Aldath's recent activity

  1. Session report: 496-Seed-23, in which a halfling hurls boulders

    ~games.tabletop Ask
    AD&D 1e the other night. Two sessions being packed into one report. Party Jeff, Half-Elven Druid 6, Fighter 4, Magus 4 (~50k XP) Lee, Grey Elven Fighter 5, Magic-User 4, Thief 5 (~46k XP) Moya,...

    AD&D 1e the other night. Two sessions being packed into one report.

    Party

    • Jeff, Half-Elven Druid 6, Fighter 4, Magus 4 (~50k XP)
    • Lee, Grey Elven Fighter 5, Magic-User 4, Thief 5 (~46k XP)
    • Moya, Halfling Thief 6 (30k XP)
    • Oryn, High Elven Magic-User 5, Thief 6 (~58k XP)
      • Henchman Takeshi, Human Ranger 4 (~13k XP)
    • Varda, Human Cleric 6 dual-classed into Magic-User 4 (~47k XP)
      • Henchman Rudy, Halfling Druid 2, Thief 3 (~8k XP)
    • Vordt, Half-Ogre Cleric 4, Fighter 5 (~38k XP)

    The party sets out on the 23rd, arriving at the Temple the night of the 24th. On an impulse, they decide to check out the Elemental Earth's main place of worship. It is a fairly massive room filled with dirt, the center containing a square pyramid with steps leading up to a stone pillar that has bronze manacles attached. As they enter the room, four Earth Elementals appear in the four corners, still and waiting. They discuss a game plan; Lee puts protection from evil on himself and then moves forward to the pyramid. On the other side of it is a stand with a small bronze box. Lee moves in to check the box for traps and the elementals move closer, to the four corners of the pyramid. He proceeds to check the box for traps, finding none, and his spell expires right as the elementals attack.

    (1st round) Two are close enough to try and smash him immediately as the others move in, and he takes a heavy blow. Oryn, Moya, and Jeff let off bows and slings while Rudy prepares their staff of slinging to hurl a boulder and Varda prepares to levitate Lee, who is trying to withdraw as Takeshi charges in. Missiles bounce harmlessly off the elementals, though the boulder does a solid chunk of damage to the elemental. Takeshi ends his charge early, opting to keep the ones firing missiles and casting spells safe. Lee backs away, but is followed, and then levitate goes off, lifting Lee ten feet into the air. (2nd round) Oryn begins casting protection from evil on himself, Jeff casts magic missile, Varda lifts Lee another ten feet up, who is trying to cast mirror image on himself, and Rudy throws another boulder. One of the elementals manages to strike Lee, disrupting his spell, but then he is lifted to a safe height. (3rd Round) Oryn rushes towards the box, Lee is levitated a further ten feet, putting him in contact with the ceiling, at which point he maneuvers himself along towards the exit, Rudy throws another boulder, Jeff catches some in a web, and Takeshi begins ushering the other members out of the chamber. Turning their attention towards Oryn, a couple of the elementals try to smash him but are wholly prevented from making contact due to the protection from evil surrounding him. (4th Round) The elementals continue to fruitlessly whale on Oryn as he snatches the box and leaves with the rest of the party; the elementals do not follow beyond the limit of the chamber.

    The party casts some curatives on Lee and decide to travel back to the second floor. They encounter some ghouls on their way but quickly dispatch them. They make their way into a large octagonal chamber with exits in each cardinal direction, some crystal braziers hanging from the ceiling, an altar with a crystal bowl and knives, and a shallow pit built almost like an inground pool. After some investigation, they locate a secret door in the southeast corner that they cannot find the mechanism for. Lee opens it with a knock, revealing what appears to be a wraith, but was actually a drelb. Either way, it gets hit with a barrage of magic missile, has amplify damage put upon it, and is put down in the first round. The hidden chamber it was in appeared to be empty, but after some further prodding, they find a loose bit of floor hiding a censer that they later learn is a censer of controlling air elementals. Moya takes the crystal knives and bowl. The party then comes up with a plan to remove the crystal braziers from the ceiling to bring home, albeit one at a time given their size and weight; worth 8k gold each if sold (they were). Though out of reach normally, Oryn having been polymorphed into a gargoyle hybrid by a curse helped out here. After the second brazier is brought out, they rest until dawn to reprepare spells and allow for some of Lee's health to regenerate through a magic item of his. Oryn throws an invisibility, 10' radius on everyone and they re-enter the dungeon.

    They eventually find themselves in another chamber with a sheet of crystal embedded into the wall, which lights up to reveal Lawful Good-aligned outsiders that ask some questions about the party's purpose and suggests they leave their magic items near before leaving the room, as these celestials intend to bless the items, but their method will sear flesh and blind eyes; however, this must be done quickly, as their ability to peer through the window is short-lived. Between their own suspicions and Varda's patron tulani whispering in their ear that something seems off, the party moves on.

    The party wanders into the living quarters of the Elemental Fire priests; the first thing they run into is a captain with a couple of bugbears, whom they surprised, partially due to the invisibility. Varda targets the captain with levitate and he fails the save, so up he goes. Between the surprise segment and their captain being immediately removed from the fight, the bugbears surrender, but are killed anyways for being bugbears. The captain begs for surrender and is told to drop his weapons. He does so, save for one sword that he claims is a family heirloom. One detect magic later, Rudy notes that his armor, sword, and a rope at his belt are radiating magic, so he's killed and looted. At this point, only Varda, Lee, and Takeshi are visible.

    They move on into another chamber where a singular priest is lounging. Varda happens to be wearing older Elemental Fire regalia, so with a positive reaction roll, he considers Varda to be part of the faith, that Lee/Takeshi are his entourage, and has an exchange with him. Varda reveals that the army of Good being gathered some sixty miles away is ready to march and will descend upon the Temple soon, leading him to try and take Varda to the head priest. Before this can happen, however, Moya, Oryn, and others lead an attack on him and are able to cut him down before he can raise the alarm or get a spell off.

    They're unable to move into the head priest's quarters without alerting him, however, but this ended up not mattering as initiative dictated the win goes to the party. One bout of looting later, they find a path they think will lead back to an area they've been to before, and lo, it does, albeit straight into the arms of a troll that they... kill quickly. A problem arises, however. They try to burn it, and it's not burning. Quick pat down in a mild panic reveals its wearing a ring. A dirty, filth-encrusted ring, but a ring nonetheless. One good pull later, it's off and they're able to burn it, and then they take their leave to head back to town. They decide to force themselves to march so that they can get back ASAP, and they arrive at dawn on the 27th.

    Notable treasure: censer of controlling air elementals, flametongue, ring of fire resistance, rope of entanglement, along with some magic armor, couple scrolls, and another ring. Gold share was about 6k each.

    6 votes

  2. Comment on Session report: 496-Seed-18, in which two PCs eat nightshade in ~games.tabletop

    Aldath
    Link Parent
    This is AD&D 1e, aye. The magus is a subclass of magic-user I designed to fill the space a modern sorcerer would. I felt the need to come up with a different name for it since "Sorcerer" is...

    This is AD&D 1e, aye. The magus is a subclass of magic-user I designed to fill the space a modern sorcerer would. I felt the need to come up with a different name for it since "Sorcerer" is already an MU title.

    Edit: Here's a link, though mind that this website tends to not work well with non-Chromium browsers.
    https://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/kziSUV_KO4GQ

    3 votes

  3. Comment on Session report: 496-Seed-18, in which two PCs eat nightshade in ~games.tabletop

    Aldath
    Link Parent
    Thanks. I like talking about the games I read and run, but I don't have a lot of spaces to do that in with AD&D online. My players are great, but there's stuff behind the scenes I'd like to...

    Thanks. I like talking about the games I read and run, but I don't have a lot of spaces to do that in with AD&D online. My players are great, but there's stuff behind the scenes I'd like to mention that would spoil it for them, such as the exact nature of some of the more esoteric magic items they come across.

    So I write up these little summaries of the session and post them here and a few Discord servers to see what kind of discussion I can foster or questions that get asked.

    4 votes

  4. Session report: 496-Seed-18, in which two PCs eat nightshade

    ~games.tabletop Ask
    The Party Jeff, half-elf Druid 6 / Fighter 4 / Magus 4 Lee, gray elf Fighter 4 / Magic-User 4 / Thief 5 Oryn, high elf Magic-User 5 / Thief 6 Rudy, halfling Druid 2 / Thief 3 Takeshi, human Ranger...

    The Party

    • Jeff, half-elf Druid 6 / Fighter 4 / Magus 4
    • Lee, gray elf Fighter 4 / Magic-User 4 / Thief 5
    • Oryn, high elf Magic-User 5 / Thief 6
    • Rudy, halfling Druid 2 / Thief 3
    • Takeshi, human Ranger 4
    • Varda, human Cleric 6 / Magic-User 4
    • Vordt, half-ogre Cleric 4 / Fighter 5

    Ran the group through some werewolf hunting the other day. Thanks to the local army scouts, they knew where the hideout was; a chapel on a hill in the badlands, about ten miles from town. The party arrives, takes a look in one of the side windows, climbs the bell tower for a vantage point around the thing, including the graveyard and mausoleum, and then pushes their way into the building.

    There's no light inside, but Takeshi has a broadsword with continual light on it, as well as a ring that increases the radius of light sources he commands, so the hall and sanctuary ahead are well lit through the 80' of luminescence in his hands. As they enter the sanctuary, three people materialize behind the altar, outlanders in appearance, claiming to be using this building as protection from the elements. Some players noted the lack of a "lived in" feeling here, no bedrolls or typical litter you'd expect of a temporary living space, and these people appeared well-fed and hale. Sensing that the party is about to lash out, the werewolves attack pre-emptively and gain surprise.

    (Round 1) Takeshi and Lee ended up targets between these three werewolves. Four more tried to ambush from behind, but Vordt was in the back filling up the hallway, blocking their way. Oryn casts amplify damage at one while Varda fires magic missile and Jeff fills the hallway with web as Takeshi and Lee retaliate in melee; Rudy provides missile support with their sling. (R2) Oryn and Varda wait for an an opportunity to capitalize on while Takeshi and Lee continue trading blows, with Rudy continuing to provide missile support and Jeff casting a magic missile; Vordt is 5' deep in the web begins to leverage his obscene Strength to break free of them. One werewolf lies dead. (R3) Varda continues waiting, confident in their allies' abilities as Oryn charges in, Rudy provides missile support, Jeff supplies another magic missile, Takeshi and Lee continue trading blows with the two remaining werewolves, and Vordt is working himself free of the webs. Three werewolves lie dead.

    Over the next couple of minutes, Vordt breaks free from the web. Not wanting to try and jump through windows, the party opts to wait for the spell to expire, as the remaining four werewolves trapped in it yell muffled requests for mercy. Their progress was much slower than Vordt's, and they had to go through 8' of web rather than 5', but after about an hour they'd all suffocated. During the wait, both Takeshi and Lee ate some belladonna to stave off potential infection.

    The party finds a trap door to a cellar and checks it out. There's a wight hiding in the shadows, but it doesn't surprise them. It still slaps Lee and eats about 5k XP off his thief levels, but it dies by the end of the first round. In exchange, they found an iron chest, within which was 21k gold, 13 gems, a scroll of protection from magic, dwarf-sized field plate +1, and a pouch of dust of dryness.

    Then Takeshi and Lee both vomit up their lunch and pass out on the floor. Lee is no longer breathing. Ingesting belladonna does a few things: (1) small chance of curing lycanthropy if taken quickly after infection, (2) incapacitates you for 1d4 days, (3) has a 1% chance of killing you. Lee is the 1%.

    They get both of their bodies and the treasure out and back to town, then broker a deal with the local lordling MU to get Lee poked with a rod of resurrection, which drops him from 20 to 19 Constitution, removing his natural regeneration. Takeshi remains incapacitated for a day and Lee for a week, due to resurrection sickness.

    9 votes

  5. PF2 Kingmaker session report: 8/16/2025

    ~games.tabletop Ask
    Kingmaker was last night. Some minor spoilers to follow. Party, Level 3 Marisiel, Elf Witch Nok-Nok, Goblin Rogue Linzi, Halfling Bard Amiri, Human Barbarian Titus, Human Fighter Valerie, Human...

    Kingmaker was last night. Some minor spoilers to follow.

    Party, Level 3

    • Marisiel, Elf Witch
    • Nok-Nok, Goblin Rogue
    • Linzi, Halfling Bard
    • Amiri, Human Barbarian
    • Titus, Human Fighter
    • Valerie, Human Fighter
    • Stik, Kobold Monk

    Variants in Play: Ancestry Paragon, Free Archetype, Gradual Ability Boosts, Slow Leveling, Stamina. I also allow Hero Points to adjust the degree of success on a check by one step rather than re-roll; this primarily gets used to either mitigate a crit fail or turn a failure into a success.

    Realizing they had just under a week before the Stag Lord's bandits tried to strong-arm Oleg's Trading Post for goods again, the party stopped their trip towards the tatzlwyrm lair and immediately turned around to return to Oleg's to stock up and then head towards the fort.

    On the way back, they encountered yet more bandits and, on one evening, an owlbear and its mate. Once at Oleg's, they spent a day turning in their quests and buying some of the goods available at the trading post. When ready, they set out. About twelve miles from the fort, they were about to start cooking dinner when some of the Stag Lord's bandits showed up in a neutral manner, presuming the party to be aspiring recruits. Linzi takes the opportunity to try and get some information out of them by indulging their fantasy.

    Titus eventually gets bored and challenges one of the bandits to a duel. The bandit rightfully declines, but Titus begins pushing forward with intent to attack him anyways. Linzi threatened to force him to spend his night in a laughing fit to get him to back off, and he calmed down. Unfortunately, after dinner was taken care of, the bandits took their leave, not wanting to be shanked in the night by the crazy man.

    The next morning they stop a few hundred feet from the fort and Marisiel sends her familiar, Youmu, forward to scout the hills since the bandits don't seem to be paying them much mind. Youmu returns shortly and informs Marisiel that something's off about the hill; he suspects undead. Armed with that information, the party decided to waltz up to the front door and just infiltrate by providing the password.

    Once inside, introductions are made, stories are shared, and after the party learns that there's a late shipment of alcohol and the Stag Lord loves the stuff, Stik taps into their knowledge of alchemy (via dedication) to create a bottle of booze. The Stag Lord quickly comes out and snatches the bottle before returning to his chamber.

    Stik is quickly inducted as the brewmeister, but instead of delivering alcohol to the other bandits, they deliver lightning. In a bottle. One Extreme encounter later (as they triggered the entire compound, including the Stag Lord, and the owlbear was let free at some point), the Stag Lord lies dead on the ground along with most of his lieutenants.

    11 votes

  6. PF2 Kingmaker session report: 8/10/2025

    ~games.tabletop Ask
    PF2, Kingmaker tonight. Minor spoilers re: names of potential companions and side-quest details. Party, Level 3 Marisiel, Elf Witch Nok-Nok, Goblin Rogue Linzi, Halfling Bard Amiri, Human...

    PF2, Kingmaker tonight. Minor spoilers re: names of potential companions and side-quest details.

    Party, Level 3

    • Marisiel, Elf Witch
    • Nok-Nok, Goblin Rogue
    • Linzi, Halfling Bard
    • Amiri, Human Barbarian
    • Titus, Human Fighter
    • Valerie, Human Fighter
    • Stik, Kobold Monk

    Variants in Play: Ancestry Paragon, Free Archetype, Gradual Ability Boosts, Slow Leveling, Stamina. I also allow Hero Points to adjust the degree of success on a check by one step rather than re-roll; this primarily gets used to either mitigate a crit fail or turn a failure into a success.

    The group had set out at the end of last session with the intention of picking some radishes and hunting two local monsters of some renown, a boar called Tuskgutter and some tatzlwyrms. Amiri was especially excited about going after Tuskgutter.

    They arrive at the radish patch to find four kobolds suffering from The Itis™ that quickly scramble to protect their patch, but the monk eases tensions and ends up receiving an entire basket of the spicy radishes.

    They spend a few days following the edge of the forest, crossing a rickety old bridge, disturbing some hunting spiders but dispatching them quickly. One evening, just after a meal, several of the Stag Lord's bandits had managed to sneak up on them, which turned out to be the last thing any of them did. Another afternoon saw Stik, Amiri, and Valerie attacked by thylacines while out foraging for ingredients, but by now they're used to that kind of thing.

    They get into the general area of where they expect Tuskgutter's lair to be and spend the day searching for it. They eventually find it and have themselves their third proper Solo encounter since starting the game; I took the base profile for Tuskgutter and scaled it to be a Creature 7, so as to make the anticipation set up by the bounty poster and Amiri's vibrating in place worth it. With some good use of debuffing actions/spells and Hero Points, they take it down within a couple of rounds, albeit Titus did fall to an attack routine. One lesser healing potion and a soothe later, along with a short breather, and he's fine.

    Trophy in hand, they make camp. As they're breaking camp in the morning, a hunter approaches the group to warn them of the dangers of Tuskgutter, only to be offered bacon.

    Next stop, the tatzlwyrm lair.

    10 votes

  7. Comment on Session report: PF2 Kingmaker in ~games.tabletop

    Aldath
    Link Parent
    It had somewhere in the realm of 150-160 HP, and the witch's first act was to throw a runic weapon on the Barbarian's (Amiri's) weapon. That combined with the party's debuffing and buffing actions...

    It had somewhere in the realm of 150-160 HP, and the witch's first act was to throw a runic weapon on the Barbarian's (Amiri's) weapon. That combined with the party's debuffing and buffing actions helped quite a lot lol.

  8. Session report: PF2 Kingmaker

    ~games.tabletop Ask
    Party hit level 3 at the end of the last session. Started tonight's session with an encounter with three hunting spiders (Low threat). Barbarian got inflicted with the poison and managed to stay...

    Party hit level 3 at the end of the last session. Started tonight's session with an encounter with three hunting spiders (Low threat). Barbarian got inflicted with the poison and managed to stay on stage 3 (2d6 poison, clumsy 2, off-guard) for the majority of the six-round duration, which ran its full course.

    Still on the way back to the trading post, they encountered more thylacines (Moderate threat), but they push through that just fine. A wolf approached them as they were walking alongside the great forest and was beckoning them to follow. They did, and were led to a man bleeding out and trapped under a couple of boulders. In the distance they hear crashing and bellowing as something big approaches them. They get the guy out from under the boulder and put an elixir of life in his mouth, which wakes him up. His immediate suspicion of the party allayed, he quickly fills them in on the fact that a troll is approaching and tells them to use fire or acid. Also don't let it get its hands on you.

    The fight ended up being a bit of a slaughter due to dice rolls. I kept rolling low, they kept rolling high, so the troll went down at the very end of the second round despite being Creature 6. They nab the cold iron kukri and +1 light hammer from the troll's sack, and the man, a ranger, accompanies them back to the trading post.

    They spend a week here doing various things; retraining, crafting, Earning Income. At the end of the week, they get their 70 gold reward from the quests they turned in, as well as the +1 striking bastard sword they'd ordered from a relatively distant city.

    After spending some time going over their plans going forward, such as what quests to tackle, they head southwest to pick some radishes for the wife of the tradesman. We ended the session after wrapping up a bandit encounter during the camping portion of the day.

    7 votes

  9. Session report: 496-Seed-17, in which a PC nearly drowns in acid

    ~games.tabletop Ask
    The party tonight consisted of Jeff, half-elf Druid 5 / Fighter 3 / Magus* 4 Lee, gray elf Fighter 4 / Magic-User 4 / Thief 5 Oryn, high elf Magic-User 5 / Thief 6 Henchman Takeshi, human Ranger 4...

    The party tonight consisted of

    • Jeff, half-elf Druid 5 / Fighter 3 / Magus* 4
    • Lee, gray elf Fighter 4 / Magic-User 4 / Thief 5
    • Oryn, high elf Magic-User 5 / Thief 6
      • Henchman Takeshi, human Ranger 4
    • Varda, human dual-class** Cleric 6 -> Magic-User 3
      • Henchman Rudy, halfling Druid 2 / Thief 3
    • Vordt, half-ogre Cleric 4 / Fighter 4
      *Magus is a custom subclass of Magic-User I created.
      **Varda intends to become an occultist, another custom class of mine; becoming one functions similarly to bard, where you begin as Cleric, transition to Magic-User, and then finally become a proper occultist.

    To recap the prior session, the party went into the dungeon again and explored a new direction, finding a long hallway with bas reliefs in brass decorating the walls. Behind a set of brass double-doors was a 90' by 40' chamber with four major points of interest.

    • An oblong, 4' tall x 10' wide altar with a basin filled with water and treasure.
    • A fountain streaming endless water without overflowing.
    • Four pillars with gargoyles atop them, unmoving.
    • A drape along the south wall covering something.
      After a cursory search, Rudy set to looting the basin, which triggered the entire altar to begin rolling forward and the marine life carved into it to animate. Rudy jumped out of the way as several combatants closed in. Many attacks and spells were slung its way, and it lashed out with teeth, tentacles, and pincers as it slowly rolled to face individual combatants. As Lee was caught by the fury of the altar, the gargoyles animated and began flying in to harass the party. Though the altar was defeated, the gargoyles seemed keen on taking Takeshi out, as by the end of that round he is bleeding on the floor. Varda then invokes a chant and uses a limited wish to revive Lee and transport everyone to a safe location. As everyone blinked, they found themselves in the domicile of the two old clerics hiding out in Woodpine, sage and incense filling their noses rather than the brine of the altar chamber.

    They spend a week licking their wounds and allowing the clerics to tend to them, then set out again. Oryn casts invisbility, 10' radius on the party as they leave town and travel to the Temple dungeon. They work their way back to the altar room and have an easier time clearing out the gargoyles, afterwards noticing that these appear to be zombies wearing cloaks. All but one of the cloaks were too damaged to be of any use or value, so they remove the one and continue on.

    They enter a room whose main attraction is a pool with a triton in it. The triton telepathically connects with the party and pleads for assistance before a kraken is summoned through his sacrifice and they all die. Varda, through knowledge granted by their patron, is slowly becoming suspect of the situation. The triton pleads individually with several party members, attempting to suggest they enter the pool and remove his chains, unbeknownst to them; I am rolling their saves in secret and they're passing them. Lee attempts to shoot it with an arrow, and the arrow dissolves before reaching the triton.

    Finally, its gaze meets with Vordt's, who was ready to leave, and he fails the save. Vordt begins removing his armor to jump into the pool. Lee (4'9" 191 lbs accounting for gear) attempts to stop Vordt (7'8" 441 lbs accounts for gear) via grappling. He gets a lucky waist cinch that is immediately broken by Vordt as he lands a knee to Lee's jaw, dealing a staggering 11 points of subdual damage to him, but he takes it like a champ as he sits out, stunned from the blow.

    Jeff casts web in a wall between Vordt and the pool as they figure out how best to handle him as Oryn and Takeshi move to open the door behind them. Varda, in a desperate attempt to save Vordt, utilizes a clerical dispel magic and fails to remove the charm from Vordt. Varda then utilizes their anything item to turn it into a rope of entanglement, which then hogties Vordt.

    The party drags Vordt out of the dungeon safely and regains his senses the following day, shortly before the rope returns to its original form, t hen makes the several-day journey back to town to split the loot. Varda will receive no XP this go around, but the gems the party found elsewhere amounted to the PC shares totalling about 3700 gold each. Oh, and Oryn is now partially gargoyle, as they put on that cloak I mentioned earlier and then took it off.

    11 votes

  10. D&D - Involving the Gods; Boons and Banes

    ~games.tabletop Ask
    I'm in the planning stages of a custom setting for a new campaign I'm aiming to start next year with my current table. We're doing PF2's Kingmaker and AD&D's Temple of Elemental Evil in the...

    I'm in the planning stages of a custom setting for a new campaign I'm aiming to start next year with my current table. We're doing PF2's Kingmaker and AD&D's Temple of Elemental Evil in the meantime.

    The game is to be Viking themed, in that the starting locale and civilization will be structured in similar ways to the coastal Scandinavian settlements and there will be an on/off season. During the on season, they will board boats and sail many hundreds of miles across water to distant lands to find dungeons and ruins to loot, with a clock they have to keep an eye on; the expedition can only afford to be out for so long, and they need to ultimately make a profit. During the off season, they will be home and can spend time locally engaging in low-tier politics, explore the untamed parts of the continent, or both.

    I'm intending for gods to play a more concrete and available part in this game and have been chewing on how best to represent that mechanically. I discovered that one of D&D 5e's supplements for a Magic: The Gathering setting, Mythic Odysseys of Theros, does something similar and has mechanics for tracking Piety with a given deity, which comes with boons at specific breakpoints. I liked the idea, though I'd be making my own boons for my pantheon rather than use these as-is, especially since I wouldn't be running this game in 5e, but rather in AD&D 1e.

    I have a group chat with a few of my players that I can trust for this kind of thing to bounce ideas off of for various things, so I put this forth to them and got their thoughts. They universally thought the example boons from 5e were too personal and individual for the kind of stuff Norse gods would get up to, and there wasn't really a way to track a given deity's disdain of you in a similar manner. They also didn't like that you could track the Piety with a discrete score and could reliably measure when your next boon would be.

    What we settled on doing is utilizing my custom tarot effects we're already doing in my regular AD&D campaign, but having it apply in certain regions or during certain stretches of adventure. This would allow for randomly coming across an avatar of a god and earning a minor boon or bane for assisting or denying them.

    11 votes

  11. Comment on D&D - Armor, and the implications of its removal in ~games.tabletop

    Aldath
    Link Parent
    In my opinion, this undermines the general idea, and it would be weird to me to have such a charm also impose the typical restrictions on movement they have. That said, it's fairly easy to get to...

    In my opinion, this undermines the general idea, and it would be weird to me to have such a charm also impose the typical restrictions on movement they have.

    That said, it's fairly easy to get to plate equivalent AC; all you need is chain mail, a shield, and one of those protection runes I mentioned, which will put you at AC 3 (17), same as plate mail. Once we start getting into magic armors and magic shields and Dexterity adjustments, it's a lot easier than it might seem at first glance to get from a respectable AC to a very good one.

    ETA: Not to mention this idea already exists with the Bracers of Defense.

    2 votes

  12. Comment on D&D - Armor, and the implications of its removal in ~games.tabletop

    Aldath
    Link Parent
    Fighters--and their subclasses--could use any armor, as well as clerics (though druids couldn't wear metal) and thieves (including the assassin), though they got penalties to their thief...

    Fighters--and their subclasses--could use any armor, as well as clerics (though druids couldn't wear metal) and thieves (including the assassin), though they got penalties to their thief abilities. Everyone else couldn't wear armor.

    That said, there's no paladin, cleric, druid, assassin, or monk here, and four (five with thief) of the seven allowed classes can use any armors.

    1 vote

  13. Comment on D&D - Armor, and the implications of its removal in ~games.tabletop

    Aldath
    Link
    Of note, the races allowed are humans and trollborn; the classes allowed are fighter, ranger, thief, bard, specialist wizards, berserkers, and runecasters. Humans are standard, no bonuses or...

    Of note, the races allowed are humans and trollborn; the classes allowed are fighter, ranger, thief, bard, specialist wizards, berserkers, and runecasters.

    Humans are standard, no bonuses or penalties, though they can optionally accept a gift from the Norns during creation, which can be nothing, something good, or something bad.

    Trollborn have distinct features but are still visibly human. They get +1 to Str, Con, and Int, a -1 to Wis, and a -2 to Cha. They also have infravision and are barred from being thieves or bards.

    1 vote

  14. Comment on D&D - Armor, and the implications of its removal in ~games.tabletop

    Aldath
    Link Parent
    Ah, this is not for D&D 5e, no. I'm using 1e, with descending AC and ultimately different armor values, and Dex--while it does adjust your AC regardless of armor worn--doesn't start doing so until...

    Ah, this is not for D&D 5e, no. I'm using 1e, with descending AC and ultimately different armor values, and Dex--while it does adjust your AC regardless of armor worn--doesn't start doing so until you hit 15.

    The progression would look like this, with the ascending equivalent in parentheses.

    • AC 8 (12) with padded/leather
    • AC 7 (13) with studded leather
    • AC 6 (14) with hide and optionally scale mail (if looted or found, can't be purchased)
    • AC 5 (15) with chain mail

    All of those adjusted by 1 if using a shield. From there, you'd need Dex adjustments, magic armor, spells, or runes to get better AC.

    4 votes

  15. D&D - Armor, and the implications of its removal

    ~games.tabletop Ask
    I'm in the planning stages of a Viking-themed game I'll be running sometime next year, and I'm noticing a nice little progression in the armor types that ends with chain mail. When combined with a...

    I'm in the planning stages of a Viking-themed game I'll be running sometime next year, and I'm noticing a nice little progression in the armor types that ends with chain mail. When combined with a silver-based economy that cares more about the weight of the silver over the number of coins you have, that puts a lot of emphasis on looking towards magic for your better AC values, as armor will generally be more expensive and the (typically) highest tiers of armor--namely, plate mail, but also things like splint and banded mails--are simply unavailable for sale or amongst the majority of the enemies you might face.

    That magic will most commonly be from the runecaster, probably, since there's a rune available that can be worn like a necklace and improve AC, as well as another that can reduce damage taken. Magic armor will still be--likely even moreso--coveted and sought out by the players.

    A PC with average Dexterity can reasonably hit AC 3 (or AC 17 if you're used to ascending values); this assumes chain mail, shield, and a protection rune. Normally AC 3 (banded mail and a shield) is the best a starting PC (with no adjustment from Dex) can hope for in a traditional game.

    12 votes

  16. D&D session report, 24-11-16

    ~games.tabletop Text 871 words
    The game is AD&D 1e. I'm happy to discuss any mechanics behind the report if anyone asks. The party: Iskandar, human Magic-User 7 Jurgen, human Ranger 6 DeBeaux, half-orc Cleric 1 / Fighter 1 /...

    The game is AD&D 1e. I'm happy to discuss any mechanics behind the report if anyone asks.

    The party:

    • Iskandar, human Magic-User 7
    • Jurgen, human Ranger 6
    • DeBeaux, half-orc Cleric 1 / Fighter 1 / Assassin 1
    • Bite, half-orc Fighter 1
    • Rowan, human Magic-User 6
      • Henchman Freya, human Fighter 4
      • Henchman Rikka, human Fighter 4
    • Vortigern, dwarf Fighter 6 / Thief 6
      • Henchman Ingrid, human Ranger 4
      • Henchman Runa, human Magic-User 4

    The location: an underwater facility inhabited by aquatic elves who are currently suffering from a wasting disease of the mind that's been spreading amongst them. Those affected have been forcibly sent to the lower levels. A faerie elf (C6/F6/MU9) named Alfred has enlisted the party's assistance.

    The plan this evening was to delve into the third floor of this facility. They left the safety of the first floor and quickly navigated through the second, back to the lift that would take them down to the third.

    The party wanders through the halls, checking each of the iron doors for traps before attempting to pry them open. During one such attempt, a few dozen elves (and then some), horribly mutated into beings with sightless orbs but exceptional hearing, approaches from behind. The party was not caught unawares, and one fireball from Rowan later, they finish up with the door and loot the bodies of any loose coin. It's noted that many of the coins were destroyed in the blast.

    They make their way through a kitchen and eventually come across a dead-end hallway with seemingly no purpose. Before they can do much with that information, another group of a couple dozen mutant elves shows up, but the party catches them by surprise and manages to shock & awe in a way that led to the mutant elves fleeing.

    A few members of the party spread out to start checking the walls, and Rikka stumbles through one of the walls with a shout. An illusory wall hid a room with an elven corpse in full battle gear and another lift to a fourth floor. Rowan begins unstrapping the armor from the corpse and then he stops, now unresponsive and non-verbal. Seeing his ally struck with a feeblemind curse, Jurgen does the most sensible thing and tries to loot the sword off the corpse, falling prey to the same curse.

    Iskandar borrows some rope and creates a leash for his allies, leading them along. The party decides they should leave and see if Alfred can fix this. He can, and does, for a total sum of 5200 gold. During this, Vortigern's player began feeling unwell and stepped away for the evening.

    The party goes back down and decides to try a different direction, bringing them to a hallway filled with razor wire, thickly enough that passage would be both slow and painful. After some discussion, Iskandar uses levitate on himself and creates a tightrope above the wire, along the wall, utilizing some rope and door spikes.

    They follow the hall to another couple of doors, one straight ahead and one to their left. Their attentions turns to the left one, which has been locked from this side and welded shut. DeBeaux unlatches the door as Bite moves forward to force it open with his exceptionally high strength. The party moves into the room, seeing a number of effigies fashioned from elven flesh placed around a bone ramp that ends at an altar with a large marble bowl resting on it. Iskandar approaches and sees text inscribed in Elvish within the bowl, so he casts comprehend languages and runs his hands along it. 'The rowan wand lies in blood'.

    Unsure of how to proceed with that, he steps away as Rowan approaches, dagger in hand. Rowan cuts across his palm and bleeds into the bowl, at which point an unseen force pulls his hand within, drawing yet more and more of his essence into it, the blood forming and solidifying into a wand. Upon inspection, it has inscribed 'fir-aga' on the bottom.

    The party moves into another room through a stuck iron door and sees a big cylinder of glass holding a mass of slime, vegetation, and refuse. Laid around said cylinder is a small hoard; silver, jewelry, scroll cases. Iskandar rushes forth to the scroll cases, Jurgen and Bite close behind, which angers the shambling mound in its glass container. Breaking forth from its cage, the shambling mound strikes at the lot of them, landing hits on Rikka and Bite. Many attacks fly towards it as Iskandar carefully backs away from the creature, and Bite is struck by one of its limbs, going down with broken ribs. Iskandar follows up with a magic missile, which is sufficient to kill the creature. Jurgen applies healing to Bite via a potion of light healing, the party gathers all the loot they've found, and then they all leave for the first floor.

    Notable magic items found

    • ivory goat trio figurines of wondrous power [sold]
    • scroll of protection from earth elementals [sold]
    • scroll containing three cleric spells [sold]
    • wand of fireballs [kept]
    • scroll containing seven magic-user spells [kept]
    • frostbrand [kept]

    Current player-kept map of the third floor.

    11 votes

  17. Comment on D&D session report, 24-11-09 in ~games.tabletop

    Aldath
    Link Parent
    Aye, I'm the GM. I get a marching order at the top of the session and default to that unless circumstances dictate otherwise, so it's not overly difficult to keep track of, really. Henchmen are...

    Aye, I'm the GM. I get a marching order at the top of the session and default to that unless circumstances dictate otherwise, so it's not overly difficult to keep track of, really. Henchmen are largely played by the player of the PC employing them. Combat is side vs. side, with initiative rolled each round. Actions are declared by the players before the dice are rolled, and then we resolve actions in steps based on who won.

    Elves have a 90% chance to resist any magical sleep or charm effect placed on them. A number of them failed that night, lol.

    3 votes

  18. D&D session report, 24-11-09

    ~games.tabletop Text 559 words
    The game is AD&D 1e. The party: Jurgen, human Ranger 6 Aeliana, elf Fighter 3 / Magic-User 2 / Thief 4 DeBeaux, half-orc Cleric 1 / Fighter 1 / Assassin 1 Iskandar, human Magic-User 7 Henchman...

    The game is AD&D 1e. The party:

    • Jurgen, human Ranger 6
    • Aeliana, elf Fighter 3 / Magic-User 2 / Thief 4
    • DeBeaux, half-orc Cleric 1 / Fighter 1 / Assassin 1
    • Iskandar, human Magic-User 7
      • Henchman Thorgisl, Fighter 1
    • Vortigern, dwarf Fighter 6 / Thief 6
      • Henchman Runa, human Magic-User 4
      • Henchman Ingrid, human Ranger 4
    • 6 crossbowmen and 2 infantrymen

    The location: an underwater facility inhabited by aquatic elves who are currently suffering from a wasting disease of the mind that's been spreading amongst them. Those affected have been forcibly sent to the lower levels. A faerie elf (C6/F6/MU9) named Alfred has enlisted the party's assistance.

    This is not their first foray into the dungeon, but they have their first encounter with the affected elves here. The ten elves are immediately suspicious and eventually attack once they learn the party was sent here by Alfred. One successful sleep and a decent set of rolls later, the remaining three elves flee. The sleeping ones were tied up, and the party attempted an inquiry, but the elves decided a forever-sleep was preferable, though their movements prior to that were oddly jerky.

    They wander the halls of this facility, eventually encountering a gelatinous cube, which two magic missiles from Iskandar & Runa took care of.

    In one chamber, they solved a puzzle and activated a Shrine (from the TSR Diablo supplement for 2e) that opened town portals back to the safe floor. Through trial, they discovered what these do, but only two (Aeliana's and Iskandar's portals) remained.

    The highlight of the evening was the party coming across a set-up they'd seen in another room; two ceremonial masks kept inside a glass case, framed with iron, and watched by nearby metal torches that would loose blasts of arcane energy at any that got too close. Aeliana and Vortigern attempt to disarm the trap. Vortigern succeeds, but Aeliana fails significantly enough to accidentally trigger the trap, forcing a save vs. breath for 15 damage. She fails, and with her maximum HP of 8, she is incinerated on the spot. Luckily, her gear remains. They travel back to the portals activated earlier and send a hobilar in with Aeliana's corpse while the rest of them found their way back up. They petition Alfred for a revival, and he does have a scroll with a couple castings of raise dead on them, and the party can certainly afford the price for it, but he gently reminds them that elves are soulless, requiring more powerful magic to revive than he has access to.

    After some discussion, Runa rests a while before casting invisibility on herself and her horse so that she might make a trip to a town some 35 miles out to grab:

    • Rowan, a human MU 6
      • Henchman Rikka & Freya, both human Fighter 4

    Rowan uses invisibility, 10' radius on everyone relevant and they travel back to the elven city to continue exploring. In doing so, they encounter another set of 15 elves, but dispatch them quickly and decisively due to surprise, though Ingrid took a heavy amount of damage (10 damage to her maximum of 22 HP).

    We stop shortly after the group finds the lift to the lower level, whereupon their crossbowmen and hobilars refuse to go any deeper, indicating a dungeon floor of at least DL 4 difficulty.

    11 votes

  19. Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games

    Aldath
    Link
    The Callisto Protocol I've been playing this in sporadic bursts since release. I didn't have the issues so many others were reporting, so I won't really speak much to that; I told NVIDIA to...

    The Callisto Protocol
    I've been playing this in sporadic bursts since release. I didn't have the issues so many others were reporting, so I won't really speak much to that; I told NVIDIA to optimize my settings, then adjusted a couple of things, and it's been running well.

    It's been a competent survival horror so far. As loathe as I am to make comparisons, the moment-to-moment gameplay feels like a melee-focused Dead Space. Once you've gotten a couple of the baton upgrades (which can happen very quickly) it feels good to bash the creatures around. The boxer-esque dodge mechanic took very little time to get used to. The GRP feels great after upgrading the throw velocity, but aiming it can be a chore at times, as on more than one occasion I've tried to throw a creature into an environmental hazard that instead stopped dead five feet away because its pinky toe caressed the top corner of a knee-high box.

    The story... works, for what it's doing. It's nothing groundbreaking or new, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, and I've really only felt one contrivance WRT an NPC you meet early on, but that could be tied to the story, so perhaps it'll get better.

    Apex Legends
    Not much to say on this one; it's something I play a couple times a week with some friends. Entertaining enough Battle Royale.

    Warhammer 40k: Darktide
    I will sum up my feelings here because I don't want to get too into it.
    The moment-to-moment gameplay is phenomenal, but everything around it is such an un-fun, near insulting chore.

    Hades
    Another game I play sporadically in bursts of one or two runs, I've got about 40 hours into it so far. A staple of modern roguelikes is having some form of permanent progression baked in, but this goes a step further and incorporates that mechanic into the story. It is expected that you die to further conversations and relationships with the various characters, on top of the usual permanent progression systems. Very easily one of the best roguelikes I've played.

    2 votes

  20. Comment on What have yo been playing recently? in ~games.tabletop

    Aldath
    Link
    I play on multiple platforms at once, but here's what I've been spending my time on: PC - Pillars of Eternity 2 - I'm level 8 at the moment, still running around the first major city, Neketaka....

    I play on multiple platforms at once, but here's what I've been spending my time on:

    • PC - Pillars of Eternity 2 - I'm level 8 at the moment, still running around the first major city, Neketaka. I've always disliked big cities in cRPGs, if only because of how large they are. Ratio of running around and talking to people vs. combat is too skewed. I can't wait to be done and go back to being a pira-imean Gentleman of Fortune.

    • PS4 - Kingdom Hearts 1.5 Remix - Played KH1 and 2 back on the PS2, bought the remix so I could experience the full game again before the third one comes out. Being able to watch some of the other games as cutscenes is also nice. I've missed out on a lot by only having played KH1, 2, and BBB. I will say that KH1 has not aged well, but I dipped into the 2.5 Remix and it seemed like it would hold up.

    • PS Vita - Demon Gaze - A dungeon crawler that was recommended to me by a friend. Some of the art is pretty fan servicey, but the game itself is solid.

    1 vote