OOC Thread

So before I change my character sheet, it looks like as a level two fighter I gain the Action surge ability, as well as the hit die. As far as the hit die is concerned I started off with 10 +con, which would then have a 1d10+ con modifier added to it? Or being at level two I would now have 2d10 +con? How does this work specifically?

Hi Starrbeardo, thanks for the question. Hit Dice and Hit Points are separate things.

For Hit Points, yep, you started with 10+con, which should be 13 for you. I now see you have 15 written down, which I think is wrong (although let me know if I'm missing something). You might have added your con saving throw bonus (which is a +5) instead of your con modifier (which is a +3). Now you get to add 6+con, or 9 hp to that total. So I believe you should hav 13+9 =22 hp now.

For Hit Dice, you have gained an additional d10 hit die. You now have two d10 hit dice. When you take a short rest (1 hour), you can roll hit dice for healing. You can roll any of your hit dice and add your con modifier (+3). If you are not satisfied with the healing, you can continue to roll more hit dice one at a time (always adding con modifier) until either you run out of hit dice or you are satisfied with your healing. It is presumed you are bandaging wounds, stitching yourself up, and generally shaking off the effects of injury.

You regain 1/2 of your hit dice pool every long rest, minimum 1. Currently a long rest will restore 1 of your hit dice to use for future healing in short rests.

HP is now edited, HP dice makes sense now, and I should add the action surge ability correct?

Jacketch, awhile ago you had considered switching burning hands for shield. I think its a good idea. Ice Knife has been your go-to AoE damage spell and is working well. Shield is a fantastic spell. It doesn't waste your action or bonus action, and it can save you in a pinch. Sometimes it's not just about the hit points either. When you take damage, if you are concentrating on a spell you have to roll to see if it turns off or not. If you are dead set on maintaining concentration on a spell, shield can avoid that check entirely. I would not leave home without it.

Jacketch, for your 2 new spells, Featherfall sounds pretty good. Also consider Find Familiar. It's a ritual that summons a permanent critter to help you (you can only have 1 at a time). They are great for scouting because you can see through its eyes within 100 feet. With the owl, it has 120ft. darkvision, so you could see up to 220 feet away in darkness. You can deliver touch-range spells through it (such as shocking grasp). It can also spend its turn distracting a target, giving you advantage in attacking that target.

This google doc has the possible creatures you can choose from, including stats. Probably Owl is my favourite, but others are good too.

Yep, you get action surge now.

Action surge is pretty amazing. Right now, it gives could give you a second weapon attack. But once you hit level 5 and get an extra attack, you can action surge for 4 attacks! Note that action surge does not give you an additional bonus action. So, if you are dual-wielding hand axes, you can action surge for an addition 1 attack, for a total of 3.

Usually people will use action surge to get more damage in at the beginning of a fight, but you can use it for other things. For example, you could action surge to grant you a dodge or disengage action after attacking. You could action surge for a second medicine check to stabilize a fallen comrade. You can even action surge to cast 2 spells with a casting time of one action on a single turn (if you eventually learn them through multi-classing), which even pure wizards can't do.

So, it is pretty useful, and will only get better with time.

That's awesome would action surge allow me to attack and then use second wind in the same turn?

Starrbeardo, you are going to love this: second wind is a bonus action. So now you could attack twice AND use second wind in one round!

So for Iman it says I roll 1d12 and add my modifier to it. Is that correct? Or is it just 7?

Technically you have the option to roll a hit dice instead of taking the average. It sucks to roll a 1 on those rolls though! And 7 is actually slightly above average, so taking 7 every time statistically works out to be better than rolling in the long run. If you choose to roll, you get what you get ;)

Jacketch, I noticed pageflap has a letter from a mad wizard about some wild theory that comes from your Sage background. Do you want to tie that letter to the evil things you discovered underground? It would provide you with some new insight on the problem.

Haven't really thought about the letter too much, but I thought it'd make most sense for it to come from the Mad Wizard since he was probably the only one he knew who could write something he didn't understand. Forgot to bring it up, but I was gonna say that you could do whatever you wanted with it in terms of plot or what it says. If you want to save its plot importance for later, that'd be fine too!

As for my HP, so I roll a 1d6+2, or take 4+2? If I take my roll and don't like it do I take the +6? Or do I not since it's supposed to be a risk?

Edit: Either way I'm risking it!

Edit2: Ha

Edit3: I just noticed G3rmanicus asked this exact question way before I posted this, whoops. At least it's more encouragement for Pageflap to take Abjuration. It's in character. Yes.

Haha, now shield is better than ever! Yeah sorry, you get what you get when you roll :)

Okay, switched to shield from Burning Hands. Pageflap has always had these and denies all evidence to the contrary. Also, I think I got everything from my level up now.

I now have 3 1st level spell slots instead of 2.
I have gained 3 HP.
I can have 5 spells prepared at once now.
I gain 2 new spells (Find Familiar and Feather Fall).
Gained an Arcane Tradition (Abjuration).
Am now an Abjuration Savant.
And have an Arcane Ward (Added to Temp HP on character sheet so I know how much I would get).

I think I got everything. Did I miss anything?

I don't have my books in front of me today, but I think wizards have all spells they know prepared at all times. Correct me if I am wrong, anybody.

Otherwise looks great! I like your spell list, really matches your character. And abjuration is an interesting school. Note that shield is an abjuration spell, so every time you stop a hit with shield, you also recharge your ward! You are actually a decent melee character! :)

Note that Temp HP never stacks. If you have 3 temp hp and you get 7 temp hp, you don't stack them. Instead, you can either keep the current amount or take the new amount.

I'm not even sure if it counts as temp HP, actually. It sounds like it makes a shield around me, rather than False Life which explicitly says it does. In fact, do I have to make a concentration check if it's the ward that takes damage? I'm not sure if the ward counts as me anyways, since at a later level I can throw it at someone to protect them. I'll take the temp HP off.

And I can only prepare spells equal to my wizard level plus my intelligence modifier, so it's 5 for me. I've just been getting lucky that the remaining spells I'm choosing happen to be ritual spells.

Hey, I googled it and you're right! On both accounts. The ward is not temp HP and you do prepare spells. Serves me right for relying on memory alone.

Kit will be taking a level in Warlock. As Len said, multiclassing has its own risks and rewards. I've multiclassed a) because the story called for it, b) because I wanted to max the powers from two classes, and c) because I wanted to mimic the abilities of a fictional character. Sometimes the two classes work together in powerful ways. Other times, the character ends up being less powerful than if he had stuck to a single class.

First off, with multiclassing, you have to make sure you have the minimum score (13) in the class's primary ability. In this case that's not a problem since warlock and sorcerer both use charisma. On top of the abilities of the new class, Kit gains the new class's hit die and certain proficiencies. Not all of the proficiencies of the new class, just certain ones. And when I was looking up the hit dice, I realized I had given Kit the wrong HP. A sorcerer, like a wizard, uses a d6, not the d8 I had used (sorry, Len). A warlock uses a d8. So instead of having 2d6 hit dice, Kit now has a d6 and a d8, either of which he could use to regain hit points during a short rest.

The proficiencies he gains are light armor and simple weapons. The simple weapons don't add much to the weapons Kit could use, but the light armor? I'm looking forward to finding some studded leather to add a couple points to Kit's AC.

Multiclassing as two spellcasting classes gives Kit a tremendous range of spells to choose from. Typically, though, when multiclassing involves two spellcasting classes, the spell slots don't stack. For example, a 1st level bard/1st level cleric gains the spell slots of a 2nd level character, not two 1st level characters. Because the warlock class works differently than other spellcasting classes, Kit, however does get the spell slots of two 1st level characters, and he can use the spell slots from either class to cast spells from either class. Once Kit gains a couple more levels, that's going to give him a tremendous advantage since he will be able to convert his warlock spell slots into sorcery points and then regain those spell slots with a short rest.

This advantage of regaining expended spell slots from a short rest is tempered with a low number of spells and spell slots. Kit only gains one 1st level spell slot and two cantrips and two spells. For the cantrips, he'll be taking Eldritch Blast and Frostbite, allowing him to help out more in combat. For the spells, he's taking Sleep and Arms of Hadar, both of which operate on multiple targets.

I'll be taking the average hit points for a Warlock (5) and will roll a d8 to gain some HP during our short rest.

So we should be doing short rests rather than a long rest?

I guess it depends what time of the day it is? I think it's still pretty early and we may be able to spend some time exploring the village. There are still some plot hooks laying around. Rose is still sitting at the sheriff's, General Whitesparrow's keep may have info, there's that freaky hand that may have more to it underground, not too mention I'm sure we saw some kid with nature powers doing that thing where foliage sprouts wherever he steps.