Rules

Bozak draconian! I remember those! :-D

Btw I love that we're doing psionics here. I don't have any experience with it myself but for some reason I associate it with, again, my early days of gaming.

If you're like me, you never played a psionic, but you tried to qualify for one every time you rolled up a character.

We pretty much always played it straight, so my friends and I never played a psionic in a campaign. But, one time we did do a 'what if?' test of psionics in AD&D. We rolled up a ranger, GAVE him psionics, leveled him up to 16th, and pit him against a succession of monsters in an arena to see how he'd fare.

Psionics made him completely unstoppable; he blasted through everything we threw at him in a few rounds at most...right up until he met Jubilex. Jubie summoned some black puddings and they wiped the floor with that psionic tough guy.

Sorry, I have next to no experience playing spellcasters so I just want to make sure I understand this edition's rules correctly:

1. Spellcasting does NOT provoke opportunity attacks from adjacent foes, but ranged attack spells are made at disadvantage. Is that right?

2. Based on the text of the War Caster feat, a caster who DOESN'T have the feat can't cast a spell with a somatic component while using a shield. Correct?
Thanks!

That is how I've been interpreting the rule Jabes. It's a departure from previous rules for casting in combat to not provoke, but disadvantage is a nice compromise I think. And yes normally shiields and weapons would make Somatic gestures impossible to perform so that feat is very useful for casters who plan on getting into melees often

It may not ever come into play in this game, but I wanted to note that I've added another optional rule to the variant rules I'm using with this game: Spaceseeker19's Travel Rule with Mounts.

This is possible; it's called "multiclassing" and it's one of the D&D5's optional rules that we're using in this game. There are three prerequisites:
* Finding a trainer for the class you want
* Earning the experience points needed to gain a new level
* Having the required ability scores to multiclass (changing career direction requires one to be especially gifted)

Finding a class trainer
Each class trainer only trains levels in his class, so a character would have to find a class trainer for the class it wishes to gain. To train a monk class, you'd have to train with Tuan Vo, while Diana teaches cleric levels and Cormac teaches only fighter levels. Class trainers exist for all classes in and around Hochoch.

Earning the experience points
Everyone gains experience points as one adventures. To gain a level, one must reach the required experience.
Level 2: 300 XP
Level 3: 900 XP
Level 4: 2,700 XP
Level 5: 6,500 XP

When multiclassing, each level of all classes a character has are added together to determine the total character level; the character must earn XP to add another character level beyond the total character level, regardless of what level the character is in a particular class. So a character who is a 2nd-level barbarian and a 1st level bard is considered a third-level character, and would need the XP to go to level 4 (2,700) before it could train in any class.

Required ability score minimums
When multiclassing, your character needs to be better than good in order to change careers. Thus the character must meet or exceed minimum ability scores (13) in the last class trained and the new class trained in order to change career paths. The fighter who wishes to multiclass needs a 13 in Strength OR Dexterity to train in another class, but all the other classes with multiple abilities listed must have BOTH of those abilities at 13 or higher.

Prerequisite ability scores
Barbarian: STR 13
Bard: CHR 13
Cleric: WIS 13
Druid: WIS 13
Fighter: STR or DEX 13
Monk: DEX and WIS 13
Paladin: STR and CHR 13
Ranger: DEX and WIS 13
Rogue: DEX 13
Sorcerer: CHR 13
Warlock: CHR 13
Wizard: INT 13

Example: Jenny's character Medb is a Druid with the following stats: STR-14 INT-9 WIS-16 DEX-13 CON-12 CHR-10. The character earns 300 XP, and Jenny decides that she wants to multiclass to a rogue. Medb can do this because she is a Druid and exceeds the Druid's minimum multiclass WIS of 13 AND meets the rogue's minimum multiclass DEX of 13. Medb finds a rogue trainer and becomes a second-level character with classes Druid 1/Rogue 1. Then Medb gains 600 more XP for a total of 900, and she decides she wants to learn some new abilities. She meets the rogue's minimum multiclass DEX of 13, but she does not meet the minimum INT required to gain a wizard level, nor can she train to become a bard, paladin, sorcerer, or warlock (as they all require a CHR of 13). So she opts instead to multiclass to a ranger (having both a DEX of 13 and WIS exceeding 13), becoming a third-level character with classes Druid 1/Rogue 1/Ranger 1.

There are particulars about each class when multiclassing (which skill proficiencies your character gains, how different hit dice work, etc) which I will go into with each player if it comes up, or players may ask here ahead of time.

(edited for legibility)

Just a note on the map of the Forest Ruin: in the setup of the game, I expressly said that we would NOT be playing on a grid. That has not changed; it's just that I had the grid paper out for another GP game's map, and I automatically used the next sheet of the pad in drawing the initial Forest Ruin map. You are not restricted to moving within the squares shown there, though the map has been drawn to each square is 5' on a side scale. So we can:
a) continue with this map, only using the grid for a sense of distance measurement, or
b) I can remove the grid with the next update of the map and add a map scale legend, so it won't be provoking any confusion about this.

Let me know which option you prefer.

I’m ok if you leave it as-is. I tend to only regard grids and squares if it’s a combat situation, unless DM instructs otherwise.

I’m used to theater of the mind in a pbp game. I’m down with whatever works for the group.

Thanks for noting the grid isn't absolute. No need to remove; it provides convenient measurement.

Seconded.

Two things about the rules:

First, I want to apologize to everyone for not following the injury rules we'd laid out for this game; when you all took the short rest and spent hit dice, I should have mentioned that spending hit dice uses healer's kit applications. I will endeavor to not omit this in future.

Second, we have a question about some other optional rules to apply (optional class features from the accessory book Tasha's Cauldron of Everything). The easiest thing would be to say "No, that's not on the list." It would certainly keep things simpler. But when I made that list of rules for this game and the initial group of players accepted it - NINE YEARS AGO - no D&D5 books existed other than the PHB and DMG. All the other optional rules in D&D Fifth Edition were written after this Gamer's Plane game started! So I wanted to check in with you, the players, to see how you feel about it. Do you want to consider adding any of the optional rules (particularly the character class options) from Tasha's Cauldron of Everything, or do you want to continue with just the rules we have already established? The particular class feature mentioned so far - the monk's "Dedicated Weapon" feature - doesn't seem too disruptive of the AD&D feel I was trying to maintain for this game, which is the primary criterion I will apply to all such optional rules if the group decides that we should consider them.

Obviously I'm biased since I am the monk player looking to benefit from the optional rules. I just want to add that I'm perfectly fine with not having the optional rules in play. I plan to stick with the monk class and will likely take the Way of Mercy should I survive to level 3, and my enjoyment of this game will not be affected by whether or not I can use the rules from TCoE.

I am ok with the optional rules.

Speaking as a player whose PC has an odd-numbered stat, I might at some point ask for a specific feat they grants a +1 ability score increase as well as another nominal benefit (I’m looking at you Skill Expert).

I’m ultimately ok with or without, but if it’s helpful and increases fun-factor for everyone, and esp as long as it doesn’t hurt the DM’s brain to do so, I support it.

My stat rolls were pretty bad. I can't see multiclassing. The only optional rules for Druids are a crappy version of a familiar, and the ability to replace a Druid cantrip with another Druid cantrip.

I could go either way on optional rules, personally.

The rule on identifying magic items we are using in this game is called "More Difficult Identification" (page 136 of the 5e Dungeon Master's Guide). Instead of the default "a PC rests with the item and learns all there is to know about it" rule, "More Difficult Identification" requires using an Identify spell to learn all the details, or just experimenting by using the item to discover what it does. So for the mace I've tried to provide some finer detail as to what Kragga and the others can observe about the mace, given their languages and abilities. I'll endeavor to do the same with any other magic items you find.

Xana is continuing down the Warlock path. I don't think any of the optional rules apply to her.

CancerMan has made reference to Aanbo's herbalism kit a number of times, so I wanted to us clarify the process for a PC to create a potion of healing. The difficulty is that the basic rule - Crafting in "Downtime Activities" on page 187 of the PHB - implicitly contradicts the optional rule I said we will use in this game for "Crafting a Magic Item" on pages 128-129 of the DMG.

Here are the differences:
1) If we consider a standard healing potion as a magic item, then a standard healing potion would take 2 work days and 50 gold for one or more minimum-level-3 characters who each can cast Cure Wounds to create.
2) If we consider a standard healing potion as adventuring gear, then a standard healing potion would take 10 work days and 25 gold for one or more characters each proficient in the use of herbalism kits to create.

For this game, I'm leaning toward interpreting standard healing potions as "Adventuring Gear," for the purposes of crafting mechanics. How do you feel about it?

I know healing potions have this odd sort of "in-between" status, but personally I have never thought of them as magical items.