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reposting
Some nerd rounded up all the wilderness rules written throughout the books. Give it a read and see what the exploration pillar was supposed to be.


>TQ: How do you feel about the content from Horrors Within?
I'm pretty sure we already have this book but it didn't have dog people before.
>Have you played a game in the Domains of Dread before?
long long ago.

>>98254377
TQ - I kind of want to run a game in HarAkir, I think it could be fun provided that it’s not too long to avoid everyone getting sick of the sand

>>98254412
Yeah, desert campaigns definitely need some commitment to the environment.
You can always switch it up with canyons, the underground labyrinth, oasises, and even illusory mirage dream realms.

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How do we fix the rogue?

>>98254633
Rogues fine, stop playing games where you don’t explore or use skill checks and go beyond lv5

>>98254377
>TQ
Just Curse of Strahd, we got to our fated meeting place yesterday and our next session is the final showdown for the good ending because we did the leyline stuff and I'm a good boy that led the party to decline the Dark Powers' offer to kill Ireena to kick the Strahd problem down the road until they reincarnate Tatyana again.
>>98254400
I think the biggest issues are that Mapping a Wilderness is very hands-off with how detailed the land "should" be (putting that in Movement on the Map), and that random encounter frequency is a little vague about what contributes to creature population density in an area. Encounter distance being hidden in the DM screen is mean.
Also, using the older Darlene map for my Greyhawk game, the 30-mile hexes would end up having to be subdivided into 6-mile hexes (3-per-side honeycomb) to fit these 6-mile hex travel rules short of being benchmarks for daily travel. Themselves subdivided into 1-mile hexes (4-per-side) if the travel is populous enough for hourly checks, which doesn't mesh well with the point of not worrying about small map details. I guess I need smaller maps.

>>98254633
give it extra attack and maneuvers and add actual rules for skills instead of leaving them to dm fiat

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i need a new hobby. homebrewing has gotten so fucking dull and im completely out of material

>>98254835
There are rules for skill checks? The only way they could give you more info is by designing your adventures for you

Also there’s a reason why rogue has like a dozen ways to get additional attacks and adv [nick]

>>98254633
Mating press.

>>98255175
mating press sounds like the name of a pokemon move

>>98255198
Someone should make a battlefuck romhack where it is

>>98254847
Stop homebrewing mechanics, start writing campaigns
>Reject modernity, Embrace holistic

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>>98254377

>>98254847
Why make a spell that directly has to reference a book to use? Why not just say what the spell does instead of talking about proficiency with pistols, ability scores, ammunition, and loading?

>1d10+mod range 30ft
>magic action to make one ranged spell attack with one open hand
>if you have the extra attack feature, you can make a second attack with your otehr hand

>>98247170
I swapped the Wild Magic Barbarian for a Berserker, and holy hell, the enemies turned into paste almost immediately.
I even adjusted the encounter to 2 gnolls and a gnoll leader with more HP (though lower AC), and they still got absolutely annihilated.
I don't really understand how. On paper it's only about 2d6 extra damage, but in actual play it feels like so much more than that. He's a complete butcher.
And I know what I'm talking about here, because my first character was a Berserker too, my DM actually recommended it to me And helped me build it.

>>98255124
No, there aren't.

1) Athletics and Acrobatics don't increase your physical abilities in any way. How much you lift is set by Strength, how high you jump is set by Strength, how fast you climb or swim is set by the relevant speeds, damaging objects has its own rules. These skills don't do anything except when you meet an obstacle point such as trying not to fall, trying to swim in difficult water, swing off a chandelier, etc. When you do, you're putting your mildly cool thing in the hands of a 20-50% of eating shit regardless for something a spell would just autopass for you.

2) None of the knowledge skills have DC based info for monsters or spells like in prior editions of the game.

3) There is no social system, its pure mother may I. If there was a DC based system for requests, or an Exalted-style Intimacy or Social Combat system then it'd be different.

5E's Skill System not only doesn't actually confer any power to your character, it makes you weaker. Your PC is at their strongest when a DM calls for fewer rolls rather than more. If your DM only calls for Skill checks at crucial moments and autopasses other attempts to climb or talk past guards or whatever you are much stronger than if a DM calls for checks left and right. Everyone rightly shits on 3.Xs skill system for having a ton of overhead, but at least it conferred a distinct bonus for having high skills. You *could* get stronger or jump higher or reliably do more for having them, even if the bonuses were worse at level 20 than Level 1-2 spells [unless you used epic rules].

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Should barbarians be bald?

>>98256404
1. they do, read the rules also whats the point of skill checks if there isnt a chance of failure.

2. true, they dont have Bearlore Dc20 to figure out that bears use their claws to maul prey. Instead, they allow the players to ask creative questions based on their skill profs and the DM to adjudicate what type of information they get - because 5e is more free form. We don't need a fucking lore drop essay about Orcus which has nothing to do with what the players are looking for when they're just wondering if he's immune to fire or some shit.

3. there is a system, read the DMG, its based on the attitudes, influencing with skills, its also got a section on monster behavior.

prof increases as you level and your ability scores can increase meaning that you 100% get better - ignoring the rogue that absolutely gets better at skill checks.

3.5s system is dogshit because the floor is raised up artificially, which is the issue you've been hinting at. your dogshit DM keeps raising the DCs to scale your party out to fail checks instead of just using the basic table to determine if swinging from a chandelier - something that everyone assumes is very easy - at moderate or harder because he wants to challenge you. If you've got prof in athletics and fucking 5 strength mod, you should be able to do basic heroic tasks without needing a check, because you've got a score above it.

>>98256527
No they don't. How much stronger is someone with +11 on Athletics vs +2? The answer is nobody knows. RAW it doesn't increase how much you can lift or how far you can jump or how much you can break at all. So its entirely up to your DM if he decides to go against that and say a barbarian with Expertise in Athletics really should be stronger than that same barbarian with no proficiency at all. But RAW, it doesn't do shit. None of the skills do anything except let you pass skill challenges, and skill challenges are just points of possible failure, they don't increase your competencies in any measurable way.

Ideally it wouldn't be like 3.X or 5e, and having a skill would be like having a spell and confer distinct bonuses in addition to helping you pass skill checks/challenges. Instead all the shit worth doing is in other subsystems.

>>98256404
I don't think skills have ever truly been satisfying in any edition of D&D. AD&D proficiencies were even worse as a rule set that made characters weaker. And even if 5e leaves skills to "DM fiat" that's how skills in 3e were often handled in my experience. A lot of DMs would arbitrarily raise DCs of skill checks if a player went through the trouble to pump a skill high enough, the DCs mentioned in the manual didn't get a lot of respect.

>>98256556
I had the opposite experience. You spend a ton of points buffing your acrobatics/jump and your reward was a level 7 character who could jump over a man's head. Woo, so impressive. Bob is flying, but you know.

>>98256553
> Calculated DCs p29

For some ability checks and most saving throws, the rules default to the following formula:
DC = 8 + ability modifier + Proficiency Bonus

This formula often sets the saving throw DC when a creature is casting a spell or using a special ability, but it can also apply to ability checks that are contests between two creatures. For example, if one creature is holding a door shut, use its Strength modifier and Proficiency Bonus to set the DC for opening the door. When another creature tries to force the door open, the creature makes a Strength (Athletics) check against that DC.

Another way to handle similar situations is to have one creature's ability check set the DC for another creature's check. That's how hiding works, for example: a hiding creature's total Dexterity (Stealth) check sets the DC for Wisdom (Perception) checks made to find the hidden creature.

Wowee, a built in mechanic to compare the strengths of two barbarians

>>98256584
But it doesn't. Your lifting is set by raw STR, your jumping by raw STR, your climbing or swimming by other features. Passing a skill challenge against someone else is still just passing a skill challenge. The fact is if your DM lets you stop a 900 pound boulder rolling at you by rolling 26 on Athletics or jump a 30 foot gap with a STR of 16, that's his ruling not RAW. There's nothing in the book for it, and a different DM could tell you to fuck off. Meanwhile Fly is Fly is Fly. Skills suck.

>>98256612
>how do you compare the strength of two barbs? Well here’s the rule

>um no I meant the other rule for lifting and carrying and I hate the DC check system and suck off mages

>>98256404
The vibe you give off is that you just don’t like rulings and need specific rules because your table is a stick in the mud

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>>98254633
Soul Knife doesn't have enough options that make use of sneak attack. There is plenty of old options for OG soul knife to bring back and add to it's kit.

Similarly, the Assassin is boring feature wise and there is plenty of stuff to circle back and make it's kit more interesting

Debatable if Scout would be a good fit as a subclass since even OG Scout didn't have a whole lot going on.

College of Blades should be gutted with parts of it moved to Valor bard and parts of it used to give to Rogue.

Rogue is only slightly better than Ranger because it makes more use of its primary gimmick.

>>98256658
Look you're not going to win this. The Skill System is an isolated system for governing one thing. Passing skill checks. It does not interact with other subsystems such as movement and encumbrance nor does it have detailed subsystems at all for social interactions or knowledge checks. A barbarian with a +11 check is good at one thing, passing Athletics checks. The fact is a barbarian with STR 10 and a +12 Athletics roll would beat skill challenges against a barbarian with STR 20 and no proficiency, while being physically weaker in terms of how much he lifted, how high or far he jumped, and even for Strength Saving Throws. Its not a good system. It should either not exist at all like in OSR games, or it should be as detailed as the spellcasting system and actually interact with other systems in a meaningful way. This middle of the road approach is the worst of both worlds.

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>>98256527
>your dogshit DM keeps raising the DCs to scale your party out to fail checks instead of just using the basic table

I think the other anon is mostly right, but this here is the biggest fucking factor by at least half. Because the rules are so loose, DMs constantly scale the same tests you were doing 5 levels as if you were playing Skyrim.

>nothing is easy
>almost nothing is immpossible
>everything is alwayts "challenging"
5.5e added flat DCs for utilizing actions you can take with tools, which I wish they'd do with skills.

>are some of these half assed?
yes
>are some of these nonsensical?
yes

But it's a step in the right direction. Giving skills tangible useswith flat DCs besides "determining if X is Y" would be useful.

>>98256689
Rulings would be fine. But a system that gives detailed rules in some things while pure fiat in another isn't a good system. When you have encumbrance, athletics, and strength saves as three separate things and the first and last are very specific on what they do and the second is 'just wing it man', its going to lead to confusion. The hard encumbrance rules is the game discouraging you from going pure fiat with Athletics, while Athletics is pointless if you do do that.

>>98256714
I mean a lot of this is ultimately due to D&D having a totally binary skill system. You either pass completely for fail completely. Like the cartographer's kit is a perfect example. Even a caveman nigga can make a basic map. But if you roll a 14, you get literally nothing. Far better would be your roll dictating the quality and accuracy of the outcome, but that would require effort or potentially rolling more than one die at a time.

>>98256718
thats the rub though isnt it?

you've got a list of simple things you can do, and to do things beyond it you use the skill system

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How we feel about non-combat monster encounters?

>>98256872
I'm fine with it, the trick is that you have to design it like a puzzle they're stuck in or else the party will either leave or just talk their way out of it with no resources expended. A nymph wouldn't really leave its pool, so unless the party wants to pull an Odysseus and risk the blindness there's not really a reason to not circumvent it.

where do people even post homebrew these days. the biggest homebrew community on leddit is functionally dead

>>98256872
Important for variety. But you’re just posting your commissions again Puckee.

>>98257038
Post here. You’ll get some trolls but within the autistic screeching and hate you’ll get some honest feedback.

>>98257038
Your playgroup’s chat

>>98256413
What???? Of course not, where did you get that idea?
My barbarian is bald though lol

>>98257108
Based bald barbarian enjoyer

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>>98254633
You make them spicy and you fix subclass progression

>3rd level gives them a 20% crit chance
>5th Melee rogues always have access to cunning strike, or just more damage even without a sneak attack
>subclass features at 3rd, 6th, 10th, and 14th.
>17th is a ribbon that mashes together 4-5 2014 background "features"

finally found a new dm, we had a chill session 0, everyone seems pretty chill. Wrapping everything up, then the gm says "I will be expecting 30 dollars every week up front starting from next week"

Like what the fuck, what a waste of time, nothing was said about it being paid. What the fuck is this gay earth.

>>98257221
>champion feature built into core class
>world of warcraft sinister strike with an even more complicated system instead of just changing the sneak attack scaling
>reliable talent pushed back [wouldn't want that]
>reddit subclass suggestion because it would be too difficult to just level up more [the only reason why this is an issue is because people will play a game for 3 years and only hit lv6]
>actual reddit RP mechanic because it would be too difficult to have the rogue actually interact with the world to get their reputation / connections [what is thieves cant at lv 3]

>>98257229
Playing with random strangers gets you that

>>98257229
So what did he say when you asked why the very much not-assumed fact that this was a paid game had not been brought up all throughout the game posting/invitation process and indeed until session 0 was already over?

>>98254377
Yeah

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>>98257253
>>champion feature built into core class
I'm tired of the champion crit sacred cow. Rogue is the "make one weapon attack and make it count" class.
>>an even more complicated system instead of just changing the sneak attack scaling
It's not complicated. It just rewards melee rogues so they can be less reliant on sneak attack.
>reliable talent pushed back [wouldn't want that]
It's not pushed back? Or do you want it to be pushed back? What?

>>98257229
Tell him that ChatGPT is only 20 dollars a month.

>>98257229
What a cunt. I DM for my friends and would never charge. It just wouldn’t feel right. I’d tell him to make that clear from the outset in the future and part ways.

It’s a game not a fucking side hustle.

>>98257342
im tired of you being tired of the sacred cow, stop reworking the rogue into a fighter

>it is difficult and bad that the rogue sneak attacks
its so fucking easy to proc it, if you're unable to do it you've got a massive skill issue

>reliable talent
my bad i thought it was lv 6

>>98257354
It's not a fighter; it's a rogue. I'm just sharing ideas of making it competitive and more fun to play. It's a conversation >>98254633

>its so fucking easy to proc it, if you're unable to do it you've got a massive skill issue
Sometimes it's just not feasible or the risk is too great. This is a little bonus to give melee rogues their own niche compared to ranged rogues.

>my bad i thought it was lv 6
Cool.

>>98256859
Except you don't. Nothing in the rules says "You can jump higher or lift more or run faster if you use skills". The point isn't you can't design a good skill system or even run the current skill system passably, its that as written the skill system doesn't intersect with other systems and its utility is entirely up to the DM. You are much better off investing in things that have actual mechanics attached to them.

>>98257598
>Athletics Strength Jump farther than normal, stay afloat in rough water, or break something.

so . . .?

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>>98257606
I stand corrected. I still say it's worse than either of the other approaches of either being rules lite and having jumping being purely fiat based or having Athletics incorporated into your jump from the start.

>>98254377
>Have you played a game in the Domains of Dread before?
The game I'm running has a lieutenant of the raven queen as the main villain. He was banished into the soil as his punishment for failing her. This happened on the night of one fey PCs conception, so part of his fragmented soul bonded to that PC and gave him dreams and eventually a link to this guy's mind. Idk if anyone here ever read Leven Thumps and the Gateway to Foo series, but this villain is basically The Dearth, except I call him the Loam Lord or the Sovereign of the Soil. Not sure how to do more with this mental connection but this guy is trying to invade the material plane with his shadow fell army.

>>98256988
Wait the whole point is for them to expend spells? The point for a threatening noncombat encounter is for them to get out without having their dicks turned into tiny talking tunafish.

>>98257038
Sadly there's some discords, which guarantee that they will all be flushed away or impossible to find. You can still find stuff on the like three homebrew subreddits, at least that stuff won't disappear instantly. They are pretty gay these days though.

>>98257758
>except I call him the Loam Lord or the Sovereign of the Soil
Ah, yes, the Mulch Monarch, Duke of Dirt.

>>98257781
Yeah man I'm trying to come up with a name for him that isn't as lame but I'm failing.

>>98257786
The Buried One.

>>98257038
you post em here >>98257076 is right

>>98256413
No. One of the ways my Berserker Barbarian rages is that he ties his long hair up so it is out of the way for combat or other rage actions.

>>98257787
Fuck that's actually way better. Thank you man.

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No one answered last thread so I'll repost:
I want to hand out a magic item that allows flight soon (party about to hit 7th level, probably sometime in there), and it's going to be the winged boots- uncommon, requires attunement, can hold up to 4 hours of flight at a time, pretty slow flight (same speed as walking). But what about in a few levels when I might decide a second such item is good? Or what about if I want such an item to be a choice for a reward, or for gold, later?

I ran into the Broom of Flying, which is a pile of rules interaction I never want. It's also uncommon, which isn't great if you're going to allow players to kinda do some rarity-based crafting at some point. I'll probably just assume no one can make or find those. Searching it I just see people asking all these questions and people getting snippy about it, because it also has weird limits based on weight and stuff. No thanks.

Checking some more items, I found the wings of flying, which are 60 feet flight, and last for an hour. After that, it takes 1d12 hours for them to work again. These are listed as rare.

So where's like, the rare version of the winged boots? Is there something at very rare or legendary that is even less restrictive?

Pic related- the carpet of flying- has a bunch of weird rules interactions too. Like some of them are big enough that the players could put one guy in front and one in back and still be fine on the five foot space logic. That I'd have to decide on before making it available. Unlike a broom, a flying carpet is worth some drama though, especially by the time a very rare item could appear.

Anyway, I'm not limited to custom items, and besides the winged boots everything seems kinda confusing and exploity so I think I want to make more than one rarity tier of winged boots so that they can eventually be available for upgrade, purchase, or trade.

Anyone have any experience with that?

>>98257827
As you already said, the only two stats you need to change are flight speed and flight time. Just scale those up for better versions, my niggie.

>>98256413
>puckee aka redditor pucke℮21 spamming his commission again
https://www.reddit.com/r/DnD/comments/1asljbu/art_comm_agarian_warrior_by_pedro_silva/
https://desuarchive.org/_/search/image/hzEJ4gtiMhFPMlGOcTas7Q/
>26 times since February 2024
>>98256872
>puckee aka pucke℮21 spamming his commission again
https://www.reddit.com/r/ImaginaryMonsters/comments/1nrmufb/nessine_the_dryad_by_dennis_fr%C3%B6hlich/
https://desuarchive.org/_/search/image/itJqGSYLllzCvopMW6Bg5Q/
>38 times since December 2023

>>98257897
at least his posts are on topic.

>>98257897
nobody but you gives a shit, maybe you should go back to where you belong

>>98257352
withholding the fact that it is a paid game until after his players have spent time together in a session 0 is most likely that cunts business strategy

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I'm writing a race for a mini-setting I'm making. I'm balancing it against Dwarves and so I think its balanced but I want second opinions. I tried to match feature by feature.

>>98257968

>age
it might sound better to say "They age normally till they're 15, and they 'visibly age 3.5 times more slowly' than most other mortals (or whatever your setting has).

>dwarven resistance
oi

>dwarven toughness
That's 2 strikes.

>child of vaina
Is this meant to replace dwarven armor training?

>>98258034
Two strikes? Also yes, my thinking is
>Cantrip roughly equals Darkvision. If anything Darkvision is better but two Cantrips sounds too much?
>Educated is Tool Proficiency.
>Technically Adept is just Stonecunning with a different focus. Arguably a broader focus but I figure you'll be underground way more often than you are looking at machines in a typical D&D game so it evens out.
>Gunnery is Dwarven Combat Training. Very abusable if you run for plate-armored wizards with hand-crossbows but I'm not balancing around niche uber-builds. Crossbows match their fluff.
>Dwarven Resistance is itself. So is Dwarven Toughness.
>Child of Vaina is the equivalent of armor training and its probably too weak. I'm still toying around with what exactly to give them for their mannish mariner ancestors.

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Would there be any way for a bard to gain access to the "Produce Flame" cantrip?
I want to create a College of Dance bard and make him like a fire performance artist like the types you'd see perform at carnivals or festivals. But I just see no way of getting fire that involved other than produce flame.

>>98257968
Ah, I get it.

Um, sure. Seems fine.