Academy Cafeteria

Feel free to gather here and chat out of character with other players and characters. Your OOC thread!

Thanks for having me here! :-) I've played eith most but not all of you so here's my customary introduction:

I'm Jabes, 42 years old, from Manila, Philippines (GMT+8). Besides the time zone difference I also keep odd work hours as I am a chef running my own cake business. We like making geeky cakes. Here's a D&D-themed one, and here's another.

And then there's this bad boy!

I was introduced to D&D almost 30 years ago (AD&D back then) and to this day I still play with the same group of guys, my best friends. We played 3.5E when that came out and spent 10 years on a campaign, skipped 4E, and started a 5E campaign as soon as it came out. I've been on GP since early 2015. It's been fun trying out new game systems and character concepts I would never have gotten off the ground in my IRL games.

Whenever I play I try to do something new. Sometimes that means something a little unconventional, but other times that just means something I myself have never tried before. I'm going to play a "Rage Mage" that Dramasailor and I were discussing on this thread. I've also never played a tiefling.

Looking forward to this game with you guys! Cheers!

Hey, I'm Nate, from Michigan in the USA. I've been on here since June 5th, 2015 and most of you have probably seen me on here quite a bit.

I recently lost my job and am in the process of returning to my old job. Because of this, I have a LOT less time to devote to GP than normal, though I am doing my best to keep up. Once things stabilize, I will become more active in this game, but I am going to be spending some of my time lurking here for the moment if that's ok!

Hi all, I am known as Moof and am from NY (not the city, but I do have a fun commute to/from there every day). I joined this site about a year and a half ago, and my life has been taken over by D&D 5e ever since! No complaints there. I am also pretty busy these days and am due with my second kid July 1st, so I may be posting more distractedly than usual.

I look forward to creating a shiny new character (perhaps one of the released Unearthered Arcana sub types?) within the next week or so. I enjoy creating fun, new characters way too much! This could be a fun challenge to create something I wouldn't normally play, but we shall see. I may be lurking for a bit until then.

May as well:

I'm Dramasailor, you can call me Drama or Kris, either one really. I'm currently from North Carolina, though I've lived all over the eastern half of the country. Only been around here since November of last year, but have just jumped right in. I do love the PbP format. I've played 3.5/PFS/5th Ed the most, but like to dabble with any kind of system, really.

I've got three kiddos (a 7 year old and a pair of twin 9 month olds) at home, so my posting can be sporadic at times. This particular game is fun for me because we can mess around with all kinds of ridiculous rule options.

So how do you want me to do this Drama? Roll in the correct thread for stats or do I wait for class three?

There's only one thread for chargen. Then, characters get placed into the classes. So you could end up with a character in Class 3 and Class 5, as an example.

Ok, so just roll the attributes? I want to try out a barb against 3 of whatever is appropriate for the level.

Yup, roll attributes in the Vital Records thread, level 1 of whatever you're making. If you want a set of individual challenges, I'll set that up in the Dojo for you (one thread per character for personal fights, however many threads for duels and such between players).

As posted in the Absences thread:

PvP shit just got real!

I saw that, and the fact that you've used (at the earliest possible time) the "hit a motherfucker with another motherfucker" makes me so happy.

I was also pretty happy to see Jabes achieve his goal so quickly!

That move is the entire point of this character! :-D

Does anyone know if there is a finesse weapon that does bludgeoning damage? Brynn can't do sneak attack damage without using a finesse weapon. In Jabes' bar brawl, he wants to just knock people out, so he's using a staff instead of a dagger. I know that according to RAW, he could use his dagger and just declare it non-lethal, but for RP purposes, that seems kind of ridiculous. He'd basically be saying, "Not cool using a sword in a bar brawl, so let me draw my dagger to stop you!" I would think a club could be finesse-like, but it isn't. I don't think what I'm looking for exists, but I thought I'd ask a wider audience.

I don't think there is on by RAW. I'd be willing to say that a sap of some sort exists (1d4 B, Finessable, Light). The reason I think I could get behind it being finesse is not so much like a club which is just aim and thwack, but more like knowing WHERE to hit someone with a slightly weighted object (thinking like a leather pouch with sand in it or something). It's very much a precision bludgeon (as much as that makes sense).

That makes sense with a club. I guess when I think "club," I'm thinking more along the lines of a martial arts billy club. Probably a result of reading all those Daredevil comics in the '80s.

I suppose if I'm thinking along the lines of martial arts weapons, I could just go with nunchucks. Would they be considered a finesse weapon?

If you are thinking martial artsy, either nunchucks or tonfa would make sense.

I like the tonfa. That seems a little more elegant (the sap seems a little thuggish, though I can totally see it working for a certain type of character). Plus, I kind of want to steer away from the more traditional martial arts weapons like nunchucks. To me, that just puts limits on what the monk class can be. If you view "monk" as purely a mechanic, you can flavor text it however you want, without pigeon-holing yourself into a stereotypical shaolin-type character.

I'll go with the tonfa and retcon my action, if that's okay with you, Drama. That'll take my potential damage from 6-15 (with a d10 quarterstaff) to 8-21 (with a d4 tonfa plus sneak attack)! Also, with your okay, I'd like to flavor text it that he uses two tonfa, the second one being used for his unarmed strike (which I forgot to add on my turn). It's purely for the imagery of him whirling two of these things around instead of hitting with one tonfa and punching for his other attack.

Makes sense, most users would use a pair of them anyway (unless it's police using the PR-24 billy clubs). I like it. :D Tonfa it up.

Cool.

So on a failed save, only 2 pts of damage from Miyamoto's Shatter spell and not the 25 he rolled?

Nope, the 2 points is on top of the damage from his spell because of all the exploding glass, wood, and clay I'm the vicinity of the spell. Normally it wouldn't happen....but normally you don't toss that spell in the middle of a tavern. :l

In that case I'll spend my Reaction to activate Crush's Deep Breathing feature to halve all the force damage taken this round

Here's the exact text of that particular tactic:To be completely honest, I dove into this character without thinking too much about how it would play. I mean, that's the whole point of the Dojo, right? To test stuff out?

So looking at this closely now, if I'm reading it correctly, it looks like the core feature of this class is going to be ridiculously easy to beat.

Crush's Dirty Tactics DC is 17 So RyRy needs to beat that with either an Athletics or Acrobatics roll. Fine. BUT you subtract the damage done from the DC, so the more damage Crush deals with the feature, the easier it is to beat?! Somehow I feel like the damage should INCREASE the DC.

Here, Crush hits twice for 14 and 13 damage. So RyRy only needs a 3 and a 4 on his rolls to beat it. And if the attack rolls (17 for both attacks) beat Miyamoto's AC then he also takes 27 damage.

Am I interpreting correctly, Dramasailor?

Sorry, that was poorly worded. The intent was to make your damage increase the DC. So you have a DC of 17, plus you hit for 14, which would make the check a 31. Which is tuned poorly the other way (looking at it mechanically). With it that way, there's no way for RyRy to actually resist being picked up and swung like a bat.

I see a couple of possible ways to tweak this:
Remove the save option altogether and make it if you hit you can pick them up. I don't like this one so much because it feels too strong.

Find a different modifier to add to the DC for this one (like your dice roll for damage, not including your stat or proficiency). It should be more difficult to resist, personally. This would make it a 22 and a 21 respectively.

Have it act like a simple grapple check with your attack roll acting as the DC (still just a 17 in this case).

Once we hash out a better feeling difficulty, I'll reword the entire entry to make it more understandable.

I'd say make it be a contested grapple check between the two or keep the DC as his Dirty Tactics.

Also, while were on the subject of balancing, Brewer's Belch and Eye Thrust seem a bit unbalanced.
For Brewer's Belch: Disables most people as just a bonus action at no cost.

For Eye Thrust: As it is, 1 minute is WAY too long for no save and only 2 points. A round is only 6 seconds.

BAAW: I'm good with either. Jabes, what's your feel on it?

Brewer's Belch:
Is it that most people can't make the CON save? I can get behind some sort of a limit. Can only recharge if you take another drink? Or perhaps like a dragon's breath, make it rechargeable on a 5 or 6 at the start of your turn?

Eye Thrust:
Agreed 1 min is possibly too long. Should probably read like the throat jab (dex save, if failed blinded until the start of your next turn)

Doing a quick read through of the class page, it seems to make a couple classes useless; while it's fine for the current setting of just messing around, if you're looking to make a usable class I can see some problems. At 3rd level, Drunk and Disorderly already removes the need of three classes (Barbarian, Fighter, Monk). This was just a quick look so maybe I'm missing something. I can go into detail for the list down below, if needed.

Barbarians: Same Hit Points, Better AC; Completely Outshines when Rage is used up
Fighter (Battle Master, in particular): More Hit Points; More beneficial AC; Dirty Tactics
Monk: More Hit Points, More beneficial AC stats

BAAW: I feel like it should be the Dirty Tactics DC.

Brewer's Belch: Definitely impose a limit. Possibly even make it replace an attack. I'm unfamiliar with dragon breath mechanics. How does it work?

Eye Thrust: Yeah, like Drama said.

Overall: Agree with HypCo that it feels incredibly strong. It's a load of fun for this particular setup but I don't know if it should be allowed in a regular game. :-)

Assuming he's talking about Dragons Breath from the dragons in the MM. Basically, roll a d6 if the outcome is a 5 or 6 you can use it again.

Just a thought: Maybe make it a bonus action to recharge after using it. So,
Turn 1: Bonus Action, Brewer's Belch
Turn 2: Bonus Action, Brewer's Belch Recharge
Turn 3: Bonus Action, Brewer's Belch
Maybe throw in like a d4 of poison damage along with the incapacitated condition so the every-other-turn recharge isn't too harsh.

Or give it an ammo function, where you have a set amount of "ammo" before needing to "reload".
Turn 1: Bonus Action, Belch
Turn 2: BA, Belch
Turn 3: BA, Belch
Turn 4: BA, Belch
Turn 5: BA, "Reload"

Or just make it your action but have it be like the grapple or shove action where it only uses one of your attacks if your get multiple attacks during a turn such as from the Extra Attack feature.

Also, can only be used once per round.

That will leave your bonus action for other things and it keeps the feature at a decent action economy without being OP.

I don't think BaaW allows you to drag your target. I think I was waiting for a verdict on the DC to see what to roll but I'll use my reaction to cast shield to avoid the attack altogether.

You guys are absolutely right! Entirely my bad! Sorry, fellas!

What viable targets are available then, Dramasailor? Random thug is fine if that's all there is.

We might have to retcon my turn, too. Brynn's goal was to attack the ones drawing blades. His secondary goal would be to attack RyRy because, well, because he's really, really horrible. An obvious monstrosity. Brynn attacked Crush only because Crush was attacking Jackson. If Crush can't attack Jackson (and he's swinging RyRy around), Brynn would pick a different target.

Yeah, I think if you are scooping Ry up, random thugs and possibly Noserg would be in range. He's just been drinkin' and dodgin' the whole time.

That said, if Ry casts Shield, the attack would miss. Would you try to hit him again or would you see a magical effect and instead grab someone else?

If he misses Ry with the first grab, he'll try for Norseg with the second.

I don't know what Kraxix is but most races start out knowing two languages, sometimes more.
Also, in regards to your crit, you only double the dice not your modifier. So in that event, it would of been 2d8, 2d6 than add the +5 to what you rolled (4+4+3+2 = 13+5)

I was confused with the RAW on that. As a jackalfolk, it says I know common unless I am an intellectual class.

Gotcha, how about your background? Some of those grant extra languages.

Hermit

As a hermit, you get one language of your choice.

Taking a moment to rest?

I'm going to drop this game for the moment. I don't have enough time to commit to it, struggling as I am with the games I am currently in right now. Perhaps I will join back up once I have more free time.

As posted in the Absences thread:

I'll be out of the country and without internet access starting Sunday, October 8th. I'll return to the land of the interconnected living on Sunday, October 15. Between now and the 8th, I'll be very spotty as I get everything ready for the trip. Starting tomorrow, The Academy will be on official hiatus.

See all y'all in a week or so!