Campaign 2 - General Discussion Thread

we'll discuss stuff here for the 2nd campaign.  I'm retiring the previous RAWR thread. 

given Frank and Nero's backstories, I think it would be sensible that Nero's cursed father and Frank's parents were all in an adventuring party together at some point in the past.  Given how old THX is (90+ years?) I'm kinda playing with the idea that they were part of the adventuring team that eliminated THX's creator from the playing field and maybe "adopted" the warforged?  so THX has been around since Nero and Frank were infants? was no help in avenging Frank's family, and otherwise feels attached to both of them as literally life-long allies. that certainly puts a nice bow on the team's relationship, and also binds everyone together well... perhaps Nero's father died with Frank's family at the shop a few months back, and picking up this Cragwar gig with Raskal is the first job they took after losing any lead on their murderer. We could bump the stakes a bit... the team helps Raskal with his security contract, and in exchange he helps with tracking the beast that killed the family? Hell, maybe Raskal knew the parents himself and has a soft spot for the kids.... and now he's sending you guys on  weak fluff missions to keep you from getting killed as a part of his own guilt/grieving process.

to spice it up; both the homes were ransacked, and previously-unknown secret rooms in the foundations had been broken into and emptied out, plus some other personal affects they all wore like necklaces and such.  probably adventuring gear like armor, weapons, who knows what.  they never talked in great detail about the stuff they did when before they settled down, but there were all sorts of interesting people that came through the shop frequently.

Looks like Hex only applies extra damage with a successful HIT-- meaning it requires an attack roll.  So save vs damage spells like burning hands and auto damage spells like magic missile do NOT apply. 

how about things like Spiritual Hammer or attacks by summoned creatures under the control of Hexmeister Flash ?

hex only works for the caster on the targeted opponent.. anything requiring an attack roll qualifies.

Do we want a 4th player?  If arv is gonna be missing for 2 months starting in .. January...? does G and Ellis want a duo or should we bring a 4th in now?

i'm ok with bringing in a fourth. so we're at a stable 3 people... otherwise if one of us would miss a game because of alien abduction then you'd be down to a solo player.

I'd like a group consensus before moving forward.. at least with only 3 of you there can't be a tie. :P

Sorry, I can make it a tie, since I'm equally fine with 3 and 4 players. 3 players means more spotlight for each personal plot, 4 players better for combat parts and skill battles.

lol where there's a will there's a way, right, Arv?  I feel like I'm doing a better job for the most part giving each character individual attention this game already... hopefully you all stick around to make it worth the effort. :P We might have an old friend on the hook for a 4th seat... I'll hold off on any serious pursuit until we see that through. Oh right... what do you guys want to do with the crabs and worm corpses sitting in the alch lab under the Temple of the Sacred Flame?  Abbot Bobbi kinda wanna autopsi the shit out of them, but they're technically yours, so...

Oh hey.. I posted this at the front of the Loot Thread, <a href="https://app.roll20.net/forum/post/4052861/campaign" rel="nofollow">https://app.roll20.net/forum/post/4052861/campaign</a>... I cant' seem to just cut paste it into this thread, but this is the proper place to discuss it if you wish...&nbsp; It's&nbsp;a composite comparison of frequently used stats that I consider when looking at team and encounter baalnce.&nbsp; The team is really well balanced right now. Bravo.

also-- thanks, Arv, for pointing out the team has TWO favors owed by Cragwar for the crab custartd AND for the successful blacksmith supply escort mission.

Hey team!&nbsp; thanks for updating me in the attendance thread, and please, if you haven't already, please do list your background, traits, flaws, ideals etc in your character thread so it's easier for me to reference.&nbsp; I've summarized what i THINK it is you all said you want to do with your down time in your individual threads.. If I missed anything, please let me know in your own threads.&nbsp; The alternative rule we're using is.. technically.. short rest = overnight sleep and long rest = 1 week of R&R While "one week" is 7 days in our world, in Forgotten realms, that would be 10 days.... which made me realize just HOW arbitrary these rules really are. I think the intent of the short/long rest cycle is a matter of Pressure.&nbsp; A Long Rest is, in my mind, when the team has finished something and are looking for "what's next".&nbsp; They have a chance to unwind and get recentered.&nbsp; there is no technical explanation for it, other than it takes time to heal up and suppress the horrors of the most recent excursions so the mind can refocus and body can mend.&nbsp; A Short Rest is consistently portrayed as holing up somewhere temporarily bandage wounds, get your senses back, but are still under immediate pressure to continue forward with whatever horrible task you're tending to.... it's "catching your breath" as opposed to a soak in a hot tub.&nbsp; As such, I can do what i want. A Short Rest will continue to be sleep overnight. A Long Rest could be anywhere from 2 days to 30+ days, depending on how i feel the pace of the game itself should be advancing. Currently, I'm giving us 10 days of downtime during the Long Rest because the dice said so.&nbsp; once i get feedback and (where necessary) dice results, I'll be able to flesh out more fully what happens during those 10 days.&nbsp; Be welcome to discuss stuff generally here; if you have specific questions about your character's Long Rest, address them in your own thread. Folks should feel welcome to poke in on others' threads if you have something to add to the conversation.&nbsp; thanks again folks!&nbsp; I'm really having a blast with this campaign.

Here's something i saw posted using paladin for a samurai... which i absolutely love.&nbsp; <a href="http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?484495" rel="nofollow">http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?484495</a>... I'd ditch the skill bonus concept and keep the smite feature... just reflavor it as iajitsu... less damage but more frequent use.&nbsp; I dig the skirmish feature as well. ref 126

Fil Kearney said: Here's something i saw posted using paladin for a samurai... which i absolutely love.&nbsp; <a href="http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?484495" rel="nofollow">http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?484495</a>... I'd ditch the skill bonus concept and keep the smite feature... just reflavor it as iajitsu... less damage but more frequent use.&nbsp; I dig the skirmish feature as well. ref 126 If you're bothered about balance, then that samurai if fukken broken. I mean, it's type of paladin, right? And then we have dashing iaijitsu + smite for shitton of damage dice. It's fine, if everyone in party are very optimized (as far as it's possible in 5e) and if master is fine with 3d12(halforc greataxe crit)+16d8(iaijitsy + 3 lvl smite on crit)+5 damage from him once per short rest. And 3d12+(4 to 8)d8 couple more times per battle at 9 lvl. It's 96,5 average damage.

the class removed smite in exchange for iajitsu, but I'd ditch iajitsu and keep smite. the rest i got no problem with.&nbsp; Not likely anyone in the current campaign would use it.

I don't see them losing smite. I see them losing Channel Divinity.

ah!&nbsp; true.&nbsp; it is once per short rest but I'd rather see more flavor or utility than just more damage.&nbsp; Kinda lazy there. oh well.&nbsp; still neat idea.&nbsp;

The one big downside I see to having the extended timetables on a long and short rest from my perspective as a Paladin is going to be spell slot recovery. I think most other classes other than druids, wizards and I think warlocks are going to be in the same position? Any thoughts of house ruling a partial recovery on a short rest for spell slots, maybe something similiar to what wizards use?

I hear what you're saying.&nbsp; Until we see an example of a character actually expending the spells and having to adventure afterwards without the chance of a long rest, it's not a problem.&nbsp; Players have the impression that if they blow all their spells in one day, they won't be allowed a long rest afterwards to recover their spells.&nbsp;&nbsp; We've already had a long rest for 10 days that caused no complications... to the contrary, it allowed us to stack up things to do.&nbsp; If the team wants to take a long rest to recover resources I have no problem with that.&nbsp; the world will keep progressing but I'm not going to interrupt the rest with random encounters. here's some more math and hypotheticals... The DMG suggests at least 4 encounters between long rests.&nbsp; These are encounters that are supposed to expend at least 20% of the team's resources.. so by the time the team is ground down to no spells, hp, and all their abilities are on cool-down, the DM should expect a long rest.&nbsp; Not all those encounters should allow a short rest in between..&nbsp; around 2-3 encounters before a short rest.. coupled with the 4 encounter LR cooldown... expanding to our extended scale; this would be like 2 maybe 3 encounters in a day, you get your short rest overnight, then maybe an encounter the next day or so.. more short rests in between plus unlimited healing rituals means after 4 or 5 days of actual combat you'll likely want a long rest. Like, this undead cave y'all are in right now... that's one decent encounter.&nbsp; These dungeons... taking healing rituals into account... have all been around 2 or 3 encounters for each complex. Everything is pacing rather well right now.. we're just adding time to the timeline to allow NPC's and the world to evolve plot hooks.

Seems reasonable what you've just said. On the flip side, I went into that fight or what could have been series of fights with 0 spell slots left, well, I had one but it was because I had just leveled. So if the fight wasn't as easy as it turned out to be - because of good casting / judgement from George or it was just a tougher running battle, it could have gone differently. So if it was a tougher fight / longer fight more in line to what I would expect especially as we gain levels, the option of hunkering down for 8 hours for some limited respite in terms of spellcasting is more of an option than bailing from wherever and taking a week off. Make sense or am I rambling? All I meant was keep an open mind. I'm happy to progress timeline as it makes way more sense if every 3rd gathering is a level gain, I just didn't want others to feel like I'm dragging it out for everyone else when they don't need / want to, in order to have a spell slot or two going into something.

Not rambling at all.. it's a worthwhile debate, and an admitted experiment y'all have allowed me to explore. My original motivation was to prevent the 1-20 level climb in under a game-month.&nbsp; by adding days to the long rest, the team would actively seek long breaks to replenish.&nbsp; This allows me more realistic timing involving character power growth and logistic bottlenecks for NPC's.&nbsp; If the rest cycles were reset to 1hour/8hour, I feel the team would be motivated to Be Active Every Day... because the mechanics would allow for it... but I would still want to enforce 5+ day breaks every week or less for the logistics of an evolving campaign world.&nbsp;&nbsp; At that point, it really doesn't matter that it only takes 8 hours to long rest, because it's still gonna be 5 days later. It's the time spacing that I seek as a narrator.... so here's a compromise? we could make ALL rests... long or short... only 1 hour, but each long rest incurs a "downtime tax" of, say 1/2*character level +1/5*character levels (level 1 = 2days... level 20 = 14days)... first long rest is free, but each subsequent long rest taken without downtime incurs one additional level of unavoidable fatigue?&nbsp; (see conditions: <a href="https://roll20.net/compendium/dnd5e/Conditions#con" rel="nofollow">https://roll20.net/compendium/dnd5e/Conditions#con</a>... ) so 1st long rest = fully recovered, lets keep at it. downtime*1 owed 2nd long rest = fully recovered, pay downtime*1 or incur Disadvantage on Ability Checks and downtime*2 owed 3rd long rest = fully recovered, pay downtime*2 or also has Speed halved&nbsp;and downtime*3 owed 4th long rest = fully recovered, pay downtime*3 or also has Disadvantage on Attack rolls and saving throws &nbsp;and downtime*4 owed 5th long rest = fully recovered, pay downtime*4 or also has Hit point maximum halved &nbsp;and downtime*5 owed 6th long rest = fully recovered, requires downtime*5 (1st level = 10days, 20th level = 70days) This creates a carrot/stick approach to long rests-- You (the whole team) can declare a short or long rest anytime you wanna hunker down for an hour.. short rest functions normally, long rest only takes an hour to gain, but now you owe downtime.&nbsp; You could theoretically full rest three times in the same day if you're willing to be at half speed and disadvantage on ability checks .. at 6th level you'd owe 10 days of downtime (2*downtime- 1/2*6+1/5*6 round up) or the next long rest will also give disadvantage on attack and saving throws... 15 days downtime owed. This would actually be pretty fun... the team can stubbornly slam through a situation with full refreshes each rest with increasingly bad performance... you could find clever spells and circumstances that DON'T remove the exhaustion, but mask it.. expeditious retreat nullifies speed penalties, aiding others nullifies disadvantaged ability scores, etc... you'd be expending more resources making up for being exhausted, but can have your full rest very easily.&nbsp; would y'all rather try this instead?&nbsp; I actually like it more. :)

c02s02e06 downtime recruiting downtime activity - 21 docents, 5 of them are PC quality remaining 16 are just warlock soldiers stripped of their magics. 3 are trained for stealth, scouting and tracking 2 are trained in artillery and demolitions downtime activity - 17 athasians, 13 of them are PC quality 4 are just common survivalists 6 are Balic rebels trained for espionage 2 psionic readers/researchers 2 could be trained as paladins 2 are trained for alchemy 1 is a Balic rebel bard (Balic is an athasian city-state located just to the left of the distance gauge at the bottom of the thrane map loaded on the environment.. the rest are from Bodak) downtime activity - 23 wolf pack mercs, 10 of them are PC quality 13 are just thugs 3 of them run gaming scams during downtime in marketplace 3 are stealth / scout / tracking 2 could be trained as paladin 1 helmsman trained in navigation and speaks primal 1 1st mate trained in ritual ship-magic (mend, message, featherfall, dust devil, etc)

2 more titans - 3 total 4 more goliath - 6 total scout augment 3 net casters 5 stealth auras 8 flight packs bruiser augment 7 more force swords 5 more shields titan augment 2 psychokinetic hammers