DreamLyrics™ Play-by-Post Forums Fantasy SKT: The Storm King's Thunder OOC thread

I'm only using Roll20 for token movement, and tracking hit points (and other stuff) on a spreadsheet... I actually don't even have the base HP for most PCs, only the ones with a lot of damage (Hi Arus).

I've been trying to post in the text when people are near limits.

Quick NPC summary:
The troll has 1 HP left.
The Giant is at about 80%.
MM1's just over a half, MM3 has a scratch. MM4c is about 75%. MM5 was a weakling to start with and is at half.

PC summary:
Arus is in single digits (9).
Pavel's about half HP.
Everyone else is mostly OK.

Thanks. We should keep pounding the Giant. Even with 400+ HPs every 10-20 points of damage adds up!

Playlist entry for Pavel's spell attack.

Out of interest, what are our collective thoughts on the various rules tweaks being brought in with the 2024 version of the PHB?

I know I don't like the any race can have any benefit thing. Having a halfling who is slow and clumsy but stronger than a half-orc is just wrong in so many ways.

I have not even looked at them <shrug> I have not had enough interest to check 'em out <weg>

Initially I was against the change in racial ability score increases but then I tried it for Dragon of Icespire Peak and enjoyed my newbie players being able to create whatever race-class combo they wanted without worrying about it. Since then I've played some Fate Accelerated and ICRPG and I now look at the ability scores as approaches to solving a problem.

So the half-orc with Str 8 is bad at approaching tasks using their strength whereas the halfing with Str 17 is really good at it. Their actual brute strength is somewhat irrelevant. After all, a half-orc couldn't even arm-wrestle a halfling due to the disparity in size of their limbs.

I think races should be differentiated more by abilities rather than ability scores. Current examples, firbolgs and goliaths have abilities that make them count as one size larger when determining carrying capacity and the weight they can push, drag, or lift, to set them apart from smaller races. Halflings and gnomes have disadvantage when wielding heavy weapons, etc..

But honestly, this is about all 2024 revision brings to the table as far as I know, and they're already playable in Tasha's Hidden Cauldron. It hardly seems worth any fanfare!

Coming at this from a more approachable standpoint. I agree making them more flexible works well.

At your table, you only want low-strength halflings that use finesse. Fine house rule it. There is nothing that says that, as a GM, you can't set the races up the way you want.

As far as a whole new batch of books that integrate the changes. I am of two minds. On the one hand it is nice to have all of the stuff in one location. On the other hand, it speaks of a money grab, which is what WotC is all about. That is why 85% of my gaming has moved on to other companies and systems.

To keep things ticking along freely, Kriv intends to move away from the mephit in melee range in the course of his turn, provoking by doing so, when we get there.

Aye, I agree. And it could turn out to be even more palatable than that. If all the NPC halfings and half-orcs are statted according to archetype then the continuity isn't really affected: halflings will on average be weaker than half-orcs.

My qualm is more that without distinctive ability score increases for each race, the designers will have to make races more uniquely capable in other ways and I haven't seen signs of that so far.

Ah, I get you. You are lamenting the loss of the uniqueness in that form. I understand. I have always felt that DnD leant itself to more generic fantasy. We as the players and GMs have to put in a bit more effort to make things unique or stand out. Not saying that always happens, just the way it feels compared to other systems.

Nem, didn't you get the memo? We were supposed to do like 2 more points that way we string this out even more. LOL

Seriously though nice job!

I haven't looked at the previews yet but am curious.

I'm leaning on team question the troll. What's our collective stance?

Yes. Zhu wants to question it. It didn't attack us, when it could have, and it was clearly being abused by the Giant. It might be willing to give up anything it knows if we let it go and we need information more than anything else right now.

Jaliera has mixed experience of large critters. She liked their pet ogre but trolls attacked that town along with other creatures and attacked the horses in the inn, so she wouldn't want to just let it go. Talk first, decide later.

Well Bern's first instinct is to kill it now. But he might be willing to delay that if the thing was willing to answer our questions <g>

Just a reminder, as all would know this from having spent so much time with Zhu. If we tell it we will let it go if it talks to us, Zhu will not agree to go back on that and kill it if it does talk to us.

Sindar is a happy-go-lucky kind of a guy and would instead question along with live and let live. I think we could say in addition to answering the questions, go far away and never come back kind of an agreement so that it won't attack the settlement again. Whether or not it would keep its word is an entirely different thing, but Sindar would want to give it a second chance. After all, he got a second, third, or even fourth chance growing up.

While it would not be Bern's first choice, he will go with the consensus if they go for 'catch and release'.

Zindra wants to let someone else interview the troll.

Zhu speaks giant and is willing to do it.

Arus is ruthless. Interrogate and kill if a danger to civilisation.

Kriv is honourable but cruel. Standard procedure as with the orc captured and interrogated in a previous similar situation would be to give it a chance to fight for its freedom, with the odds unknowingly stacked against it.

AJ, just getting to start looking at the 2024 version of DnD. Are we calling it 5.5e? Or is it 6e? No. Apparently it's DnD2024. It could be D&D2024. Who knows ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I just watched the first intro video (Below) and am plowing through some of the follow up vids. I'll post my comments on each video I watch, in summary. These can be long. I'll provide a haiku summary for those who would say TLDR.

So this one is the overview about the 3 books. There's a bunch of stuffing about artwork, yada, yada but I'll skip that. This is a new game. There's no mistaking that. It's built on 5e but so much has changed. A lot has been done to every class. The biggest change in the game has to be weapon mastery. Some classes can master a number of weapons and unleash a property in that weapon. For instance (I learned this from watching the weapon mastery video), the wielder of a Greatsword’s can graze the target, damaging them even when miss with attacks. All the spells have been reworded and remade, of course. A nice thing (they're proud of this) is that quaffing a potion will be a bonus action. Load up! They also fleshed out all the animals, things you can transform into, summon and summon are laid out clearly in the PHB. There's a new stat block format (programmers are hard at work, I'm sure) for both monsters and PCs. There are 500 monsters in the Monster Manual with more high-CR options (we'll see) especially within species. The DMG opens with an intro for would-be DMs. They added a glossary which is a great idea (you found an adamantite shield...what's adamantite?. But he biggest change in the DMG seems to be the Bastions chapter which is all about keeps and followers and stuff like that. The lore section makes it clear that DMs should use the Greyhawk to build their own adventures. Supposedly there's a lot of tools in the DMG to help DMs build campaigns, adventures and encounters.

My initial thoughts are...

• It's not a bad financial deal right now to get the 2024 Digital Core Rulebook Bundle which is selling for $89.97 (someone else can translate that into Pounds and Euros).
• 10-years is a fair life for an edition.
• I have to delve into each class to see what has changed. Damn it, I've gotta read 3 books! Ugggh.
• Yeah, I'm gonna run DnD2024 but it might not be until 2025 or later? Should it be renamed?
• It feels like it's a move like 3.5 towards player flexibility. That broke 3.5 for me. We'll see about this.
• I'll keep this post here but maybe I'll start a new thread outside this forum to discuss with the world.