Month: August 2020

D&D 5E – Starting Equipment

Dungeon Master Assistance

What equipment do I start with?

Many that are new to this game find equipping their character to be difficult. Even using an on-line tool such as “D&D Beyond” can be confusing.

It’s really fairly simple. First you must choose a class and a background for your character. Here is an example using the 5E version of the Player’s Hand Book to equip a Cleric with an Acolyte background:

-EITHER-
If you want to simply use the standard equipment do this:
1) Go to the “Class Features” section for your chosen class (“Cleric” in this example is on page 57). Look under “Equipment” in this section to find your list of starting equipment.
2) Then go to the section for the background that you have chosen (“Acolyte” in this example is on page 127). Look under “Equipment” in this section to find a list of the rest of your equipment…

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A Little Light on the Subject

Ilyanas Tomb of Doom

Southwest of Helgen, winter.

There’s a sea of snow out in the hinterlands now. Back in late summer, Misha the Road Witch warned us about it’s coming. I threw her a gold piece in hope she could forestall it. Maybe she just delayed it’s onslaught.

Out practicing lightning skills today. Insights galore. I picked a camp of Stormcloaks to lacerate with my magic. Many died quickly. But their leader, I’m not sure of his name, was blessed with a ring that seemed to negate my spell.

He hurled himself at me with murderous rampage. I’d taken away his men, and now he would–at night no less–try to take a vampyre’s right to exist from her.

I wasn’t having it.

Doubling down on my lightning, he finally fell to the snowy earth, writhing as I tortured. Death was denied him, but did he pray, did he pray for death under his…

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Smites Without Spell Slots

ThinkDM

Let’s hack smites to reinvigorate Paladin spellcasting, discourage multiclassing for the sake of powergaming, and promote more dynamic play styles.

The Mechanic

The 5e Paladin’s Divine Smite feature keys off of spell slots. When you hit, you can burn a spell slot to deal extra radiant damage, with bigger damage rolls for higher spell slots.

The Problem

The primary problem this produces is that Paladins often skip casting spells so they can preserve their spell slots for smites. Why give Paladins spells if they’re not going to use them? When players get a new feature that keys off a resource they already have, they don’t feel like they’re getting as much. While this is not fatal design, it can be improved.

The secondary problem this produces is that it encourages players to multiclass into Sorcerer. The driving function of the multiclass is as a spell slot engine, fueled by the…

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D&D Bestiary of Dragons and Giants (AC10): More Than Meets The Eye (1987)

Wayne's Books

The Bestiary of Dragons and Giants (Dungeons & Dragons Accessory AC10) has much more to it than the title implies.

A Bestiary in D&D parlance (to me anyway)… I’d expect a Monster Manual type book. That’s not really the case here. Dragons and Giants has much more in common with the Book of Lairs releases for AD&D (See REF series at my reference site): Short adventures featuring a particular monster type on their home turf. Which is what you have in these 14 mini-adventures.

However, AC 10 has more than adventure seeds. The nifty part of this book is the Dragon Spell Generator that you can assemble.

Bestiary of Dragons and Giants (AC10)

1987 … Deborah Christian (editor) & Larry Elmore (cover) … 64 pages + 2 covers (2-panel + 3 panel) + errata sheet … TSR 9211 … ISBN 0880384883

Check Wayne’s Books Inventory

Often, I won’t have…

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Create a Twitch or YouTube Stream Worth Watching By Offering Meaningful Value

In Third Person

Why should anyone watch your stream?

I know I might come off as a jerk for asking, but it’s a serious question all streamers with ambitions of growing have to answer. Myself included. Streaming is a highly-crowded, hyper-competitive, and top-heavy space where zero viewers is the norm for most.

Furthermore, there are inherent challenges that come with consuming live streaming content versus anything else online. Asking someone to carve out hours of their day to go to your channel and engage with you through the chat is way harder to do than to watch a much shorter YouTube video or view a social media posts that get propagated in other people’s feeds. All of this makes live streaming as a medium one of the most difficult forms of online content to consume.

If you want potential viewers to make that effort, you have to provide them with value equal to…

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The Dungeons of Windkeep Citadel

Dyson's Dodecahedron

Perched over the great cities of the plains, Tabuld Amberhand watches the world change from his throne room in Windkeep Citadel. Beneath the halls of the Citadel are of course the dungeons – home to those “special” prisoners who are not dealt with by the common constabulary and “justice” system of the plains cities. There are four levels to the dungeons all connected by a single stairway – the three lower levels of which are dedicated to housing prisoners.

The Dungeons of Windkeep Citadel The Dungeons of Windkeep Citadel

Level 2 has four large cells for “sensitive” prisoners who need to be treated with some amount of decency as well as six standard cells for lesser prisoners who aren’t to be relegated to the lower dungeons.

Level 3 contains two wings of cells. The north side is a set of twelve oubliettes – cells that can only be accessed from above – food and water…

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Raids week 187

Micki's Delirium

Raids 187 were Tuesday August 11 (practice run), Wednesday August 12 and Saturday August 15. I again skipped doing the Friday practice run.

Tuesday

1. Project Nemesis LN – practice run

I posted and we got some newer ppl, but most knew the raid well enough. I struggled a bit to get the group organized and the raid took longer than it usually does. But, we succeeded in the end. Loot: 64 nemesis runes, 25 threads of fate and The Wide Open Sky.

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