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 SirDonlad wrote:

Lance845 wrote: But i have rarely not had the plays go off and do things incredibly unexpected. At which point i would have no music qued up for what they are doing.

Yeah, i think you put your finger on the crux of the problem there - and it's not like the phrase "expect the unexpected" can really help!

Paradigm wrote:It's pretty worthwhile and simple enough to set up generic playlists that can really be used to cover 90% of what's likely to come up in any given session, rather than prepping specific music for each game. It helps to think in terms of escalation; if you gave something for ambience, tension, action then either despair or victory, you've covered the typical course of a session with music that will suit the descent into a dungeon and the resulting glorious return but can also cover the sudden attack on a city that ends with a beloved character falling in the escape.

From there, you can build more specific stuff at your leisure, if you want, say, tavern music or for a city or villain to have their own 'themes', but by creating the basic pool of tracks and playlists, you don't need to worry about soundtracking everything, every game, and to my mind at least it
s more than worth it for the difference it makes at the table. And in game, it's no more complex than clicking from one playlist to another as the tone changes.


As for sound effects... I mean, I'm not DMing to not make fireball/sword/screaming/monster noises...

Okay, i'm trying to get a list going of all the types of places a player might visit in a d&d game that would have a distinct aural difference - suggestions welcome!

Tavern
market
blacksmith
barracks
countryside
wet cave
dry cave
rainy street
pitched battle
skirmish encounter
large monster combat
church/cathedral/temple

I feel like a really shoddy emulator - even when running 'properly' the audio drivers cause the game to lag and interrupt the dialogue; i suppose i should be grateful the system doesn't just crash..

We tend to just cue it to the emotion of the scene. I've got solid 10-15 minute tracks (generally lifted from movie soundtracks) for

tension
light combat
intense combat
cooldown (calm music, often with rain or ambient sounds, for when combat is over or the party takes a rest)
sadness

If there's really nothing much going on, you don't need music. I've always been annoyed by when the DM queues up "Tavern Murmuring" or "Loud bustling market" sounds for a long session. And oh god save me from 1 hour of Cultists Chanting.

 Syro_ wrote:
I hope everyone is taking advantage of the free D&D content from WotC.
https://dnd.wizards.com/remote/freematerial

aw man. I thought they were just doing the DnD Beyond stuff. I didn't realize they had PDFs available as well. Well time to grab what I can.

@balmng7: Yeah the DnD Beyond stuff is not useful. Enjoy the PDFs
I finally signed up for the DMsGuild because of this event, and along with the Free WotC stuff, i ended up spending 3 days finding and downloading around 600 free adventures from DMsGuild

the_scotsman wrote:

We tend to just cue it to the emotion of the scene. I've got solid 10-15 minute tracks (generally lifted from movie soundtracks) for

tension
light combat
intense combat
cooldown (calm music, often with rain or ambient sounds, for when combat is over or the party takes a rest)
sadness

If there's really nothing much going on, you don't need music. I've always been annoyed by when the DM queues up "Tavern Murmuring" or "Loud bustling market" sounds for a long session. And oh god save me from 1 hour of Cultists Chanting.

The lockdown/remote play thing has killed audio a bit for my group.
i think you hit the nail on the head with your last comment - too much soundstage is audio noise at a certain point. less is more i suppose?

It's a shame; i liked creating an ambience with quiet music when doing IRL sessions.

 Syro_ wrote:
@balmng7: Yeah the DnD Beyond stuff is not useful. Enjoy the PDFs
I finally signed up for the DMsGuild because of this event, and along with the Free WotC stuff, i ended up spending 3 days finding and downloading around 600 free adventures from DMsGuild

Sorry, 600?!? Is this a temporary thing, or have they always been free?

 SirDonlad wrote:

the_scotsman wrote:

We tend to just cue it to the emotion of the scene. I've got solid 10-15 minute tracks (generally lifted from movie soundtracks) for

tension
light combat
intense combat
cooldown (calm music, often with rain or ambient sounds, for when combat is over or the party takes a rest)
sadness

If there's really nothing much going on, you don't need music. I've always been annoyed by when the DM queues up "Tavern Murmuring" or "Loud bustling market" sounds for a long session. And oh god save me from 1 hour of Cultists Chanting.

The lockdown/remote play thing has killed audio a bit for my group.
i think you hit the nail on the head with your last comment - too much soundstage is audio noise at a certain point. less is more i suppose?

It's a shame; i liked creating an ambience with quiet music when doing IRL sessions.

roll20 has a handy audio integration thing I like. When you go to a certain map, you can have it play a certain track on loop automatically. Very handy for me

Sorry, 600?!? Is this a temporary thing, or have they always been free?

It might be a little less, I just selected how many files I had downloaded from DMsGuild, and some are just maps going to other adventures. But if you do a search for all the free and pay what you want adventures, they should all still be there. I don't think it's temporary like the free Wizards of the Coast stuff.

interview with the current D & D film developers/writers

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/dungeons-dragons-filmmakers-jonathan-goldstein-john-francis-daley-share-vision-1296137


and been everywhere but in case you haven't seen it

Hey everyone!
It's been doom and gloom IRL but i wanted to brag a little about my last session - i presume thats okay in limited quantity... ....?

I brought a new player into the sessions at the request of one of the other players; and it worked out good!
New player had fun as a trickster cleric stealing a boat with the party rogue, the other two party members had a half-ogre encounter on a beach and they all met back up after casting a fireball upwards at night and then sailing off into the dark in search of adventure...

One of the players told me afterwards that it was the best session he'd had this campain and i'm well pleased i managed to do that it in an online session.
[/bragging]

Great job Sir Donald! I'm glad your players are having such a good time. It sounds like a fun adventure.

Thanks Syro_!

I also found out that 'Xanathars Guide to Everything' uses 'Volos Guide to Monsters' in its encounter tables, not just the Monster Manual so thats one to watch out for if any other dakkanaughts are grabbing a copy of XGtE

Just had it pointed out to me that i have that wrong and the 'half-ogre' profile is listed within the 'ogre' entry in the Monster manual and isn't listed on the contents page.

i thought my WIS was higher than that.

That is a good tip to watch out for. I never noticed.

In a fit of shame i went through Xanathars Guide to Everything with the Monster Manual and would like to correct the bit of the record i messed up - Xanathars Guide to Everything only uses the Monster Manual for its random encounter tables.

i was so used to the mixed-race character creation giving a separate entry for half-elf and half-orc that i did't clock the mixed-race monsters getting subheadings within main monster profiles

In my defense, the demi-lich and lich have separate profiles

I've got a quick question for everyone: I'm about to run another little campaign and I'm looking for a monster. It's going to be very gothic horror and what I want is some kind of creature that will creep into their room in the Inn and cut a PC for 1HP. And thus have their blood. I'd then like them to have an encounter later on when they are travelling where they come across someone covered in these cuts who has gone insane and runs off and is audibly killed. I'll run it so that either if they go after it they can try to kill it while it's feasting or it will hunt them down again later on.

I've been steadily trawling through the monster manual to find something but I was wondering if someone here knew of something that would fit the bill?

Edit: sorry for a bit of threadnomancy I had thought this was ongoing.

I think you are looking for a monster the dm made up him/herself.

I would say a form of undead or demon are your best bet. Or a demon possessing a corpse.

A type of vampire or ghoul is generally a good bet for the blood letting. You will need to come up with the motivations for this thing and why it might have singled out the players to be followed.

Alternatively, if they're fairly low level, a Redcap might be a good shout if you want something a bit more obscure and unpredictable. They are a perfect example of how Fey can be just as horrific as your more overtly evil types of entity. Pretty nasty fight for a low level party too, especially with the environment on its side and some expanded action options.
https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Redcap

The very creepy need to keep their red hats soaked in blood to even exist gives you a tie to the small and persistent cuts, and while they're described as murderers with little restraint, this one could easily take its victims as long-term investments rather than quickly sating a bloodlust, Perhaps in a more desolate area such kills would quickly leave it with no prey at all, or perhaps it's sharing with other Redcaps, each of them agreeing not to kill outright to preserve the 'cattle'.

This is an ongoing thread. I suspect the lulls are due to the current situation. I know I haven't had a game since March.

It's a Warlock that needs the blood of strangers for its rituals. Of course the strangers are eventually overtaken by madness as the Warlock's patron gradually gets to know them better via their blood.

 Red Harvest wrote:
This is an ongoing thread. I suspect the lulls are due to the current situation. I know I haven't had a game since March.

It's a Warlock that needs the blood of strangers for its rituals. Of course the strangers are eventually overtaken by madness as the Warlock's patron gradually gets to know them better via their blood.

If one of the characters is a sorcerer their lineage could be the reason they group is followed. The warlocks ritual/patron needs blood of the descendant of fey/dragon/outsider/wild magic.

Yeah I was thinking of using a spectre or ghoul as a baseline. They're low level characters but I'm going to drag the whole encounter out for a while. Spook them for a bit.

The idea of a redcap is very interesting, but I plan on using something undead. I might use one later on as a double bluff though! Where I grew up redcaps were a big deal, I got told about them and their big iron boots stomping around at night. Scared the pants off me when I was wee!

Thanks for the tips guys!

Hi folks,
First time D&D player here looking for some help.

I'm playing a half-elf-Rogue and I just hit 3rd level. I'm trying to decide betwen the Thief and Swashbuckler archetypes. Anyone care to comment on their various strengths and weeknesses and what playstyle each is best suited for?

I'm not trying to power-game (I picked Half-Elf Rogue because it sounded cool before I read the rules and realized what a nice combo it is) but it would be nice to know more about these two options before I commit to one or the other.

Any advice you all have to offer would be apprecaited!

Others are likely to be able to give you more mechanical advice about the subclasses, but I would always tell everyone to play the character.

Worry less about what the mechanics do and more about who your person is and then do whatever best represents that. Is your half-elf rogue more about subterfuge, picking locks, sleight of hand? Or is he more about being big personality, showy, in every ones face acrobatic and dexterous fighting?

Once you decide that you probably have your answer.

Thanks,
I decided on Swashbuckler. It was a very tough choice because I was equally attracted to the character archetypes of the high-climbing thief and the rapier-wielding-scoundrel.

I think what might have tipped the balance was when my wife (who is playing a Barbarian) said "the party needs more fighters". Maybe not the best way to decide, but certainly not the worst and I don't think I'll regret it.

Swashbuckler is the more fun to RP anyway!

 Easy E wrote:
Swashbuckler is the more fun to RP anyway!

Especially when you turn fights with intelligent enemies into a fun round of Insult Sword Fighting!

Total 5e noob here looking at the rules for the first time. What's considered a good AC in 5e for a lowish level melee character like a fighter (3rd-4th levels for example)? There are alot of changes in this edition (no complaints here!) compared with 4th but it seems like my understanding of various stats needs a paradigm shift. It seems like the overall total numbers on rolls you should expect have gone down since lots of lots of bonuses have been factored into the advantage/disadvantage system combined with no more 1-20 BAB (replaced by 2-6 proficiency bonus?). Am I getting this wrong on my first skim through?

Nope, you have it right. AC tends to range from 9 to 21 ish, depending on armor. Obviously there are things outside that range, and I think the actual most common AC is around 13-14 or so.

No more BAB, and AC bonuses tend to be pretty rare outside of armor and/or dex and shields. There are things that add, but they're more rare.

Attack rolls are
1d20 + Proficiency Bonus + Appropriate Stat

Thanks! Do monsters follow the same rules roughly? I'm just curious as they don't in the 3.x based Starfinder (my most recent experience) when it comes to certain stats. As you go up in CR, do the AC's go up relatively linearly like in older D&D or is it more gradual to account for the more gradual increase in attack bonuses?

Since I'm completely new, I figured I'd take a look at the Adventurer's League stuff. Is that basically the modern day RPGA? Do you have to start at 1st level and work your way up in a logged way or can you just make up a higher level character according to their rules/limitations to play in a game that happens to be higher level?

I obviously don't have the new/upcoming Tasha's Cauldron book but from the League free pdfs the new origins stuff looks to be standard (i.e. not optional in the sense that a GM shouldn't simply say no) and highly min-maxable since you can just mix and match attribute bonuses and swap out redundant proficiences as you see fit.

ACs don't tend to go up as quickly for monsters, instead they have loads of HP.

 warboss wrote:
Thanks! Do monsters follow the same rules roughly? I'm just curious as they don't in the 3.x based Starfinder (my most recent experience) when it comes to certain stats. As you go up in CR, do the AC's go up relatively linearly like in older D&D or is it more gradual to account for the more gradual increase in attack bonuses?

Its mostly neither. Monsters have ACs that their designer 'felt about right'

A Pit Fiend at level 20 has an AC of 19
An Ancient Red dragon is level 24, and has AC 22.
The Tarrasque, the 'ultimate monster' (unless you can fly, and then its a math problem) is AC 25 and level 30.

Various named demon lords in Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes have AC from 18 to 20. Assorted 'elder elementals' are AC 17-21. Most of these are level 20-26

A basic goblin (level 1/4) has a 15, a level 1 goblin boss a 17.
A flesh golem is level 5 and has an AC 9.
A level 2 Ogre is AC 11. Its half ogre kin is AC 12 at level 1. But roughly half the HP (30 rather than 59).


As Da Boss says, its mostly about HP bloat.
Monsters with 20+ AC feel really bad to fight with 5e's math, so they didn't do it much, but higher level monsters are such bullet sponges that it gets boring anyway.

----
On the PC side of things, it gets weirder. You can, in theory, start with an AC of 9 (don't do this, some monsters hit like absolute trucks), or a level 1 fighter with entirely mundane gear can wander around at AC21 (though not a starter character, as plate mail is pricey). Buffs and magic items can get it pretty high (you can hit 25 or so at relatively low levels), but you have to build for it. At various points, monster attack bonuses are such that you either go all in and still take some hits (on a 15+), or just accept that they're going to smack you around on the regular.
Once you've really started min/maxing AC, ways to apply disadvantage (like the 2nd level spell, blur) are worth WAY more than another +1 AC.