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luna-writes-stuff · 2 years

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A super quick five-minute guide to writing a Stranger Things fic with no experience of DnD:

Edited for some clarity since people asked for it. See reblogs for more time-accurate DnD, and more specific rules!

Alternatively; If you never played or barely know DnD, but wish to write about it nonetheless, here are some quick FYI’s

These points are made based on things I have read on this site and other platforms. In no way is this a personal attack if you recognise your own writing! I have seen many posts where people complain about the inaccuracy of DnD represented in fics, but none offer any ideas, so that’s why I wrote this. Hope this helps!

1. DND IS NOT A TWO PLAYER GAME

You need one Dungeon master, and at least three players to create a good campaign. I’d say a normal party consists out of five players (DM not included), but it can quite easily be bigger.

(There are starter campaigns with one DM and one player, but for a good game, you’d need a bigger party. Introductions to DnD are way more fun with a good group)

2. DND IS NOT A QUICK GAME

There is no such thing as playing a quick round of DnD. Even starter campaigns can be hours long. A short/mini campaign is usually around 4, if not more, hours.

3. THERE ARE MORE DICES THAN JUST THE D20

Though the D20 is the dice you will use more often, there are other ones as well; the D4, D6, D8, D10, and - occasionally - the D100

4. THERE ISN’T ONE DND BOOK

DnD might appear as a fun role playing game, but there is a lot of effort that goes into it. With that counting the books. Players usually only need the Player’s Handbook, which contains information about how to play and how to make a character. Vice versa does the DM have a Dungeon Master’s guide, which introduces them to the game and how to direct it. Aside from that, there are a lot of other books containing different worlds, campaigns, creatures, characters, monsters etc. etc.

5. YOU CANNOT MAKE YOUR OWN DND HANDBOOK

Bouncing back on point 4, as there are many books, there are also many pages. A book isn’t easily studied, and is usually only used as a reference, and not something you have to know by heart. It is incredibly difficult to memorise every little detail of only one book. Aside from that, there are many many rules and restrictions bound to certain worlds and characters, so creating your own book, 9 out of 10 times would not make sense. It doesn’t make it impossible, but it is highly unlikely. Also, the DM will often times pitch in on which races and classes to use for certain campaigns, so creating your own species often won’t get you very far.

6. NOT ALL DND CAMPAIGNS HAVE A MAP AND MINIATURES

In season 4, we see Eddie’s campaign, with it a map and miniatures of creatures (under which Vecna), but this doesn’t occur as often as you think. Starter campaigns or other well known campaigns do contain maps, and miniatures of both the characters and creatures, but this is only because most of those campaigns don’t actually allow you to make your own character. A campaign self-written, or a campaign taken from a book about a certain world often times do not have anything, save from some drawings of your surroundings. There will be a lot of times you’ll have to imagine your character standing in a certain spot.

7. WRITING A CAMPAIGN IS DIFFICULT AND ISN’T WRITTEN IN A DAY

Extending some information; writing campaigns are a pain in the ass. As a first time DM, you will not write your own campaign. Unless you are really committed and already have some experience as a player…. If you have played often, writing a campaign is possible, but it takes weeks, if not months. A lot of info and rules and restrictions and creatures etc. etc. are involved in the process. Besides that, you’ll have to help your players out with their characters to fit to your world, while not revealing too much. You cannot write a campaign in a night.

8. CREATING A CHARACTER TAKES A LONG TIME

Like writing a campaign, a character also takes time. If you are really dedicated, you might have one in an hour, but if you want to properly study every race, class and background, you’ll be stuck in the books for a while. And that’s not even with counting characteristics, alliances, backstory, mannerisms, bonds, relations…. And then you’ll have to actually get in character. It takes time.

(As said, some people can create characters quickly, but this is with experience. More often than not, if you want to write a good character, you’ll be busy for quite a while)

9. EVERYTHING RELIES ON THE DUNGEON MASTER

As a player, you can’t change the story. You can’t make things up. Everything, and I mean everything, goes by the Dungeon Master first. You can’t propose things, you can’t ignore things. Dungeon Masters spent a lot of time working on campaigns, even the ones that have already been written. They know what happens, they decide. There is no second voice.

(Yes, players are able to interact with the story. It wouldn’t be DnD if you couldn’t, but the DM knows what happens, and the players - or the characters - do not. You could ignore creatures or buildings. Smart? Meh.)

Hope this helped! If not, feel free to ask or leave a suggestion!

#stranger things #dnd #d&d #dungeons and dragons #Netflix #eddie munson #eddie munson x reader #steve harrington #steve harrington x reader #robin buckley #robin buckley x reader #nancy wheeler #nancy wheeler x reader #lucas sinclair x reader #dustin henderson x reader #mike wheeler x reader #will byers x reader #jonathan byers x reader #max mayfield x reader

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datcloudboi · 4 months

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List of Video Games Turning 10 Years Old in 2024

Alien: Isolation

Assassin's Creed: Rogue (the one where you play as an Assassin turned Templar.)

Assassin's Creed: Unity (the one set during the French Revolution.)

Atelier Escha & Logy: Alchemists of the Dusk Sky

Azure Striker Gunvolt

The Banner Saga

Bayonetta 2

The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth

BioShock Infinite: Burial at Sea (the DLC where you go back to Rapture)

A Bird Story (a sort of spin-off of "To the Moon")

BlazBlue: Chrono Phantasma

Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel! (is this a sequel to 1 or a prequel to 1? I forgor)

Bravely Default (in North America)

Broken Sword 5: The Serpent's Curse

Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare (the one with K*vin Sp*cey)

Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker

Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 (to date, the last new Castlevania game to release)

Child of Light

The Crew (going offline at the end of March)

D4: Dark Dreams Don't Die (a wonderfully strange game from the guy that made Deadly Premonition)

Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc (in North America)

Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair (in North America)

Dark Souls II

Deception IV: Blood Ties

Demon Gaze

Diablo III: Reaper of Souls

Disney Infinity 2.0

Divinity: Original Sin (from the team that would go on to make Baldur's Gate 3)

Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze

Dragon Age: Inquisition (the winner of GOTY at the very first TGAs)

Drakengard 3

Earth Defense Force 2025 (EDF! EDF! EDF!)

The Evil Within (from the creative director of Resident Evil)

Fable Anniversary

Fairy Fencer F

Far Cry 4

Freedom Planet

Guilty Gear Xrd Sign

Hyrule Warriors

Inazuma Eleven (in North America. And digital only.)

Infamous: Second Son (as well as its expansion, First Light)

Kirby: Triple Deluxe

The Last of Us Remastered (just one year after the original version came out...)

The Legend of Korra (the game from PlatinumGames that you can't buy anymore)

Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham

Lego The Hobbit

The Lego Movie Videogame

Lethal League (from the team that would go on to make Bomb Rush Cyberfunk)

Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII (the third and final chapter of the Final Fantasy XIII trilogy)

Lisa: The Painful (yes, really)

LittleBigPlanet 3

Lords of the Fallen (not to be confused with Lords of the Fallen, which came out in 2023)

Mario Golf: World Tour

Mario Kart 8 (the original version)

Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes (the prologue to Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, which came out 18 months later)

Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor

Might & Magic X: Legacy

Murdered: Soul Suspect (it's like Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective, but not as good)

Natural Doctrine

Oddworld: New 'n' Tasty! (a from the ground up remake of the first Oddworld game from 1997)

Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures 2 (yes, it got a sequel. I don't know how or why.)

Persona 4 Arena Ultimax

Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth

Pokemon Omega Ruby & Pokemon Alpha Sapphire

Professor Layton and the Azran Legacy (the last time that Professor Layton himself was the protagonist. At least, until the New World of Steam comes out)

Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney

Pushmo World

Risen 3: Titan Lords

Sacred 3

Samurai Warriors 4

Shadowrun: Dragonfall

Shantae and the Pirate's Curse (the 3rd one)

Sherlock Holmes: Crimes and Punishments

Shovel Knight (yes, really)

Skylanders: Trap Team (the 4th one)

Sniper Elite III

Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric

Sonic Boom: Shattered Crystal

South Park: The Stick of Truth

Steins;Gate (in North America)

Strider (the one from Double Helix)

Sunset Overdrive

Super Smash Bros. for Wii U and Nintendo 3DS (or Smash 4 for short)

Tales of Xillia 2

Tales of Hearts R

The Talos Principle

Theatrhythm Final Fantasy: Curtain Call

Thief (the reboot)

This War of Mine

Toukiden: The Age of Demons

Transformers: Rise of the Dark Spark (this game merged the storyline of the War for/Fall of Cybertron games with the storyline of the Michael Bay movies. I’m not joking)

Transistor

Valiant Hearts: The Great War

The Vanishing of Ethan Carter

The Walking Dead: Season Two

Wasteland 2

Watch Dogs

The Witch and the Hundred Knight

The Wolf Among Us (sequel this year!)

Wolfenstein: The New Order

Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z

Yoshi's New Island

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thydungeongal · 6 months

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Hey random question (cuz I see u talk a lot about ttrpg mechanics): One mechanic I once saw that I really loved was in the Firefly roleplaying game (based on that Joss Whedon show that FOX canceled after 1 season), I think they called it the Cortex System. Instead of Ability Scores with modifiers, Abilities and skills instead had die types, with d4 on the low end up to like d12, and most actions in the game boil down to (Ability Die) + (Skill Die) + modifiers vs. an opposed skill check. The thing I really liked about it is that skills weren't necessarily tied to a specific attribute. An example the book gives (based on a scene from the show) is when Simon, the ship's doctor, is fighting an Alliance soldier, who is prone. Simon's hands are bound by handcuffs and he's definitely not a strong fighter. However due to his background as a doctor he was able to use his INT die + (whatever the unarmed combat skill was called, I forget) instead of his much lower STR die. Thanks to his knowledge of human anatomy he was able to use a knee to apply pressure to an artery, rendering the soldier unconscious. If you can convince the DM/GM that an attribute/skill combination makes sense, anything goes. I wonder if you know of any other ttrpg with a similar mechanic that you'd recommend.

Oh, I'm also a fan of systems that allow you to combine different pairs of Ability/Attribute and Skill/Talent/whatever! Here's just a few that I think are interesting:

The World of Darkness/Chronicles of Darkness systems (formerly old World of Darkness and new World of Darkness): Both of these systems have your characters' Attributes and Abilities/Skills measured with their own dot values and the basic resolution mechanic is always dots from Attribute+dots from Ability/Skill (WoD calls its "skill-equivalents" Abilities confusingly, while CoD calls them Skills) to form a dice pool. WoD is more open to the idea of combining any Attribute with any Ability, while CoD has a bit more of a formalized system of Skills being Physical/Mental/Social, but theoretically both systems do allow for combining any Attribute with any Ability/Skill (although it's important to note that for certain subsystems certain pairs of stats are set in stone: firing a gun is always Firearms+Dexterity, but knowing about guns might allow for a Firearms+Intelligence check).

Space Kings: Space Kings is a playing-card based role-playing game where the number of flips you get to make for a check is equal to an Attribute+Skill. Now, I have neither read nor played Space Kings yet, but based on one of my favorite actual play podcasts (Three of Hearts, @threeheartscast) who use Space Kings in a custom setting, the system definitely allows for unorthodox combinations of Attribute+Skill.

Mothership: Mothership is an absolutely fantastic retro sci-fi horror RPG that not only has one of the best visual designs and layouts I've ever seen and a character sheet that actually acts as a flowchart for character creation!!! But anyway, Mothership has skills that are at three different levels of specialization, granting a +10 to +20% bonus on relevant ability checks. But none of the skills are explicitly tied to specific ability scores! You may be able to convince your GM that your Mechanical Repair skill could apply while using a hand welder or laser cutter as a weapon!

If anyone knows of any other systems like this, chime in in the notes. I know for sure there are plenty of these systems out there, but I simply can't remember all of them.

#thydungeongal answers

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jeremy-ken-anderson · 3 months

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Diablo 4 Lessons

One of the weirdest lessons of Diablo 4 is that there's such a thing as too much thought that can be put into long-term goals.

A common complaint was that players, coming off of the crazy builds of Diablo 2 and 3 and Path of Exile, just didn't feel awesome enough as they approached the final boss.

Much like how Pathfinder 2nd Edition's carefully crafted game balance can leave players feeling disempowered relative to more bombastic systems, D4 was designed not to immediately have your stats go to the moon, because they wanted to build in space to continue gaining power from paragon levels and seasonal buffs.

But players want their stats to go to the moon right away - or at least by the time they reach the final boss! And the segment of the population that doesn't really intend to engage with D4's seasonal content still spent, what, 70 bucks for it? Are they not the customer base? It's one thing to provide a suboptimal play experience for free players, in a "get what you pay for" kind of way. It's quite another to charge full price for the game and then not satisfy those who pony up.

So having the player still not get to feel OP at level 50, or beyond? It feels off. And within the culture D4 comes from it feels incorrect.

A similar issue happened in the story, where unlike Diablo 1, 2, and 3, the story doesn't resolve with the defeat of the final boss. And this is kind of shit, not least because Blizzard has been on shakier ground than normal recently and if the company went under tomorrow or put D4 into "Full Maintenance Mode" (i.e. "We'll keep the servers running but we're done working on it"), the people interested in the story just wouldn't get a full story. At all. For a game they paid 70 bucks for.

It seems crazy to think that Blizzard could have that kind of collapse, but then you consider Overwatch 2...and also apparently 1900 people just got dropped from D4's staff? Dangers of being part of a Microsoft conglomerate, I guess.

So yeah. Making something that feels full and complete now is usually worth more than making a nice prologue.

#review #game design #diablo 4

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thefirstknife · 4 days

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(This is a theory based on the previews shown for Prism and the most recent TWID, so there may be other recent official communications that I've missed and should consider, apologies if that's the case)

Prism looks really fun but also seems like a significant jump forward in terms of powercreep, and especially the exotic class items, seem like they'll be a long-term balancing nightmare. The impression I got from the showcase reveal was that previously, it was an idea that got shelved as being not great for the long-term balance of the game, but then was brought back online in response to underwhelmed backlash.

Similarly with the Brave Arsenal, it feels like they looked at the perk pools and said 'screw it, let's make them all obscenely juiced up' again a jump in powercreep, and they don't seem to be overly concerned about that right now.

Today's TWID said that legacy gear will be re-enabled for infusion, undoing the last current mechanical implementations of sunsetting, and that a lot of it will be re-introduced and rebuilt for the current sandbox.

We're on the way back to a sandbox where everything goes, in a game world that seems broader than it was when the DCV was introduced, with way more power than we had before with 3.0 classes and weapons with ability verbs. Looking just at the PvE side of things, it seems to me like the game is going to be in the same state it was when Luke Smith announced the huge changes in Beyond Light. (We also keep getting more vault space when they had told us not to expect more vault space)

I see this as a path with 2 branches on it. The first is they aren't worried about powercreep because the game is not 'bloated' the same way it was when they developed Beyond Light i.e. it's not a nightmare to keep a laundry list of activities balanced against guardians more powerful than we imagined we ever would be. Prism will have a rough patch but come in-line with everything else within 6-8 months. Gear will also get equalized again via consistent tweaking. Episodes will continue the story in cool ways, new gear will cycle between cool and less cool, more reprised raids/missions, maybe we get new permanent destinations, maybe another (or more) major expansion in the future, but right now I expect Episodes will probably be a lot like what we've seen from the beefier seasons with custom locations and activities that wont be permanent.

The other branch is that they aren't worried about powercreep because some amount of time after the first 3 episodes, destiny 2 will go into stasis; playable but with no major updates or expansions while they work on Destiny 3, which will have another hard reset for character progress/gear. Destiny 2 stays free to play with a huge library of campaigns, raids, dungeons, and exotic missions but the 'gear chase' and all the 'forever game' mechanics get moved to destiny 3 or whatever it'll end up being called. This game will be built based on all the hard design lessons and problems they have had to crack for D1 and D2 with the expectation that they won't need to do this again for a D4 (and maybe they'll even be right).

Thoughts?

Honestly that sums up my thoughts on it too.

I know there's been talk about them allegedly already working on D3. I generally don't have a strong opinion about it; my personal only issue is the loss of all cosmetics. But outside of just me, I think D3 will do the same as D2 did, which is split the fanbase and piss everyone off. People will need an exceptionally strong incentive to be okay with restarting their characters once again, years after TFS, and to re-grind everything and wait years for the game to have more than vanilla content.

A lot of people think that D3 will somehow drop and magically be better in every aspect, but what they fail to realise is that it will take years, again, to populate the game with content. Like, D3 will launch with 1 raid and will have 1 raid for a year. We're used to a selection of much more than that. I can't imagine a lot of people will have the patience to wait 4-5 years for the game to have the same amount of options to play with. It's a big risk overall. Not to mention the cost of keeping both D1 and D2 still alive.

Anything is possible! These things are still years away from us so genuinely who knows what they're planning long-term. I do think that eventually they will have to move away and update the engine and probably stop supporting old gen consoles, purely for technical reasons.

As for the possible powercreep, I don't think it will be too much of a problem. As it usually is with any new abilities/supers, things will be wild at first, but probably reigned in fast. Same with unsunsetting; a lot of the old weapons are simply not that good anymore given their lack of updated perks. I'm more interested in them saying that they will reissue most if not all of the old stuff and update it to modern standards, but even then, we already have a lot of weapons. There's only so many types of legendary hand cannons to make feel unique and useful. Most of the old stuff will just be for nostalgia's sake. Still, it will probably super wild at launch and until things settle, but powercreep can be dealt with over time with changes and content being made to account for new options.

We'll have to wait and see! I am not opposed to the game being refreshed with a full restart, though I do have personal gripes that are mostly based on the fact that I really don't want to wait years to have my characters look like I want them to rather than wearing gear that doesn't fit my aesthetic because there's only 4 armours in the game. A new game will simply not have enough options for years to come and I think that a lot of players will be incredibly put off by having to start again. I'm not sure if they would risk this again, given how vanilla D2 went. But also, it's been so long since then so with all of the experience, maybe things can go better this time. Third time's the charm?

#destiny 2 #long post #ask

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randomitemdrop · 2 years

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Table of Liquids

You find a bottle and it contains:

Pleasant fresh drinking water

Gross nasty stinking water

Seawater with a small creature swimming in it

Anti-water

Bubbling green acid

Real acid, which is frequently a still colorless liquid

Delicious fruit juice

Unpleasantly sweet fruit juice

Unpleasantly sour/tart fruit juice

Spoiled/moldy fruit juice that hasn’t quite fermented into drinkable alcohol just yet

Unpalatably savory vegetable juice that probably has vitamins and antioxidants and whatever but still. Ew

Coffee (roll d6: 1 decent black, 2 poorly filtered so it’s full of grit, 3 so full of cream and sugar it’s basically cake, 4 extremely fancy drip coffee with hints of aromatic spice, 5 Popular Coffee Chain Seasonal Flavor, 6 tepid office break room coffee)

Tea (roll d10: black, white, green, yellow, oolong, sassafras, hibiscus, mint, patchouli, cannabis)

Boba (see Table of Flavors/Scents)

Spruce beer

Fairy Drink

Zooper Dooper Bubblegum Milk

Peg Nog

Punker Punch

Crystal Pepsi

Dr. Nut

Chicken Partner

Masochist Cider

Salty potato-flavored Soda

Pancake and syrup-flavored soda

Bird-nest-flavored soda

Iron-girder-flavored soda

One of those weird Jones Soda savory flavors. Go around the group and everyone say what they had for dinner last night, then the DM decides which would make the worst soda flavor

Crass Soda

Energy Potion (roll d12: Original, CodeRed, Livewire, Voltage, WhiteOut, PitchBlack, Baja Blast, Spark, GameFuel, Supernova, VooDew, Flamin’ Hot)

Capri Suns of dubious flavors

Coca Cola of dubious flavors

Asparagus-water

Clamato

The Sludge

Frobscottle

Meat drippings

Milk (DM’s choice of source)

Clotted cream

Grungnort

Lamp oil

Cooking oil

Baby oil

Snake oil

Ink (roll d6: black, blue, red, pink, luminous green, invisible)

Booze that makes you raucous and boisterous

Booze that makes you sentimental and melancholy

Booze that makes you lose all sense of balance

Booze that is basically a Potion of Irresistible Dance

Booze that makes you hallucinate fairies and sing Baz Luhrman jukebox musical showtunes

Angostura Bitters

Wine of Mystery

Non-Alcoholic Vacation Juice

Soup broth (you choose the flavor idk there’s thousands of soups in the world and I don’t think any of them will affect the gameplay more than another)

Pickle brine

Reeking Smatch

Onion juice

Garlic Cola

Potion of Skill or Proficiency or Ability or Whatever; a creature that consumes it gains a skill of the DM’s choice or roll d100 on the Table

Very Cool Pirate Juice

Cowboy Juice

Disinfectant

Mouthwash

Old man cologne

Potion of Damage Resistance (roll d12: Acid, Bludgeon, Force, Fire, Cold, Psychic, Radiant, Thunder, Lightning, Poison, Necrotic, Slash/Pierce)

Potion of Damage (use as a splash weapon or trick someone into drinking it; same table as above)

Bone-hurting juice

Metal polish

2-in-1 shampoo/conditioner

Potion of ___ Friendship (roll d20: 1-7 Animal, 8 Monstrosity, 9 Undead, 10 Ooze, 11 Aberration, 12 Celestial, 13 Construct, 14 Dragon, 15 Elemental, 16 Fey, 17 Fiend, 18 Giant, 19 Humanoid, 20 Plant)

Potion of ___ Repellent (causes the indicated type to act as Turned. Roll d20: Arthropod, Birds, Magical Beasts, Horses, Ooze, Shark, Beholder, Elemental, Undead, Good, Evil, Lawful, Chaotic, Fey, Draconic, Human, Goblinoid, Psychic, Aberration, God)

Potion of ___ Attractant/Pheremone (same table as above)

Potion of Giant ___ (roll d4: Strength, Weight, Height, Head)

Potion of Gaseous Form

Potion of Animal Form (Table of Animals)

Potion of Healing

Potion of Monster Alarm

Potion of Data Compression

Potion of Shit the Bed

Potion of Boob Have

Potion of InfantSee

Potion of Regalia

Heroic Brew

Potion of Animate Object

Potion of Stat Swap

Rose-hibiscus tropical probiotic THC-infused Elixir of Love

Beard tonic

Anti-beard tonic

Sleeping Potion

Poison/venom (roll d10: Cobra, Scorpion, Centipede, Black Widow, Pfeffer’s Flamboyant Cuttlefish, Platypus, Cane Toad, Doll’s-Eye Plant, Hemlock, Death Cap Mushroom)

Love Potion

Hate Potion (as Love Potion but instead with hate)

Indifference Potion (as Love Potion but instead they are indifferent to the subject)

Potion of Resting Face, compels a creature that consumes it to display a particular emotion (roll d10: blank, happiness, sadness, fear, anger, disgust, :3, Dreamworks face, Gary Busey, DM’s choice of RageComic/emoji)

Potion of Sin, filling a creature that consumes it with a compulsion to act on the urge (roll d8: Envy, Wrath, Lust, Gluttony, Sloth, Pride, Greed, Blasphemy)

Phlogiston

Alkahest (universal solvent)

Ice-Nine

Lethe-Water (Potion of Forgetfulness)

Humour (first roll d4: Blood, Phlegm, Black Bile, Yellow Bile, then roll d10: Human, Dwarf, Elf, Dragon, Weird Bug, Unicorn, Displacer-Beast, Rust Monster, Demon, God)

#tables

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ravenalla · 1 year

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Did they actually forget Din was shown to not mind droids as much after season 1? What about when he let Peli’s out droids fix the ship? I mean christ episode 2 had him accept R5-D4 in the end, which the writers have conveniently forgot about now that he served his one plot purpose and nothing else. It makes sense for Din to always be a little wary of them, but having him threaten every droid he comes across while Bo acts as the new Cara asking why he’s so aggressive towards them? They are literally just repeating that entire character arc he already had! Din comes face to face with the one type of droid that killed his parents, we could have gotten such an emotional scene where that previous development is put to the test and more of Din’s backstory could be revealed, but nah one line of flat dialogue about seeing them before is fine in these writers minds 🙄

#the mandalorian #the mandalorian spoilers #the mandalorian season 3 #din djarin

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nerdythebard · 4 months

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#59: Thor, God of Thunder

[Art Credit: Raf Grassetti] ---

It's been so long since I said this, but... Welcome, Gods and Goddesses! Our long-time reader, @dionysus-liber, has requested a mythology-accurate build of Thor - God of Thunder and Storms, God of Strength and Masculinity, Protector of the Hearth, and one of the key members of the Aesir pantheon. Now, the reason I chose the appearance from God of War: Ragnarök is because I believe this to be the most accurate portrayal we have in any media at the moment: brusque, with bushy red hair and beard, and built like a powerlifter off-season. I could've make an entire separate post describing the intricacies and little details of Thor's character, but for now, let's get down to business to defeat the Jötnar!

Next Time: Divine storm rages. It continues moving East. Watch out for horses.

Now, what was that thing we're usually do here? Ah, yes, build goals!

Divine Equipment: While Thor boasts unrivaled physical strength and stamina on his own, he is also the master of three important items that further increase his might; those being Megingjörð, the Power Belt that doubles his strength, Járngreipr, the Iron Grip Gloves granting him resistance to all the power he generates, and of course the famous hammer - Mjölnir, the Grinder.

The Force of Nature: Thor is the embodiment of pure strength and power. He brings down the full might of the Aesir gods to all enemies of Asgard. The thunder you hear in the skies is the result of his mighty hammer swinging against Jötnar skulls. While he doesn't manipulate lightning to the same extent as, for example, Zeus or Ao Kuang, the storm always joins him on the battlefield.

War Priest: People know Thor mostly due to his feats of strength and achievements on the battlefield (and probably because of... eugh... Chris Hemsworth's portrayal), but what you might not know is that Thor is also viewed as the ultimate protector. His hammer is used to bless and certify marriage ceremonies, he has the ability to heal wounds of warriors, and even resurrect his faithful chariot-pulling goats.

---

There are two options when it comes to making Thor in D&D. One is to go with Goliath if you want to emphasize his endurance and strength; that would be a very good, solid base, but I've used this one in my Kratos build, so we're gonna use the other option (and this blog's regular go-to), the Aasimar from Mordenkainen's Monsters of the Multiverse. We start with a +2 and a +1 to two abilities of our choice (Strength and Constitution respectively), resistance to necrotic and radiant damage, the Healing Hands ability that lets us heal a creature for [our proficiency bonus number of d4s] Hit Points once per long rest, and the Light cantrip (to apply on the hammer :D)

Thor gets involved not only in the affairs of the divine, he is also very prominent in the lives of mortals. His protection and blessings are not only sought by warriors going a-viking (yes, viking is a verb) but also by the common folk and Scandinavian villagers. Because of that, we shall make him a Folk Hero. We gain proficiency in Animal Handling and Survival, which will be useful to take care of our goats in the desolate wastelands of Jötunnheimr, as well as proficiency with one set of artisan's tools (perhaps brewer's supplies to have a refreshing gallon of mead on the road) and land vehicles (such as goat-drawn chariot). Finally, thanks to the Rustic Hospitality feat, we may find our place among the mortals and common folk with ease and have a better chance of finding food, shelter, and potential aid in some tasks.

ABILITY SCORES

This one is a no-brainer, for Thor we must lead with Strength. Follow that up with Constitution; all that bulk has to contribute to something. Dexterity will be next, Thor does not move around the battlefield but an occasional hammer throw requires a good eye.

Wisdom will actually be next, but mostly because we need it for multiclass later. Charisma will be on the lower end; although Thor has good intimidation game, his messy appearance and brusque manners are far from some of the more charismatic characters. Finally, we're dumping Intelligence - the world of arts and science is not one we frequent.

CLASS

Level 1 - Barbarian: We need a solid base of health and damage to start with. Barbarians get a d12 as their Hit Dice, [12 + our Constitution modifier] initial Hit Points, proficiency with light armour, medium armour, shields, simple and martial weapons. We will give Thor a hide armour and, of course, a warhammer. Our saving throws are Strength and Constitution and we get to pick two class skills from the list (Athletics and Intimidation).

As a Barbarian, we of course start with Rage. By unleashing the divine fury, for 1 minute we gain the following benefits if we're not wearing heavy armour:

Advantage on Strength checks and Strength saving throws

A +2 bonus to damage rolls for attacks using Strength (increases as we level up)

Resistance to bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage

Rage lasts for 1 minute but it can end earlier if we decide to end it, we are knocked unconscious, or we fail to deal or receive damage during our turn. Initially, we can Rage twice per long rest.

We also get Unarmoured Defense; if we're not wearing any armour, our AC becomes [10 + our Dexterity modifier + our Constitution modifier].

Level 2 - Barbarian: We develop a Danger Sense, giving us the advantage on Dexterity saving throws against effects that we can see (such as traps and AoE spells). To apply that status, we cannot be blinded, deafened or incapacitated. While attacking, we can also declare to make a Reckless Attack; we gain an advantage on the first Strength-based attack of our turn, but for the entire turn the enemies have an advantage on attacks made against us.

Level 3 - Barbarian: At this level, we can now use our Rage three times per rest. At this level, we also get to pick our subclass, our Primal Path; since Thor is the ultimate warrior of the gods, we're gonna use Path of the Zealot. We are able to channel Divine Fury into our weapon strikes. While raging, the first creature we strike on our turn takes extra [1d6 + our Barbarian level] radiant or necrotic damage (we choose the type when we get this feature and cannot change it).

As the Warrior of the Gods, we are meant to live until Ragnarok. Revival spells (Revivify, Raise Dead, etc.) do not require any material components when used on us.

Level 4 - Barbarian: Time for the first Ability Score Improvement. We're going to grab the Thrown Arms Master feat from Critical Role's Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting Reborn (it's now on D&D Beyond, the setting is semi-canon, I'm using it!): our Strength or Dexterity increases by 1, and weapons without Thrown property (such as our current warhammer) gain that property; I would also ask the DM to allow the next part of that feat: when missing a throw, a weapon comes back to our hand; normally, it works only with light weapons, but considering our divine strength, I personally would allow it in this case.

Level 5 - Barbarian: With Extra Attack, we can now strike twice during a single Attack action. We also gain 10 feet of extra movement when not wearing heavy armour, thanks to Fast Movement.

Level 6 - Barbarian: At this level, we can literally change our own fate by being ANGRY. With Fanatical Focus, we can re-roll a failed saving throw when raging (once per rage), but we have to use the new roll. We can also now Rage four times per rest.

Level 7 - Barbarian: It's time to let go of all we've learned in Asgard about being a civilised fighter and give in to our Feral Instinct. We have an advantage on initiative rolls. Additionally if we're surprised before a combat (but not incapacitated), we can shake off the surprise and act before anyone else but only if the first thing we do is Rage.

Level 8 - Barbarian: Time for another ASI. This time, we shall put one point each into Constitution and Wisdom in order to prepare to tap into our divine portfolio with...

Level 9 - Cleric: Time to harness some divine magic! Multiclassing into Cleric doesn't provide us with any new proficiencies, but does unlock Spellcasting. Wisdom is our casting ability and we know cantrips, regular spells, and rituals. Clerics have access to their entire spell list and can prepare [Wisdom modifier + Cleric level] spells every day. We start with three cantrips (Mending, Thaumaturgy, and Word of Radiance) and two 1st-level spells (Ceremony and Cure Wounds).

Clerics also get to pick their subclass, their Divine Domain at first level. Here, it's obvious to go with the Tempest Domain to gain some power over the storms. We add two extra spells to our list (Fog Cloud and Thunderwave) and gain Wrath of the Storm: if we get hit by a creature standing within 5 feet of us, we can use our reaction to impose a Dexterity saving throw onto it; on a failed save, it takes 2d8 lightning or thunder damage (our choice) or half as much if it succeeds. We can do that a number of times equal to our Wisdom modifier per long rest.

Level 10 - Cleric: We continue our divine development with Channel Divinity. Using this feature, once per short or long rest, we can tap into the power of Asgard and utilise one of two (one deafult + one granted from our subclass) following effects:

Turn Undead: As an action, we can impose a Wisdom saving throw onto all undead creatures within 30 feet of us. On a failed save, they are Turned (cannot take reactions, must spend their turn running away from us, cannot get closer than 30 feet of us) for 1 minute or until they take damage;

Destructive Wrath: When we deal lightning or thunder damage, we can use this Channel Divinity option to deal maximum damage instead of rolling

We also get one more spell for our small but significant arsenal; let's pick Bless, so that our party can receive the grace of the mighty Thor!

Level 11 - Barbarian: For this level, we gain the Brutal Critical feature. Whenever we score a critical hit with our melee weapon, we can add one additional die for determining weapon damage.

Level 12 - Barbarian: This time, we get a subclass feature. Our Zealous Presence is truly inspiring on the battlefield. As a bonus action, once per long rest, we can unleash a thunderous roar. Up to 10 creatures within 60 feet of us that can hear us gain advantage on attack rolls and saving throws until the end of our next turn.

Level 13 - Barbarian: At this level, we get Relentless Rage. If we drop to 0 Hit Points while raging, we can make a DC 10 Constitution saving throw. On a success, we get 1 Hit Point back. Each time we use this feature, the DC increases by +5 and resets back to 10 after a short or long rest.

Level 14 - Barbarian: We finally get another ASI. We can finally cap off our Strength to that godly 20.

Level 15 - Barbarian: Our Brutal Critical feat improves here. When scoring a critical hit, we can now add two dice to our damage rolls.

Level 16 - Barbarian: At this level, we get to channel our inner Dylan Thomas and Rage Beyond Death (...eh, they can't all be winners). While raging, we do not go unconscious if we drop to 0 Hit Points. We still have to make Death Saving Throws, but all the effects only take hold after our Rage ends... at which point, we can call Relentless Rage and possibly shrug off the damage.

Level 17 - Barbarian: To add on top of the previous feature that makes us immortal as long as we Rage, we gain Persistent Rage. The only way our Rage ends is if we choose to end it or become unconscious (which, as previously established, cannot happen from battle damage).

Level 18 - Barbarian: This is our final ASI of the build. While there is a lot of stuff we didn't develop (and two odd numbers, much to my distaste), we have to balance it out with more Constitution so that we can at least soak up some damage that will definitely hit us.

Level 19 - Barbarian: Our Brutal Critical ability improves again. This time, it's reeeeally going to hurt whatever creature we score the critical hit on, as we can add a total of three extra damage dice to our melee damage roll.

Level 20 - Barbarian: Our capstone is Barbarian 18, which gives us the Indomitable Might ability. If we make Strength checks and our roll is lower than our Strength score (i.e. 20), we can replace the outcome with our Strength score.

---

And that is Thor, as close to his real-life Norse myth portrayal as I could make him. Before I give you a short summary of him, however, I also need to point out that in D&D there are three items (from DMG Guide) that directly represent Thor's Symbols of Power; those being the Hammer of Thunderbolts (Legendary Maul), Gauntlets of Ogre Power (Uncommon), and Belt of Giant Strength (various rarities and types). If you wish to implement collecting those as your character's personal quest/backstory element, feel free to discuss it with your DM. Now, back to the build, what did we manage to cook?

To start off, we're a typical tank. With Strength and Constitution being our highest abilities, adding a +4 damage to damage while raging plus several opportunities to summon lightning onto our enemies. With the Cure Wounds spell, we can stay on the battlefield a little longer, and the combination of Relentless Rage and Rage Beyond Death gives us a chance to fight even after suffering serious wounds. Our role in the party is simple: deal damage and focus the enemy attention on ourselves.

Our Unarmoured AC is 15, we have a +1 to our initiative, and the average of 197 Hit Points.

Unfortunately, for decent health pool and damage dealing we had to sacrifice pretty much everything else. Apart from Strength and Constitution, our abilities are not great and we don't have a lot of skills to contribute to besides Athletics.

---

I'm back, darlings. Hope this holiday season goes well for you. I do not make any promises to not sound like a dishonest fool, but I at least hope I can give you something to enjoy. Looking forward to reconnect with all of you wonderful lot.

-Nerdy out!

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askagamedev · 9 months

Note

Diablo 4 devs just had a community chat were they expressed how "sorry" they were about a recent patch introducing a bunch of nerfs just before Season 1; they acknowledged how they made a mistake, had made the game less fun, vowed to make changes, etc. Do you think the devs truly believe that their patch was a bad call in terms of game design, or are they moreso just trying to temper outrage at the expense of what they really wanted to do? And so, how sincerely should fans take their apology?

I'm sure that they had plenty of good reasons for the overall changes in the patch. I think that the D4 team leadership misjudged the audience reception to the patch, which is why they apologized for the way it was delivered. It is unfortunate, but game devs are fallibly human too and we do make mistakes from time to time.

It is likely to me that they justified making these changes for the long term health of the game and to bring things back to expected values in accordance with future content releases - there's a plan in place that those of us on the outside are not privy to for not just Season 1, but also Season 2 and beyond. Season 1 has already launched, Season 2 is likely undergoing its final touches before being locked down, and Season 3 is likely already in production as we speak. They know where they want the game to go, so it is likely they want to bring power levels in line now before things spiral out of control later on. This doesn't mean that they gave enough thought about how well the changes would be received, only that there is likely a reasonable basis for their decisions.

As for how sincerely fans should take their apology, I would say it doesn't really matter. Fans should not look at this as anything more than a consumer relationship - they get a product whose value they can determine for themselves. If they continue to get sufficient value from the product for the time and effort they put into it, then they'll continue to engage with it. If the value proposition goes negative, they'll drop it. This is how things should be. I think that getting too emotionally invested in the drama around the metagame is unhealthy. I think that fans should play the game if they like it and put it down if they don't. Getting too much into whether one should accept an apology from the dev team is too much emotional investment in my opinion.

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#dealing with community #player mentality #community management

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sabrerine911 · 10 months

Text

Galmar and the Pesky Damage Resistance Aura Vampire(Diablo 4)

Just a specific D4 related joke. Res Aura enemies make other mobs tanky as hell. Used one of my 3 Vampire Slayer characters for this one. Gonna be using this big boi barb for my Season 1 run.

#galmar berastok #vampire hunter #ghoul #vampire #diablo #diablo 4 #barbarian

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best-underrated-anime · 6 months

Text

Best Underrated Anime Group D Round 1: #D4 vs #D5

#D4: Two kids join in hunting monsters and uncovering secrets

While in search of his precious friend, a young boy named Nai falls captive to a beautiful woman, whose looks are matched only by her taste for human flesh. Meanwhile Gareki, a clever thief, is in the midst of robbing her luxurious home. After causing a distraction, Gareki agrees to help Nai escape, but they are discovered upon the woman's return. As she transforms into a ghoulish monster, the boys flee.

On the run, Nai and Gareki are found by “Circus,” a government defense agency that deals with criminal activity too difficult for the police to handle and protects civilians from “varuga”—terrible monsters that devour humans for sustenance. In the hope that it will lead Nai to his missing friend, he and Gareki decide to join Circus. On their perilous journey, they face dangerous varuga and begin to uncover the secrets behind a shadowy organization known as Kafka.

#D5: Three brothers work together to stop an ancient evil

The story follows the Kumo brother, three well-known samurai brothers who send criminals to the secluded prison Gokumonjo in the middle of Lake Biwa. Together with the former Fuma ninja Shirasu Kinjou, the Kumou brothers live a frugal and joyful life, mostly dedicated to studying and training. However, the Kumo brothers soon learn how they are tied to the Orochi’s vessel, a human host possessed by a demon serpent from ancient times, and how they are destined to destroy it once and for all.

Titles, propagandas, trailers, and poll under the cut!

#D4: Karneval

youtube

Propaganda:

Karneval has two of the best protagonists I’ve ever seen. Gareki is superior to every other teenage boy protagonist in anime. His character arc, even in this one season that covers just a fraction of the manga, is so well-developed. I like that his arc is an emotionally driven coming-of-age and not a power fantasy.

Along with the main characters, Karneval has fantastic characters across the board. There is not a single supporting character I don't love (even the ones who annoy me). None of the female characters are reduced to love interests and are all unique and interesting, which can be hard to find sometimes in anime.

It is made by a female writer, which is always great to see, and for people who aren't really interested in romance, the anime is extremely friendship and found family driven. The found family aspect is really at the forefront of the series as Circus is not a glorified group and they don't get to have families which makes the bond between members so important.

The tone balance is amazing. In one episode, you can go on an emotional journey from laughing to crying in seconds. The plot is engaging with wild reveals and compelling mysteries to follow. The fantastical world is unique with the contrast of the dark monsters in a bright and colorful world. If you watch it in Japanese, the voice cast is so good and the soundtrack is also really good.

TL;DR it’s an interesting story with amazing characters to whom you will get attached.

Trigger Warnings: Graphic Depictions of Cruelty/Violence/Gore, Misrepresentation of Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID)

#D5: Laughing Under the Clouds (Donten ni Warau)

youtube

Propaganda:

I found this series absolutely entrancing when I originally watched it, the portrayal of the characters and themes is really interesting to watch.

It tells a fantastic story about trying to defeat a legendary evil that can corrupt those around it to do its biding, all the while mixing in comedy and really heartfelt moments between family. For a 12 episode series they did a really good job of tying up any loose ends and finishing the plot, some things could have been expanded upon a bit more, but for what it is they producers did a wonderful job.

The series might not be the most groundbreaking anime ever, but it does have some lovely moments and explorations of its characters. I really like the themes of family, and wanting to do anything you can to help the people you love, it’s always nice to see and I think it’s done really well in this anime.

Trigger Warnings: Graphic Depictions of Cruelty/Violence/Gore, Suicide.

If you’re reblogging and adding your own propaganda, please tag me @best-underrated-anime so that I’ll be sure to see it.

#anime #best underrated anime #polls #poll tournament #tournament #anime tournament #animation #animated show #group stage #group stage round 1 #tournament polls #karneval #laughing under the clouds #donten ni warau #group d

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cuethediscoandthedrinks · 1 year

Text

want a personalised work? check this out my lovelies ⋆｡ﾟ☁︎｡⋆｡ﾟ☾ ｡⋆

(payment via paypal - here's the link!)

• these often take on average 1-3hrs to complete due to my chronic illness/being bedridden, but i love to write them and enjoy giving them to you!

• i'm also a uni student, so if it helps, all this goes to like buying potatoes and coach trips back to my family over school break ehhe

• if you want a super chill one, just msg me and we can vibe; below is more to cover all the areas, but not obligatory :)

generally speaking a type of writing, kink, chosen character and fandom are the basics any extra kinks, people, niche things or personal vibery is extra cherry stuff fyi!

instructions~

dm/msg me with:

form ⋆｡ﾟ☁︎｡⋆｡ﾟ☾ ｡⋆

• drabble - this lengthish! (£6)

• hcs - this lengthish! (£9)

• oneshot - this lengthish! (£13)

style ⋆｡ﾟ☁︎｡⋆｡ﾟ☾ ｡⋆

• any specific names, characters, kinks, fandoms, etc

• if you'd like this posted publicly or privately (any personal names can be edited out!)

time ⋆｡ﾟ☁︎｡⋆｡ﾟ☾ ｡⋆

• asap, therefore usually aorund 2-3 days, 4-5 max (have a chronic immune disorder, therefore i'm either writing on my laptop or bedridden sipping soup thru a straw lmao)

req inspiration ⋆｡ﾟ☁︎｡⋆｡ﾟ☾ ｡⋆

fandoms~

• stranger things

• avatar (cameron's)

• star wars

• marvel

• other (+£2)

kinks ⋆｡ﾟ☁︎｡⋆｡ﾟ☾ ｡⋆

(other +£2!)

K1. fangs/biting kink

K2. somnophilia

K3. size kink

K4. fingering

K5. mutual masturbation

K6. bondage

K7. age gap

K8. breast/nipple play

K9. choking

K10. cockwarming

K11. vehicle sex

K12. cum play

K13. exhibitionism

K14. dry humping

K15. poly (1-2 extra people besides reader)

K16. mommy/daddy + babygirl/babyboy kink

K17. degradation kink

K18. oral sex/oral fixation

K19. praise kink

K20. morning sex

K21. fem!dom reader

K22. thigh riding

K23. face sitting

K24. pussy spanking

K25. corruption

K26. jealous sex

K27. spit kink

K28. rough sex

K29. soft sex

K30. noise/vocal kink

K31. mirror sex

K32. overstimulation

K33. edging

K34. dumbification

K35. shower/bathing sex

K36. voyeurism

K37. impact play/spanking

K38. thigh fucking

K39. foodplay

K40. humiliation/patronization/condescention

K41. sloppy/messy sex kink

K42. weight gain/plus size

K43. whispering/intimacy kink

K44. cnc/rape kink

K45. heat/breeding season kink

K46. tail tink

K47. tsaheylu/queue mating (tendrils and/or gential sex)

K48. na'vi/avatar + human!reader

K49. primal/feral kink

K50. chasing/predator+prey kink

dialogue prompts ⋆｡ﾟ☁︎｡⋆｡ﾟ☾ ｡⋆

(other +£2!)

D1. “Let me see those eyes.”

D2. "Open your mouth for me.”

D3. “Please kiss me.”

D4. “Use your words.”

D5. “Tell me what you want.”

D6. “You look so good beneath me.”

D7. “You can take it.”

D8. “I can take it.”

D9. “You take me so well.”

D10. “Spread your legs wider.”

D11. “Louder. Let me hear you.”

D12. “Keep your eyes on me.”

D13. “Touch yourself.”

D14. “Do you want my fingers?”

D15. “I can’t get enough of you.”

D16. “You taste so good.”

D17. “Hands behind your back.”

D18. “Swallow.”

D19. “You are doing so well.”

D20. “Breathe through your nose.”

D21. “Don’t hold back.”

D22. “Show me how much you need me.”

D23. “Say my name.”

D24. “You can do better than that.”

D25. “Does that feel good?”

D26. “I want you to ruin me.”

D27. “Do you think you deserve this?”

D28. “I want to have my way with you.”

D29. “Touch me there. Right there.”

D30. “I will never get enough of you.”

D31. "Mhm, so wet and sticky for me."

D32. "Stop acting like you're better than that. You're not."

D33. "Slurp it up, that's right."

D34. "Aw, are you crying? Too bad."

D35. "No, no, let me check. Show me your other hand."

D36. "Oh, really? Well what's that behind you then?"

D37. "...were you doing what I..think you were just doing?"

D38. "Stop it. Behave."

D39. "Louder, I want everyone to hear you."

D40. "How does that feel? Does that feel good?"

D41. "Ah-ah...there, there it is, there we go sweetheart."

D42. "Stop gagging, stop those theatrics..I know you can take it deeper."

D43. "Well, since I already saw you anyway.."

#cuethediscoandthedrinks #cuethedisco #cuethequestions

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elphael · 2 years

Note

Hey there! Do you have any tips on how to make combat encounters, especially Boss battles, more engaging? I struggle to find a balance between "make this encounter challenging to a group who have just had a long rest" and it taking 8 rounds ... One thing I've been trying is to give every fight an objective other than "kill the boss". I liked your critique of CR combat so I thought I'd ask you for advice. Thanks in advance!

okay so this might be all over the place, especially because i've got the makings of a migraine but am determined to write this anyway but here are some mechanical and story tips i guess:

make the encounter have meaning, this can be a huge boss fight or it can be a fight with stakes like rescuing innocents or chasing an enemy or being chased, etc. the results of the encounter should matter. i am someone who personally does not really believe in random encounters as they don't add much to the overall story in my opinion

that being said, if your party is having a big day, you can throw multiple fights at them without a long rest. from my perspective as a player, it isn't always fun to have to do constant resource management between rests but every now and again it can be a good time and feels good to classes that have short rest recharges.

here's a grab bag of primary encounter types + secondary objectives / challenges. mix and match:

combat types: big boss, chase, swarm, multiple factions, equal numbers secondary challenges: a puzzle, someone to talk with/interact with, movement/terrain navigation, someone to save, a time crunch, etc.

if you've got a lot of moving pieces and complicated statblocks, write notes for yourself about what you want your bad guys to do. don't hold out on using their cool big abilities.

i preroll initiative and have a spreadsheet initiative tracker so that i can sort by highest to lowest initiative and let the computer do the math for me with hp

you know that thing where statblocks do 13 (2d6 + 5), sometimes, it saves time if you use the static damage. if you want a little bit of variety, add or subtract a d4.

scaling health! i always give monsters three thresholds: one that is a lowball, what i would use if everything is going wrong and i'm trying to give my players a more fair fight, a medium, usually the 'canon' number, and a highball aka what i'm going for if i'm getting thrashed. controversial take: sometimes you should just have an enemy die when it Makes Sense narratively. hit points are useful but if your rogue is fighting their backstory villain and lands a huge sneak attack and the bad guy is hanging on by 15 hp, give them that narrative moment.

know your player characters' mechanical strengths and weaknesses. it feels good to resist a damage type sometimes, it feels good to know that your save or suck spells are landing. at the same time, pushing your players out of their comfort zone and having them fight things that are strong against their typical strategy is not a bad thing. also just figure out what the average damage output for all of your pcs is lmao, it helps you figure out how many hit points you need to give things, know whether they've got higher or lower acs and how you need to scale attack modifiers and save dcs.

work smarter not harder, if you're wanting to homebrew something see if you can reflavor an existing statblock already.

legendary actions and legendary resistances, just give them to things. you don't need to give them tons of them but especially if you don't have the action economy advantage (boss battles hello) you want these so your boss doesn't get completely dunked on instantly

watch the rat crown fight from d20's unsleeping city season 1 everything i've said is on display here

unironically use these archetypes for your bosses:

no i'm not joking. im so not joking. these are different distinct and interesting archetypes that create separate tones for a fight and will make your combats feel distinct from each other (also grab bag does this) if you're familiar with soulsborne games this will probably make more sense and if not, i'll give a quick explanation:

guy in a room totally freakin out > straightforward in terms of strategy, morals, and ethics. get this guy dead. could be martial or could be caster, but they're Freakin Out. the complexity comes from how you deal with the threat not the additional factors usually

stomp jomperson > so many hit points, usually big, hits Real Good

the gang is back together and they hate you > i think this one is sort of self explanatory

bumpos palace of tricks > fights with a puzzle, gimmick, chases, wizards who are being tricksy and nasty, these fights should infuriate your players in a Positive Way aka. make things annoying enough that they Really Want To Win but not too frustrating. also there's no right answer of how to fix things, figure out what your players want to try and hey if it works, it's the Solution.

you interrupted my dinner/mourning and now you gotta die > these are some big narrative fights where you want the villain to have lore or to be sympathetic or not a guy in a room totally freaking out that you just wanna get gone

and these are my unrefined tips on how to make combat more engaging. my tips for making combat go faster are different but like. don't let your combat go to 8 rounds. just let the guys die lmao.

#1 tip, if combat stops feeling fun, regardless of whether it's life or death stakes or a goofy gimmick fight, that's when you start the process of resolving the encounter, whether the party wins or not.

its also of my personal opinion that there are usually more interesting stakes than character permadeath, especially if you don't know if your player would be okay with that, and that as a DM it ultimately your job to lose encounters so, i air on that when i'm unsure.

#asks #d&d advice #dm tag

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