The Gaming Den

When characters are sneaking in a combat situation, how does your system handle the problem of needing to track the undetected/detected/located for (number of sneaking characters) × (number of perceiving characters) character-character interactions? The extreme example is something like a bunch of ...

Group stealth, in some ways this is the reverse of group perception checks handled earlier -- just like having the rogue PC make the same DC 12 check over and over again until they inevitably fail, having the group of PCs make stealth checks individually, even if all the PCs are above average, it’s ...

Updated the original post to begin listing examples / guidance for common situations or modifiers. Example 2 Let’s go back to our PC Rogue who has hidden underneath a cart, according to the rule set, they made a blind stealth check and we begin adjudicating it. So they make their initial roll, and t...

I figured i’d just try to talk through how to develop a chart of example DCs in hopes it will help me actually generate one. So; Stealth Lets walk through common examples ~ DM: You all arrive outside a large, walled city. A line of caravans, merchants, farmers, travelers stretch out in front of the ...

Being immune to falling damage seems fine to me, if a PC is lucky it'll come in handy at least once during a given campaign. But if that seems too generous for fighters you could require a check: Falling Star (Ex), whenever your character would take falling damage, you may immediately make a jump (h...

Your system must have sufficient give and flexibility to allow that and base attributes are not just a wall but a potential maze full of trap options that prevent that. Must attributes be a maze full of trap options? Is there no possible realm they act a guide or short hand to help players build th...

In a 3.x system damage should scale along class or character level (usually class level to prevent abusive dipping), otherwise an enterprising player will find some way to break it. It also doesn't 'cost' the player anything when it scales by level -- they do not need to invest their choices be it f...

Pathfinder has decent coverage for 'sherlock' via the investigator hybrid class.

I'm thinking about what am I incentivizing a person with high Int stat to actually do when they are playing the game. What kind of classes, skills, abilities, etc are bolstered by having a higher int? In my game it means you make stuff faster, know factoids about subject areas that come up in game,...

No, I just have depression, so my memory sucks. I also, as a human (if I must be...), reserve the right to change my mind, and feel differently about an idea one day than I do another. we're all human (hopefully), so hang in there -- and if you really want to make it up to me you can rip into my st...

But watching Adam Savage talk on Youtube, I'm starting to form this idea of something like the artificer, maybe named something else just because of how my brain handles words, that's more like a stagehand/grip/etc on a set. They can pull off phenomenal feats of building that will do the job, but t...

I've expanded the section on concealment, and made some other minor changes. Outside combat You may want to write these rules in more detail so it's not just designing each location as a table of events, or be specific that the idea is for all non combat stealthing to be a list of DCs and actions li...

I'm using: Strength (STR) Dexterity (DEX) Mind (MND) Spirit (SPR) and i may refer to STR + DEX as body, MND + SPR as soul. skills are made up of general skill groups: Athletics, Guile, Thievery, Nature, Magic, Academics, Perception. Taking Athletics as an example, Athletics Your bonus to athletics i...

thanks for the responses! I should include a comma to better imply that the unplayed and unfinished descriptors were only meant to apply to myself. I have a write up for perception, but it's rougher. Stealth rules can't really exist in a vacuum without perception rules. ~ The intention with concealm...

Like everyone else I'm writing a fantasy heartbreaker that's probably never going to be finished and never played, but hey, I'm having fun (sometimes). Basic mechanic is 3d6 vs DC. Advantage is to roll an additional d6 but take the highest 3 dice, disadvantage 4d6 take lowest 3. advantage / disadvan...

I had a player who used this artificer class, he seemed to have enjoyed it, the weird science ability is very flexible, so it might not be suitable in games where low level magic is heavily restricted. Otherwise, the utility can be high, but powerlevel wise I'd put it a little below rogue maybe.

mongrelfolk (mongrelmen)
gyno sphinx, andro sphinx
bullywug
liontaur (wemic)
treant
landshark (bulette)
dragon turtle
hippogriff

Usually I recommend to groups that they play my stock Pathfinder campaign Sihedron, which is Frankensteined together from a dozen-ish different Pathfinder APs in such a way to make them more open and sandbox. People who insist upon a specific AP tend to understand that they have only themselves to ...

Can you fix the https issues with the site? you should be redirecting to https and setting it to try and upgrade all requests to https (what is happening right now is there is no auto redirect, and you aren't attempting to tell browsers to try https when making internal requests, so we get warnings ...

your friend is the GM and will be running the new system you are investigating? From the couple of paragraphs, the GM sounds overly permissive, which isn't necessarily bad but a few permissive rulings in 5e can trivialize a lot of encounters. Is she running from a module? My very limited Burning Whe...

I will also recommend Burning Wheel, it has rules that addresses each of the bullet points; how effectively is another question but at least it'll be different.

No they aren't. I don't know why people think this, but it isn't true. Lets see... Spell Resistance A deity has spell resistance of 32 + its divine rank. Good luck having a chance in hell at beating that before the endgame! (provided you're fighting a -demigod- at most, that is!). As I said, defact...

I find group stealth somewhat elusive, I think it can be done in an interesting way but it needs to address various edge cases. Group size. The party rogue helping their three adventuring companions is one thing, having the same party rogue lead an army is probably another. Only Advantages. Most ste...

One related question would be how ought high level / powerful NPCs be used. Should the MC never write in suchs things if they aren't level appropriate, should they proceed to excise them from any modules that are being run? Should adventure modules never include such encounters or even friendly NPCs...

presumably forum posts would never ruin enjoyment the way being disruptive during actual play would. And one thing I've learned reading the den over the years is how much this community loves to encourage discussion, it's been especially clear this thread how much everyone encourages one another to ...