I think Pathfinder 2e handles the stunned condition the best out of all the combat oriented fantasy TTRPGs. You've got three actions on each of your turns to move, strike, etc with some activities like casting spells and using abilities costing 2-3 actions. Stunned comes with a value (Stunned 2, for example) that value gets deducted from your actions when your turn comes up and then the condition goes away. So you get all the flavor of having your bell rung and a mechanical penalty, while very rarely just straight up losing a whole turn or two.
The house rule our table uses is inspiration sharing. Basically, if you want, you can share your inspiration with other players when they roll. Some sessions i just know that I probably will do fine, like my nimble druid has plenty of options to soak dragon's breath damage, but our clumsy paladin probably will struggle more with dex saves. So, if we can see that other player desperately needs that advantage, we have an option to help them out like that.
Help is done well with Pathfinder mechanic: the person helping rolls first to determine if they are helpful (usually a lower DC), then the person leading the task gets a + bonus on their roll.
Oof i think I know exactly the channel you are talking about in the intro. RUclips recommend it to me aswell and I noped out when I saw a short mocking people for crying at Critical Role by saying they have "low T"
Oh damn, you’re talking about Black Lodge Games at the start there… I had the same experience as you! Really liked the measured and critical exploration of Candela… and then I saw their other content and was shocked!!
I'm all about the first suggested rule! Just started a 4e campaign set in Wildemount, and every PC has a background tied into a particular location. :D Conversely, one of my best friends knocked me for a loop in my long running 5e Ravnica campaign. He chose to be a gnome, which doesn't exist as they do in D&D in the Magic the Gathering multiverse. Eventually I twisted the concept into being a kithkin from Dominaria, but I learned a lot from that campaign and will be more discerning when a character doesn't fit my setting.
Generally speaking the way I organize notes as a DM is that I put every major story arch into its own separate folder. This is very easy if you're running something prewritten (just label the folders "chapter 1" "chapter 2" "chapter 3" etc.) but it's also quite doable in a homebrew campaign. Simply name the folders after what the location is or what you're going to do in that quest. I keep everything I need in that folder. Token artwork? Check. Statblocks? Check. The word document I use for my notes? Check. If I need a stat block I pop open the screenshot I have of the statblock and adjust the creature's HP and track its spell slots from there. I realize this is how it works for me as a primarily online DM but I think organizing everything you need physically based on when you need it is a good idea too.
I don't play dnd but I still finns this videos interesting, in Scion 2e when it comes to initiative they do something I really like: Everyone rolls initiative, nothing strange, but this just tells everyone when a pc is going to act, if player 1 gets the best initiative but really wants to go later then they simply trade their slot with another pc. Really opens up space for synergy. Once they've chosen their slot, they're locked however. Same goes for NPCs, example the boss acts before all minions so he can buff them.
One of the house rules we use at our table is a stacking advantage system where each additional instance of advantage or disadvantage is represented with a d4 that adds or subtracts from the roll. Another fun one is related to the fact I'm playing a Dullahan Bloodhunter (Folk Hero background farmgirl, the joke is she's a Headless Horsegirl), where the Crimson Rite can be performed on any weapon as long as you maintain physical contact with it. This is so whenever we're doing pirate stuff on the high seas and I'm not needed as the ship's doctor, I can run over to a cannon, swivel gun or mortar and buff it with my Rite of Flame to more effectively burn and explode ships or Rite of Storm to more easily hunt sea beasts.
I really like this dazed idea. I stunned a character last session and I felt really bad about it. I even tried to think of ways to allow the character to play theor turn... Because skipping it just seems so lame. The player said was fine but I personally don't want to use stun again. I like thos dazed effect way more
The help rule is not homebrew its actually RAW. But people often mistake what is the "help" action. Helping other characters is covered by "working together" rules and while it does require proficiency or at least being able to perform the action alone (if you can't pick lock yourself you can't help with it). Help action is a more specific rule to this that can only be used during combat it have some more use for giving advantage on attack roll but still follows the general rule of working together.
As a former monk player, that class is weak enough; if my DM was like “they’re dazed now,” I’d be pissed. Still having an action means they’re not incapacitated which means it won’t break concentration if the attack damage isn’t enough to do that because screw casters they get enough love and favoritism. Paralyzed is the most fun-killing status I’ve been subjected to as a player, and that comes up way more often than Stunned apart from stunning strike (which goes away quickly), at least in the campaigns I’ve played.
I'm in favor of rebalancing monk in such a way that they don't need stunning strike. The fact that the class can't do much outside of stunning strike is a massive design flaw that forces unfun status conditions. As for concentration, I personally see no reason for dazed to not break concentration. The main issue with stunned is that it just deletes a turn which isn't fun for anyone. In addition to only being limited to using an action or moving(with the Dash action), I'd personally also include that being dazed prevents concentrating on spells, gives the dazed creature disadvantage on Strength and Dexterity saving throws, and attack rolls against the dazed creature have advantage.
I once spent a whole session being stunned. The game took about 3 hours, which I spent doing absolutely nothing. Nobody even noticed me anymore. As the fight ended and I got released again, the session was over.
I used to be one of the DMs that wouldn't let a group "battle plan" as table talk, because metagaming. But the thing is, they're playing characters who have been traveling and fighting together for days, weeks, months, maybe years. They're going to have a familiarity and a set of tactics that the players themselves (who probably have jobs and the like) don't. How do you simulate that? Let the players strategize at the table.
I flavor the players strategizing as the characters would have spent downtime sparring or training together, so they have previously come up with group tactics they could use.
You should give guidance a charge system. So player x can use guidance 4 times after a long rest and 2 after a short rest for example and give something similar to help.
I have a list, mainly small edits to RAW. Potions are a bonus action on yourself or a melee action to use on someone else. It's a free action to switch your weapon once but an action if you want to switch again (you can sheath your sword to draw a bow and fire but can't get your sword back out after). Fall damage is 15 ft increments instead of 10 (anyone who did dumb things as a kid has jumped off of something ten feet, I figure an adventurer can handle it), I can't remember the others. I don't restrict the Help action because good grief my players need to use it _more_
Nothing good ever came from toxic behavior. I can't see how anyone would think that would help. I'm guessing that individual doesn't keep many players for very long. Edit: Being stunned is not the issue, getting stun locked is.
Probably one of those guys who seem to think that masculinity & toxic masculinity are the same thing... I.e. part of the problem & a prime example of toxic masculinity (still grade-A cringe though).
@@DJ_Bonebraker I wanted to say the same thing. But I think it's in character for these people to think that we have a problem with the masculinity part of "toxic masculinity" not the toxic part.
Getting stun-locked (or similar) can be frustrating for both players & DMs: There was one session in the recent Rifts campaign my group was in where we were fighting a lich in a tower that had a magical bell, and while the bell was ringing, everyone had to make saves vs horror factor, or spend that round fleeing, and my character couldn't make one. single. save. for the entire combat, aside from the very first round. Basically, I got to do nothing but make failed saves while everyone else got to be all cool & defeat the lich. Granted, part of that was a skill/knowledge issue on my part: If I would have thoroughly read the big Rifts Book of Magic, instead of only using the spell list included in the main sourcebook, I would have known that I could have picked up a spell at the level my character was at for that fight called Invulnerability that (in addition to a lot of other cool stuff) gives +10 to saves vs Psionics, Magic & Horror factor, which would have effectively made her immune... Once I found out about it & what it did, the first thing I had my character do every subsequent combat was cast Invulnerability on herself.
Oh the Help action stuff is interesting. I always let players try to help but at all my tables, you have to describe *how* you're helping. If your idea to help wouldn't actually be helpful, then usually the helping doesnt grant the advantage. This is because some actions /situations/ skill checks are a 1 person job.
The biggest problem with Stunned is it's boring. I try to change any rule that makes the game boring especially when it makes it boring for just one person in the party!
Can you talk about your players' characters more often I want to know how much anime stuff they are getting away without you knowing. Also, don't look up Shanks or the Straw hat pirates. That is a DEEP well
@@jean-philippehaufroid6425 Read the description. "Yesterday was... insane for reasons I'm not going to get into. Seeing me pre-disaster is pretty eye opening. But hey! I survived."
Was gonna go on a whole rant about the rule, but hey, your game, your rules. Still think nerfing the monk is a bad idea by taking away the Stun, as it is a key feature of the class.
Ah, yes, DMs who think strategizing in combat is bad... I wonder if they other to play the npcs as if they're not controlled by the same mind because that would mean the npcs would metagame, no?
I typically have a pretty solid backstory for my characters. My Shadowrun character was raised in an elven cult (more or less) and was cast out by her own machinations. The GM ran with it, and now the cult has taken on the character of a shadowy group bent on using diplomacy to slowly take over the world. It's great! 😁 Meanwhile, my D&D character is a misanthropic cartographer who prefers to avoid people due to abuse growing up as a tiefling in a moderately-sized city. But, much like in BG3, the inciting incident of the game threw us all together in a way that forced us to stay together due to a combination of reasons related to various other character backgrounds. Of course, it helps that I understand that the assignment when creating a character includes having a reason why said character wouldn't slip off at the first opportunity. On forcing help to be only for skills that are know is... *_terrible._* Just a couple of examples, in game and out: Character A needs to fire several arrows in quick succession. Character B doesn't need to have any sort of proficiency with bows to hold arrows so that Character A can shoot off their arrows faster. Think of it like a mechanic asking someone who knows nothing about mechanics holding a flashlight so the mechanic can have a better view about what's going on. This is going to be extremely subjective to the situation, but there are times when someone without any proficiency can provide help that makes a task easier for the person performing it.
I think Pathfinder 2e handles the stunned condition the best out of all the combat oriented fantasy TTRPGs.
You've got three actions on each of your turns to move, strike, etc with some activities like casting spells and using abilities costing 2-3 actions. Stunned comes with a value (Stunned 2, for example) that value gets deducted from your actions when your turn comes up and then the condition goes away. So you get all the flavor of having your bell rung and a mechanical penalty, while very rarely just straight up losing a whole turn or two.
The house rule our table uses is inspiration sharing. Basically, if you want, you can share your inspiration with other players when they roll. Some sessions i just know that I probably will do fine, like my nimble druid has plenty of options to soak dragon's breath damage, but our clumsy paladin probably will struggle more with dex saves. So, if we can see that other player desperately needs that advantage, we have an option to help them out like that.
That's a great one!
Help is done well with Pathfinder mechanic: the person helping rolls first to determine if they are helpful (usually a lower DC), then the person leading the task gets a + bonus on their roll.
Oof i think I know exactly the channel you are talking about in the intro. RUclips recommend it to me aswell and I noped out when I saw a short mocking people for crying at Critical Role by saying they have "low T"
A lot of tables allow potion use as a bonus action now. I'm also considering using the weapon actions from BG3 at my table.
I actually play at a table with weapon skills from bg3, and it's a lot of fun!
Bonus Action potions is also in the latest Playtest UA.
Oh damn, you’re talking about Black Lodge Games at the start there… I had the same experience as you! Really liked the measured and critical exploration of Candela… and then I saw their other content and was shocked!!
I'm all about the first suggested rule! Just started a 4e campaign set in Wildemount, and every PC has a background tied into a particular location. :D Conversely, one of my best friends knocked me for a loop in my long running 5e Ravnica campaign. He chose to be a gnome, which doesn't exist as they do in D&D in the Magic the Gathering multiverse. Eventually I twisted the concept into being a kithkin from Dominaria, but I learned a lot from that campaign and will be more discerning when a character doesn't fit my setting.
I think i know what video on Candela Obscura youre talking about and feel like i dodged a bullet not clicking it.
Generally speaking the way I organize notes as a DM is that I put every major story arch into its own separate folder. This is very easy if you're running something prewritten (just label the folders "chapter 1" "chapter 2" "chapter 3" etc.) but it's also quite doable in a homebrew campaign. Simply name the folders after what the location is or what you're going to do in that quest.
I keep everything I need in that folder. Token artwork? Check. Statblocks? Check. The word document I use for my notes? Check. If I need a stat block I pop open the screenshot I have of the statblock and adjust the creature's HP and track its spell slots from there.
I realize this is how it works for me as a primarily online DM but I think organizing everything you need physically based on when you need it is a good idea too.
I don't play dnd but I still finns this videos interesting, in Scion 2e when it comes to initiative they do something I really like:
Everyone rolls initiative, nothing strange, but this just tells everyone when a pc is going to act, if player 1 gets the best initiative but really wants to go later then they simply trade their slot with another pc. Really opens up space for synergy. Once they've chosen their slot, they're locked however.
Same goes for NPCs, example the boss acts before all minions so he can buff them.
NAUR! I did the same thing bc I was curious like 'what does this dude like?' and then I saw that video too and 🏃🏃🏃💨
the one piece isn't real
Can we get much lower
Sry bro, banned for life
There’s just a little sticky note in a treasure box that reads “friendship”
One of the house rules we use at our table is a stacking advantage system where each additional instance of advantage or disadvantage is represented with a d4 that adds or subtracts from the roll.
Another fun one is related to the fact I'm playing a Dullahan Bloodhunter (Folk Hero background farmgirl, the joke is she's a Headless Horsegirl), where the Crimson Rite can be performed on any weapon as long as you maintain physical contact with it. This is so whenever we're doing pirate stuff on the high seas and I'm not needed as the ship's doctor, I can run over to a cannon, swivel gun or mortar and buff it with my Rite of Flame to more effectively burn and explode ships or Rite of Storm to more easily hunt sea beasts.
I really like this dazed idea. I stunned a character last session and I felt really bad about it. I even tried to think of ways to allow the character to play theor turn... Because skipping it just seems so lame. The player said was fine but I personally don't want to use stun again. I like thos dazed effect way more
The help rule is not homebrew its actually RAW. But people often mistake what is the "help" action. Helping other characters is covered by "working together" rules and while it does require proficiency or at least being able to perform the action alone (if you can't pick lock yourself you can't help with it). Help action is a more specific rule to this that can only be used during combat it have some more use for giving advantage on attack roll but still follows the general rule of working together.
As a former monk player, that class is weak enough; if my DM was like “they’re dazed now,” I’d be pissed. Still having an action means they’re not incapacitated which means it won’t break concentration if the attack damage isn’t enough to do that because screw casters they get enough love and favoritism.
Paralyzed is the most fun-killing status I’ve been subjected to as a player, and that comes up way more often than Stunned apart from stunning strike (which goes away quickly), at least in the campaigns I’ve played.
I'm in favor of rebalancing monk in such a way that they don't need stunning strike. The fact that the class can't do much outside of stunning strike is a massive design flaw that forces unfun status conditions.
As for concentration, I personally see no reason for dazed to not break concentration. The main issue with stunned is that it just deletes a turn which isn't fun for anyone.
In addition to only being limited to using an action or moving(with the Dash action), I'd personally also include that being dazed prevents concentrating on spells, gives the dazed creature disadvantage on Strength and Dexterity saving throws, and attack rolls against the dazed creature have advantage.
I love House Rules and have many of my own! Also, as a straight man, you look good in this video Crispy. lol
I once spent a whole session being stunned. The game took about 3 hours, which I spent doing absolutely nothing. Nobody even noticed me anymore. As the fight ended and I got released again, the session was over.
My initiative counter is just a handheld white board, I also use it to track enemy health
I used to be one of the DMs that wouldn't let a group "battle plan" as table talk, because metagaming. But the thing is, they're playing characters who have been traveling and fighting together for days, weeks, months, maybe years. They're going to have a familiarity and a set of tactics that the players themselves (who probably have jobs and the like) don't. How do you simulate that? Let the players strategize at the table.
I prefer to directly enter stat blocks in to Roll 20.
Same
Didn't realise Crispy was a fellow Foundry addict. Impossible for me to do irl games after buying it
I flavor the players strategizing as the characters would have spent downtime sparring or training together, so they have previously come up with group tactics they could use.
You should give guidance a charge system. So player x can use guidance 4 times after a long rest and 2 after a short rest for example and give something similar to help.
I have a list, mainly small edits to RAW. Potions are a bonus action on yourself or a melee action to use on someone else. It's a free action to switch your weapon once but an action if you want to switch again (you can sheath your sword to draw a bow and fire but can't get your sword back out after). Fall damage is 15 ft increments instead of 10 (anyone who did dumb things as a kid has jumped off of something ten feet, I figure an adventurer can handle it), I can't remember the others. I don't restrict the Help action because good grief my players need to use it _more_
Nothing good ever came from toxic behavior. I can't see how anyone would think that would help.
I'm guessing that individual doesn't keep many players for very long.
Edit: Being stunned is not the issue, getting stun locked is.
Probably one of those guys who seem to think that masculinity & toxic masculinity are the same thing... I.e. part of the problem & a prime example of toxic masculinity (still grade-A cringe though).
@@DJ_Bonebraker That's a really good point.
Maybe, grade AAA cringe.
@@DJ_Bonebraker I wanted to say the same thing. But I think it's in character for these people to think that we have a problem with the masculinity part of "toxic masculinity" not the toxic part.
Getting stun-locked (or similar) can be frustrating for both players & DMs: There was one session in the recent Rifts campaign my group was in where we were fighting a lich in a tower that had a magical bell, and while the bell was ringing, everyone had to make saves vs horror factor, or spend that round fleeing, and my character couldn't make one. single. save. for the entire combat, aside from the very first round. Basically, I got to do nothing but make failed saves while everyone else got to be all cool & defeat the lich.
Granted, part of that was a skill/knowledge issue on my part: If I would have thoroughly read the big Rifts Book of Magic, instead of only using the spell list included in the main sourcebook, I would have known that I could have picked up a spell at the level my character was at for that fight called Invulnerability that (in addition to a lot of other cool stuff) gives +10 to saves vs Psionics, Magic & Horror factor, which would have effectively made her immune... Once I found out about it & what it did, the first thing I had my character do every subsequent combat was cast Invulnerability on herself.
Oh the Help action stuff is interesting. I always let players try to help but at all my tables, you have to describe *how* you're helping. If your idea to help wouldn't actually be helpful, then usually the helping doesnt grant the advantage. This is because some actions /situations/ skill checks are a 1 person job.
Never knew how much Stunned sucked until I, as the DM, had an enemy mage use Hold Person on a player. I felt awful. :(
Roll d20’s on all your stats. Truly trust the dice gods. You haven’t lived until you’ve tried to play a character with 1 Charisma.
The biggest problem with Stunned is it's boring. I try to change any rule that makes the game boring especially when it makes it boring for just one person in the party!
One pieeeeeeeeece 🥰
Did you give the barbarian his sword?
At the risk of getting banned, the anime is Jojo's Bizarre Adventure.
You guys are MEAN lol
Wrong, it's clearly Attack on Titan
Gojira figurine!!
Can you talk about your players' characters more often
I want to know how much anime stuff they are getting away without you knowing.
Also, don't look up Shanks or the Straw hat pirates. That is a DEEP well
Good rules. :>
I HOPE UR OK CRISPY!!!
I'm okay. I was pretty shaken up while editing this. I don't know if I'll go into detail but I'm all good.
@@CrispysTavern I’m so sorry to hear that ):
You don’t have to go into detail, I just wanted to make sure ur ok
something happen ?
@@jean-philippehaufroid6425 Read the description. "Yesterday was... insane for reasons I'm not going to get into. Seeing me pre-disaster is pretty eye opening. But hey! I survived."
Will you use these rules for good, or awesome?
Was gonna go on a whole rant about the rule, but hey, your game, your rules. Still think nerfing the monk is a bad idea by taking away the Stun, as it is a key feature of the class.
Our Monk is homebrew and was definitely fine. Just trust me on that.
The one house rule I really have is max hp.
Stealing a few of these, in particular the stat blocks in the notes. Might steal the type foldering as well.
Ah, yes, DMs who think strategizing in combat is bad... I wonder if they other to play the npcs as if they're not controlled by the same mind because that would mean the npcs would metagame, no?
Add the Dragon Balls from DragonBall/Z/Kai/Super
Think you're missing a word from the title "Does D&D Game Suck?" doesn't quite make sense
Writing is hard
@@CrispysTavernvery
@@CrispysTavernthat's fair
Not wearing lipstick suits you, dude. So does wearing lipstick, though.
Stunned is fine, players will get over it quickly
Bro, pls stop not getting the most basic of anime references. It hurts my soul super hard, and I don’t even watch one piece.
I typically have a pretty solid backstory for my characters. My Shadowrun character was raised in an elven cult (more or less) and was cast out by her own machinations. The GM ran with it, and now the cult has taken on the character of a shadowy group bent on using diplomacy to slowly take over the world. It's great! 😁 Meanwhile, my D&D character is a misanthropic cartographer who prefers to avoid people due to abuse growing up as a tiefling in a moderately-sized city. But, much like in BG3, the inciting incident of the game threw us all together in a way that forced us to stay together due to a combination of reasons related to various other character backgrounds. Of course, it helps that I understand that the assignment when creating a character includes having a reason why said character wouldn't slip off at the first opportunity.
On forcing help to be only for skills that are know is... *_terrible._* Just a couple of examples, in game and out: Character A needs to fire several arrows in quick succession. Character B doesn't need to have any sort of proficiency with bows to hold arrows so that Character A can shoot off their arrows faster. Think of it like a mechanic asking someone who knows nothing about mechanics holding a flashlight so the mechanic can have a better view about what's going on. This is going to be extremely subjective to the situation, but there are times when someone without any proficiency can provide help that makes a task easier for the person performing it.