Topic: The Dungeon and Dragons Thread

@Tasuki got into the eye doctor’s yesterday, and while my glasses are still broke I was able to pick up a pair of readers that lets me see the screen.

That one shot sounded like a lot of fun and like a good short story left you wanting more (and wandering what happens next). Awesome job, and I know your players probably loved it.

@Tyranexx No move on the other game due to schedules. Hopefully once I can see properly again the next session will be on the calendar.

@Darknyht Yeah they really enjoy it, best of all they are were wondering what happens next with the Dragon.

We might revisit this group again, and then again I can always pull the dragon into another campaign.

@Tyranexx It could very well be used as a adventure down the road that's what I am hoping for but who knows.

Then drunk bit started with the Elven wizard failing a deception roll, orcs caught on to what he was trying to do so he covered it up by acting like he was drunk. So he kept the cherrade up while around the orcs where around.

@Darknyht NP, I completely get it. When it comes to both the scheduling conflicts and not being able to see. Before I had LASIK, I was nearsighted to where I was legally blind without glasses or contacts. My vision is still loads better than it was, but it's gotten to where I use glasses in the evenings sometimes. I started developing very mild astigmatism before my surgery, which we didn't correct for.

@Tasuki I'd love if this adventure is revisited sometime! I'm sure at least some of the group think similarly.

A failed deception roll, but a good cover. Either the wizard was very convincing with feigned drunkenness, or this group of orcs wasn't particularly bright. XD

@Tyranexx It is always humbling when the eye doctor informs you that your eyes are healthy, but you are just old. I am headed towards progressive lenses.

We didn't get to play DND yesterday, but instead discovered that we are all equally terrible at Realms Royale. One of our group couldn't join at first, so we started messing around with a game we could all play (PC, Switch/PC, and PS5). Unfortunately, we landed on that particular one.

The only progress that we made was that I finalized my Artificer 7/Wizard 1 character. He is focused on Conjuration magic for now, but he will eventually become an Order of Scribes Wizard. I was also able to help the Eldritch Knight make some leveling decisions that should help. The biggest was to focus on spells that either don't require dice rolls (i.e. Magic Missile), do damage even when they save against it (i.e. Burning Hands), or use Melee Attack Rolls (i.e. Green Flame Blade).

@Darknyht I'm one who wishes the eyes wouldn't change from perfect 20/20 vision for everyone and that everyone could see, but sadly that's just wishful thinking.

Realms Royale? Can't say I'm familiar with that one, but I'm curious now. At the very least, it appears some out of game character refining was very beneficial for both your character and the Eldritch Knight.

@Tyranexx Realms Royale is a battle royale video game kinda like Fortnight or CoD Warzone. Their thing is they have fantasy classes like a Fighter or Wizard and I think there's an archer, I honestly dont remember all the classes its been awhile since I played it. It was fun for a bit but for me it was just another battle royale game, but due to the fantasy setting I had to try it.

@Tyranexx As Tasuki said, Fortnite with a fantasy theme. It was a F2P game that we all could run as we have a mix of PS5, PC, and Switch. I apologize, as I thought I replied to this question a while ago, but apparently it didn't save my response.

Anyways, we played last Tuesday and got into a large scrum with a witch and her house. I think we were a little big for ourselves as we are on the edge of a TPK. If it wasn't for the brutal death rules, we might have squeezed past this, but she is a bit relentless in her spells and the house just beats the crap out of us. At this point, everyone is almost out of HP and our healer had to wildshape into a Brown Bear to start tanking hits.

Not that it will possibly matter in a few days, but I changed my mind and stayed a straight Artificer and just took the Ritual Caster feat. It just felt more in line with the character than multiclassing this time around.

@Tasuki Interesting....I'm not really into battle royale games, but I'd be tempted to try one in a fantasy setting. Sounds like something I'd like but would bounce off of quickly.

@Darknyht Hey, whatever works for everyone! Sounds like it was a pretty fun change-up for the day.

I initially misread the "scrum with a witch and her house" bit. Your group is also fighting the house? Sounds like a Baba Yaga type setup. I hope your group pulls through, sounds like a very rough fight. And that your Artificer is able to see their goals through.

@Tyranexx Yeah that's pretty much what I did. Played it for a bit cause it had a bit of a fantasy element to it, but in the end its just a battle royale game.

@Tyranexx We managed to survive the encounter with the witch by the skin of our teeth. We finished the task that sent us there, and everyone agreed to head back to the manor and fortify part of it to serve as a base of operations. The plan was for the party to clear out an additional room by the one we originally fortified and make both secure. Then while the others cleared out some of the monsters we didn't deal with, I would work on repairing some of the salvaged armor and equipment. (This will let my character gain Half-Plate Armor and the Eldritch Knight would get Brigandine Armor (Splint Mail in DND terms). We also plan on redistributing magical gear to balance our party out better.

However, that got put on hold when we started working our way back to the manor. Luck was not on our side and we rolled a random encounter and in our haste we didn't short rest. So our battered party found ourselves fighting four werewolves along the road.

Thankfully, our Druid had spent most of the last battle just trying to stay alive, so he had spell slots. He quickly threw up a wall of fire to buy us time. As we got organized and came up with a plan, he healed everyone enough that a hit wouldn't insta-kill. We managed to take one of the werewolves down at range with cantrips, but as the round ended two were attacking our Fighter and I was beginning to engage the third.

So a lot is happening, but most of it has been combat.

@Darknyht A bloody, combat-heavy session then. Glad your group made it through the witch encounter; the outlook didn't seem great in your last post. A good plan involving establishing a base of operations and building up your group's defenses, but even the best laid plans can go awry in my experience.

Quite unfortunate that your group stumbled into a werewolf encounter in your weakened state. Good thing your Druid was wise enough to keep some spell slots handy! I suspect this encounter isn't as hard as the witch at least. Come to think of it, aren't a couple group members werewolves? Or were they killed or cured?

@Tyranexx Sorry, if I hadn't mentioned it as I wasn't taking great notes around that time for various reasons. The werewolf bites got resolved, our DM hadn't read through the full character sheet for Esmeralda. She actually knows the remove curse spell but doesn't have it prepared. We however split the party and went on a mad quest to find Belladonna (Wolfsbane) and a hermit Druid that could make a cure with it. That all went down around the time we got the Blood Spear.

Ironically, outside of a werewolf bite I don't think we are really in that much danger. We are level 8 at this point, so even at half-health most of us have 20-30 HP. The Wall of Fire along with some high fences have helped shape the encounter into something manageable. Even a werewolf bite is not a big deal as long as Esmerelda is with us and willing to cast Remove Curse (now that we know that is a thing).

As for the base of operations, it will mostly amount to a secure room that is 20' X 45'. My plan is to secure it with the Arcane Lock spell and declare it as my home. That should keep the majority of things out of it, and an Alarm spell when staying should give us warning of someone intrudes while we are there. I have been reading over the One D&D Bastion rules and honestly, I want to steer in that direction. That would show us working towards rebuilding the order, but I don't think this campaign is flexible (or giving us enough gold) to do it so a simple safe house will have to do.

If this was going to be a long term campaign, I would want to see us defeat Strahd and deal with all the other evils plaguing the land. Something of a DND Dawnguard for the valley. However, I think once Strahd goes down the campaign will be wrapped up. It's taken far to long already and I think the DM is getting worn down.

@Darknyht I think I recall the bit about splitting the party, not so much the reasoning why. But if this was some time ago and before the holiday swing, it's very possible you did mention it and I forgot lol. Either way, glad the lycanthropy is resolved for your group...for now. Not that this seems like it'll be an issue for your group going forward if there's another infection.

Sounds like the safe space will indeed have to do for now. I'd like to hear more details about your group's campaign continuing once Strahd is defeated, seeing the land cleansed of most evil, and rebuilding the order, but that indeed depends on your DM. If he or she is already worn down, I don't see the campaign continuing paat a certain vampire's demise either.

I figured this time I would just share the journal entry my character posted to the group to share what transpired. It was a good session, although I was mostly working to setup things in Foundry to reflect what my character was doing off-screen.

"Exhausted, I suggested that we head back to the Argynvostholt to rest and prepare for the next part of our quest. Along the way there, we were attacked by werewolves. However, the battle was not as deadly this time as we have grown and despite our exhaustion, we won the day.

Once we arrived at the Mansion, the real work began. We collected the weapons, armor, and usable debris from the now-empty place. Over a few days, I sealed up the first-floor sitting room and storage room connected to it so that there was now only a single entrance. I applied an arcane lock to restrict access to those rooms to only to those in our party. With help from the Steel Defender, we worked our mini-forge and managed to restore two sets of armor for me and Gabriel and repair some of the weaponry we gathered. While I worked on this, the rest of the party cleared out the giant spiders nesting in the damaged south wing and finished gathering anything useful into our new home.

Now, we gather and plan for the next steps in our journey. I feel we draw close to the end now."

Mostly a RP session where it looks like all is going to plan so far. Including some much needed strengthening of defenses and forcing. I'm guessing those giant spiders weren't too much trouble after some rest for those of the group who cleared the south wing.

Very interesting article

https://gamerant.com/tencent-hasbro-dungeons-and-dragons-purc...

To be honest if this does turn out to be true, I wouldn't be buying D&D stuff anymore.

@Tasuki I just relooked at Hasbro's investor report and they aren't selling Wizards of the Coast anytime soon. That division saw a +40% revenue growth due to D&D and Digital Gaming. Meanwhile their Entertainment wing cratered last year. They may jump on an exclusive video game publisher deal, but why would they screw over the development team that created that huge bump in profit?

@Tyranexx They were not. It is funny what lightning can do to insects Chain Lightning and Call Lightning was unleashed on the poor spiders. I think the druid was venting some pent-up rage

@Darknyht Or maybe the druid really dislikes spiders? XD Reminds me of when our bard in our paused campaign cast fireball in a tower of that swamp castle we were in to try to flush some giant spiders out. Sadly the flooring we were on was wood. Things could have ended very badly if not for some fortunate rolls.