The Gaming Den

I'm a sucker for large tables of player options like this.

It sounds like the primary tactical differences are decided by class. How much do beams affect gameplay? Is it substantial enough that all 9 tanks feel significantly different from one another?

I don't really understand what you mean. Like a d78 where you pull a card and get a themed monster encounter? That sounds like a fun thing for an adventure module at least.

(1) d8 is a good idea. This class looks like it folds pretty quick at low levels, as the early exploits don't have much defense. (2) I think this is a good idea because sneak attack ends up synergizing with so many offensive exploits and there isn't much in the way of alternatives for regular damage...

As far as I can tell, WotC consistently tries to avoid pornographic or porn-adjacent imagery. Bane Alley Broker was printed a single time, in 2013. It's one of the most risque pieces of art that Clint Cearley has ever drawn for WotC , and probably one of the most risque pieces of art used by WotC in...

Hmmm...does that mean that "objective Good" can mean something different for different Paladins, depending on who they worship? Some of them kill goblins babies, some don't? It's definitely possible. Then the PR team for the anti-killing-goblin-babies paladins would square off against the...

Picking locks is more convenient. If you hit a door with a melee weapon, it can wear down and break. You can repair weapons easily with a repair hammer. Or just shoot fire at a door until it breaks. Or you can shoot a ranged weapon at it. Sometimes, breaking down a door will trigger a fight, but you...

What should a Pathfinder 2e be aiming to accomplish? To get another 10 years of money out of its players. :tongue: But really. From the outset, the PF business model was: (1) make an off-brand D&D game, (2) crank out content for that game. After a decade, it's time to do step 1 again so they ca...

Personally I've never understood why people are so attached to dumb directionless decks midrange decks. If interacting with people is that important play a control deck. Far as I'm concerned if decks need a clear synergistic gameplan to succeed that's good design. I just wanna play smashy creatures...

The effects can be pretty strong, since (as you've noted) you need 1 copy in hand and 1 copy in play. IIRC, Grandeur's lack of reappearance is more due to Commander's popularity as a format than issues with balancing. You also may want to look into Legends of Runeterra, which does something similar ...

... as of this writing, it has raised over $4.5 million. Pretty incredible.

I like the word "perk". It's pretty neutral, it's not inherently magical (so you can leave the door open to mundane perks), and it implies something small. I'll disagree with AH -- I don't think you need in-game reasoning for why this happens, just handle the abilities on an ad hoc basis. ...

I'm going to do that annoying thing that people do on the internet where they echo what someone said directly above them. I think Chamomile is exactly right about the problem you're facing, Harshax. I think your players have realized a flaw in a lot of RPG adventures -- namely, resting doesn't have ...

I don't agree with that DeadDM. I think daily resources can encourage a 5-min workday, but they don't necessarily require it. Take your castle assault, for instance. Resting for a day may not be an option at all in that scenario unless the party wants to fight everyone in the castle all at once the ...

I don't think 3e's encounter design problems are something you should aim to solve with a 3e hack, especially if you don't want to rewrite a ton of monster manual entries. You will need to change a lot of numbers in order for 4v4 combat to be the norm without CR = Level. Hell, 3e already has a more-...

Hm, would it make sense to cap it at a level before 10, and just accept that the game stops working beyond that point, and just write all the classes to go up to that limit. Like maybe make it an e6 type hack? I would recommend capping at level 10 just to reduce scope even if you eventually want a ...

You're telling me I'm wrong, but it sounds like you agree with me. If you want everyone to care about the adventuring workday, then everyone needs a resource management system depending on it. Instead of Magic of Blue and Winds of Fate, you should use Power Points, Vancian Magic, or just x/day abili...

I think resource management systems serve 3 roles: Intra-Party Diversity: Having party members work differently is more interesting. I think the "spotlight sharing" that Frank mentioned is part of it, but I also think that players enjoy seeing their friends play differently. It makes them ...

If you're doing a D&D 3e knockoff, then the question of what HP is has already been more or less answered, and wands of lesser vigor definitely seem like the way to do healing. Making that a character trait sounded like a feat to me, which is why I recommended lesser vigor at-will as a feat. I a...

I'm not sure any given religious affiliation even needs an ACF / archetype / whatnot. Gods could just have classes that most of their priesthood take levels in. So if you want to be a priest of Nerull, you check his entry: Domains: Darkness, Death, Evil, Trickery Alignment: Neutral Evil Priests: Pri...

I'll add 3 more notes on the topic of Wild Shape being a spell: Wild Shape synergy: Wild shape is fairly unique in that it's a huge buff to your physical characteristics, it can last all day, and it can be used alongside druid spells with Natural Spell. I can see a Wild Shape spell being balanced if...

I haven't had anyone use this feature, but my instinct is to say it only applies based on subsequent attacks granted by BAB. So on your first attack it always applies, but TWF / Whirlwind bonus attacks won't get the benefit.

Tome question: the Demon Armour allows the wearer to "see souls." Can living or undead creatures still make a Hide check to avoid the wearer's notice? Can invisible creatures be located with this soul vision? Can nondetection or the like block it? I think this is more related to the flavo...

Wanted to throw my top 3 in here. Planet Money: Economics and economics-adjacent topics. It's short (20min) and light-hearted, which makes it very approachable. Revisionist History: Fun tidbits of history, but it's done by Malcolm Gladwell so it has that... Malcolm Gladwell... thing. Throughline: Th...

+1 on Hobgoblins as ancient greeks. Hobgoblin tropes line up great with ancient greece, especially in the places that orcs are deficient. Putting hobgoblins / orcs into roman / norse camps respectively gives you Hobgoblin Captains and Orc Chieftans, which is probably what your players were thinking ...

I agree that playing against type can be cool, if you have a setting where that particular construction is meant to be given a strong focus. I can imagine a setting where Orkcient Greece is the default origin location for Orcs, and I can imagine the setting succeeding off of that. But if the goal is...