There's a reason I recommend creating characters as a group: most game systems are designed to make sure a character can only be good at one or two things. The primary reason for this is the simple nature of Table-top role-playing is a group activity, and people in a group feel better about working together when everyone can contribute.
How a system does this will vary. Open point-buys like GURPS, The HERO system, or the One-Roll Engine may offer an illusion of being able to create a jack-of-all trades, but in practice it never works out. Savage Worlds, both versions of the World of Darkness, and FATE all restrict the way points can be spent to better encourage the "pick a specialty" mentality. And, of course, D&D and most d20-based games use class systems to encourage a specialty. Even the revolutionary Apocalypse World and it's hacks use "playbooks," really a variant of the class system.
Since this blog is about Encounters, we'll focus on 5e D&D. Despite it no longer being a "focus," the roles of 4e are still built into many classes. To review, they're defender, sometimes called "the tank," specializing in drawing attacks and withstanding them. The striker, sometimes called "DPS" (Damage Per Second, as in maximized for). The controller, specializing in AOE (area of effect) attacks and changing the shape of the battlefield. And the leader, sometimes "the healer" or "the buffer." What's good about these roles is that they help a party in tactical combat.
The fact that these roles aren't hard coded into classes in 5e is something of a blessing and a curse. The blessing is that advanced and creative players can build unusual characters with varying and wide-ranging capabilities. Even relatively new players can do it! Kyla's first ever D&D character, Vanora, used the Eldritch Knight build, and she made it pretty effective. The curse, of course, is trying to help newer players get their feet. Hillary has been needing a fair bit of help with her druid, since it could be built as a controlling caster, a healing and buffing caster, or a shape-shifting tank. Heck, in one battle she could potentially be all three! Kyla, who's more experienced and pretty sharp, has had to find a balance between the bard's buffing and healing and attack and de-buffing spell load-outs. Even me, with a paladin, having to walk the tank path, but having to keep my healing and DPS abilities up to speed, too.
Of course, those roles focus on combat. Other typical roles in parties are: the Face, who does all the wheeling and dealing for the team. The Info-dump, who just happens to know all the information the party needs. And the Scout, the one going forward to locate all the dangers before the party has to deal with them. Typically high Charisma characters fall into the first role. In our current party, that could be Ghesh (HA!), Temerity (so far so good, actually), or Artor (good cop AND bad cop). High Int or characters with longer skill lists fill the Info-dump role. Kyla built Temerity with this in mind: a reasonably high Int and her bonuses as a College of Lore bard should mean that she knows most of what we'll need to know. Of course, 5e's break down of skills and background features helps each character take their own turn at providing info-dumps. And Jethro and Grim are, typical of rangers and rogues, performing admirably as scouts.
Lastly, there are "roles" that tend to be adopted by players rather than characters: the Team Leader, the one making executive and/or tactical decisions. The Team Mom/Dad, keeping everyone on track and making sure everyone has a chance to shine. The Accountant, who keeps track of the finances. And the Mapper/Chronicler, keeping track of everything so the other players (and sometimes the DM) don't have to. These roles tend to evolve organically, and while an important part of the group dynamic, they're independant of any mechanics.
Creating a party as a group allows every person to negotiate the kind of character they'd like to play and then build it. They can then use each class's specialty paths to help shore up areas we're lacking in. Druid and bard not quite up to nuke-healing like a life domain cleric? A paladin can fill in some of the gaps. The person playing the fighter wants to use a non-tank build? Circle of the Moon druid, paladin, or certain builds of other classes can fill in a little of the gap. Plus, there's nothing that says you can't have two fighters! Especially since based on the fighting style and archetype choices you make influence how they'll play so much.
Next time we'll look a little bit more on maximizing for these specialties and a little nitty-gritty.
Monday, November 21, 2016
Wednesday, November 16, 2016
New Blog Announcement
So, I remember I said no politics and geeks mixing. Well, if Michael A. Stackpole had said that back in the 80s people might still think D&D is Satan Worship. Or more precisely, more people might think it.
But this blog is for Encounters, so I'm moving the politics to a new blog. It will probably still creep in from time to time.
No game this week. I will put up another post about good character building strategies. But not today.
But this blog is for Encounters, so I'm moving the politics to a new blog. It will probably still creep in from time to time.
No game this week. I will put up another post about good character building strategies. But not today.
Sunday, November 13, 2016
Someday Blake Will Get it All Right
I know I promised no more politics. But David Wong made a point, twice, similar to the one I made Wednesday. There's a lot more to it, too. Like the rampant, if sometimes subtle sexism that still pervades our country, and geek culture in particular. To all the women in my life, in particular the one's I game with: Kyla, Hillary, Sara, Jessica, and many others: I'm sorry. I really don't know how you must feel. I wish I could change things faster. But I strive to be part of that change. But I have hope.
Where is it? Pick up a copy of the 5e PHB and turn to page 29. Take a good long look. That's a woman in armor. Armor that still clearly shows she's a woman, but that can act as armor and not as fetish fuel. She's also not white. And last but not least, the symbol on that amulet is the holy symbol of Oghma, the Forgotten Realms god of knowledge and learning. A non-white woman is smart and looks like she could kick my ass. Call me whatever names you want, alt-right bastards, but I think that is the most awesome picture in the book!
Not a 5e fan and prefer Pathfinder? Check out Seoni on page 61. Same drill. She is awesome. And I know who I want to play her in a movie.
So here's one bit of change I'll strive to be: Ernest Cline wrote a book called Ready Player One. As many of you may also know, Steven Spielberg is making a film adaptation. There's a scene in the book that poignantly discusses this racism and sexism in a reveal that a character with a white male avatar in the virtual game world is, in fact, a black woman. And there's nothing Hollywood seems to love more than good old fashioned white washing. If they do, I plan on boycotting the film, and I suggest my fellow geeks join me.
So back to the game!
Unfortunately Alec had to work extra hours during the most recent session. But his awesome wife, Fiona, brought the kids. Shretz, who normally runs another table, was out. So adopted his orphaned player, Cat, who brought a halfling rogue named Azura.
Everyone had been leveled up to third. I took some time to help Hillary with her character. Joseph, being Joseph, ended up taking the Arcane Trickster archetype instead of Assassin. Although I had originally been planning on going two-handed, but I had opted for protection in light of the fact that no one took a tank build. But I stuck with my original Oath of Vengeance plan. This gives me bane and hunter's mark.
We took a moment to examine the orcs and discovered that one of the leaders had arrows in his back, but they were not goblinoid. Rather than look into that particular mystery, we got back to following the villagers' tracks. They led into the mountains and to a large cave mouth. A set of goblin footprints split off from the main group. Our stealthy members followed it a short distance, only to see it climbing further into the mountains. We decided to enter through the main cave entrance. Our team members with darkvision lead the way.
We saw an ogre lounging in a mud bath to our left, a whole bunch of stalagmites ahead, and a ledge to our right. Temerity used minor illusion to disguise herself as a stalagmite while the rest of us went back to warn the poor blind party members.
This turned out to be a bad idea. Goblins were waiting in ambush on the ledges, not just two our right but all around the room. Damn bastards managed to score a critical hit and bloody me. It also turned out there was a second ogre hidden in the stalagmites.
As I said, I was helping Hillary with Pusheen. She hasn't played spellcasters before, and druids can be tough. I had her heal me, then use Combat Wild Shape to turn into a dire wolf to start going around the room and killing some goblins.
Once again, Blake made me proud. Ghesh cast suggestion on the ogre in the mud bath, encouraging it to "keep your friend from attacking us." It turns out the ogres were a mated pair. Based on this video Will sent me with the subject Ogre Interaction, I can only assume the female ogre was named Meegan. Yeah. The ogre in the mud bath decided to try and seduce the female ogre in the stalagmites.
Cat was something of a boon. She was about Hillary's age, so the two got to chatting. I think it has been challenging for Hillary with the only other female at the table being Kyla, who is a good bit older than her. Cat also rolled two critical hits in as many attacks.
While the ogres kept each other distracted, the rest of us mopped up ledge-bound goblins. Grom relied on his crossbow while Pusheen just kind of stepped up a ledge, being a big old dire wolf and all. Grim made an impressive Strength (athletics) check and ran up a ledge to attack a goblin. Yes, Joseph did yell, "Parkour!" In the mean time everyone else relied on ranged spells.
For a brief period things looked bad when Meegan slapped the male ogre and turned her attention to us. I put a hunter's mark on her and prepared to fight. Then Ghesh cast suggestion on Meegan, encouraging her to go back to the male ogre. The two retired to the mud bath. At this point all the goblins were dead, and the ogres were no longer a threat. So we decided to let them be and move on. All in all, I was proud of Blake. He used a non-linear solution to shorten a combat encounter. Too bad he ended up disappointing me later.
The next cave we came to was dominated by a hollow stalagmite filled with holes. There were two heavily corroded goblin scimitars on the floor near the stalagmite. We avoided it, going through one of two other exits, finding a waterfall and a pool of water as well as a patch of mushrooms. Grom managed to determine that they were poisonous, so Temerity picked one. Now she just needs to figure out how to get something to eat it.
There was another exit out of the hole-y stalagmite room. It lead outside, further up the path leading up the mountain. We noted that the footprints avoided the cave. We opted to go back to exploring the cave on this level back from the main room.
As we were going back through the stalagmite with giant neon signs saying "Danger" pointing toward it, Blake disappointed me. Ghesh peeked into the stalagmite then shot a firebolt into it. Grom tried to stop him, and failed. Little bastard woke up a black pudding. Kyla lost it and scolded him about all the similar trouble he got the party into during Curse of Strahd. Will decided that even though Temerity could in no way have known any of that or even connected Ghesh to it in any way, that it was all in character.
This did lead to an interesting moment, however. Hillary bit the black pudding and even knocked it prone. It is a strange system, since blobs aren't immune to the "prone" condition. Probably better not to think about a blob is rendered prone: that way lies madness.
I'm especially pissed at the little schmuck. I swung at the black pudding, getting a face full of acid, splitting the messy pile into two smaller piles, and corroding my sword in the process. It now has a permanent -1 to damage.
Blake, I know you have fun instigating these little moments, but sometimes when the signs say "don't push the big red button," you DON"T PUSH THE BIG RED BUTTON!
Where is it? Pick up a copy of the 5e PHB and turn to page 29. Take a good long look. That's a woman in armor. Armor that still clearly shows she's a woman, but that can act as armor and not as fetish fuel. She's also not white. And last but not least, the symbol on that amulet is the holy symbol of Oghma, the Forgotten Realms god of knowledge and learning. A non-white woman is smart and looks like she could kick my ass. Call me whatever names you want, alt-right bastards, but I think that is the most awesome picture in the book!
Not a 5e fan and prefer Pathfinder? Check out Seoni on page 61. Same drill. She is awesome. And I know who I want to play her in a movie.
So here's one bit of change I'll strive to be: Ernest Cline wrote a book called Ready Player One. As many of you may also know, Steven Spielberg is making a film adaptation. There's a scene in the book that poignantly discusses this racism and sexism in a reveal that a character with a white male avatar in the virtual game world is, in fact, a black woman. And there's nothing Hollywood seems to love more than good old fashioned white washing. If they do, I plan on boycotting the film, and I suggest my fellow geeks join me.
So back to the game!
Unfortunately Alec had to work extra hours during the most recent session. But his awesome wife, Fiona, brought the kids. Shretz, who normally runs another table, was out. So adopted his orphaned player, Cat, who brought a halfling rogue named Azura.
Everyone had been leveled up to third. I took some time to help Hillary with her character. Joseph, being Joseph, ended up taking the Arcane Trickster archetype instead of Assassin. Although I had originally been planning on going two-handed, but I had opted for protection in light of the fact that no one took a tank build. But I stuck with my original Oath of Vengeance plan. This gives me bane and hunter's mark.
We took a moment to examine the orcs and discovered that one of the leaders had arrows in his back, but they were not goblinoid. Rather than look into that particular mystery, we got back to following the villagers' tracks. They led into the mountains and to a large cave mouth. A set of goblin footprints split off from the main group. Our stealthy members followed it a short distance, only to see it climbing further into the mountains. We decided to enter through the main cave entrance. Our team members with darkvision lead the way.
We saw an ogre lounging in a mud bath to our left, a whole bunch of stalagmites ahead, and a ledge to our right. Temerity used minor illusion to disguise herself as a stalagmite while the rest of us went back to warn the poor blind party members.
This turned out to be a bad idea. Goblins were waiting in ambush on the ledges, not just two our right but all around the room. Damn bastards managed to score a critical hit and bloody me. It also turned out there was a second ogre hidden in the stalagmites.
As I said, I was helping Hillary with Pusheen. She hasn't played spellcasters before, and druids can be tough. I had her heal me, then use Combat Wild Shape to turn into a dire wolf to start going around the room and killing some goblins.
Once again, Blake made me proud. Ghesh cast suggestion on the ogre in the mud bath, encouraging it to "keep your friend from attacking us." It turns out the ogres were a mated pair. Based on this video Will sent me with the subject Ogre Interaction, I can only assume the female ogre was named Meegan. Yeah. The ogre in the mud bath decided to try and seduce the female ogre in the stalagmites.
Cat was something of a boon. She was about Hillary's age, so the two got to chatting. I think it has been challenging for Hillary with the only other female at the table being Kyla, who is a good bit older than her. Cat also rolled two critical hits in as many attacks.
While the ogres kept each other distracted, the rest of us mopped up ledge-bound goblins. Grom relied on his crossbow while Pusheen just kind of stepped up a ledge, being a big old dire wolf and all. Grim made an impressive Strength (athletics) check and ran up a ledge to attack a goblin. Yes, Joseph did yell, "Parkour!" In the mean time everyone else relied on ranged spells.
For a brief period things looked bad when Meegan slapped the male ogre and turned her attention to us. I put a hunter's mark on her and prepared to fight. Then Ghesh cast suggestion on Meegan, encouraging her to go back to the male ogre. The two retired to the mud bath. At this point all the goblins were dead, and the ogres were no longer a threat. So we decided to let them be and move on. All in all, I was proud of Blake. He used a non-linear solution to shorten a combat encounter. Too bad he ended up disappointing me later.
The next cave we came to was dominated by a hollow stalagmite filled with holes. There were two heavily corroded goblin scimitars on the floor near the stalagmite. We avoided it, going through one of two other exits, finding a waterfall and a pool of water as well as a patch of mushrooms. Grom managed to determine that they were poisonous, so Temerity picked one. Now she just needs to figure out how to get something to eat it.
There was another exit out of the hole-y stalagmite room. It lead outside, further up the path leading up the mountain. We noted that the footprints avoided the cave. We opted to go back to exploring the cave on this level back from the main room.
As we were going back through the stalagmite with giant neon signs saying "Danger" pointing toward it, Blake disappointed me. Ghesh peeked into the stalagmite then shot a firebolt into it. Grom tried to stop him, and failed. Little bastard woke up a black pudding. Kyla lost it and scolded him about all the similar trouble he got the party into during Curse of Strahd. Will decided that even though Temerity could in no way have known any of that or even connected Ghesh to it in any way, that it was all in character.
This did lead to an interesting moment, however. Hillary bit the black pudding and even knocked it prone. It is a strange system, since blobs aren't immune to the "prone" condition. Probably better not to think about a blob is rendered prone: that way lies madness.
I'm especially pissed at the little schmuck. I swung at the black pudding, getting a face full of acid, splitting the messy pile into two smaller piles, and corroding my sword in the process. It now has a permanent -1 to damage.
Blake, I know you have fun instigating these little moments, but sometimes when the signs say "don't push the big red button," you DON"T PUSH THE BIG RED BUTTON!
Wednesday, November 9, 2016
My Geeky Soapbox
I don't think politics and geekdom mix.
But I feel inclined to comment on yesterday's election.
Warning to youngsters: this post contains naughty language. Check with your parents before reading. I trust you.
First, what the fuck, America?
For any international readers, yes, we did just elect a shaved orangutan in a business suit to our highest political office. Our stock markets are already crashing. But I want to put some context and perspective in.
Donald Trump running for the Republicans, the closest equivalent for the Democrats might be running someone like Jon Stewart, Bill Maher or even (gasp!) Michael Moore. Incidentally, the only one of those three I personally think would make a good president is Stewart. Maher has all of "the Donald's" Islamaphobic tendencies. And Moore is just as eager to give NAFTA and other similar trade agreements the finger. Moore would be acting out of a not unfounded but misguided nostalgia for the old Rust Belt. And Maher is just being an atheist.
Here's the sad part. The Democrats knew a media savvy political outside could win. Barack Obama did it! Hillary and the Democrats in general just kind of assumed that Trump was shooting himself in the foot and sat back.
But here's the worst part. In my home state of Arizona, there was a ballot referenda to raise the minimum wage. It passed by almost 60%. Trump didn't even get that many votes. What does that mean? A lot of people that voted for Trump also voted to raise the minimum wage. So poor people voted for him. And early analysis of the disaster he calls economic policy indicates those are the people standing to be hurt the most.
A much wiser man than me once said, "You can fool all of the people some of time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can never fool all of the people all of the time."
And let me tell you, poor rural white folks (if any of you happen to stumble upon and read this blog largely about a hobby you decried as devil worship 30 years ago), you have been fooled, big time! I could link to all the stories of horrible stuff Trump as said and done and a lot of you are writing off as him just being "off the cuff" and "unscripted" and other nonsense. But this is a personal opinion and creative non-fiction blog, not a journalistic one. I will tell you this much: he is cozying up with a man whose evil is so over-the-top and cliche that he can legally be declared an 80s cartoon villain.
So let me tell you the most important life lesson to get out of table-top role-playing: life is not a zero-sum scenario. This narrative you tell yourself and that Trump played on of how the inner city blacks and Hispanics are getting all the breaks and you're getting shafted is a fucking lie. It's always been a fucking lie. Warren Beatty made a movie in the 90s where he raps about how much of a lie it is. To paraphrase the pivotal scene: he says poor white people have more in common with poor black people than they do with rich white people. And it's the fucking truth.
I used to live not too far from Camden, NJ. Now I live on the outskirts of Benson, AZ. Both places have drug problems. Both places are economically recessed. The differences are in the number of people in these places and the color of their skin. They use the same (or mostly the same) food stamps, welfare, Medicaid, and social security. But people in places like Camden fail to vote blue because the candidate doesn't have the same skin color. And people in places like Benson vote red because the candidate claims to go to the same church they do. The result? Those food stamps, that welfare, that Medicaid, get's eroded. I know it's more complex than all of that, but the final point is: let's forget that church and sexuality thing, rural whites, and they aren't the same color as me thing, urban blacks. Because in a D&D game, that street-savvy Rogue and that wilderness-wise Ranger are more awesome together. Nothing is going to get better until we do things like enact laws to protect laborers and labor unions, provide socialized medicine for everyone in this country (fucking Cuba can do that!), and shift the tax burdens off of the lower and middle classes and a little more onto those oh-so-put-upon rich white people. Because when those things happen, both the Rogues and the Rangers level up faster and find more loot. So to be a little sappy and extend that metaphor: together you guys can fucking kill that rich white people dragon pissing on ALL our lawns. Right now those dragons are just going to keep telling you that lie that the Rogues and the Rangers are stealing your Xp and Loot.
Some idiots are already talking about moving to other countries. Even if I could, I'd rather stay and fight. I chose to have one of my major internal organs surgically removed. Before I did, despair ruled my every choice. It won't and can't anymore.
Plus I'm kinda stoked that that fucker Arpaio is finally out of office.
Next time I promise to get back to the geek and leave the politics behind.
But I feel inclined to comment on yesterday's election.
Warning to youngsters: this post contains naughty language. Check with your parents before reading. I trust you.
First, what the fuck, America?
For any international readers, yes, we did just elect a shaved orangutan in a business suit to our highest political office. Our stock markets are already crashing. But I want to put some context and perspective in.
Donald Trump running for the Republicans, the closest equivalent for the Democrats might be running someone like Jon Stewart, Bill Maher or even (gasp!) Michael Moore. Incidentally, the only one of those three I personally think would make a good president is Stewart. Maher has all of "the Donald's" Islamaphobic tendencies. And Moore is just as eager to give NAFTA and other similar trade agreements the finger. Moore would be acting out of a not unfounded but misguided nostalgia for the old Rust Belt. And Maher is just being an atheist.
Here's the sad part. The Democrats knew a media savvy political outside could win. Barack Obama did it! Hillary and the Democrats in general just kind of assumed that Trump was shooting himself in the foot and sat back.
But here's the worst part. In my home state of Arizona, there was a ballot referenda to raise the minimum wage. It passed by almost 60%. Trump didn't even get that many votes. What does that mean? A lot of people that voted for Trump also voted to raise the minimum wage. So poor people voted for him. And early analysis of the disaster he calls economic policy indicates those are the people standing to be hurt the most.
A much wiser man than me once said, "You can fool all of the people some of time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can never fool all of the people all of the time."
And let me tell you, poor rural white folks (if any of you happen to stumble upon and read this blog largely about a hobby you decried as devil worship 30 years ago), you have been fooled, big time! I could link to all the stories of horrible stuff Trump as said and done and a lot of you are writing off as him just being "off the cuff" and "unscripted" and other nonsense. But this is a personal opinion and creative non-fiction blog, not a journalistic one. I will tell you this much: he is cozying up with a man whose evil is so over-the-top and cliche that he can legally be declared an 80s cartoon villain.
So let me tell you the most important life lesson to get out of table-top role-playing: life is not a zero-sum scenario. This narrative you tell yourself and that Trump played on of how the inner city blacks and Hispanics are getting all the breaks and you're getting shafted is a fucking lie. It's always been a fucking lie. Warren Beatty made a movie in the 90s where he raps about how much of a lie it is. To paraphrase the pivotal scene: he says poor white people have more in common with poor black people than they do with rich white people. And it's the fucking truth.
I used to live not too far from Camden, NJ. Now I live on the outskirts of Benson, AZ. Both places have drug problems. Both places are economically recessed. The differences are in the number of people in these places and the color of their skin. They use the same (or mostly the same) food stamps, welfare, Medicaid, and social security. But people in places like Camden fail to vote blue because the candidate doesn't have the same skin color. And people in places like Benson vote red because the candidate claims to go to the same church they do. The result? Those food stamps, that welfare, that Medicaid, get's eroded. I know it's more complex than all of that, but the final point is: let's forget that church and sexuality thing, rural whites, and they aren't the same color as me thing, urban blacks. Because in a D&D game, that street-savvy Rogue and that wilderness-wise Ranger are more awesome together. Nothing is going to get better until we do things like enact laws to protect laborers and labor unions, provide socialized medicine for everyone in this country (fucking Cuba can do that!), and shift the tax burdens off of the lower and middle classes and a little more onto those oh-so-put-upon rich white people. Because when those things happen, both the Rogues and the Rangers level up faster and find more loot. So to be a little sappy and extend that metaphor: together you guys can fucking kill that rich white people dragon pissing on ALL our lawns. Right now those dragons are just going to keep telling you that lie that the Rogues and the Rangers are stealing your Xp and Loot.
Some idiots are already talking about moving to other countries. Even if I could, I'd rather stay and fight. I chose to have one of my major internal organs surgically removed. Before I did, despair ruled my every choice. It won't and can't anymore.
Plus I'm kinda stoked that that fucker Arpaio is finally out of office.
Next time I promise to get back to the geek and leave the politics behind.
Friday, November 4, 2016
So Many Orcs
We took our long rest at the inn. We are apparently are a paranoid bunch: Grim set a trip wire outside the door AND we set up watches. Fortunately, to night passed uneventfully.
The next morning a group of seven riders rode into town. Artor greeted them. They were led by a man named Xolkin Allasander. It turns out, he was the one Bella was waiting for. Her flying snake delivered him a written messenger before returning to her. He then sent his underlings to man the guard towers. Grim, suspecting this was Zhentarim business, told them to mind the 32nd rung on the southwest guard house ladder.
We left the town to follow the peoples' trail to the cave. The almost certainly Zhentarim closed the drawbridge behind us.
Jethro scouted ahead and spotted signs of goblins ambushing the townspeople. Then he heard the sound of snapping branches and war drums. He didn't return to warn the party until he got a closer look and spotted a sizeable party of orcs. Then he returned to us.
We debated our course of action for a bit. Then we found it was a raiding party of 22 orcs. We decided to run away. We ran to town to hole-up behind the walls. Fortunately, the Zhentarim were willing to let us back in.
Ten of the orcs split off from the main group and tried to swim across the moat and climb the walls. Fortunately, we all had ranged weapons to pick off the hapless attackers. Hillary used one of the best spells out of Elemental Evil: ice knife. I brought this one up during that season last year: but it has an initial attack roll for 1d10 piercing damage, and explodes, doing 2d6 damage, save for half, against the original target and every other creature within five feet. Hillary criticalled on her initial attack the first time she used that spell. Jethro also broke out the spells: using hail of thorns on the initial group. Paul enjoyed using that as Sandi. It turns a normal ranged attack into a burst of area damage as well.
We managed to thin down that initial assault before the other contingent of orcs moved on to the motte. We quickly followed them when that break away party retreated to rejoin the main group. It turns out there was a big hole in the wall there: the draw bridge. At this point we realized that two of the orcs were bigger and meaner: a warchief and an eye of Gruumsh.
Fortunately, the hole onto the drawbridge also provided us with a choke point. At this point Jethro also broke out another of Sandi's old favorites: hunter's mark. This one adds some damage and makes it easier to track the target. It can also be transferred to new targets as the old ones die.
I'm going to pause to look at the new ranger build Alec is using for Jethro. Rangers have only two favored enemies, and their first is chosen from a smaller list, but it includes types like fae, undead, and humanoids. By the way, if you take humanoids, it's ALL humanoids. With that feature and his spell, Alec was consistently getting damage totals similar to Joseph, playing the rogue.
At one point I tried to break out a new spell: thunderous smite. It does some extra thunder damage to the target and pushes them back. The idea at the time was to move enemies around to allow Temerity to advance to cast a spell. Of course, the damage killed it before it could be pushed. Temerity did try to use Tasha's hideous laughter on an orc climbing up the bridge: the Eye of Gruumsh, but it made it's save.
Artor ended up dropping from a pair of lucky orc strikes, and the only other party member with any healing, Pusheen, only had cure wounds and couldn't get to me to cast the spell. She did use her Combat Wild Shape feature to turn into a bear and do some extra damage. I confered with Kyla about her spell selection, and we agreed she probably should have taken healing word.
We also got some support from the Zhentarim towards the end of the battle.
We dropped both the Warchief and the Eye of Gruumsh, and the last three orcs retreated. I survived. We also reached another milestone after the battle.
Of course, it was a long battle, so it was time to call it. What happens next?
The next morning a group of seven riders rode into town. Artor greeted them. They were led by a man named Xolkin Allasander. It turns out, he was the one Bella was waiting for. Her flying snake delivered him a written messenger before returning to her. He then sent his underlings to man the guard towers. Grim, suspecting this was Zhentarim business, told them to mind the 32nd rung on the southwest guard house ladder.
We left the town to follow the peoples' trail to the cave. The almost certainly Zhentarim closed the drawbridge behind us.
Jethro scouted ahead and spotted signs of goblins ambushing the townspeople. Then he heard the sound of snapping branches and war drums. He didn't return to warn the party until he got a closer look and spotted a sizeable party of orcs. Then he returned to us.
We debated our course of action for a bit. Then we found it was a raiding party of 22 orcs. We decided to run away. We ran to town to hole-up behind the walls. Fortunately, the Zhentarim were willing to let us back in.
Ten of the orcs split off from the main group and tried to swim across the moat and climb the walls. Fortunately, we all had ranged weapons to pick off the hapless attackers. Hillary used one of the best spells out of Elemental Evil: ice knife. I brought this one up during that season last year: but it has an initial attack roll for 1d10 piercing damage, and explodes, doing 2d6 damage, save for half, against the original target and every other creature within five feet. Hillary criticalled on her initial attack the first time she used that spell. Jethro also broke out the spells: using hail of thorns on the initial group. Paul enjoyed using that as Sandi. It turns a normal ranged attack into a burst of area damage as well.
We managed to thin down that initial assault before the other contingent of orcs moved on to the motte. We quickly followed them when that break away party retreated to rejoin the main group. It turns out there was a big hole in the wall there: the draw bridge. At this point we realized that two of the orcs were bigger and meaner: a warchief and an eye of Gruumsh.
Fortunately, the hole onto the drawbridge also provided us with a choke point. At this point Jethro also broke out another of Sandi's old favorites: hunter's mark. This one adds some damage and makes it easier to track the target. It can also be transferred to new targets as the old ones die.
I'm going to pause to look at the new ranger build Alec is using for Jethro. Rangers have only two favored enemies, and their first is chosen from a smaller list, but it includes types like fae, undead, and humanoids. By the way, if you take humanoids, it's ALL humanoids. With that feature and his spell, Alec was consistently getting damage totals similar to Joseph, playing the rogue.
At one point I tried to break out a new spell: thunderous smite. It does some extra thunder damage to the target and pushes them back. The idea at the time was to move enemies around to allow Temerity to advance to cast a spell. Of course, the damage killed it before it could be pushed. Temerity did try to use Tasha's hideous laughter on an orc climbing up the bridge: the Eye of Gruumsh, but it made it's save.
Artor ended up dropping from a pair of lucky orc strikes, and the only other party member with any healing, Pusheen, only had cure wounds and couldn't get to me to cast the spell. She did use her Combat Wild Shape feature to turn into a bear and do some extra damage. I confered with Kyla about her spell selection, and we agreed she probably should have taken healing word.
We also got some support from the Zhentarim towards the end of the battle.
We dropped both the Warchief and the Eye of Gruumsh, and the last three orcs retreated. I survived. We also reached another milestone after the battle.
Of course, it was a long battle, so it was time to call it. What happens next?
Wednesday, November 2, 2016
Character Creation 101: Part One
Since I'm back in the player saddle, with one horse to steer instead of fifty, I've decided to do some gaming related advice posts for you, internet.
This one is for players and GMs, and has to do with character creation.
First off, character creation is the start of a game. Hopefully a long term one. Some wise points to follow are this:
Why? Because as a GM you don't want to go in expecting a game involving investigation and socializing only to find that the players wanted to play action-oriented, swashbuckling rogues and built them accordingly. Also, as a player, you don't really want to be the bruiser, side-lined because the rest of the team built social butterflies to navigate the courtly intrigue while you just wanted to smash some monsters.
When all else fails, remember most games have a default, "Vanilla Mode." For D&D, it's hobos going to archaeological sites, murdering the racial minorities squatting there, and taking whatever they find. Unfortunately, no matter how prettily they're written otherwise, most games default to a similar mode: beat up the monster(s) of the week in the set piece of the week and get the stuff that makes you more powerful. This isn't necessarily bad! Killing monsters and taking their stuff is fun. But if, as a GM, you are using the vanilla, tell the players.
Likewise players, if you're jonesing to get that murder hobo on, let the GM know, so they can have plenty of murder-hobo appropriate scenarios. But sometimes you'll want a nuanced game of conspiracy and horror, with lots of moral gray. Let the GM know. Other times you want a good old fashioned Space Opera in the vein of Firefly or Star Wars. And here's the thing, DMs and players: even if you're using D&D, you can fit the themes and ideas of Firefly into that with some setting and rules tweaks. There are approximately a billion and half websites out there with advice on how to do it, too! Don't worry, I'll add mine in, but some other time.
Also players, communicate what you want to the other PLAYERS, too. The best role-playing is cooperative storytelling, and it's easier to cooperate on storytelling when everyone has a rough idea of where they want that story to go. You want a redemptive arc for your criminal trying to go straight rogue? Maybe another player can help you out by playing a city watchmen, and then you can flavor your interactions around that arc. Obviously these things will flesh out in play, but don't be afraid to brainstorm with your fellow players at the start.
Lastly, when it comes time to make the crunchy bits, team built characters can min/max better, but that's a topic for another day.
So to summarize: think of a good game like a conversation. It will always go better if you establish clear and strong communication at the start.
This one is for players and GMs, and has to do with character creation.
First off, character creation is the start of a game. Hopefully a long term one. Some wise points to follow are this:
- Set aside a whole session just for the group of expected players to get together and make characters as a group. This isn't always possible, but whenever it is possible, do it!
- As a GM, communicate your expectations for the game to the players. Explicitly if necessary. Communication between a GM and players is important to a campaign. Get off to a good start.
- Did I mention communication is a two-way street? Players, communicate YOUR expectations and ideas for your character to the DM as well as to the other players.
Why? Because as a GM you don't want to go in expecting a game involving investigation and socializing only to find that the players wanted to play action-oriented, swashbuckling rogues and built them accordingly. Also, as a player, you don't really want to be the bruiser, side-lined because the rest of the team built social butterflies to navigate the courtly intrigue while you just wanted to smash some monsters.
When all else fails, remember most games have a default, "Vanilla Mode." For D&D, it's hobos going to archaeological sites, murdering the racial minorities squatting there, and taking whatever they find. Unfortunately, no matter how prettily they're written otherwise, most games default to a similar mode: beat up the monster(s) of the week in the set piece of the week and get the stuff that makes you more powerful. This isn't necessarily bad! Killing monsters and taking their stuff is fun. But if, as a GM, you are using the vanilla, tell the players.
Likewise players, if you're jonesing to get that murder hobo on, let the GM know, so they can have plenty of murder-hobo appropriate scenarios. But sometimes you'll want a nuanced game of conspiracy and horror, with lots of moral gray. Let the GM know. Other times you want a good old fashioned Space Opera in the vein of Firefly or Star Wars. And here's the thing, DMs and players: even if you're using D&D, you can fit the themes and ideas of Firefly into that with some setting and rules tweaks. There are approximately a billion and half websites out there with advice on how to do it, too! Don't worry, I'll add mine in, but some other time.
Also players, communicate what you want to the other PLAYERS, too. The best role-playing is cooperative storytelling, and it's easier to cooperate on storytelling when everyone has a rough idea of where they want that story to go. You want a redemptive arc for your criminal trying to go straight rogue? Maybe another player can help you out by playing a city watchmen, and then you can flavor your interactions around that arc. Obviously these things will flesh out in play, but don't be afraid to brainstorm with your fellow players at the start.
Lastly, when it comes time to make the crunchy bits, team built characters can min/max better, but that's a topic for another day.
So to summarize: think of a good game like a conversation. It will always go better if you establish clear and strong communication at the start.
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