get something better:
Boots of False Tracks - your party is now a small herd of deer in the woods ( or giant rats in he dungeon) to anyone tracking you
Cloak of Many Fashions - whether you need a cloak for the king’s ball or something that will do a mundane camouflage in the woods this cloak can handle it
Clothes of Mending - adventuring is hard on clothes, these fix themselves, nough said!
Cook’s best friend - making the camp cook’s life a little easier never hurts
Heward’s Spice Pouch - not just helping the cook, guess how a word reacts to a pinch of cayenne in the face
Tankard of sobriety - yes getting drunk can be fun but it’s also dangerous this lets you enjoy without ever overdoing.
Lantern of investigation - a homebrew item, think of a variable width flashlight for DND
some items that are not worth it or actually dangerous
basic fishing gear (spelljammer - 0.01 GP) yes fishing tackle is 100x more expensive but it’s still only 1 GP and you get multiples of everything you need not just 1 cheap pole, a few ft of Line a single hook and maybe some bait
Arcane tent (extradimensional space) + bag of holding ( extradimensional space) = unpreped and unplanned spelljammer expedition - you do know the air bubble spell right?
Wisea$$ DM and Player since 1979.
The stuff everyone should have.
A belt of 4 pouches. Easy to keep on and could hold all you need to survive. This is not the belt to hold up your pants but a heavy belt to hang everything else off of. Like your pouches, scabbards for weapons, hatchets or daggers. It can be used around the waist or over the shoulder. With heavy thigh loops attached it can be used as a climbing rig. A steel belt buckle is half of a fire starter, just find and add flint.
Healers kit. At least a fat first aid kit including a simple healing potion. As they say in the military, use your buddies FAK on your buddy, Use yours on you.
A small 3 to 4 inch knife. Small light and flat. Hide inside the back of your pants belt.Another in a pouch.
Tinder and tinderbox. You might not find dry tinder or have a handy caster close.
50" of rope. Why are you using mine? Plus together we have 100".
Fishing kit. Nothing larger than an altoids tin. Spend the cash and get good quality.
Oil and holy water.
50" of string. Need more fishing line? Or set a trap.
A few door wedges. No need for a hammer to jamb a door just kick into place. You can use a loop of string to pull it into place from the other side.
Chalk and powdered charcoal. For obvious already stated reasons.
Backpack. Spend the extra and get one with a bunch of extra straps on the outside. They can tighten it up around the contents to help keep it from moving around and making noise. With a waist strap it will not bounce around when you run and fight. Its not just a cheap canvas bag with shoulder straps.
Extra cloths. Extra socks help in any situation.
A few sacks or bags.
A couple empty vials.
An oiled poncho. Hood attached and large enough to serve at an impromptu tent, almost to your feet even over the backpack. Hang it by the hood and stake down the edges to make a quick tent.
A few spikes or tent pegs.
A blanket.
A mess kit.
Rations. A few are better than nothing.
Water skin.
Any tools you need.
Any books you need.
A small hatchet or hand axe. Axe on the front, flat hammer side on the back. Nothing more than 2 lbs.
Spend the money to get the better and lighter equipment.
Having a character carry, say, the Volo's Guide series can be fun, in part because they are a hundred years out of date, leading to various inaccurate assumptions, but the setting of the Realms is surprisingly consistent enough in parts that enough of them remain accurate enough to be useful. Essentially, it adds easy flavour easily accessed by players (and characters), but at the same time still very much allows for plausible deniability on the part of the DM.
How would you use a bucket to climb walls
What?
Who said that?
Fill it with water so that the bucket is denser than air then pour it out and because the bucket will lose 10 kilos of weight on average from that action and the average bucket weight is around 0.5 kilos you should now have an extra 9.5 kilos of buoyancy, do this several times and you make a wizards fly spell look petty and weak like the buckets always knew it to be.
[roll]7d6[/roll]
Every post these dice roll increasing my chances of winning the yahtzee thread (I wish (wait not the twist the wish threa-!))
Drummer Generated Title
After having been invited to include both here, I now combine the "PM me CHEESE 🧀 and tomato into PM me "PIZZA🍕"