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

At the Tampa airport on my way back home so I'll hold off on in-game posts until I'm home, probably tomorrow.

Pande, I sent you a better (in other words correct) link to the Bard Handbook, which is a char op web site. I endorse Zeim's suggestions as they're typically spot-on. Don't poo-poo cantrips as spells. The downside is that combat cantrips aren't guaranteed to work. Opponents either get a save or you must hit on an attack. On the plus side, they are endless. You can cast them a hundred times a day.

The "base" cantrip for bards is vicious mockery, which doesn't do a ton of damage but, if the target doesn't save, it does damage and the target has disadvantage on it's next attack - which will be appreciated when enemy very dangerous

As for running D&D for kids, my hesitation is only that it makes combat seem "normal". I ran for my kids when they were tots (they're 30 somethings now) and I inject ethics into their encounters and had the authorities punish wanton mayhem. The game can be both fun and stealthily educational.

Pande - If you feel limited I'd choose between Dissonant Whispers and Tasha's. They're somewhat similar so taking only one of them should be fine.

In general I like to take a minimum of 1 damage spell (especially one at a lower level that can scale up), 1 spell that incapacitates, and 1 that offers "buffs" to the party and/or gives me added protection. Then focus the rest on general purpose spells. If I get to the point that there aren't any more GP spells I like then I'll diversify and add a damage spell that does a different type of damage and/or a different type of incapacitation.

So, like Hold Person as a primary and then maybe Blindness/Deafness or Hypnotic Pattern if I have room for another. Or Dissonant Whispers first and then Shatter as a secondary.

Since you can always cast a lower level spell using a higher level spell slot, but not the reverse, it's sometimes better to take a 1st level damage spell and use a 3rd level spell slot to cast it with while reserving the highest level spells for general purpose things like Dispel Magic, Fly, and such, that you can't get at 1st level. Especially if you're not the party's primary Mage/Wizard.

Both Dissonant Whispers and Tasha's are great spells. I think he will have to take both. It also fits his whole concept. I like Eldritch Blast a lot, that is why I took it with Luminmorn, so there is one of his extra two. I guess Dispel Magic is always useful, as it can help fix a problem after it has occurred.

Thanks for the suggestions!

Pfff, my t-shirt turned up today, finally!

<heh heh heh> now ... if only we could get =this= much 'enthusiasm' for the damned game <chuckle>

Speaking of enthusiasm...

It's BASEBALL SEASON!!! What that means is that I'm deep into statistical analysis of players in preparation for my fantasy baseball draft. For those of you that don't understand, take the effort needed to run an epic D&D module and compress that into about a month. I'll be insane until March 23rd, a couple of days after the draft. My spreadsheet already takes 2 minutes to open because of it's size (and I have an SSD!). It means that I'll be realllllllllly slow. I've already warned Pande who has done a good job so far of getting his PC in order.

Thanks for your understanding.

No worries Nep! And wear the T shirt on Saturday Neil!

Roger roger! I'd better wash it first. It reeks of chemicals. Came all the way from Honduras!

Don't breathe in too deep!

Read about my trials and tribulations HERE

Well, I have to say I fulfilled a childhood dream today, so thank you coronavirus!

We had an employee leave work feeling ill today, threatening to tip the already jittery atmosphere amongst the staff into company-wide nervous breakdown. (The employee had actually run out of medication for an underlying condition and the doctor confirmed that this had caused the symptoms. They're now restocked, medicated and feeling much improved, and should be back to work on Thursday.)

Thus I called a company meeting, explained this, putting everyone's mind at ease. Finally, I was able to instruct the staff in my most English manner possible, to "Keep Calm and Carry On". Glorious moment.

Nicely done Neal. Isn't it "keep a stiff upper lip?"

Glad you had to do that Neal. I would have sent them all home <wink>

Crikey, Zeim, if you need to advise people to keep a stiff upper lip then things are really really bad!

And MikeD, prepare thineself, because if I end up stuck at home for the next few weeks, then we will be message gaming!

Ya know where ta find me Neil!! <g>

I would like to get all of you to bed for the night but there are a few clean up things first:

I am working with Pandemonium to get Sindar's background and objectives ironed out. We had a rough sketch but we're going deeper now. He also has to tie a bow on his character sheet.

Arus needs to finish up with the priest. I'm waiting on a post and I don't think Neil realizes. Then he, Bern and Sindar should have drinks or something and secure your place for the night.

Jaliera, Davroar, Kriv and Zhu need to get settled too. So far, only Arus has a place to stay

I'm hoping to get all that done by next weekend.

Also, there's a big "thing" queued up. I need prep time still, but is a FTF session doable? I believe we're in 4 time zones. I was thinking a 5 hour Sat or Sun session at the end of April/beginning of May:

GMT Gypsy, AJ, Neil (6 pm - 11 pm)
ET Neptune (12 noon - 5 pm)
CT MikeD, Zeim (11 am - 4 pm)
PT Pandemonium (9 am - 2 pm)

well Tam can 'go to bed' pretty much any time <g>

As to the 'F2F' ... offer some choices in terms of time, and I will see what I can do <g>

I can make the time work, the question is the day of course.

FTF using what? And we are on British Summer time, so 6 to 11 for us.

I can make that time if it is not already FTF here as we are aiming for fortnightly for that. Same for Neil too.

Sure, it would be good to jump in with Gypsy for some bants at the same time.

I was a bit disappointed that Skype for Desktop only tesselates up to four participants in a video call, everyone else gets shoved in the corner. But for three it won't be a factor.

Gypsy and I are also on Discord.

We've been using Roll20 for everything related to the game other than audio. Zoom for audio. We also used Discord once or twice. Zoom is simpler. Whatever works best.

Discord would be great, if you guys have and we have it; makes sense.

Either Saturday or Sunday works for me, but would prefer Sunday.

Tusk doesn't want me to use Zoom as he doesn't think it is secure. Conduit for hackers he says

And he is right. Just heard a big discussion about the flaws on a tech podcast this morning! Take a look at Jitsi.

MikeD