For your OOC use.

So guys and gals, what do you think? Shall we make two fires, stay around 100ft away and erase our footprints with a branch or something?

Does anyone else have an idea?

Maybe someone has a spell that can move soil and we could dig a hole, put some spikes in it... maybe we could find some meat eating giant snails...

Verbannt is skilled in Woodslore, he can move soil about easily.

When we get to the campsite, ask him.

Good to know. I’ll make sure that Dorian asks when we arrive. Let’s see if the others can add something

So should I use my prerolled initiative from a while ago or should I reroll for this?

I'm a little confused. Are we in round 2 now? And what exactly happened with my guiding bolt?
Dm post only mentioned Tidelan's action.

Yeah that was weird... I think we're in round 2, but I dont know what happened to everyone else's actions...

I've posted twice, but I only posted 1 attack because my initiative was 9.

Still round 1. I split the rounds into two sections to give players a chance to react to what the enemies are doing.

It's not really clear though what i'm supposed to respond to. The goblins are hiding but how given that we see them? Do you mean they take cover? Is it just the goblins or the hobgoblins as well? Does it mean my Guiding Bolt on the hobgoblin commander doesn't work?

I was confused by Verbannt posting twice, so I posted a round 2 action. I'm fine with using these rolls and have the DM decide who I hit (or miss)

Sorry for the confusion.  I had pre-rolled my initiative at a 9, so my first "post" was just drawing my bow.

So this is what I am understanding:

I did my move (highest init)

[other players posted their moves before enemies acted]

the [hob]goblins did their moves

Conspirator posted the two turns that had happened and didn't adjudicate other player's actions because circumstances had changed before it was their initiative order

[other players posted again, assuming it was a new round]

So we're still in round 1, and the first set of posts (before the first GM post) may not make sense anymore.

---

I guess the solution is to just edit one of the posts with , "use this one for my first turn?"

Dunno. virtual dnd is fun but can be clunky. The main confusion might be from us all posting at once rather than in init order, but that would make combat take wayyy too long, so i think the solution is to remember where you are in initiative... but that doesn't really solve the problem of posting something that won't happen by the time you get there? ehhh

Also, Tidelan and I have run the last adventure together, and got used to doing stuff like pre-rolling initiative.

We just kind of carried the action over to here without informing any of you.

Our bad!

Tidelan is correct. My intent was to give it a day or two for people to change their action, then post the rest of the round with whichever actions people decided to keep. In retrospect, I see it was counterproductive. It probably doesn't help that I just assumed everyone realized that strikethough= dead. G1 is still shown on the map because some of you have a high enough PP (Passive Perception) to see it. He is hidden behind the tree. G4 is not shown because no one has a PP high enough to notice it.

Okay, so now, round 2 has started. Tidelan and the goblins have already acted.

Thanks for the reminder. Was about to post again before checking here.

Also, I noticed that proficiency with Survival now gives advantage on con saves instead of previously not needing to make one at all: will keep that in mind for future camping :P

Edit: Also, technically I can smell (not see) the other goblin, since in bear form my PP increases by 3 thanks to keen smell :)
This message was last edited by the player at 23:51, Sat 14 Mar 2020.

+3?



Should increase your PP by 5, no?

Tidelan's PP is 15, because it's 10 + his WIS (16/+3) is 13 + his proficiency bonus (he is proficiency in perception) = 15 Passive Perception

as a bear, his perception score is +3 but he has advantage, so it becomes 10 + 3 + 5 (for adv.) making 18 PP.

18 % 15 = 3



It does, but my base perception is lower as a bear by 2, so the cumulative increase after all is added is +3 :)

---

sorry im a math geek ;)

Huh, that's not the way I'd see it.



So in bear wild shape, your WIS would still be +3, your proficiency is still +2, making PP still 15, and then you adopt the Keen Smell trait giving you advantage on Perception relying on smell, making that PP 20

The +3 in a bear stat block simply reflects its +1 WIS modifier and it's +2 proficiency bonus. But you're not a bear, you're a Druid in wild shape.

Oh! Silly me :) You're right!

haha you play my class better than I do, thanks for the reminder <3

Always happy to give the group a better chance of spotting (or smelling) an ambush :)

Actually, the reason you could see the goblin, Tidelan, is that there was nothing between it and you for it to hide behind.

Spark is correct about the bear form's affect on your skill, though.

Let me know if Tidelan is still up.

I was , but I posted my action, sorry for the wait, I slept in today :|

Always appreciate your cleric, folks!

Also, Grave Domain is awesome.

10 hp as a bonus action from 30 ft away is crazy good! What ability is that?

I assume they cast Healing Word but the 1st level Domain feature maximizes all healing for unconscious targets. They can also cast spare the dying with a range of 30 ft, but that doesn't heal hit points just stabilizes.

Then again, might not have been healing word... because: 1d4 + MOD = 10 cannot be true, since i doubt a 2nd level character has a Wisdom of 22.

Might be cast at 2nd level (meaning their wisdom is 14 or 15), but i dont think you get that slot until 3rd level, so i don't actually know what was cast.

Either way, awesome subclass. Although I don't know if it will be Boneclaw's turn in initiative before the hobgoblins kill Tidelan (they are both adjacent to him, he's unconscious)

I appreciate your willingness to explain what might have happened, but could just as well wait for Boneclaw to confirm what actually happened :D

Aw crap, misread. So I guess Tidelan is only stabilized for now.

No worries.

Also, since it came to my turn before yours, I should have rolled a death save. But, even though I'm stabilized, I don't think it 'removes death saves' it just means I don't have to keep making them. If I take damage, I have to make saves again (meaning if i lose 2, then it will have mattered what i rolled)

So I should roll because of this, and i'll post it here.

11:47, Today: Tidelan Wavyrus rolled 11 using 1d20.  death save jeebies.

Nice. Might not matter , but at least the dice are on my side :)

Yes, it does

Ah, thanks!

Spark, make a charisma (intimidation) check, please.

Ohhh! spoopy robit!


By the way, I know in face-to-face play, you don't roll unless a GM asks for it, but for an online game would you prefer for us as players making skill checks in or out of combat, to do those before you ask us to, or should we wait for confirmation?

I'm okay with either, I just don't know if it's tedious for you to ask for a roll, since that can add up to a day to the total time it takes to do something (or, like, less than an hour, depending a lot on when people are available)


Just in case my question is not clear, because I think sometimes I'm not, i'll give an example:

Player: With a threatening look on my dark elf face, I stare down the group of goblins and scowl, with a whisper through gritted teeth I say, and my hand clutching the jagged knife at my belt, "I've killed nearly a hundred of your kind... If you make me do this, it will be a personal milestone"

Player rolls an intimidation check (let's say it's 17) and includes it in post

GM: *gm noises*

OR

Player: With a threatening look on my dark elf face, I stare down the group of goblins and scowl, with a whisper through gritted teeth I say, and my hand clutching the jagged knife at my belt, "I've killed nearly a hundred of your kind... If you make me do this, it will be a personal milestone"

OOC: i'm trying to intimidate them

GM: ok roll intimidation

player rolls intimidation

player: OOC i got 17

gm: *gm noises*

---

Just wondering what your opinion(s) on this would be? Also i wrote 'gm noises' instead of an actual adjudication to shorten the example and also because there are a lot of possible responses i though of and couldn't pick one. I write too much :P

As a note, since what we rolled is visible, if we roll the wrong kind of check, you can always look at our character sheets to determine the true total (i think they are visible to gms? i'd assume so, but i've never used them before this game, so i dunno)

My bad, I could have seen that coming and rolled in advance. I have updated my post with the surprisingly strong result given Spark's modifiers

11:57, Today: Spark rolled 14 using 1d20-1.  Intimidation.

As to Tidelan's point - I can only speak for myself, but would have no problem if the DM rolled on my behalf for such checks. That is, however, an added burden on the DM to have to look up our sheets to do so.

I'm also on board with rolling a wide array of cheeks and putting them in a spoiler tag. (Example being that Spark's attempt could be intimidation or persuasion, so I would roll both and put them in spoilers to avoid clogging up the post, and the DM could pick and choose, or even ignore the rolls, whatever suited the story best.

Yeah, go ahead and make whatever rolls you think might be appropriate, and we'll pick which one to use. And yes, we can look at players sheets.

I was sure I was going to die!

Thankfully, those hobgoblins weren't as bloodthirsty as they could've been LOL

It's ironic that my character build is 'guess i'll never die' and I got wrecked xD

You'll only get harder to kill as you level.

Up next: Barbarian 1 :P

With the extra 100xp I’m finally lvl 2

Congrats :)

I'm 2/3 to level 3 :)

With a long rest we will actually get to level, assuming it doesn't get interrupted.

Who. has a passive perception greater than 11?
This message was last edited by the player at 04:03, Thu 09 Apr 2020.

Spark can either roll perception checks throughout the night as he's alert the whole time, or he can give another character advantage if they have superior skill or darkvision.

The justification would be that Spark can still hear perfectly well in the dark

Makes perfect sense to me.

The passive perception question is for something different, anyone with a score over 11 gets a PM from me.

Resistance's duration is too short to help in this case, Tidelan, unless you can cast spells in your sleep. Also, if you take a form that has darkvision, you get darkvision too. Your wildshape happens to last the exact duration of a watch, if the party splits the night into three watches.

Lukas, if you don't sleep at all, you need to make a DC 16 Constitution check, or take a level of exhaustion.

Spark, keeping watch uses passive perception.

Everyone, keep in mind, you've only traveled for a few hours so far, and you left before sunrise. No one can sleep yet, but if you kill time for awhile, you should be able to get to sleep in time to get four hours of sleep (reducing the DC to 12) before the light level drops to "dim" or a full night's sleep before it becomes "dark"

While you wait until you get tired, you each get one downtime unit, that can only be used right now. If you do, your passive perception gets disadvantage.

That makes sense. I'll keep looking for a wild shape that would be applicable.



Oof, I totally forgot what time it was in-game... Guess we'll just have to burn some time.



Darn! Another decision that has to be made before I can refresh my character sheet (lol)

Here is a list of creatures you could wildshape into at your level from the Monster Manual. The ones crossed out are unavailable due to your background making it unlikely you've ever seen one.

Level 2: Max CR 1, no flying or swimming speed
(0) Baboon, Badger, Cat, Deer, Giant Fire Beetle, Goat, Hyena, Jackal, Lizard, Rat, Scorpion, Spider, Weasel
(0.125) Camel, Giant Rat, Giant Weasel, Mastiff, Mule, Pony
(0.25) Axe Beak, Boar, Draft Horse, Elk, Giant Badger, Giant Centipede, Giant Goat, Giant Lizard, Giant Wolf Spider, Panther, Riding Horse, Wolf
(0.5) Ape, Black Bear, Warhorse
(1) Brown Bear, Dire Wolf, Giant Hyena, Giant Spider, Lion, Tiger

Not only darkvision, btw, you get any other senses of the form you take.

Thank you!

Level 3 cleric :). I forgot to add the xp from potion making.

So hmm, i'm thinking spiritual weapon and Prayer of Healing for level 2 and 3 Guiding Bolts plus Shield of Faith for the coming fight.

Or I can take Silence instead of Spiritual Weapon since we're not all very stealthy. But then spells with vocal components can't be cast either until i drop it.

Passive perception is 16

PM for Boneclaw.

@DM

So we hole up for the day and see if any more Hobgoblins come wandering by.

I'll sleep now, so that I can stay up all night with my darkvision and not have exhaustion.

Sorry everyone but I’ll have to bow out and quit this game.
I was supposed to update my character sheet about a month ago but haven’t done it yet and I seem to have barely any time to post here.

I don’t want to drag the response time to once a week and so I think it would be better for me to leave.
The DMs can perhaps control Dorian until you guys have finished the quest.

Sorry to lose you, but sounds like you're making the right call.

Be safe, take good care of yourself.

Take care!

100% what's already been said.

Thanks for playing with us, best wishes!

Sorry to hear that, Dorian. Hope things go well for you in the real.

On an unrelated note, I believe Lukas is the only one who was asleep at this point.

My post updated with initiative, sorry

Had you been any later Spark, we would have used my roll. It was a 2.

To clarify, the encounter with the boar happened during the second hour you guys were waiting before you started your long rest, except Lukas, who started his early so he could keep watch all night. There will be no more encounters before your rest, so go ahead and make the CON saves.
This message was last edited by the GM at 21:20, Wed 15 Apr 2020.

Are these CON saves for exposure? The DMG seems to suggest that characters with cold-weather gear succeeds automatically. Is this the case in this game as well?

Nope. In this game you just make the save with advantage. Note that, even if you don't need to sleep, you still have to make the save when you take a long rest. Traveler's Clothes are sufficient, as is a winter blanket. Additionally, even if you don't eat, if you are not proficient in survival, you must still pay 5sp in lifestyle expenses to camp, as this covers things such as maintaining equipment, keeping ammo and spell component pouches full, and taxes (if you are proficient in survival, you have means of providing for all of that.)

After conferring with the Narrator, it was decided that even though you get a level of exhaustion for failing the save vs. exposure, we'll still allow the normal benefits of a long rest. Note you gain the level of exhaustion from exposure after healing a level of exhaustion from resting.
This message was last edited by the GM at 02:10, Thu 16 Apr 2020.

I'm fine with the expenditure of money.

So the rule about exposure in this game replaces the one in the DMG? We will only have advantage with appropriate clothing, but we will only need one check for an entire rest period and not one every hour?

EDIT: That's a level of exhaustion for me as well. On another note, do we level as part of a long rest?
This message was last edited by the player at 12:40, Thu 16 Apr 2020.

IIRC if you have sufficient experience, you level on a long rest.


Also, does the DMG have any rules for exposure? I thought you only got exhaustion (in RAW) from missing long rests... then again, I've also heard the Plane of Fire has you roll CON saves against it every hour or something... So maybe that comes from the DMG's rules on exposure that I've missed.

I do know in RAW there is no CON save for avoiding exhaustion from not long resting... That's a neat little bit of homebrew that tempts me.


On a side note, it's just my luck to roll crap twice with advantage and decent mod (for a (recommended) 2nd level party) versus rolling incredibly high with a single roll and no mod.
This message was last edited by the player at 13:07, Thu 16 Apr 2020.

Yes, chapter 5, page 110 deals with extreme cold which I assume is what we are dealing with. But it is handled differently than here.

The one about the elemental plane of fire would be extreme heat, so yes you would roll there as well, but different rules on how to avoid it.

I don't know that there are rules in 5e about becoming exhausted from not resting, where does it say?

I'll admit I never actually read that in any of the books, it's probably something I picked up and assumed was RAW... I spose there might not be rules for it, but there sure as hell should be... I don't mind the rules for this game on this subject at all, but the designers of 5th edition really love simplicity, and I can't think of a simpler way to say 'you're tired and therefore exhausted' then 'you missed a long rest, suffer 1 point of exhaustion'

Maybe I got confused with the rule that a long rest removes 1 point of exhaustion, though I can't find that either, I'm freaking out maybe reality is an illusion and my family doesn't exist and oh god do i even have legs? are they real? what would happen if i suddenly believed the sun is blueoh god oh lord i finally did it i lost my mind AEjKS;L^b

It may be indeed that the situation with the world on lock-down might finally have gone to your head, but let me stave off the decline by assuring you that decreasing exhaustion by taking a long rest is indeed covered under the entry for the condition Exhaustion in the appendix.

I like exhaustion for the storytelling tool that it is and not for the mechanical impositions it brings. In the case of extreme cold, I appreciate that it is this terrible danger that exists and unless you're careful there will be dire outcomes. What I don't like is luck deciding whether or not a character dies or not, that's not a fun story to tell.

EDIT: I didn't see rules concerning HP, levelling up so I assume it's a straight roll.
20:20, Today: Spark rolled 4 using 1d8.  HP to level 2.
This message was last edited by the player at 18:21, Thu 16 Apr 2020.

Thankfully, exhaustion takes days to kill you.

Standard rules for HP apply. You may roll your hit die or take the average listed for your class. If you roll, you have to keep the roll. Either way you add your CON mod.

Seeing as Spark is made mostly of metal I think Tidelan would be short-shifted in that warmth exchange :D

No, there was nothing wrong with Spark's clothing. There just isn't anything one can do to protect against the possibility of becoming exhausted, short of magical means.

Lukas, we taking the path already cut or sneaking through the woods?

I also need to know if we need Silence to group sneak or is Lukas going ahead on his own first and then we charge if things go south..

I would rather you pick something else that is going to be useful. Lack of ability to cast spells while silence is up and the fact it is only a 20 ft sphere for each cast I think the cost outweighs the benefit.

In reply to Spark (msg # 72):

Probably, and then veer off when we get close?

That's fine. I was unsure about it myself. I'll go with Spiritual weapon and prayer of healing for level 2 spells and a bunch of Guiding Bolts for level 1.

All sounds good to me

If that's what you're taking, I'll be ready to use my cure wounds for rez'ing instead of on myself or as beast-shape heal fuel :)

You know you don't have to memorize a separate Guiding Bolt for each casting, right? You can memorize up to (cleric level+ WIS mod) different spells, and cast them as long as you have spell slots left.

This has slowed down a bit, which is fine.

To quicken this part a little bit, I'm rolling my stealth now (though Tidelan doesn't expect to actually get their without being attacked, followed or reported on).

In my mind, we might as well roll stealth becomes a natural 1 even with a negative modifier is no different than having not made an attempt (I assume if we go 'unstealthily' anyone with a PP of 0 could see us, since we're not hiding whatsoever.

Any attempt to be discreet is stealth; therefore the obvious option is to roll stealth. Even with Silence, it doesn't grant a stealth bonus, just prevents anyone from hearing us (not seeing us)

A few logistic questions that the GM/Lukas might answer in the game, or perhaps feels are reasonable to answer here:

1. How far back are we staying from the encampment?

2. How will we know when we are close? IIRC Lukas has been here, but if he doesn't remember what's stopping us from stepping into it from the treeline and then having to back up?



I was a bit worried Boneclaw hadn't remembered that rule, since I doubt their Wisdom is only 14 or even just 12... Assuming they choose more spells, I'd suggest at least a healing word.

I'm not against Silence, i don't think it's super useful, and rather detrimental, but I don't really know if Tidelan knows/cares about that. It would also be rather fun (if deadly) to see it backfire. Then again, AFAIK only myself and Boneclaw are casters, and Spark, Lukas and Dorian (who i assume the GM could pilot if needed in combat) are not.

Actually, i'm not sure what class Spark is. I don't recall seeing him cast a spell yet, or use any class features (though I could've more easily missed those)...

The guy's got a mace and a crossbow... D8 hit dice... I mean, maybe a Cleric? A rogue? A fighter? A ranger? He seems to be worried about Silence, so my vote's on cleric who doesn't heal (LOL :D)

In all seriousness, I'm not dying to know, I'm more excited to see it come up :P

This was long, sorry. Hopefully it somehow makes up for my lack of posts recently.

It's always fun to read your thoughts :D

Spark is indeed a cleric, and I don't need to hide the fact. It's simply that Boneclaw beat me to healing you that has kept me from casting.

Thanks, I love ranting and reading rants about DND, unless their written messily (which I often do). So I'm glad you liked this one :)

Also got so caught up in what I was saying previously, I forgot to actually roll my stealth.

10:25, Today: Tidelan Wavyrus rolled 10 using 1d20.  genasi boi stealth.

With how things have been going, and all their possible future interactions, I think Tidelan and Spark may end up being two characters that really jive... I find it interesting to have some character interaction/development in a sandbox game where there's a lot of combat, skill checks or solo-adventuring.

Yea true. I'm old school. Thanks for the reminder.

Sorry for the delay. Been a bit distracted.  I need some clarification as to which route (within the trees, or on the path) Lukas wants to take, since his answer was "yes" to question with two mutually-exclusive options.

Along the path until we are 2 hills away, then through the trees.

You guys alright?

Still around, I readied my action and waiting for the group to get into range or at least in visual range close enough to confirm they are enemies.

Yeah, I didn't post, figuring it would come around to when they were closer

Boneclaw, if you wish to take a shot at long range, I can edit the result into the the post I just made.

I'll hold my action and take cover behind a tree to see if whatever Tidelan and Spark are doing has an effect.

2 things to clarify: The goblins are use shortbows, and they fired before Tidelan went prone.

Oh, my bad. I didn't pay enough attention to the initiative order.

Since my post doesn't make sense anymore, I'll edit some of the actions and writing. I'm going to copy paste the old post into a text file since it was pretty good and still might come up, if needed.

Soz 'bout that.


Edit: So, after reading the previous rounds of combat, it seems I didn't get including in initiative until Round 2? Was Tidelan surprised, or did I miss out on acting because I didn't roll initiative quick enough? Nevertheless, from what I'm understanding, the post of him going prone has taken up my turn this round? If that's the case, could I edit my first (round 2) post to include some more stuff (it would still obey the action economy of one turn), since it's technically happening now rather than last round?

Either way, I'll just wait to post until my turn comes around again, rather than posting before anything has happened to react to, since that's messy and stupid.
This message was last edited by the player at 19:48, Sun 03 May 2020.

So Spark and Boneclaw are up.

Or down, depending on how you look at it

Lukas is the only one that posted an action in round one. Everyone else had said they wanted to wait until the goblins got closer. Go ahead and edit your round 2 post, if you wish.

BTW, the reason we don't have everybody post in initiative order, is that it tends to drastically slow the game down, as everybody waits for the people before them to ask. I generally allow you to change your actions as long as I haven't posted the round summary.

That said, when you're the last player in line for initiative (Dorian is an NPC, now), it doesn't hurt to wait until the others have posted.

BTW, once Boneclaw posts, I'll post a partial round summary, so that everyone can see what the goblins do this round, and for the rest of the fight I'll end each summary with the enemy actions so you always know what they did before you post.
This message was last edited by the GM at 01:25, Mon 04 May 2020.

Just to (hopefully) avoid confusion: Tidelan, your most recent post won't be included until I post the second half of Round 3. You may change it at any time before that.

I think I understand that...

Also, I'm pretty sure I only have one post in combat, the other one was deleted since it was way ahead of it's time (i posted it too early)

I think by '[my] most recent post' you mean the one I'm going to make for this round, not the 'most recent post' i've already posted.

Also, don't wait too much on me. If we're not attacked and the rest of our group doesn't attack anyone, I'm just going to keep passing my turns (not hold anything, either) until they get closer. Once their closer, Tidelan's actions probably depend on the other players'

Thanks for being so communicative, play-by-post turn order seems to confuse me a lot.

No worries. Initiative is one of the biggest things that seem to slow down PBP games, and attempts to speed things up tend to be complicated.

BTW, Spark and Boneclaw, go ahead and post actions for round 4, so I can end with the goblins next turn, and don't have to post more partial actions.

Sorry for missing a round. You read my mind though.

I think I also was confused about the round, but you predicted my move pretty well :P

So, if I'm correct, I need to post after Lukas, but since that might slow things down, I'll just do my post now...

TBH, I don't really know how to write 'move closer' and keep it interesting for the thread, so TW just dashes as close as he can get, without blocking too many allied lines of sight, if possible (as long as he doesn't lose enough distance to have to dash next round, he will hold back. Otherwise, he'll be inconsiderate). If you want me to type this in-character, I will.

Tidelan, describe your action however you like. If you think "Tidelan dashes towards the enemies" is good enough, I won't argue. BTW, if you dash straight up the center of the road, you'll be able to pretty much have your pick of targets next round, assuming they don't move out of your reach. And don't worry about posting in order. If the actions of somebody who goes before you change what you want to do, you may edit your post.

Boneclaw, apology accepted. BTW, you are 60 feet from Lucas' target.
This message was last edited by the GM at 21:09, Thu 14 May 2020.

Good to know :)

Post incoming if my shoddy internet allows for it.

It seems a lot of games on this site are slowing down.

I still enjoy this game, but I am feeling generally apathetic about logging in to this site as often as I usually do. I suspect lots of others on this site feel the same, considering how everything I participate or run seems to have slowed down.

Anyway, I'm still in this for the long run, but I did feel like saying how I felt.

Hope everyone's doing okay.

Yeah, its a vicious cycle, though, since games slowing down causes player turnover, which slows down games...

Still around.
This message was last edited by the player at 17:24, Sun 24 May 2020.

*waves*

I am impossible to get rid of.

Wow, what level are you Lukas? You must be at least third level, right?

Next time we get a rest, that bonus XP actually pushed me over. I originally planned to go barbarian at 3rd level... I think I still will, but I'm contemplating if it's worth it (rage interfered with combat wild shape, and barkskin is a 2nd level spell that makes my ac much better than unarmored defense, albeit with different rules governing it (concentration, namely))... It honestly fits the character so well, though. So it might be worth doing even if it's not optimal. Also, lately Tidelan wouldn't mind doing a bit of the ol' raging.

Anyway, glad to see the public threads of this game picking up (as well as our own!). It felt inactive for a while, but it may have not been for other groups' threads. I don't ever really remember what post number a game is on before i leave the site, but sometimes I come back later and the number has increased but there's no new messages, so I assume things are still happening somewhere, out of my sight. Kind of a weird feeling, especially when I'm used to GMing and seeing more stuff.

This mission is getting kind of tough, and hell, we haven't even got to the camp yet! We might even need another rest soon... Though, I don't feel like risking a second level of exhaustion, I keep forgetting I even have the first one!

Technically, with combat wildshape, you gain the ability to wildshape as a bonus action. Nowhere does it say you lose the ability to wildshape as an action. Of course, whether its worth it to use both an action and a bonus action to activate both on the same turn depends on the situation.

Yep. You're right.

Raging is just so risky at early barb levels because you lose it if you don't attack or take damage... there's no real ideal combination of wild shape and rage; it's all situational.

Normally that's fine, because you're playing barbarian and you're only class feature is attacking (lol) but as a full spellcaster, I have some other duties, generally.

Also those last three druid levels are sweet as hell, though I don't play characters because they 'will be' more fun to do something a certain way, so I'm not worrying about epic levels yet lmao.

The main reason I wanted barbarian was for the Unarmored Defense, but thinking about it, Tidelan does most his combat in wild-shape. Otherwise, he'd be spellcasting.

Honestly, I'm less worried than when I made this character about portraying him with the right class combo... it's totally poss for a Circle of the Moon Druid to be a rage-machine, they turn into friggin' bears and the like.

Probably just going to mono-druid, honestly. I really like mono classing. My favorite character of all time is a mono-rogue. Might even get to play him some time lol

Honestly, most classes in 5e look really fun. Hell, half a year ago I thought I'd never play a wizard; they had d6 hit dice and couldn't wild shape. Now I'm like 'but hot DAMN that spell list and spell system is FIRE... also subclasses are pretty decent'

I've had a good time with pretty much every class in 5e. Never tried ranger, and barely got to try druid, cleric, or monk but everything else was fun. I tend to prefer playing low-wisdom characters for some reason...

In reply to Tidelan Wavyrus (msg # 108):

I am indeed level 3, hit it just before our last long rest.  I did a bunch of solo stuff in my off time, including killing a Hobgoblin, which started this whole quest chain that we are currently on... off.

I had originally been planning on doing Rogue and Druid.  Verbannt meeting you, and you being a Druid, just gave me a really easy way to make that transition storywise.  There were some sleight of hand rolls earlier that you didn't have a high enough passive perception to catch.  Nothing PvP, just story for later.

The two classes do NOT compliment each other well, as when Wild Shaped you can't Sneak Attack, so one classes' defining ability somewhat cancels out the other.  I just like having options, skills, and utility, and the roleplay on this has been really fun.  Bearbarian has some of that, in that you don't get the Barbarian's rage damage bonus when Wild Shaped.  But the advantage you get from having half off all damage, combined with Wild Shape hit point sinks, is a damn scary combination.

I almost always multiclass.  The only class with enough complexity to it to keep me occupied is Warlock, which is my favorite class in the whole game.  I have just... dozens of Warlock builds in my head at any given time.  Some strong, most weak, Warlocks aren't that strong when compared to Druids, Clerics, Sorcerers, Wizards, Paladins, Rogues... I could go on.

I thought there weren't that many Hobgoblins left.  Haven't we pretty much culled the herd?
This message was last edited by the player at 23:38, Thu 28 May 2020.

Love me some of that :). Excited to see if that comes up :)



I though so too, but apparently 'unarmed strikes' with 'natural weapons' DO count as melee weapon attacks in 5th edition... Melee weapon attack basically just means Melee attack, it seems... For the most part, nearly every wild shape uses Strength as it's attack/damage MOD, so they are eligible for rage damage.

I don't know if the PHB specifically says all of that, but here's some sources that seem reliable (although Quora in general is a heap of trash, stackexchange seems trustworthy):

https://rpg.stackexchange.com/...ract-with-wild-shape

https://www.quora.com/In-5e-D-...rikes-weapon-attacks

https://rpg.stackexchange.com/...-are-natural-weapons

Edit: Occurred to me that maybe posting links isn't a great idea (I vaguely recall a game rule stating not to post NSFW sources, since this is a General game): If these need to be removed, go ahead (or tell me and I'll do it).
This message was last edited by the player at 17:06, Fri 29 May 2020.

Assuming the intel you gathered from the goblin earlier is accurate, yes. Keep in mind this is only one warband, and the Redfoot have more forces in other parts of the forest.

Yay! I have 200 posts :)

Hmmm... GM, do you reckon Tidelan would be able to drink a health potion while wild-shaped? IIRC drinking a healing potion of any level requires an action... I figure there's no doubt if he'd know how to drink one (his INT, WIS and CHA are unchanged), but perhaps his form would be unable to manipulate a healing potion?

I do find it's hard to picture a bear (or other animal) drinking a healing potion, but probably appropriate for DND lmao. Tell me what you think.

I've also added Exhausted [I] to my bio, so I hopefully remember. This character doesn't make a lot of ability checks, so chances are I'll probably forget and you'll have to roll with disadvantage for me, but I put it there in case.

Also, could we have a quick recap on how long we've been traveling? Maybe also on who/what we've encountered. The thread is getting a bit long to look through, and it's been a while since we started, so my bad memory isn't helping me right now. Though, it might not be fair to ask you that since I myself don't remember.

My last question is how close we are? I recall being told we were closing in on the camp... I think Tidelan offered to cast Longstrider, maybe. I don't think I prepared it today, though... So that must have been after a rest (I think our last long one?)

I wonder if those goblins are okay. Tidelan doesn't really care that much, but he sure would feel bad if they died, since he tried to help them for Lukas... somewhat tried

So on Twitter it looks like Jeremy settled this for us, and I appear to be all sorts of wrong.




This message was last edited by the player at 00:09, Sat 30 May 2020.

If someone else uses their hands (and their action) they can feed you a potion. You can't do it yourself as a bear.

It's been just over a day since you left town. Its still early in the morning, you spotted these goblins a few minutes after breaking camp.

Sorry if that intimidate check didn't have the effect you were hoping for, Lukas. Given that the number of uninjured goblins exceeded the number of characters in your party, the DC was still pretty high. After all, it wouldn't be fair to allow a skill check to be as effective as the level 3 fear spell (or technically, even the level 1 cause fear, but it would be difficult to make it weaker than that and still have any combat applications.)

Boneclaw, I edited my combat post to move you closer to Lukas.

Thanks :)

You're kinda holding up things, Spark ..

Since Spark hasn't logged in for a week, I'll go ahead and autopilot him for the moment.

Sorry about that - still here, autopilot is fine. To be honest, I'm getting worn out with the amount of combat without meaningful progress, but that's just my opinion.

That's okay. FWIW, you've actually made quite a bit of progress, when you consider that Muzzrink's army doesn't have endless numbers (which you've whittled down to near nothing, at this point, BTW). Plus, you're not very far from the camp at this point.

There has been a lot of combat with minor enemies. The thing is, in tabletop DND or even virtual dnd that wasn't PbP (such as roll20), we would've likely been able to get through these guys in one session.

It's no fault of anyone that PbP is notoriously slow. The best thing to do about it, I presume is to make your own meaning out of things before getting to the bigger enemies. You might have noticed I often write about Tidelan's monologue to self instead of just his actions in combat. Now, that has no game purpose other than flavor and character development, unless of course there's a telepath snooping around. But, it does make combat feel a bit more 'meaningful'.

Secondly, there's always an opportunity during short rests and long rests to have some noncombat roleplaying moments. I propose we've skipped those because nobody has felt that they have anything to add to them, which is okay.

Thirdly, I think the GM is pretty good at this, but here's the idea anyway: Making it so not every combat 'feels the same' is really important. For example, though Lukas' intimidation wasn't a fear spell, Conspirator still allowed it to have an effect on one goblin. That changes the circumstances a bit, doesn't it? Now there's a guy we don't want to kill, whose still an enemy, but he has surrendered. Also, it gives us an opportunity to interrogate him afterwards, or to tie him up and (hopefully) come back later.

I agree it can definitely feel hack-and-slashy in the moment, but I don't think the GM wants to force a hack and slash on any players that don't want it, so I'm sure they will give us ample time between fights, and maybe even some subtle opportunities during them, to have more interesting moments.

TBH, my only immediate advice is to just 'stick with it', even though that's kind of counterintuitive to a game meant to be fun and not necessarily grindy.

Oh, I'm far from the quitting stage, and I wholeheartedly appreciate the difficulty in composing a "meaningful" battle with a party of 1st and 2nd level characters. I am certain we'll get through this and future missions will have different challenges.

I was just reminded of Knights of the Dinner Table when Bob went to DM and had to scrap his adventure because the party caught on to the fact that the dungeon was basically his house (or rather his dad's house) and they ended up in a room containing 1000 orcs. ¨"You kill one, another one takes its place. Brian, your fireball takes out 28 orcs, another 28 takes their place" :P

No hard feelings at all, I'll get stuck back in it.

That's good to hear :)

Now I need to google Knights of the Dinner Table.... sounds pretty funny :)

To address your questions Tidelan.

My apologies that I haven't more clearly conveyed Verbannt's intent.  I like morally gray characters, and playing against type, so a Bugbear with some softness to him seemed like fun.

I will hopefully do a better job portraying his morality as we continue playing in character.

From what you've seen, he seems to find killing Goblins distasteful, but clearly has no issue doing it if they are shooting at him, or running to get backup. He seems to have much less of an issue with killing Hobgoblins.  You are correct in that it has a lot to do with him also being a Goblinoid, but more that his tribe has had previous contact with most of these tribes.

He's got history.
This message was last edited by the player at 00:13, Thu 11 June 2020.

I don't actually think I asked any questions in my OOC line, but it did kind of read like I was looking for answers, which I'm happy to have (as long as their not spoilery, ofc).



Oh, no! I wasn't complaining. I really enjoy how you play your character :). I think it came across as a bit mysterious, which I thought was intentional. Regardless, it's definitely fun :)

I will admit I was slightly confused, but that's just because I've found that I believe that I struggle with comprehension for subtle things in PbP, though it normally turns out I understand things pretty well.



Yes, that's true for any character :). But, I don't think you've done a bad job, at all.



Ah, thanks for the refresher on what Tidelan's seen. Again, I sometimes get worried I'm forgetting about things from the game.



I've worked on Tidelan's backstory a little bit as well. With how often they're on missions together, it may come up sooner rather than later :).

I've also said a few things in monologues in my posts that reveal some things. I try to stop short of giving any actual details, because that's the stuff that normally comes out in public during interaction, not monologue nobody can hear :P

---

@Conspirator: I've seen the name Muzzrink, twice now. Is that a name we all know, is it something you wrote specifically for Lukas (who visited the camp before), or was it a slip?

I don't recall hearing it before today (or maybe it was yesterday, I'm having trouble keeping track of time, lately).

Gotta say, really enjoyed the little interactions our two characters have had so far.

In character, I will say that Verbannt is completely confused by Tidelan.  He's trying to get some measure of what you are, having never seen a Water Genasi before, and he can't figure you out.

Lukas is an interesting character. Boneclaw is keeping a close eye on him because he isn't quite sure what to make of him.

My apologies, I forgot that the conversation in which Muzzrink's name first came up, took place in Goblin. Lukas never told anyone the hobgoblin warchief's name. Muzzrink leads the warband of Redfoot goblinoids you have been fighting (or what's left of them, at this point. He severely underestimated you guys.)

I find it kind of funny that Tidelan is super worried about endless ranks of goblins, when in fact we've whittled this General's troops down in just a day or two. Knowing about that would save him a lot of stress (wink wink).

I've definitely enjoyed the interaction between our characters too. This whole party seems to work with one another pretty well mechanically (can't have too much healing, especially at early levels), and we get along, but there's definitely just a little tension between characters, which is nice, too.

I'll be honest, I went with Water Genasi for mechanical synergy. However, now that I've developed the characters backstory a little bit, I will say that him being a Genasi of any kind, definitely has had big impacts on his life.

I think at some point, I'll share more with the DM(s) about the parts of Farrad that Tidelan is from. I actually have the whole continent mapped out plus it's story, but that's just for my own enjoyment and probably a tad overbearing for a forum game :).

I included Dorian's actions in my combat round posts. He actually killed a few of the goblins, ya know. I just didn't feel like making a full post as him and then rephrasing it for the combat round post. Just thought I should point that out.

I've been keeping track of our gold and gear, so that I can tell everyone how much they get at the end.

That said, Verbannt can't carry anymore (and that's including the gear he left in the cart with the Goblins), so the armor is being left behind unless someone else carries and tracks it.

Taking a short rest.


19:14, Today: Lukas Verbannt rolled 8 using 1d8+2.

Back to full.

I'm not going to spend any hit dice, but my wild shapes do refresh!

Edit: I only have (1) spell slot left, by the way. I'm probably going to save it for a lifesaving Cure Wounds, or maybe a clutch Entangle/Charm Person. We'll see how things go :)
This message was last edited by the player at 02:41, Sun 14 June 2020.

Probably wise. Assaulting the camp will likely be the deadliest fight any of your characters have had so far, especially if you try to fight them head on. Then again, I didn't expect you to fight the last group head on and you slaughtered them, so... maybe this fight will be easy! Wildshape definitely lets you punch above your weight class!

Moon Druid makes it even more nuts! It also keeps it consistently powerful while you level (magical damage at 6th, ELEMENTAL shapes at 10th), this + a few level dip into barbarian makes for a build that absolutely wreaks hell at 3rd and 5th level (assuming you take 3 barb levels, i think anything more is folly), though it drops off significantly in power afterwards.

In fact, going for those extra non-caster levels significantly weakens your spellcasting ability behind everyone else, by like, a level and a half of spells! It also means you will never get Druid's 18-20th level features (which are pretty damned good), though chances of reaching that level are never very high.

I'm a bit confused by our plan, as Tidelan said he had concerns about how he's going to sneak up on the camp, and the next posts didn't respond to it.

I know that we're planning on doing combat now (instead of just scouting), but are we just going to walk up and start killing them? I still assumed we'd be sneaking in before we attacked everything.

It definitely seems wiser to fight on our terms than theirs. Because, if we just walk up to them, they likely have ranged weaponry to SHRED us with... so fighting them in their camp would be better for us than approaching them visibly.

Our party is much stronger at close-range.

Spark said,

quote:

"I will attempt to make myself a target as well, to draw some attention. I can be hard to hit, and tougher to dent."

(emphasis mine).

That was confusing, because Tidelan never offered to make himself a target.

Sorry if this was confusing or sounded rude, I was having trouble with writing this post and rewrote it two or three times.
This message was last edited by the player at 23:33, Mon 15 June 2020.

Spark is reacting to Verbannt's decisive action taken after Boneclaw made the slashing motion with regards to the rest of the camp. He assumes there will be more targets, and he's simply stating that he will volunteer to be one of them as opposed to trying to hide or evade the attacks.

Neither I nor Spark knows the layout of the camp, nor their numbers. We have the words of a zealous goblin and the highly meta comments of the DM to go on. I could always justify my action by saying that Spark drawing fire would allow the rest of the party to flank them and go in stealthy.

But without knowledge of the place that is a little premature.

Plans are fine, but when we don't even know where' what it's better to advance the pieces some and take stock when we get closer.

Hm.. Anyone else just have a bunch more threads become visible to them?

When you have a large player base and multiple storylines at some point you run out of groups heh.

Are they in group Z? I wasn't sure if players could read those.

Yea group z archive

Yeah, those are old threads. Had to make the groups available for new threads, but didn't want to delete them. Feel free to read them if you like.

Sorry about the delay. I'll move the thread along after I get some sleep.

Not a problem for me. Thanks for the heads up(s).
This message was last edited by the player at 19:12, Wed 01 July 2020.

@Spark

I think you used the wrong character name in your post, unless your Warforged secretly calls themself Clive :P

Hah! Wrong character, thanks :)

You don't need to count arrows (at least not nonmagical ones.) It is assumed you scavenge enough to keep a quiver full, and your lifestyle expense (or survival skill) covers any shortage if it doesn't.

That's a big camp but i guess we knew that going in.

Yet it is much quieter than you'd expect. As if someone had be culling their numbers ;p

Have we lost Spark?

I doubt that. They logged in today. Presumably, they just forgot that it's their turn to post.

Edit: Maybe from now on it would be better for anyone who is online at any given time to tag people who are delaying posts by a couple days or more. Instead of waiting eleven days to even mention it.

This doesn't mean we need to start having a 'posting rate', but reminding people that they need to post sounds like a good thing to do sooner rather than later, right?
This message was last edited by the player at 21:46, Mon 20 July 2020.

Yeah, I could use the help with that. I have a bad habit of losing track of how long a thread remains inactive.

No worries. I've also lost track of threads and similar stuff before.

I think this happens to people because they have other things going on, so they don't worry about a thread unless...

1. It has been a really long time with no posts.
2. A new post has been made that they decide to read.
3. They need to post.
4. Something else catches their attention or reminds them.

So, if everyone in the thread checks in now and then when things slow down, it's not any single person's responsibility, and instead we all do our best to keep up.

---

Also... WOW! This quest has taken a long time (over four real-life months)! It's actually been rather uneventful from an in-universe perspective, in my opinion... But, the rewards (in XP, gold and equipment) have been super lucrative...

The only thing that bugs me about this journey so far is how much experience we've gotten in so little in-game time. I mean, it's been like 2-4 days (IIRC), and some of us have gained two levels!

The funny thing is, Tidelan still has the same amount of gold he started the quest with (he's nearly broke), and his only reason to join was to get some cash, lmao. That's not a complaint, just kind of ironically humorous. I'm sure if he lives to get back to Smith, then he won't be as poor.

The other problem with this 'rapid-growth' phenomena that comes up so often in PBP isn't just that it's totally unrealistic... having emotional growth and character connections in the span of a few days is equally as bad, but it also feels disingenuous!

I definitely agree that a party going through hardcore trials together would bond much quicker than regular friendships bloom, but in the case of my character and this quest, I've been wanting for him to open up more with the party for weeks, but it's only been hours in-game, so I have no excuse to rush that out.

Then again, this game is labeled as a sandbox, so I might be wrong for expecting an immersive reality, when the quests are designed more like battle simulators (which is ok).

Also, many players would likely rather get XP and loot than actually roleplay, but I haven't actually encountered any of those types of players here, yet.

TL;DR It might just be me, but I've been kind of dissatisfied with some things, but overall had a good time!

---

BTW, why are the prices in the shops so high? I assume they came from official sources, but with the scarcity of GPs in this game, it seems even the low-level items are unachievable, at best.

I mean, IIRC our reward for this quest was going to be somewhere in the range of 20-50 Gold, but I don't think I saw an item in the entire shop that sold for less than 100-something! I don't know if it was intentional to have players wait several months to not be able to afford an item, but the (presumably) imported prices definitely don't match how much gold is being dished out.

My suggested solution to this problem is to make a permanent fix. This could mean changing prices of changing how much gold NPCs are willing to give. The way I suggest doing this is whichever is most realistic and fits THIS setting.

For example, I've been designing a world recently (not for DND, uses similar currency though) where magical items are approximately as rare as magic users themselves (that's to say; uncommon... If I had to give a percentage for people who could use magic in any way, it would be under 1%, but they aren't really 'unexpected') and it's world population is somewhere in the tens of millions.

I decided that to price nonlegendary magial items in the range of 75 Silver Coins upwards.. I think my most common upper price is... idk, say 25 Platinum Coins.

(The equivalent of these numbers within DND, considering that my 'copper coin' has roughly 2-5x less spending power (depending on circumstances) than what you would see in a trading goods table for 5th Edition (Faerun), and since my currency is base-100 not base-10, that means that in my world magic items are highly unobtainable by purchase... since the converted range (in DND currency) is 150/375 Gold Coins (for common and mass-produced magic items) to 500,000/1,250,000 Gold (for incredibly powerful and rare magic items))

Hopefully that gives some perspective on things. After doing all that math, I kind of forget what the main takeaway was supposed to be, but I presume my intention was to ask you to think about your world (or at least Kavidon) and how much Gold Pieces are 'worth' as well as how rare magic items are.

Because right now, magic items are either incredibly rare, or Smith giving us 2000 Copper Pieces (20 Gold is also known as a peasant's life earnings in some settings) means he's actually either not very wealthy (despite founding and running a small town) or underestimating our value to him.

As always, this post was written in good faith (Saying this just in case I wrote something that is interpreted negatively).
This message was last edited by the player at 00:36, Tue 21 July 2020.

Is it my turn? I thought we were waiting for the goblins to attack us? :o

So sorry, with the flurry of new threads and activity I must have missed that entirely

The prices are high for three reasons: Nobody is expected to be able to buy them until around level 5, players who can craft them will be able to get them much cheaper, we don't want everybody buying all the magic items they want early on and then realizing they have no need to gain any more money. As more of the Rimewood is explored, higher level quests become available, which pay better. Additionally, magic items may be found here and there, or granted as quest rewards. We expect that players may decide to sell some of those.

Thanks for the reminder, Spark. The tree did in fact cover you, and that arrow missed (barely, the attack roll was 21!) I'll edit the result, and you may edit your responses if you wish.

@DMs, boop in case you forgot, no worries if you've just been busy.

Conspirator will be updating his posts today.

*Reads announcement thread.*

Holy shit.

Take all the time in the world!

Boneclaw, you can indeed see Muzzrink after you move closer.
Tidelan, you can wildshape and attack before Muzzrink gets another turn.

And folks, its okay to roll your attack and damage at the same time you declare your actions-- in fact its preferred :)
This message was last edited by the GM at 19:34, Wed 29 July 2020.

I edited my post, sorry it took me two days to realize you edited your comment!

09:10, Today: Lukas Verbannt rolled 5 using 1d10+3.  Damage.

I didn't think a 13 hit!  My mistake.

A 13 doesn't hit, actually. Also, you didn't have advantage, since Muzzrink stood up right after you knocked him down. My previous reminder was for whoever posted the action they wanted to do, but didn't post any rolls.

I hope it's not me holding us up this time?

I think you're good...

it seems that the initiative order has a 'round break' in the middle (between Dorian's 1 and Lukas' 18)... so I think everyone except the enemies (and maybe Dorian) have posted actions so far.

If i understand correctly, I think we're waiting on the GM, right now.

Hey Lukas, how is your form still up? Crag cats have 34 HP and you've taken 40 damage? Did I miss that you used healing, at some point?

...

Speaking of (possible) mistakes, I realize now that since I'm exhausted (I can't see my bio lines from the dice roller or while posting, so I always forget it's written there), I should've had disadvantage on initiative, since it's an ability check.

@Conspirator how do you think we handle my error?
This message was last edited by the player at 15:39, Wed 05 Aug 2020.

I do believe Tidelan's almost right. I count 38 damage on Lukas at the start of his current turn, not 40 (16+11+5+6.) Since he didn't use a bonus action last turn, I'm willing to allow him to use a spell slot to heal retroactively, so we don't have to change as much.

Tidelan, ahead and reroll your initiative, and if it's lower, use the new roll. Also, let me know much DEX you lost when you changed from cat to bear.
This message was last edited by the GM at 16:01, Wed 05 Aug 2020.

16:03, Today: Tidelan Wavyrus rolled 18 using 1d20+2.  initiative re-roll.

Wow, is that the same number... or 1 higher? Damn lucky, lol.

As a bear my DEX is +0, but I rolled initiative as a cat, so even retroactively it shouldn't matter for that.

If you're wondering about DEX affecting my AC, my listed AC is only for Tidelan's water genasi form (if i could fit his other common forms in the line, I would). I assume you've been referencing his wild shape AC while shaped. They're different.

Druids are complicated, lol :)

1 in 400 chance of rolling 1 twice but there you go.
Really disliking the D&D system right now...

You've got cursed dice, BC - you'll need a young priest and an old priest :p

You are a young priest and an old priest, at least in relation to each other.

Yeah, but I'm saving my magic for Lukas, not Boneclaw's dice :D

I think you're up Tidelan.

Thanks for the heads up! I've posted :)

Man, moon druids are hard to balance encounters for! I knew I should have added more goblins, even if it would make the one you interrogated earlier into a liar (and pushed the encounter level even farther into the "deadly" category!)

You're absolutely right! On top of that, Tidelan accomplished all this in a single shape change (he burned his first one to be a legitimately harmless cat lmao).

Doesn't help the balancing that there's two of us, double-teaming the big bad (and virtually ignoring his legions of minions haha).

Honestly, IMO, the hardest part of dungeon-mastering is balancing encounters. A simple encounter can straight up TPK if things go really wrong, and an encounter made to represent life-or-death importance can be sweeped with little effort or resource expenditure, by a tactical party that rolls well.

On top of the challenge of altering an encounter's difficulty, depending on the makeup of the party, it can be hard to create an interesting fight!

---

For example, a barbarian could easily be stuck just chasing enemies around the map to get into melee with them, if everyone else has more mobility than they do.

An additional example, characters with low saves could easily spend several rounds under a simple magic  effect cast by an enemy, just because they need to roll incredibly high to save against a minor effect.

On top of those examples, picture a high-level battle between a party and a terrifying and monstrous opponent, say something on the level of dragon or pit fiend.

Now, imagine the party has a monk. That monk acts early? They can pretty easily keep the dastardly foe in stun-lock for several rounds... if they don't? They're still likely to burn at least one or two of their legendary resistances, paving the way for caster's to save-or-suck them off the map or out of the battle.

Also, literally any type of undead encounter is virtually child's play against a mid-level cleric and/or paladin. Turn/destroy undead clears those pesky minions, and a paladin can probably deal 200 radiant damage to a big bad in one turn with divine smites.

Finally, this doesn't just apply to high-level parties either, the reverse can be true for low-levels, especially. Imagine this; a simple encounter. Say, a dozen goblins, slimes or similarly weak-ass enemies against four or five 2ndish level players.

Should be easy, right? Well, if the enemies use basic tactics, and the key players mess up any of their important rolls, you can easily expect one or more players to straight up die just by getting stabbed a few times (keep in mind, they can't revivify as they are low level, so this is permadeath unless the GM uses deus ex machina, which sours the stakes of the game).

I have a lot more examples, but they're not necessary. Designing encounters is hard as hell.

Tidelan's reaction was enough to kill the fleeing goblin. The goblin engaging Dorian outside is the only one left. I'm tempted to call this fight right now, but I want to see if one of our clerics might actually hit something this turn ;)

I'm all about the peace and love stuff! :D

Lets just get home ..
This message was last edited by the player at 16:15, Thu 13 Aug 2020.

Aww... but there are successively bigger Redfoot camps further and further north until you find the Redfoot village ;) Surely you can't be tired of fighting goblinoids yet, right?

Right?

Well, at least release the prisoners. You deserve a chance to roleplay a bit, and (some loot) and I enjoy playing grateful goblins :)

A Russian goblin doll? :D

Now I'm picturing goblin camps with smaller goblin camps inside.

Do we all want to wait until we get back to town to sell off the surplus equipment, or do we just want to do that now?

IIRC, everything sells for half... so here's the math, all units below are Gold Pieces:

 - Four scimitars = 25 * 4 = 100 / 2 = 50

 - Four shortbows = 25 * 4 = 100 / 2 = 50

 - Five shields  = 10 * 5 = 50 / 2 = 25

 - Muzzrink's Spear = 1 / 2 = 0.5

 - Four leather armors = 4 * 10 = 40 / 2 = 20

 - Studded leather = 45 / 2 = 22.5

The total of this (before loose change) would be: 168 Gold Pieces

With pocket change, this becomes 168/22/63 (Gold/Silver/Copper)


If we divide this four ways (excluding Dorian), it becomes...

 - 42 GP each

 - 5 SP each (Plus two of us get an additional silver)

 - 15 CP each (Plus three of us get an additional copper)

If we divide this five ways (including Dorian), it becomes...

 - 33 GP each (Plus three of us get an additional gold)

 - 4 SP each (Plus two of us get an additional silver)

 - 12 CP each (Plus three of us get an additional copper)

You have to return to town to sell anything, unless you run into someone on the way who wants it. Small armor costs the same, but only small creatures can wear it. Muzzrink's stuff is definitely more valuable.

Remember, during a short rest, each player may study one item to determine any special qualities or functions it has.

Sorry, had to get over the last battle, it was very disappointing for me, having saved up my spells for 4 months and then being completely useless at the end.

Do we also get crafting points for completing a mission, I forgot.
This message was last edited by the player at 00:07, Tue 18 Aug 2020.

Yes! 5 downtime units. Thanks for the reminder :)



That's what sucks about playing a spellcaster in play-by-post.

Given one long rest, Spark could fashion two wide smooth metal skids for the sled to ride on. (one before and one after a long rest)

If we combine that with the druids shapeshifting into beasts capable of pulling such a sled, would that get us home even faster, and with less potential for exhaustion?

I just remembered something. You guys actually spent most of a day hiding in the woods waiting until you could take a long rest. You are a lot closer to town then I thought! Looking through the thread, you should be able to make it back in a few hours, even if you make the goblins walk! Also, the carts wouldn't save you much time, since its only a half-hour walk from where you stashed them to the end of the path the goblins cleared towards town. Off-road, the cart doesn't move any faster than the goblins can walk (sure, it would be faster with skids, but it would take longer to make the skids than to drag the carts the rest of the way home.)

I recommend modifying the carts when you get back to town, though, to use on future adventures!

Should we just hoof it back to town and sum up the adventure once we're back and can tally and distribute what we have, then?

Sounds like a plan.

Tidelan did want to take a short rest to refresh his wild shapes (he has none left), but if we're just hours from town, he can probably be persuaded (off-camera, if we like) to just hoof it back.

If we're just hours, we can rest for an hour and then hoof it back.


15:32, Today: Lukas Verbannt rolled 3 using 1d8+2.  HP.


15:32, Today: Lukas Verbannt rolled 9 using 1d8+2.  HP 2.

Back to full.

Let's roll for initiative if you plan to push Boneclaw aside while he tries to help the goblin .. I'm a damn cleric and all I've done for 4 months is fire arrows and missing out on doing anything in the big climax. I'll damn well heal the f^%#$ing goblin even if i have to stab you in the face to get it done :P.

Sorry my inner rogue took over for a moment ..

Sorry Tidelan, I wanted to move things along quickly during the rest, because our clerics are losing their minds, so I had you identify an item.

Anyway, Identify gives a lot more information than spending a short rest, though I admit, its rarely worth the 100gp to cast it. Personally, I don't see this as a big loss. Identifying magic items never seemed like more than an unnecessary annoyance anyway (hell, it bugs me in Diablo III, and in that game, it's free.)

Oops! My bad! I forgot Boneclaw was next to the goblin, lol.

Tidelan wouldn't push the birb away... He is trying to clear the other goblins away (including the grieving wife, lol) so he can get in touch range to cast the spell.

Also, GM: Since the goblin is stabilized, I don't think Tidelan would need to cast a healing spell. The idea was to stop him from dying... Tidelan doesn't care if he's awake :shrug:



LOL :)

No worries, I would actually be pretty annoyed (though maybe not full stabbing) if my teammate pulled something like this on my character (it wasn't my intention to push boneclaw, as I explained above <3)

Also, pushing someone aside would probably be closer to a grapple check than an initiative roll, aka an athletics vs ( athletics or acrobatics )? Dunno for sure, though.

Might even be a straight strength contest, but I doubt initiative would be rolled, since a single contest is hardly initiating combat (pushing someone to the point where they take fall damage would probably be, though...)

I don't know if I've said it yet, but I feel how incredibly disappointing it is for you that you rolled double nat 1s on those guiding bolts! I agree with the statement that it's kind of anticlimactic.

Oops, GM posted while i was typing. So i'm double-posting a response :P

No need to be sorry, I don't mind when you or Narrator skip us along a bit if things are getting 'stale', I think it's definitely a smart choice.

I'm not upset either that you had Tidelan identify an item (it's way quicker than having us spend another two days in OOC figuring out what to do about the magic items), though I disagree that the spell is an annoyance, I've always found it to be really fun.

Also, I feel like my communication has been a little rough-around-the-edges today (not sure why), but I don't think it's caused any issues, which is fortunate!

You all might have noticed that I've been experimenting with Tidelan's personality quite a bit since the fight ended (seems like an appropriate time), which is because I plan to have him take a barbarian level... I'm trying to find the right mix between showing that aggressive side of him but also having him grow as a character so that he is more comfortable with his allies.

I'm also putting emphasis on his genasi nature, because I have some big future plans for this character (which may never come to fruition, because they are highly situational and very late-game)...

Perhaps pushing a goblin wife away from her hubby is pretty awful, but I'm willing to roleplay the consequences (I've always seen these kind of spur-of-the-moment decisions as something that rises from a character's panic or sense of urgency rather than their true self... I mean, I can't have every action in combat (or in this case Tidelan trying to save a life) have emotional weight, no matter how much I try to describe that!)

So several approaches spring to mind ..

How warm is the inside of a bag of holding .. given how it is a pocket dimension and thus not necessarily as cold as outside? I imagine it having a very average temperature.
Can we wrap him in blankets and then use the bag of holding as a sort of sleeping bag, so the goblin's head sticks out but the rest of his body is inside the bag of holding? lol.

Alternatively since wild shapes are possible again someone can turn into a woolly warm animal and warm him up while we travel to town.

Alternatively i was wondering whether the Alchemy kit can be used to create a form of primitive heat pack.

Finally if he does die Boneclaw can bring him back to full health. Though not sure what that does with hypothermia.



I thought Tidelan struggling with his bestial side was quite fun.

Might help a bit. If his wife (or another warm body) joins him in the bag, I'd say he can go two hours without needing another medicine check.



Circle of Mortality? You can maximize healing from cure spells on targets at 0 HP. Healing the dead has no effect. Also, healing HP doesn't affect hypothermia, because he hasn't actually lost any. I suppose Cure Disease would work.

SO! Is the party going to move at a fast pace, or risk extra Medicine checks? One failure, and you've got a goblin widow on your hands!

Note: I know I established different rules for exposure. Some things affect NPCs differently. I wouldn't suddenly mess with one of you in a way that violates established rules for the sake of drama, without your permission (unless I needed to be reminded of the rule.) I asked the goblin's player, and I said I was okay with it :)

Tidelan's willing to rush back home, as he thinks it's the better idea for saving the goblin and avoiding possible encounters... but, I don't think he cares very much about the goblin surviving anyway...

Seeing as being a cleric doesn't help this situation either, I'm ready for this adventure to be over as quickly as possible.

I'm alright with rushing.

Guys, I know some of you are building a rapport, but future adventures might be more enjoyable if you joined other parties. 2 clerics and 2 druids in one party makes for a lot of redundancy.

That's certainly true, but it was the only job-opening when I joined the game, and there has come a lot more people in after that started, it's just that we haven't gotten back to town yet.

That's the problem as I see it.

This game rarely has more than one quest open at a time (other than perimeter patrol, which is the most rinse-wash-repeat thing ever, and probably poses little threat to characters after level 1 to 3 without fudging encounters and/or breaking world-immersion), sometimes it has none open at all.

That means, if the ONE possible quest isn't viable for you, is full, or your not interested, your options are either to socialize in public threads like taverns or other peoples homes (which IMO means a lot of character personalities (such as Tidelan) would be better suited to forming a close group of friends, instead of being incredibly outgoing and getting to know many of the other players) or to start your own adventure (which generally means going solo, because there's very little you can do to produce incentive for other players to join you, other than forming a bond, which again, is something that lends itself to more insular groups)

If there were more quests open (especially for those poor new first level characters, who are basically obligated to do a perimeter patrol or else never reach level 2 and get to join the big boy quests)

To be clear, this is all understandable, it takes a lot of work to run a single group, let alone several groups with wildly different desires and abilities.

However, this game now has about 20 players and is still requesting new ones, so I have no idea why there is still very little to do...

Again, making your own stories is great and definitely makes sense for a sandbox game like this, but I doubt either of the GMs are interested in running 20 players seperately (or maybe I'm wrong, and it's less work).

And yeah, this quest has taken a really long time, which is frustrating. I mean, an absurd amount has gone in the time we've been gone (a couple days in character).

I suppose the fulcrum of my argument is that there aren't as many opportunities to do things in this game that there could be.

In addition to trying to fill out the job board more, we really need to do a better job of advertising the fact that if you form a party and go out on your own to do something, and it helps the town in some way, Smith will pay you. As for patrols, I've made changes to how I run them to make each one unique, and to use them to generate quest-hooks, but not much we can do about their lack of challenge without completely destroying suspension of disbelief (which, I'm aware, is tenuous at best, already.) Also, I can't force players to notice quest-hooks (or at least, I probably shouldn't.) Suffice to say, the more of the world the players explore, the more possibilities will be brought to your attention!

A big problem with that, of course, said exploration happens slowly. If we ran three expedition parties at a time, instead of one, the job board would be pretty full by now. Oh, hindsight!

Can someone point me to the thread/message where we got XP for the Red Foot Camp?  I can't for the life of me find it.

Not counting what we looted in the camp, we dragged back

64 GP, 71 SP and 170 CP.

5x longswords
6x chainmail
5x longbows
5x shields
1x scimitar
1x shortbow

We're rich!
This message was last edited by the player at 00:35, Mon 31 Aug 2020.

Here you go.

THANK YOU!

So all told that's

64 GP, 93 SP and 233 CP.

5x longswords
6x chainmail
5x longbows
10x shields
5x scimitars
5x shortbow
Muzzrink's spear
Muzzrink's studded leather
4x small leather armor

Anyone want to do the math on how much that's all worth at half price?

Verbannt would be eyeing Muzzrink's studded leather's the whole time though.

You're welcome.


All that, the contents of the chest, and a reward from Smith.

I don't know if this will make anybody else laugh, but here's Tidelan's current XP count:



That means, that in the last 24 hours (at most), he's almost leveled up twice (not really, because XP progression is exponential, but notice how 1800 is twice 900, and 1778 is nearly 1800).

I don't think I've brought this up because it wouldn't have accomplished anything to complain about not being able to long rest at any point...

IIRC our last rest he was at nearly 900 XP, so he basically gained nearly 1000 XP in a single day... which as we know, has taken at least one real life month...

That seems super wonky, but maybe it's normal... I have no experience with non-milestone progression.

I mean, considering this is a sandbox game, any player could presumably power-level super quickly... but the weird thing to me, is that our party hasn't done that, and yet my suspension of disbelief has still suffered from this incredible growth.



Hurray!



Well... to be honest, that's hardly true.

A house costs 25 or 50 gold (i don't remember), and that's literally the only thing we can afford to purchase right now. Magic items cost 100s or 1000s of gold, and the only other thing that money can even be spent on is roleplay or ECON.

So, even if we all had 67 gold coins (do we? or is that the total sum you listed?) it's virtually useless (at least we're not using coin weight, cause than it would be more trouble than it's worth)...

Sure, having a house prevents exposure rolls, but I don't really know if Tidelan wants to live in a house... I mean, character-wise, he might be more comfortable sleeping in a familiar place... rather than being so final about things by purchasing/building a home...

Also, there's no reason to have an ECON playstyle with him... he's not a people person, he probably wouldn't like to have a job like that, and he doesn't even care about money.

The main issue with currency in this game (IMO) is that there's NOTHING TO BUY! It seems that the only things that can be bought are mundane items and trade goods from Jessop Schmidt, and anything another player puts up for sale.

I have no idea why a magic shop has been introduced so early, if every single item is out of every single character's price range...

If I were playing a rogue, I'd just steal whatever I could (since buying anything is out of the question because it's literally impossible) and then become the only player in the game to have magic items.

Honestly, I'd be happy about that. 'Cause at least it would be funny, instead of nothing happening :shrug:

---

I've noticed I've been writing a lot of criticism lately, which I know can be overwhelming and maybe even frustrating. I'm only saying anything because I really like this game and want it to be as good as it can be.

Also, I've put a lot of these things out there recently because now that this quest is ending, we're all sort of 'in danger' of falling into a period of having nothing to do... other than downtime stuff, which some of us may take advantage of (hmm... Tidelan might be the only character who doesn't really mesh with this aspect of the game, which is surprising considering how many players we have, I'd assume at least a few others would be playing a character that isn't here to get rich in a new frontier lol).

Fair criticisms. Though on your first point, it is partly just the way D&D works (PCs gain power at an unrealistically fast pace in-universe time,) partly because we give bonus xp for Christmas, post count milestones and quest completion (making you level even faster.) And partly because at play by post rates, in-universe time moves very slowly. Consider: a round of combat, taking up 6 seconds in-universe, tends to take several real-time days.

As for the second, I've been complaining about the same problem in D&D for years. Imagine how much more pointless you your money would be if there weren't magic shops or crafting. Also, players can craft magic items for way cheaper, so once they begin doing so, they will become available for much cheaper. We introduced the magic shop this early to give people goals to work toward, and a place to learn the recipes to craft the items.

How do we resolve the distribution of magic items?

I believe all of us would be interested in the bag of holding, and at least Boneclaw and Spark could use the shield. I have no interest in the spear or armour.

That's something I figured we would talk about in-character, though if nobody is interested in that, we could just discuss it here.

These are the items (if IIRC):

1x Silvered dagger
1x Spear [+1]
1x Studded Leather [+1]
1x some sort of Shield of Arrow-Turning
1x Bag of Holding

Tidelan has proficiency with the use of the studded leather, the shield (ONLY if it's wooden), the spear, or the dagger.

He's mostly interested in the armor or the shield, but the spear could be useful too, if he ever runs out of better options.

The bag of holding is an awesome item, though I have no doubt Tidelan would make the least use of it out of all of us.

Now, my take on who should get what:

Lukas should probably get the armor since he's a rogue, and the disadvantage on stealth might not hurt him as badly.

The shield is probably equally good in the hands of Spark/Boneclaw... but, IIRC forge clerics can improve their AC, and grave clerics lack that ability... so maybe it's more vital for boneclaw to have (conversely, maybe having Spark act as a tank could also be very valuable for his future adventures in groups)

The silvered dagger isn't really intriguing to anybody, from what I've read (so maybe we give it to Dorian hahaha)

I propose that the spear and bag of holding act as 'consolation prizes'. Perhaps whichever Cleric doesn't get the shield, can have the bag of holding? Of course, if either of you prefer the bag over the shield, then that is also fine.

That just leaves the spear, which while not very exciting, is something Tidelan would be grateful to have and he wouldn't feel cheated.

Thoughts? ;)

As people have done all the work on the magic items, I'll crunch the numbers on the material items tonight.

I like Tidelan's reasoning, as I can't use the shield, and my stats and class features clash with the spear enough to make it a bad choice.

5x longswords = 75 gp
6x chainmail = 450 gp
5x longbows = 250 gp
9x shields = 90 gp
5x scimitars = 125 gp
5x shortbow = 125 gp
4x small leather armor = 40 gp

All that together is 1155 gp.

Sadly, the store owner is only going to pay half price, so that's 577.5 gp in value.

Added with the loose coin we'd looted?  That's 644 gp, 43 sp, and 33 cp.

You each get 129 gold (I'll take 128), 8 silver, and 6 copper.

With 3 silver and 3 copper as pocket change for whoever wants it.
This message was last edited by the player at 02:41, Tue 01 Sept 2020.

Wow, the first magic weapon in the game, and one almost every class can use. A consolation prize. Oh, and studded leather doesn't disadvantage stealth. The only light armor that does is padded.

The shield is wood. To clarify its ability: it attracts missiles toward the owner, (but only ones aimed at targets within 10 feet of them) and gives  them resistance to the damage. It only affects missile weapon attacks, not spells. And Lukas, you gained proficiency in shields with your Druid class so you could use it, though you tend to hold weapons in both hands, and besides, what Rogue wants to be a missile magnet?

And yeah, the silver dagger is because I forgot to count Dorian when deciding what loot to include, and figured, NPC or not, he had a valid claim to something nice (that wouldn't be to pricey for somebody to pick up when it inevitably shows up at Jessop's.) When werewolves attack, you'll find it intriguing :p


You know, if every class with armor proficiency begins play with leather or better, why does padded exist? I could see if it cost less than a gold piece, or weighed less than a sword, but really, who is it for?

I'm not mathematically gifted, but is there a way to separate out the items that Spark would be getting? As a smith and a metalworker, I think I could get more out of the items than selling them at half price to a random merchant.

WEE R SMART, S-M-R-T SMART!

In the famous words of Sun Tzu, "No plan survives contact with the enemy players!"



Oops! My bad! I got the two confused!

Wow... so this item is actually really good armor, especially for Lukas, as a rogue!

I mean, presuming he has a +3 in DEX, that makes his AC equal to 16, which is pretty good at low levels... and it scales!



Super agree.

I've been confused about why the hell does any kind of light armor even give disadvantage on stealth? What's the flavor there? I get that heavy armor makes a lot of noise because the plates/rings/chains clank together when you move, but why does padded leather make a lot of noise? It has no moving parts!

Is it supposed to impede movement and cause you to slip up? Really? It's light armor, it's in the name! It lets you add your full DEX! Agh it makes no sense!

---

Also, I totally forgot that we had so much money worth of items to sell! 130ish gold coins is a lot better than whatever I reckoned previously (I think it may be able to purchase some magic items, but I haven't memorized the table, so IDK for sure)

If Spark wants to separate some items, then that would probably be a conversation we should have first... I mean, Tidelan doesn't care/know anything about money (despite that it's pretty important lol), so he would have no argument, but other characters might be hard-pressed to give it up without a bargain attached (such as a 50% cut or whatever is decided).

Of course, maybe nobody cares, and just lets Spark get some stuff, which is wholesome as heck.

One last issue with this, is what items would Spark be getting? I mean, presuming he keeps and doesn't sell his magic item, then what of the equipment would he be taking with him? A fifth of it? Half? All of it?

There's no real clear guide on how this should be done, in my books. Also, I believe we should leave Lukas with at least something to sell, otherwise Tidelan looks a bit silly in the thread where he asks Lukas to sell the remaining gear.

---

Anyway, I'm going to make a post about returning with payments (just to show the public thread lurkers that Tidelan's good on his word), and then I'm going to figure out how in the Nine Hells to multiclass (just kidding I know how, but I haven't done it before)

1 magic item as decided by discussion currently.
1/5 of the items we have collected. What I do with them or how I am able to make more money than the rest of the group shouldn't factor in. A share is a share.

Of course, I guess I assumed you'd want to collect more than a fifth of the items, so you could turn a bigger profit, and then we'd be getting cuts.

Your idea is much simpler though.

However, I'm not sure exactly how to calculate that quickly... the only way to do it would be to go through each item and determine if it's being sold or kept... I'll try to use a shorthand formula below, though.

So, to begin, the value of one fifth of the items (before reductions by selling for half) would be 231 Gold Coins worth of items (1155 / 5)... this would be instead of a share though... because if I'm thinking right, 231 gold of items is equivalent to half that in cash (you would still be getting a share of the actual coins, just not a share of the items we sold)

Presuming you are taking metal items only because you're a blacksmith, that would be approximately equal to two scimitars (25 x 2 = 50 GP), two chainmail armors (75 x 2 = 150 GP) and three metal shields (3 x 10 = 30 GP). That other gold coin can't be accounted for, because nothing here sells in a way that it would be able to factor in (unless I'm wrong, somehow).

Hope that helped :)

Did anyone besides Spark sign a contract to have anything built?

I think mine is built already.

Any objections to Verbannt claiming the studded leather?

Yes, yours is already built, Lukas. Had to double-check. Every character's home is its own thread, so you and your friends don't need to hang out in the lobby of the inn all day! At least, when you all don't have 12 goblins following you around.

None here

I think that's fair.

I don't know when chronologically this conversation is happening, but if Tidelan's not present for it, we could say that he talked a bit about his thoughts on it during our ride back to town... It may be possible for you to set the spear aside for him (assuming there's no objections) with Darla, since IIRC that's what Tidelan did to keep your gold in safe hands.

Also, has everyone else marked off their Gold, XP and items? (by my count we made 254 Gold Pieces from this expedition, except spark who would have made 125 gold and 230 gold worth of metal items).

How do we figure out the bag and the shield, Boneclaw? the highest roll on a d20 gets the bag, lowest gets the shield?

Sure, rolling for it is fine.

Today: Boneclaw rolled 5 using 1d20.  magic item roll.

... Best 2 out of 3 ... ?

I hate this dice roller ...

(I was kidding about best 2 out of 3, enjoy the bag :).
This message was last edited by the player at 23:20, Thu 03 Sept 2020.

04:32, Today: Spark rolled 16 using 1d20.  magic item roll.

You really are cursed :/
I thought I showed spectacular form on my last medicine check with advantage...

Thanks

Does someone else want to explain what happened?  I don't want to steal all the limelight.

Tidelan and talked to Smith already, and Spark gave him the maps.