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

Welcome back indeed!

I want to point out what many of you already noticed. I'm trying to add greater character depth and personal or factional objectives to this game to make it a richer experience. I think that, from a "need" perspective, there is none. Zeim and I make encounters match the power of the party.

As for constraints, I'm limiting choices to what Roll20 can handle. It can't handle some of the very newest classes and races. As I told Pande in private, there are no barbarians, pure fighters, monks, bards or warlocks in the party. There are no gnomes, dwarves or tieflings. I also brought up factions to him, which, in many ways kind of sits on top of alignment IMO.

My suggestion to him was to reach out to the team for ideas. You're full of those!

My question is which would you like to play ... the old Lumi character ... or something completely new? I am good either way ... long as you like where you end up <wink>

For me, it is up to you and what you want to do. There is no downside to adding any class to the group. We have a fairly rounded group:

Rogue
Sorceror
Paladin
Ranger
Fighter(Eldritch Knight Sub-Class)
Druid

So there really are no skill "gaps" to fill. As Nep posted, there are some races/classes we don't have. So, that said, it's more of 'play what you like' than a specific need. If you liked Lumi he's fine. If you want to try something new, that's also fine.

Welcome back, Pande! My approach to D&D parties is, If in doubt, Monk. You don't need any magic items, you're mobile, you're probably the best canary, and if needed can contribute some serious single target damage numbers in a fight.

Don't listen to him Pande ... you can never have too many fighter types ... until you don't have enough casters <chuckle>

And of course Bard is the typical "bit of everything" class..

I haven't played a bard in ... I don't want to state that, it might show my age.

My last monk was 2nd edition. Eek! Besides not sure I could live up to the amazing Chandan!


I will go look at the bard types. I like Lumi, he is a solid character creation in my opinion, he has lots of playing options, which makes him enjoyable, but he is taciturn and not verbose, the exact opposite of what a bard should be imho. Even if Lumi has a very high Cha.

Bard is an awesome choice. They do a little of everything and makes allies better with their inspiring ways. Add to that the roleplaying aspects (I happen to LOVE playing bards!)

Play what you feel like without limit.

I am considering swapping to a CG half-elf bard. The idea is growing on me.

I liked Lumi but always best to play something you like the ides of.

Pande - Let me know if you want any prior connection hook for the Bard with Zhu.

Definitely interested. Just have to finish the grunt work of the sheet.

Lookin' forward to it Pande!!!! <g>

Half-Elf Bard, Charlatan background, figured he works as a performer and a spy.

A bit overwhelmed at the spell selection. Happy to have suggestions. Taking College of Lore, figured Counterspell and Fireball for those two choices.
Cantrips
Light, Minor Illusion, Vicious Mockery
Level 1
Bane, Thunderwave, Considering Identify and D Magic, though really open. Could see Disguise Self, and or another illusion option.
Level 2
Enthrall, Knock
Level 3
Hypnotic Pattern, Tiny Hut? So many choices, so little that he can know.

My concept is a verbal pugilist, who has a literal cutting wit. Probably have a flute as his musical instrument of choice, though singing will also be on his list, and of course a lute. Considered a drum.

Wow has the world of bards change a bit.
Str 10, Dex 16, Con 13, Int 9, Wis 10, Cha 18, At level 6, he can have a single feat, considering Resilient, and adding it to Con, to get a 14 Con plus Con, Dex, and Cha for saves.

Skills With Expertise and such...
Acrobatics +4
Animal Handling +1
Arcana +1
Athletics +1
Deception +7
History +3
Insight +6
Intimidation +5
Investigation +3
Medicine +1
Nature +1
Perception +6
Performance +7
Persuasion +7
Religion +3
Sleight of Hand +6
Stealth +6
Survival +1

Thanks for the review and pointers!

It all looks pretty solid ... nothing glaring at me. But maybe someone can offer some 'fine points' that might help <g>

Spell suggestions/thoughts:

1st - Dissonant Whispers, Tasha's

Bane I am not sure I would take since you effectively already get a better version of Bane from your Bardic Inspiration. Detect Magic can be useful. Identify has lost a bit of its luster with the new rule that if you study, and handle, a potential magic item during a short rest you can identify it's powers without needing the spell. The spells benefit now is mostly the immediate knowledge.

2nd - The two you looked at are good. I also like Invisibility, Shatter, Suggestion, and Hold Person. Zone of Truth and Detect Thoughts can be good, but they are very specific.

3rd - Dispel Magic is always good. Fear is also a really good spell. Clairvoyance and Tongues are also good, but very specific in use. Leomund's can be great, but it almost never comes up so not sure I'd spend a slot there.

For your School spells, Counterspell is good, but it very rarely comes up. Plus if you have Dispel Magic you can kind of cover it retroactively with that spell. Fireball is also always good, although my Sorceror has it too so up to you whether you want to duplicate for the extra damage potential of go another route for versatility. You could look at Lightning Bolt, Fly, and Haste.

Also, an out of the box thought for School Spells is to take Eldritch Blast. Yes it is only a Cantrip, but it is far and away the best Cantrip in the game.

Just some thoughts.

And that, my dear Pande, is why we keep Zeim around <chuckle>

Haste is always a good choice. I wasn't quite clear on how the 9 spells known get broken up into by level learning. I figured going by what you have available to cast, was a good way of looking at it, which is why I got the number of spells per level I did.

Good to know Bane and Identify can go away for other choices. Can swap for the two that Zeim suggested.

I like the other ones you mentioned for level 2. I considered Invisibility, just had to figure out what to drop for it.

Swapping Counterspell for Dispel Magic works. I was on the fence about Leomond's. With Fireball I was directly trying to offer damage to the mix. Lightning Bolt is a cool spell till we meet Storm Giants. But it does offer damage as long as you can avoid party members. It even bounces off of walls, or does it not do that in 5e?

Isn't that a problem with all spells, though?? There is always some 'foe' that is immune to ... what ever spell <g>

Pick the spells that 'feel right' for your character. That is what will work the best <g>

...Same thing for Fireball until we meet Fire Giants......Another reason why I like Eldritch Blast (or Force Damage spells in general). It does damage that practically nothing is immune to.

I don't think spells bounce off walls anymore. Not even sure if they spill out of small rooms into corridors. I'd think that's the DMs call.

As for the spells, aligning the # known with the numbers you can cast at each level is good. But remember you can cast a lower level spell using a higher level slot and often get more damage or better effect too.

Eldritch Blast is a good spell, just feel odd taking a cantrip as a spell known.

Don't feel like you have to. As long as you have some sort of cantrip (so it can be cast at will) that causes damage or incapacitates it's all good.

Well my t-shirt didn't turn up and Amazon Prime don't know where it is, so it guess it'll be a refund. Still, the day went well and the kids (I think an 11 and a 6 year old) seemed to love D&D.

It was a little weird because they've played FFG's Star Wars RPG a few times, enjoyed it (they're big Star Wars fans), they've played a Zombie Apocalypse game, they've played Savage Worlds fantasy too. Enjoyed it all.

But for some reason they seemed distinctly more excited by D&D. I think it might've been the simplicity of the core mechanic. It's very easy to grasp.

You roll to hit, you must get over the AC on your d20 and you have a plus or minus to the roll that's shown next to the weapon. Damage is equally simple, a roll with a plus or minus shown next to the weapon. Damage comes off of hit points, that are shown and simply count down.

The core mechanic in Star Wars is far harder for them to comprehend. Since it involves successes/failures, extra narrative benefits/hazards, super-extra narrative benefits/hazards, damage done as Strain, Wounds or Critical Wounds, etc. And the dice have symbols instead of numbers. It's actually really complicated, now that I think about it!

So in Star Wars, the kids tend to roll their dice pool, work out the net result, then look to an adult to tell them what it actually means. In D&D they could figure it out for themselves and that seemed liberating.

Or maybe it was the adventure itself. Chapter 1 of Lost Mine of Phandelver is mostly just chopping the heads of goblins. The other adventures we've played have been more varied in tone.

It reminds me of the advice Paul Elliot gave in his Camp Cretaceous RPG. (He should know, he's a primary school teacher, running RPGs for kids day in day out.)

Iirc his advice for running RPGs for kids boiled down to:

• Keep the mechanics extremely simply, success or failure.
• Kids will play themselves, no matter what character you give them, so make the character match their personality.
• Unless you want them to kill everything in sight, do not make their characters warriors or soldiers, make them non-violent plucky heroes. Because if you give them a sword they will use it to solve every problem.

This latter one worked well yesterday. They slew a buttload of goblins!

I used this clever little web app to level-up the Phandelver encounters for 6 players.

http://haluz.org/lmop/index.php

I started the PCs at 1st level, levelled them up to 2nd after the Goblin Ambush. We had one PC drop to 0 in the Goblin Ambush, and one to 0 in Klarg's Cave. Generally they hovered around half hit points.

Fun was had that IS the point.