Month: April 2019

Shield Master Unleashed

ThinkDM

Everyone agrees that characters should be able to charge an opponent with a shield and shove them to the ground. There’s two ways to get this done in 5th Edition D&D:

  • You can do this normally by using one of your attacks to make a shove attack.
  • The Shield Master feat allows you to to this by tapping into your bonus action. As a result of some errata, you can only use the bonus action shield shove after you use your Attack action.
If you take the Attack action on your turn, you can use a bonus action to try to shove a creature within 5 feet of you with your shield.

Since this rule functions in an “if…then” arrangement, it requires that the Attack action comes first. There’s no making a promise that you’ll attack later. You’ve got to do it first.

Crawford Tweet on Shield Master

The Problems

The Narrative Problem. The…

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Elder Scrolls, Bloodlines 2, Hearthstone, Game Project, Gaming Stocks

Kitty Kitty Boom Boom

game artFour months without a post. That’s crazy. In the last four months, I got a new gaming PC. It has a NVidia 2060 and 16GB of RAM, with a 500GB SSD boot drive. I want to keep it clean and free of garbage. Just games.

So I’m ready for Cyberpunk 2077 and Bloodlines 2. Right now I’m playing ESO with ultra graphics, which is nice. I’ve leveled from roughly 20 to CP 125. LotRO also has an anniversary patch out this week. I want to see LotRO in ultra as well. I installed last night.

Vampire: Bloodlines 2

Announced! Let us all dance in mad ecstasy under the blood moon at the mere thought! Thank you to the people who are financing this and making it happen. This is one of the very few times I will pray for business people to get stinking rich.

Some new info came out…

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DDO’s world of mini-permadeath

Bio Break

There are many strange design differences between Dungeons and Dragons Online and most “regular” MMORPGs — so many, in fact, that it would make for a long article if I were to list them. It’s what makes it such a fascinating and underrated game, in my opinion.

But perhaps one of the most innocuous and most personally fascinating details is the way the game deals with your hit and spell points. DDO isn’t just old school with a much, much slower rate of regeneration — it’s absolutely archaic with a complete lack of regen while players are in instances. You lose hit points, they don’t come back (well, automatically at least). They’re a limited resource, as are spell points (which is especially worrisome for magic-based characters).

Now, there are plenty of exceptions to this format. There are healing spells and items, as well as items that grant back SP. Rest…

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20 D&D Warlock Quest Ideas

Boccob's Blessed Blog

D&D Warlock Quest Ideas

Today’s D&D Quest ideas are tailor-made for the party’s warlock, and come courtesy of Adventure.EXE’s Sarah Ellis Fox and Matt Klassen.

  1. Warlock-Sibling Rivalry. Your patron has grown bored and decided to pit you against another of their favored warlocks, in a race to complete a series of increasingly dangerous requests.
  2. Unwelcome Wagon. Due to recent cult activity (and what really amounts to closed-mindedness!), an edict from local administration has been issued, ordering the removal of those who have pacts with otherworldly entities.
  3. Two Weeks Notice. Your patron abruptly sends you a message: in two weeks time, the powers you had been granted will be rescinded unless you can convince them otherwise with a grand gesture.
  4. It’s In You To Give. Your patron has sent omens to you indicating that it’s time for their centennial blood drive! You need several gallons of blood to sacrifice to them, but you’ve been given…

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Dyson’s Deck of Many Things Update II

Dyson's Dodecahedron

Another 3 cards are done in the Dyson Deck of Many Things. The Throne, Key, and Comet cards. I’m not really happy with the Throne card as it stands – once I’ve got all 22 done I might go back and redraw this one using the current version as the basis but changing things up a bit.

Combined with the 3 first cards in the set, this brings us to 27% done and ever higher likelihood that I’ll actually finish the project.

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Temple Crypts of the Wraith Priests

Dyson's Dodecahedron

Beneath the walls of the roofless ancient structure of l’Église de l’Oubli are the Temple Crypts, still tended to by the Wraith Priests of the order.

Hidden behind massive ghost-iron masks, the wraith priests float nearly silently through the temple crypts guarding sacred relics that were stolen long ago and muttering prayers to the silent gods of this place. They watch the small side stairs into the crypts but avoid the larger (main) stairs because sun still shines down this way, reminding them of the times when the church was whole and they could walk in the sun.

Temple Crypts of the Wraith Priests Temple Crypts of the Wraith Priests

These underground structures are a mix of natural caves and worked stone and include an underground spring that once provided the water for the church. The waters of this spring are said to have a number of effects, and those standing in the waters or consuming…

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Games that SHOULD BE on the Capcom Home Arcade

TWO BEARD GAMING

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Retro systems: how many of us have them? I got friends, so… I’ll start.

Over the years, we have been introduced to several ways of resuscitating our youth through various outlets. Gaming now seems to become one of them. The ways presented are numerous for electronic entertainment. Indie developers decide to create fads, from adding to the franchises of yesteryear, with the creation of demake titles that pay homage to them. While at best, producing a subgenre for their rivals to imitate, developers produce ideas to rekindle the magic of the times past. Some relatively amazing (Celeste), while others literally nowhere close. Legends of the earlier stages of electronic entertainment attempt another shot of glory, through the means of Kickstarter and a dream, to undermine the legalities of their former masters. Bloodstained is to Castlevania as Mighty Number 9 attempted to be to Mega Man, as Hyper Turbo shadows Outrun…

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Xbox Game Pass – Games You Might Have Missed: April Edition

TWO BEARD GAMING

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Another month, another great selection of titles added to XBOX GAME PASS! With such a wealth of titles, your friendly neighbourhood bearded gamers have once again cherry-picked a selection that you may have missed. This month we have bloody adventures, high octane racing, ghoulish delights and….shapes.

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Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor

Set between the events of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, you take control of Talion, a human ranger who is unenviably stationed on The Black Gate. When the dark hoards brutally sacrifice Talion and his family to awaken to Elf Wraith Celebrimbor, things go tits up and your soul ends up merging with the Elf Lord and resurrecting Talion thus becoming The Gravewalker. From here you simply walk into Mordor in a quest to discover the backstory and history of the Elf Lord and seek out the ones who set you to your grim fate for…

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Buried alive in Dungeons and Dragons Online

Bio Break

I’m still hacking away at the never-ending series of Necropolis quests — and the tombs that accompany each one. I started off with Tomb of the Forbidden, which actually turned into a terrific romp. Oh, I wasn’t too pleased at the difficulties of getting hirelings to cooperate to help open doors (it’s A Thing with this quest), but past that, it’s a well-designed instance that has a great theme (bones and ice), new types of ice skeleton mobs that I’ve never seen before, and a flow that’s low on the frustration level. I even got me a teal ring that seriously boosted my open locks skill. It really does pay to have a good lockpicking set in this game.

And even better, this mission pushed me over the edge to level 14! It was just a week or so ago that I hit 13, so I guess I’ve been…

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Naturalist’s Guide to Eberron: Volume 1: Aarakocra to Azer

Cannibal Halfling Gaming

“Everything has a place in Eberron.” Despite the many unique features of Keith Baker’s D&D setting, this has actually been one of its most common taglines. There are enough mysterious corners of the world, enough factions and forces and peoples, that pretty much anything can find its way into the setting. I’ve embraced that idea myself, to a point: standard evil deities instead become demonic Overlords, strange species pop up in the Eldeen Reaches and Xen’drik and Argonnessen. that sort of thing. But how do you go about literally giving everything a place in Eberron? Well, you might start by reading the Naturalist’s Guide to Eberron: Volume 1: Aarakocra to Azer by Matthew Booth on the DM’s Guild.

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