I've had characters "doomed to die." The DM _let me know_ away from the group and out of character so we could collaborate on making it more dramatic and impactful (including for the other players!), and it started with the DM considering my character's story arc and asking me if I might be open to taking things in that direction. Ended up being pretty epic.
I'll take your word for it, if my dm told me and two other players were doomed to die nonatter what because reasons I'd probably say that's not the game for me, character death is one thing but this is a collaborative game if I want my character destined to die (obviously outside of normal play) that is my choice and mine alone
DM: *I* know it's not real, so all my NPCs know too! Also DM: The enemy leader doesn't know that the DMPC is behind the door waiting to attack him, despite the fact that I know.
I have a cat that is most comfortable when resting in my dice tray. He’s been doing it for so long that I just leave it on the table, even outside of gaming for him to rest on. Having a co-dm like that is a great way to relieve unwanted tension or stress
While I can understand owlbears not identifying saviors and potentially being trained by captors, that DM in the last story was straight up metagaming with enemies instantly knowing illusions. Stuff like that has me discouraged from trying illusionists unless it's a character using them as special affects everyone knows are fake.
I've heard similar horror stories so I purposefully held off until I found a DM I knew I could trust to not screw me over like that. Had a lot of fun. My suggestion, just pick up minor illusion on a character or two and see how the DM responds when you use it. If they're metagaming around it, you can cut your losses there. If they're cool about it and treat it like any other spell... you're in. 😎
8:55 Being invisible doesn't make you silent. A guard might not be able to see you, but they can hear your footsteps, the rustling of your cloths, your nervous breathing, etc. IMO, a DM just needs to play it smart. If you beef the stealth roll, then a guard hears something. They'll react the way any guard might react if they think they heard something, look around, and don't immediately see anything. To me, it wouldn't mean that the guard automatically knows where you are and that you're an enemy trying to sneak by. It just means they heard something.
Yes, Invisibility just allows you to Stealth in situations where it is not normally possible. Like when you try escaping the Goblin caves through the front gate with your newly acquired invisibility ring.
Just because they can't see you, doesn't mean they can't hear you or use guesswork to track you down. Like you said, breathing, footsteps, rustling of clothes, armor, and equipment. By extension, touching or moving things and footprints (especially on soft ground, like mud, sand, or snow), even dust in the air and rain can give away your position.
i'd still give them advantage since they don't have to put in the effort to stay out of view or anything. they just have to be quiet and not bump into anyone.
I cracked up hard at the "Choose when you die" sketch. My dad, while DMing, liked to use visual aids, including tactical maps and figurines. One time, we were involved in an intense fight with a fire giant who was hurling boulders at us from across the room ... when our cat, apparently feeling he wasn't getting enough attention, jumped right into the middle of the map, scattering all the figurines, and just planted himself right there in the middle of the table. My dad, without missing a beat, said, "Suddenly a giant cat leaps onto the battlefield and kills everyone. Aragorn wins."
The most "Horrible" thing in this video was the revelation that Crispy has never watched Pokemon. How can I relate to them if they don't like the things I like?! JK, what really burned me was the DM with the jank rulings for Illusions. Like, I've heard stories of DM that have monsters figure out the illusion because they attack or walk into it or something, with no other roll. But claiming that your personal knowledge transfers to the monsters is so dumb and the definition of meta gaming.
That story wasn't a meta-gaming thing, it was the DM wanting to be the star of the show via their DMPC and treating the players like their personal minions.
I've had the DMs who are way too into homebrew. It's like "dude, I'm just trying to get a handle on the basics right now, I'm not going from 13 classes choices to infinite homebrew ones for my FIRST games." 😂
Yep RAW the Invisible condition doesn't give advantage to stealth. I get it...but if you're proficient in stealth, and wearing light armor, I'm giving you advantage.
I actually looked into this, and while technically correct, the invisible player shouldn't have been detectable at all: From the Invisible condition "For the purpose of hiding, the creature is heavily obscured". OK, well what does Heavily Obscured say? "A creature effectively suffers from the blinded condition when trying to see something in that area". And Blinded? "A blinded creature can't see and automatically fails any ability check that requires sight". So, RAW, the creature would automatically fail any check to see the invisible character, which is why granting advantage on Stealth is unnecessary. That's where the RAW analysis ends, and I say that personally, I'd impose disadvantage on the creature trying to find the invisible character, since Invisible condition also states "The creature's location can be detected by any noise it makes or any tracks it leaves". So, it is still possible to perceive an invisible creature, but FAR more difficult than usual.
This is the rundown and plots how the lego pieces of 5e fit together excellently! BUT, I should point out that stealth isn't just "being unseen", it's also "being unheard". That's why, RAW, invisibility doesn't grant advantage on Stealth.
"Playing with your partner is always kind of awkward" lol WHAT? Even when i was still with my terrible ex, playing TTRPGs together in the same group never turned awkward... Nowadays I've been involved in multiple parties with my fiance, some of which lasting for years, and it's only ever been great. I feel sorry for folks who can't bond through a shared interest like that.
I also like playing dnd with my partner- but we have to remember that Crispy is ace and also has read tons of stories by now where someone playing with a significant other has gone badly lol
I also like playing with my partner, but we have to remember that crispy is ace, and also has read TONS of stories where someone playing with a partner went badly
@@ArcCaravan yeah I mean technically I've had... ten? grandparents depending on how you count and if you include those who died before I was born. Since both of my parents remarried and also their parents remarried
Intro story: I think we need a lot more context here. What the heck happened? First story: Wow, OP learned that moral the hard way. Yikes! Also, what the heck was wrong with that DM? The point of a tabletop RPG is that it’s not scripted; the players can do anything they want within reason, and they might come up with a brilliant strategy the DM never could have anticipated. If you’re going to script out a whole story, then roleplaying is not for you; you would be better off just writing your story, not trying to make your friends play it out. (Not to mention all of his other issues, but I’ve rambled enough already.) Second story: So, one of my players has a cat, and he likes to join us sometimes, so I’ve declared that in my campaign world, he is a god. The tabaxi worship Hidgens, the patron of mental stability and familial love. I think this cat also deserves divine status as a god of comedic timing. Third story: Oh, DM, sweetie… I know the DM is highly unlikely to see this, but as someone who’s been DMing for a while, I would advise him to maybe try a module first, just to get an idea of how encounters are built, before making his own campaign. I admire his enthusiasm, but he really needs a better grasp of how things work before diving in. Fourth story: I’m glad to hear he was better the second time… but why on earth was there a second time? Even if I was good friends with someone, if they DMed like that, I would not be willing to play in their campaigns anymore. This guy may be a great friend and player, but he’s a terrible DM.
If their good friends, the group will often give them a chance to improve and show that their learning. I have a friend who went through similar and they become a good DM (still need to improve on a few very minor things, but their doing fine overall).
To be honest, it wasn’t until watching these videos that I had any idea DMPCs were commonly regarded negatively. Almost every game I’ve played in has had them strictly locked to the same power level as the players and primarily used to deliver prompting hints and/or the designated scapegoat when things go wrong. Also the players got to decide what the DMPC did in battles (combat was very collaborative in nature and everyone planned their turns together).
Story 0: Look, I try to give people benefits of the doubt WAAAAAAY too often, but holy heck sometimes (especially with random online groups) you just meet truly obnoxious people who are an absolutely chore to be around. I've dealt with roleplay groups enough to know that some people online have no social grace.
i EXCLUSIVELY use google docs (or rather, google sheets) for my character sheets. in fact, i have a disdain for the website choices (ie. roll20 or dndbeyond)
On the topic of DMPCs, my party keeps giving them to our DM by adopting a random child from towns we pass and giving them a weapon to help us fight. The most recent one we had ended up getting a few levels in warlock by the end of the campaign.
Dude, I'm the exact opposite to the last story DM: if me, the player, is told what's going on, I'll act as if my character doesn't know - even if s/he looks stupid not realizing. However if I figure it out without anybody telling me, THEN my character will realize. I find it more challenging and thus more fun this way. Being plainly told what's happening takes me away from the immersion.
Commenting mid-watch because I heard the piano notes from Deep Stone Lullaby. Nothing deeper, it's just an amazing piece of music. And now: back to watching the rest of the video.
Two things guaranteed to annoy Crispy: 1. Saying your story is "not as bad as other". 2. Giving him names of towns/kingdoms/etc that are really hard to pronounce.
With regards to sound effects: I was in an in-person Pathfinder game where the DM didn't use much music or sound effects. But, as we were deep underground in a dungeon, the DM pulled out his cellphone and played the most horrifying screech. We were all wondering where he obtained that sound effect. Turns out, that was a recording of his 1-year-old having a tantrum 🤣🤣🤣🤣
I personally prefer using Google Docs over using a physical sheet. Physical sheets are too small for my handwriting, there's just not enough space, and I get to format it in a way I like and understand. The first two go away with any online sheet, whether DnD Beyond or Roll 20, but the third can still be important.
I am usually a lurker on your channel, but I had to comment that your 'choose the date of death' bit really got me. Your skits are getting better and better, keep up the great work!
What if you played a game where material components for spells were ignored entirely (except for when ritual casting if/when possible) and instead all spells needed mana of the element related to the spell’s damage type or the element the spell is associated with if it doesn’t deal damage
As one of the contributors said I love your skits. They raise your content above many other D&D story channels! That said any advice on how to avoid the whole "Clone Degradation" problem? Mine are coming out with extra limbs and all sorts of other weird stuff!
Pulling Back the Curtain- I actually did this for the table I’m a player in after I finished a LMoP mini campaign to let the regular dm have a small break. I had buffed a couple enemies cuz none of us were Newbies. One nearly resulted in a TPK but they won. I told them after that I accidentally nerfed said enemy cuz he was technically supposed to get a weaker Third attack each round as a bonus action, but I forgot to use it. The other, they hit for like 5 damage, and I thought it was fine. Then the paladin crit a smite and insta-killed them. *IT WAS THE FINAL BOSS.* I told the party I am still upset to this day I couldn’t make that boss more a challenge cuz the next round was when I planned to use his nasty spells. I didn’t give hom Silvery Barbs or In the Moment buff his HP, and I admitted that cuz I didnt want to rob that epic crit from them. Thankfully they had fun. I did tell them what I had given that boss and they definitely seemed interested
I have a cat that insists on laying on the table in the middle of everything. This results, when i have a map on the table, in the narration taking a turn to recognize the gigantic cat stepping through the Witchlight Carnival, and informing characters not to worry about it.
Cold open: I can think of a couple things that get me angry enough (especially if I have warned about it already) to kick somebody instantly. Amogus, dees nuts, .... You know the type of jokes.
it also sounds like they were supposed to have the characters created beforehand, and this guy was being problematic and not listening to instructions. the comment itself might not been that bad on its own but it was a final straw that the DM just didnt want to deal with him
Story of the brand new GM reminds me of my first time GMing. Luckily, the people I was playing with were first-time players, so they didn't realise how bad it was.
Man i have a good memory of preplanning relationships lightly with other players for a serious campaign. The vague idea was we were all weed buddies in the woods on the outside of town. The most sweet thing to me was later earnestly asking my dm if there Was recreational drugs and him going "yeah? How else are you guys gonna hotbox the bathroom!" Bc that was something fun we had talked about in his dark castlepunk campaign.
I am sure this doesn't need to be said, but a Death Knight is essentially the Paladin version of a Lich. It is kind crazy to just throw it in as a lvl 1 encounter, and die in one hit from anything.
Invisibility is one of those rules where you have to read the condition which brings you to another rule and then to another rule, it’s very much up to the DMs interpretation of it when it gets advantage or not.
I imagine that in the intro story, the player that got kicked either made a derogatory remark regarding a low roll the DM made for an NPC's stats (something along the lines of "wow I bet that Charisma stat lines up with yours IRL") or tried claiming the DM was either purposefully fudging their stat rolls or using a bot to purposefully get high rolls (something like "there's no way you can't be using a cheat bot to roll stats if you got a natural 16 like that!")
I originally wanted one of my characters to be an NPC since i didn't think her story worked for a pc. But after working through some things i think she could. Long story short, a rogue who spent her entire life under mind control, with minimal ability to think for herself. After her master was slain, she needed someone else to give her orders and latched onto the man who killed her master. I decided that the way to make her work as a PC was to have her current master send her on a mission to increase her independence. She will obey any order given by him without thinking...but he's not around for most of the story. So she has to learn to think for herself.
8:40 so I looked into this a bit more Invisibility: A creature you touch becomes *invisible* until the spell ends. Anything the target is wearing or carrying is invisible as long as it is on the target's person. The spell ends for a target that attacks or casts a spell. Invisible Condition: An invisible creature is impossible to see without the aid of magic or a special sense. For the purpose of hiding, the creature is *heavily obscured*. The creature’s location can be detected by any noise it makes or any tracks it leaves. Heavily obscured (the environment): A heavily obscured area-such as darkness, opaque fog, or dense foliage-blocks vision entirely. A creature effectively suffers from the *blinded* condition when trying to see something in that area. Blinded Condition: A blinded creature can’t see and automatically fails any ability check that requires sight. so the real answer is that you don't have advantage on stealth rolls, but creatures automatically fail perception checks based on sight.
I do have some rules when it comes to making homebrew, 1: the more universally applicable a feature is the better it is, 2: a feature shouldn’t force you into only one way of playing, 3: the more powerful a feature the later you should get it, 4: if you want a more powerful feature early on, use restriction on when it can be applied, example would be divine smite, you can do it at any time but if you smite a fiend they take an extra damage dice. 5: aim for something strong enough that it makes you want to play it all the way instead of feeling forced to multi class or be weak, while also not being so strong that you feel you can’t multi class if you want too.
When making a really relevant npc that accompanies the party it is important to either make the npc find their strength in their dynamic with the party or viceversa, it's not bad for them to be important, it's bad when their importance ends up overshadowing the party rather than raise their qualities as a group
I’ve found some wikis online about how to build a death knight character, and I kind of want to make one. It looks like fun to try building. Anyone have any ideas about building a DnD death knight character?
I do have a sort of “doomed to die” character but it’s one I created and one I worked with the dm on. I had a player reach out to me to ask if I was ok with it when they started seeing the foreshadowing and putting pieces together. I reassured them that it was intentional and I was fully in on this. And I also discussed this with the group as I realized this might be making them uncomfortable. I put forth my reasons and also made it clear that, while the most likely outcome would mean her death, my character does still have a chance of living, depending on how the adventure pans out. I also made sure to inform them that I had full intent to play this character like she wanted to live. I just also let those death flags go up whenever I could imply them. Lol. As for why it’s the “doomed to die” thing. This is because the childhood friend my character is loyal to, is a leader in the cult our party is fighting and dismantling. My character and this friend are still friends! (Lots to unpack though, lol). But my character also accidentally killed their childhood friend’s current lover and hasn’t yet said so to their friend. Now, my character is working like crazy to get what they need for a true resurrection but that’s a long way off and leaves plenty of time for the old friend to find out what she did. Even though it was self defense, well, the friend, for all that she is fond of my character, isn’t exactly a nice person. The moment my character becomes labeled an “enemy” she’s going to lose all protection that the friendship provided her from this friend’s more cruel nature. And considering my character is devoted to their friend, well…lol you can see how and why this is an ending meant for tragedy right? Now, things can still be spun in a way that will turn this around. This is also some subtext going on that both the friend and my character have held secret romantic torches for each other and are both almost obsessively codependent and loyal to each other. It’s a high possibility that these things can be twisted in such a way that will let the pair live and not have a, relatively, tragic ending. Either way, should be fun right? 😉
@9:00 honestly, I wouldn't even roll a stealth check for a person with invisibility, unless they are coming up against something the detects by something other than sight, (or has blindsight / truesight)
Nothing wakes me up or gets my on my feet faster than hearing the sound of one of my fluffy menaces gifting me their undigested food. They never aim for the hardwood, either. During our COVID campaign, I went abruptly AFK because I heard the noise downstairs. 😂
"Having No Options" - ...a SCRIPTED TPK.... as the SECOND encounter after introducing the new party member.... I get the feeling that DM hated the characters and was trying to push them to use his homebrew from the get-go. Honestly, I would've dipped the instant he decided to murder everyone's characters with no explanation. Sad part is, I could see a TPK being an excellent way to start an underworld campaign, where the players are fighting to get back to the land of the living after being unfairly cast in. In fact, I'm reminded of a comic series called "Knights of the Dinner Table" that introduced a fictional module that had the players murdered early on by high level monsters and resurrect as a unique hybrid soul creature that stood a solid chance of reviving themselves if they survived long enough to get back to where they'd fallen. "Brand New DM" - Desperately needed to learn how to balance a story/campaign. I would've given him at least a few pointers. Random encounters is somewhat fine, but you should never be picking something at COMPLETE random. "Banning Everything" - I think it was less about 'banning' and more about the DM deciding how some things were going to go and ignoring or auto-failing anything that would deviate from his DMPC getting the chance to shine.
8:48 I think the reason being invisible gives disadvantage to see, rather than advantage to hide is because there are so many ways a monster can see the invisible creature. If the DM tells the player not to roll with advantage, then that reveals information about the monster.
I wouldn't call it "disadvantage to see" since you have disadvantage on attack rolls to hit what you can't see, assuming you're aiming at the right place to begin with. Even if you know there's an invisible person in the room with you, it's not a simple matter to narrow down their location to a five foot cube
18:15 Bro coulda done anything, he could have given the leader truesight or a magic item that let him see through illusions, or he could have said he would roll to see through the fake owlbear and lied about succeeding. And yet of all the joykill methods of DM cheating, he just blatantly admits he doesn't care.
For the brand new DM story I am said wizard that invited him to play while in the campaign which never actually got further than that session. He seems like a brand new DM he wasn’t. He’s been playing for four years at that point never been in a real campaign, but still four years And he always tried to DM and didn’t know what he was doing or took the time to learn, but then insisted on DM and always and refused to be a player so nothing ever got far and he still spent 100s of dollars on book and miniatures and cool set for every thing
Back in 3.5 I always made my character sheets in Excel. So many calculations and in 3.5 you needed to plan out 20 levels of a build at the start. So building in Google Docs doesn't sound strange to me.
I know people underestimate how tough DMing is but it's shocking by how much they misjudge it. It was only about eight months ago when I DM'd for the first time. I had only played a handful (like three or four) 5e sessions and not many more sessions in any other systems at that point. Baldur's Gate 3 hadn't even released yet, or at least I hadn't played it yet. The main thing though, I was running a short homebrew module that I'd read through in advance and had spent two weeks preparing on roll20. I'd also been listening to about a hundred of these episodes and took to heart what _not_ to do. It was a little sloppy of course but everybody had fun and nobody died; we're still running those characters and at this point half of the content of sessions is what I've written myself. I'm rewriting modules and adding extra scenes to tie together an overarching narrative.
I am really cautious about DMPCs. When a friend first mentioned it, I thought the idea was absurd. And to be fair in that case it really was. Her group had three DMs who took turns DM-ing and each had one to three PCs to be "fully engaged" in the story. (Not to mention that all the players had various social or mental health problems they tried to bring into the game...) It just sounded like a total clusterf*** and I noped out before even starting to build a character. Then our DSA (Das Schwarze Auge - known as The Dark Eye) DM had a DMPC that was originally intended as a guide but really pushed the drama and didn't let us do anything. It really soured my impression of the idea even more... Our current DnD and Pathfinder DM also adds DMPCs. At first I was almost freaking out and told him, I'm not sure I would stay in such a game. But his DMPCs fit really well into the groups we are playing. Usually it's a character to fill out whatever the group lacks, like a healer or a tank. Sometimes it's an NPC we really grew to like. But he always stays more in the background and only takes center if we are ok with it. So it works really nice. Like everything in PnP it's about communication, boundaries and respect as well as making sure everyone is enjoying the game. It can be great and it can be really horrible.
regarding invisibility, by raw technically no, but it's kinda up to the dm if you want to give advatage. the invisible condition states that you are heavly obscured, which gives essentialy the blinded codition, which in turn states that you automatically fail any perception checks based on sight to see you. However you do still are audible which allows creatures to locate you based on sound, so an you need make a stealth check to stay silent, on which you don't technically have advantage on. By raw invisbility just grants the ability to hide anywhere you want. Granted most people do grant advatage, and it's in the dm right to do so. The dm's guide does suggest some situations where dm can give advatage, and does say that you can give advatage if _"Previous actions (whether taken by the character making the attempt or some other creature) improve the chances of success."_ which most cases does apply with the invisibility spell does grant, since for most creatures without special senses, it's kinda difficult to locate and tell if there is an another creature from the sounds alone unless they make it obvious and it's much easier to be sneaky if you can't be seen, and cut of their usual way of perceiving stuff. but this rule depends on the dm decision and they don't have to grant it. This issues has more to do with the fact that both listening and spotting stuff is catogorized as "perception", and most players/dm do both when they roll perception or use passive perception, but so one type of perception situation auto fails and another is a straight roll, so most dm just say advatage. this was less of an issue in older editions since both "spot" and "listen" were different skills (although in 3.5 case, you could use the spot skill to counter the "hide" skill and detect an invisible creature if you rolled over a 20, and listen skill specifically countered the "Move Silently" skill so stealth was also split in two). A good example with this problem is the cloak and boots of elven kind. both give advatage stealth, but for different situations with the boots for moving silently and the cloak is more based on sight, but both give advatage on stealth checks, so if you have only one of them, instead of tracking both and doubling the chance that you get spotted, most dm just say "roll with advatage" if you have either item equiped and don't roll seperatly for both listening and seeing, and most dm i know do the same for invisibility since it's easier than seperetly tracking both sound and sight for creatures. the only time i personally might say it doesn't apply is if you have a creature that doesn't use eyes to see, or has some form of blindsense/tremmorsense, but feel free to run/play it how you see fit
I am chilean. I quit a game before session zero bc I was immediately sexualized by other player 😐 then after a huge silence he said" you can play a thief, probably you are already familiar with it irl". Waste of time that was... I never got to even present my idea of character... I wish I can use that warlock one day. The patron was a sort of doubt angel/ demon. Morally grey. Played with the dynamic of harrowing uncertainty vs fully innocent curiosity and inquiry.
"Actually ... not that bad!" That final GM. YIKES. I'm sure the GM also had basic knowledge of how a combustion engine works, so ... why isn't the party riding around in cars? GM prolly has an idea of how penicillin works so ... who needs healing potions? I think this GM was just weaponizing his incompetence so that he never got asked to run a game again. Especially since it wasn't mentioned that in game where GM was a player, he was always confused about why OP didn't run the same rules--nor any other person's table GM sat at. Sometimes it's malice, more often it's (supposedly) incompetence. Far more often than a lot of folks think it's the stupidest, most frustrating combo of the two to be achieved. Ar least, by someone whose spite *and* idiocy are neck and neck in the footrace.
I’m just waiting for Crunchy to start giving subtle details about the clones that we can track and eventually see them start fighting back against being used as pawns in his skits. Then one day Crunchy will show up for a video and on the outro we’ll see that it’s not really Crunchy. Dun dun DUUNNNNNNNN!
I used a Google Doc character sheet before. It was mostly because our DM had made a system that was a combo of the Dragon Age TTRPG and 5e because he really wanted to run the Strixhaven module but hated 5e and preferred D6 systems. Yeah... Honestly I could almost write my own horror story about that campaign since the DM is my friend and was venting to me how one of the other players was being a total "That Girl" behind the scenes asking for more power and freaking out that we almost failed a heist and got scolded by a teacher. Apparently that level of consequence was too much. But sadly that's where the details I know end and DM doesn't want to talk about it anymore so I don't really have enough for a full story. I didn't even level up once so I don't actually know how bad the google doc sheets were at exp logistics and how we would handle the mix of dragon age and 5e skills. Problem player tanked the campaign after like 3 sessions of mostly RP. They were really fun in game though...
Saying you also bring Martin to the table = Instant Kick, as I don't have the mental energy to teach him his class for the fourth time, while he's looking ad politic. Hero Point is not Heroic Inspiration, it's better as you can stablize when dying (saved me many times) and re-roll a roll.
12:24 I feel obligated to defend the google docs method. Most of my group uses google docs and/or sheets for playing Pathfinder. I have my own custom spreadsheet document to keep track and auto generate my numbers while others use a premade one. It's nice because it can be customized for each character, can easily link to online resources and be easily accessed, shared or printed. Honestly, I think all methods are correct as long as your character info is accurate and easy to find. (That's the biggest problem I had with my one 5e character on DnD Beyond; I couldn't find my stuff because it's all stacked up in tabs and hidden.) (And paper sheets run out of room once you're past a few levels and you have to be incredibly brief with ability explanations)
Invisible is actually BETTER than advantage on stealth checks. This gets a little complex. The invisible condition grants the benefits of heavy obscurement. That environmental effect specified that people within it are blinded. This means when trying to specifically perceive an invisible creature or object, you are considered blinded. This means that people trying to perceive you with sight fail automatically. You do still have to roll stealth for your noise level but if that doesn't reasonably play into it (it's super loud, you're out of earshot, the people you're sneaking by are deafened) then you essentially auto succeed at stealth. MUCH better than just advantage because even if you make a noise, they still can't SEE you which means you are still able to stealth check again if they are alerted so you can slip right by them.
2 things. 1. Can someone please tell me why they through the guy out of the game before session 0 in the first story? 2. If you're new at running games, I strongly suggest running a couple modules. Looking up a "simple 1 shot" will give you plenty of direction and notes on running your game. The biggest challenge will be managing your friends chaotic nature.
In all fairness, if my only options for tracking a character sheet were D&D Beyond and Google Docs...I'd pick Docs, too. At least WotC isn't going to randomly alter what you have in Docs without your consent.
I love your videos Crispy but also I like that you use Hearthstone art because it's the only game I actually really play and I recognize which cards or art of works there from.
On the topic of instant kicking, I've had a player in a Blades in the Dark oneshot who wanted to make it their character's vice that they are addicted to bathing in actual human shit. I still let that person play, but told them to immediately change this aspect of their character out, so to me it'd have to be something pretty big.
I've used the exact google sheet crispy showed for character sheets, and it's been useful for me in keeping my characters in one place, as well as seeing changes over time (version history my beloved) Will say I haven't had any games that used roll 20 though, so ny experience isn't universal.
Worst part about the last story... Its not just Illusionist who might be screwed over, Enchanters and Necromancer's to an extant might also be screwed over. You could Dominat Monster and the DM would make the charatcer not say anything they might know, even thou they should still say something... in the Necromancy part its abit diferent. You could raise a Skeleton (cleaner and easier to transport) and later keep one active at all times to use as a Bodyguard and equip it with some armor, light finese weapons and alot of clothing to hide that its a skeleton... the DM would make every guard attack the skeleton and arrest the Wizard, for no reason. Honeslty Im glad they improved, but I understand the general mistrust, hopefully they never repeat that with other stuff.
Oh so all the Crispy(s) are clones... It's confirmed: Crispy (Prime) is a bard of at least level 18 Using the Magical Secrets feature he acquired the 'Awaken', 'Plane Shift', and 'Clone' spell He used True Polymorph to turn himself into an awakened rat! All the clones were grown from the original body and awakened so they could to do his work for him while he dedicated his time to his research: How to use the Plane Shift spell to break the mythical "4th Wall"
I'd like to mention for the "Brand New DM" story. That's not really a behavior of a "Brand New DM" it definitely could be but it's also the behavior of an old school DM. in OG D&D they didn't have CR, just XP value. Many old school DMs would just plop random monsters they thought were cool and plop them in front of a party, maybe adjusting some of the values to make it so it didn't 1 shot someone but sometimes you just run into bad luck or created a fun narrative out the random monster the DM decided to pull on you. Not saying this was a good DM, just that it might not be a new one. Encounters really shouldn't be balanced unless you're going for a specific narrative, the really fun stories come from unbalanced encounters that resolve in unexpected ways.
That new DM seems completely incapable of separating DM knowledge from the knowledge of the monsters he is running....which makes SO many spells and tactics completely useless. Very annoying and I hope he learns to fix that. Same with his propensity to have his DMPC be the big cool hero and not the PCs.
So 3 of them become legendary heroes? I assume the idea was that they would have died in the final fight. Would that not make them legendary heroes to? Martyrdom is a thing.
hi petal here love reading your questions as far as i know from what i remember the scripted characters weren’t going to die in the final battle but in serval battles before the final encounter
Crispy, you've never watched Pokémon? Really? Just... just watch a little bit. A movie, a few classic episodes, something. Please. Do it as a favor to this old lady. Doesn't even have to be Ash, watch Origins or Horizons or any of the shorts at least!
I've had characters "doomed to die." The DM _let me know_ away from the group and out of character so we could collaborate on making it more dramatic and impactful (including for the other players!), and it started with the DM considering my character's story arc and asking me if I might be open to taking things in that direction. Ended up being pretty epic.
It can be cool, when you're actually involved in the decision!
I mean everybody dies eventually, might as well do it in a cool way
I'll take your word for it, if my dm told me and two other players were doomed to die nonatter what because reasons I'd probably say that's not the game for me, character death is one thing but this is a collaborative game if I want my character destined to die (obviously outside of normal play) that is my choice and mine alone
@@danwizzle91 Yeah, that's a DM on a power trip and not understanding the "collaborative" bit, which is the antithesis of what I described.
@@M_M_ODonnell I I can see what you mean, if you are both on the same page that's all that matters
DM: *I* know it's not real, so all my NPCs know too!
Also DM: The enemy leader doesn't know that the DMPC is behind the door waiting to attack him, despite the fact that I know.
Big Dumbass Energy
'cat throwing up' oh good that's much better than i was thinking...
Same. My minds been corrupted 😂
I have a cat that is most comfortable when resting in my dice tray. He’s been doing it for so long that I just leave it on the table, even outside of gaming for him to rest on. Having a co-dm like that is a great way to relieve unwanted tension or stress
While I can understand owlbears not identifying saviors and potentially being trained by captors, that DM in the last story was straight up metagaming with enemies instantly knowing illusions. Stuff like that has me discouraged from trying illusionists unless it's a character using them as special affects everyone knows are fake.
I've heard similar horror stories so I purposefully held off until I found a DM I knew I could trust to not screw me over like that. Had a lot of fun. My suggestion, just pick up minor illusion on a character or two and see how the DM responds when you use it. If they're metagaming around it, you can cut your losses there. If they're cool about it and treat it like any other spell... you're in. 😎
"Your character is destined to die no matter what. " Just write a god damned novel. Stop it."
8:55 Being invisible doesn't make you silent. A guard might not be able to see you, but they can hear your footsteps, the rustling of your cloths, your nervous breathing, etc.
IMO, a DM just needs to play it smart. If you beef the stealth roll, then a guard hears something. They'll react the way any guard might react if they think they heard something, look around, and don't immediately see anything. To me, it wouldn't mean that the guard automatically knows where you are and that you're an enemy trying to sneak by. It just means they heard something.
Yes, Invisibility just allows you to Stealth in situations where it is not normally possible.
Like when you try escaping the Goblin caves through the front gate with your newly acquired invisibility ring.
"Must have been the wind."
Just because they can't see you, doesn't mean they can't hear you or use guesswork to track you down. Like you said, breathing, footsteps, rustling of clothes, armor, and equipment. By extension, touching or moving things and footprints (especially on soft ground, like mud, sand, or snow), even dust in the air and rain can give away your position.
i'd still give them advantage since they don't have to put in the effort to stay out of view or anything. they just have to be quiet and not bump into anyone.
@@Buzzkilljoy1248sure but it’s more difficult to do that
I cracked up hard at the "Choose when you die" sketch.
My dad, while DMing, liked to use visual aids, including tactical maps and figurines. One time, we were involved in an intense fight with a fire giant who was hurling boulders at us from across the room ... when our cat, apparently feeling he wasn't getting enough attention, jumped right into the middle of the map, scattering all the figurines, and just planted himself right there in the middle of the table. My dad, without missing a beat, said, "Suddenly a giant cat leaps onto the battlefield and kills everyone. Aragorn wins."
Hello! i’m Petal !! and i’m glad you found my story enjoyable!! it was my first time writing/sharing something like that and i hope everyone likes it
It was definitely an interesting story. Hope you found someone better to play with now.
@@Karajormahonestly i haven’t but i’m doing a lot better off mentally. i might start looking again soon tho
The most "Horrible" thing in this video was the revelation that Crispy has never watched Pokemon.
How can I relate to them if they don't like the things I like?!
JK, what really burned me was the DM with the jank rulings for Illusions.
Like, I've heard stories of DM that have monsters figure out the illusion because they attack or walk into it or something, with no other roll.
But claiming that your personal knowledge transfers to the monsters is so dumb and the definition of meta gaming.
That story wasn't a meta-gaming thing, it was the DM wanting to be the star of the show via their DMPC and treating the players like their personal minions.
I've had the DMs who are way too into homebrew. It's like "dude, I'm just trying to get a handle on the basics right now, I'm not going from 13 classes choices to infinite homebrew ones for my FIRST games." 😂
Yep RAW the Invisible condition doesn't give advantage to stealth. I get it...but if you're proficient in stealth, and wearing light armor, I'm giving you advantage.
I actually looked into this, and while technically correct, the invisible player shouldn't have been detectable at all: From the Invisible condition "For the purpose of hiding, the creature is heavily obscured". OK, well what does Heavily Obscured say? "A creature effectively suffers from the blinded condition when trying to see something in that area". And Blinded? "A blinded creature can't see and automatically fails any ability check that requires sight". So, RAW, the creature would automatically fail any check to see the invisible character, which is why granting advantage on Stealth is unnecessary. That's where the RAW analysis ends, and I say that personally, I'd impose disadvantage on the creature trying to find the invisible character, since Invisible condition also states "The creature's location can be detected by any noise it makes or any tracks it leaves". So, it is still possible to perceive an invisible creature, but FAR more difficult than usual.
@@fragniz makes sense
This is the rundown and plots how the lego pieces of 5e fit together excellently!
BUT, I should point out that stealth isn't just "being unseen", it's also "being unheard". That's why, RAW, invisibility doesn't grant advantage on Stealth.
@@thanatos5150 Exactly! If you are wearing full plate armour you are still going to sound like a one man band falling down a set of stairs!
@@fragniz was about to comment this myself XD Glad you beat me to it
"Playing with your partner is always kind of awkward" lol WHAT? Even when i was still with my terrible ex, playing TTRPGs together in the same group never turned awkward... Nowadays I've been involved in multiple parties with my fiance, some of which lasting for years, and it's only ever been great. I feel sorry for folks who can't bond through a shared interest like that.
I also like playing dnd with my partner- but we have to remember that Crispy is ace and also has read tons of stories by now where someone playing with a significant other has gone badly lol
I also like playing with my partner, but we have to remember that crispy is ace, and also has read TONS of stories where someone playing with a partner went badly
10:08 the skit about the cat has me dead lol. Also I really feel it because my chihuahua is currently vomiting on many, many things
I have a PC named Ash too, but he's a lizardfolk sailor who's scales are greying from extended exposure to salt and sun
i’m shore our ashes wouldve gotten along!
Crispy: *Says literally anything else*
Me:
Crispy: Ive never watched pokemon
Me: NANI?!?!
FIFTH Grandma? Is that the same Clone that had his THIRD grandma die a year ago? How many Grandmas does he have?
Depends on step-parents, grandparents remarrying, polygamous relatives, etc.
@@ArcCaravan yeah I mean technically I've had... ten? grandparents depending on how you count and if you include those who died before I was born. Since both of my parents remarried and also their parents remarried
@@ArcCaravaninfinite grandma hacks
Intro story: I think we need a lot more context here. What the heck happened?
First story: Wow, OP learned that moral the hard way. Yikes! Also, what the heck was wrong with that DM? The point of a tabletop RPG is that it’s not scripted; the players can do anything they want within reason, and they might come up with a brilliant strategy the DM never could have anticipated. If you’re going to script out a whole story, then roleplaying is not for you; you would be better off just writing your story, not trying to make your friends play it out. (Not to mention all of his other issues, but I’ve rambled enough already.)
Second story: So, one of my players has a cat, and he likes to join us sometimes, so I’ve declared that in my campaign world, he is a god. The tabaxi worship Hidgens, the patron of mental stability and familial love. I think this cat also deserves divine status as a god of comedic timing.
Third story: Oh, DM, sweetie… I know the DM is highly unlikely to see this, but as someone who’s been DMing for a while, I would advise him to maybe try a module first, just to get an idea of how encounters are built, before making his own campaign. I admire his enthusiasm, but he really needs a better grasp of how things work before diving in.
Fourth story: I’m glad to hear he was better the second time… but why on earth was there a second time? Even if I was good friends with someone, if they DMed like that, I would not be willing to play in their campaigns anymore. This guy may be a great friend and player, but he’s a terrible DM.
I'd love to learn how to DM! I'm not sure where to start. Do you have any suggestions on how or where to start?
If their good friends, the group will often give them a chance to improve and show that their learning. I have a friend who went through similar and they become a good DM (still need to improve on a few very minor things, but their doing fine overall).
To be honest, it wasn’t until watching these videos that I had any idea DMPCs were commonly regarded negatively. Almost every game I’ve played in has had them strictly locked to the same power level as the players and primarily used to deliver prompting hints and/or the designated scapegoat when things go wrong. Also the players got to decide what the DMPC did in battles (combat was very collaborative in nature and everyone planned their turns together).
Sounds like your DM knows what they’re doing!
Sadly a good amount of DMs don’t…
The cat story, while gross, is actually hilarious
Story 0: Look, I try to give people benefits of the doubt WAAAAAAY too often, but holy heck sometimes (especially with random online groups) you just meet truly obnoxious people who are an absolutely chore to be around. I've dealt with roleplay groups enough to know that some people online have no social grace.
I've used G-docs for sheet keeping before, formatting is weird but they're meant to be backups for Roll20 not the primary.
I mostly use GDocs and it works fine. There's a lot of system that aren't supported by Roll20
i EXCLUSIVELY use google docs (or rather, google sheets) for my character sheets. in fact, i have a disdain for the website choices (ie. roll20 or dndbeyond)
On the topic of DMPCs, my party keeps giving them to our DM by adopting a random child from towns we pass and giving them a weapon to help us fight. The most recent one we had ended up getting a few levels in warlock by the end of the campaign.
My orange cat has unfortunately become a puke kitty. 😅 Also, that illusionist story was infuriating. Loved the reference to my man Gus, though!
Dude, I'm the exact opposite to the last story DM: if me, the player, is told what's going on, I'll act as if my character doesn't know - even if s/he looks stupid not realizing. However if I figure it out without anybody telling me, THEN my character will realize.
I find it more challenging and thus more fun this way. Being plainly told what's happening takes me away from the immersion.
Commenting mid-watch because I heard the piano notes from Deep Stone Lullaby. Nothing deeper, it's just an amazing piece of music.
And now: back to watching the rest of the video.
Two things guaranteed to annoy Crispy:
1. Saying your story is "not as bad as other".
2. Giving him names of towns/kingdoms/etc that are really hard to pronounce.
Don't forget the thrid but just important Crispy annoynce , not having a session zero.
With regards to sound effects: I was in an in-person Pathfinder game where the DM didn't use much music or sound effects. But, as we were deep underground in a dungeon, the DM pulled out his cellphone and played the most horrifying screech. We were all wondering where he obtained that sound effect. Turns out, that was a recording of his 1-year-old having a tantrum 🤣🤣🤣🤣
Ban that last DM from DMing. See how he likes it
I’m so jealous of those cats
That gunshot to the foot made me jump irl 😂
I personally prefer using Google Docs over using a physical sheet. Physical sheets are too small for my handwriting, there's just not enough space, and I get to format it in a way I like and understand. The first two go away with any online sheet, whether DnD Beyond or Roll 20, but the third can still be important.
I am usually a lurker on your channel, but I had to comment that your 'choose the date of death' bit really got me. Your skits are getting better and better, keep up the great work!
What if you played a game where material components for spells were ignored entirely (except for when ritual casting if/when possible) and instead all spells needed mana of the element related to the spell’s damage type or the element the spell is associated with if it doesn’t deal damage
Like Pokemon The Trading Card Game?!
Or Magic: The Gathering, lol. Just funny that Crispy hasn't watched Pokemon.
As one of the contributors said I love your skits. They raise your content above many other D&D story channels! That said any advice on how to avoid the whole "Clone Degradation" problem? Mine are coming out with extra limbs and all sorts of other weird stuff!
Pulling Back the Curtain- I actually did this for the table I’m a player in after I finished a LMoP mini campaign to let the regular dm have a small break. I had buffed a couple enemies cuz none of us were Newbies. One nearly resulted in a TPK but they won. I told them after that I accidentally nerfed said enemy cuz he was technically supposed to get a weaker Third attack each round as a bonus action, but I forgot to use it. The other, they hit for like 5 damage, and I thought it was fine. Then the paladin crit a smite and insta-killed them. *IT WAS THE FINAL BOSS.*
I told the party I am still upset to this day I couldn’t make that boss more a challenge cuz the next round was when I planned to use his nasty spells. I didn’t give hom Silvery Barbs or In the Moment buff his HP, and I admitted that cuz I didnt want to rob that epic crit from them. Thankfully they had fun. I did tell them what I had given that boss and they definitely seemed interested
5:08 that shirt is a very acurate description of the behaviors of cats
I have a cat that insists on laying on the table in the middle of everything. This results, when i have a map on the table, in the narration taking a turn to recognize the gigantic cat stepping through the Witchlight Carnival, and informing characters not to worry about it.
Cold open: I can think of a couple things that get me angry enough (especially if I have warned about it already) to kick somebody instantly.
Amogus, dees nuts, ....
You know the type of jokes.
it also sounds like they were supposed to have the characters created beforehand, and this guy was being problematic and not listening to instructions. the comment itself might not been that bad on its own but it was a final straw that the DM just didnt want to deal with him
Story of the brand new GM reminds me of my first time GMing. Luckily, the people I was playing with were first-time players, so they didn't realise how bad it was.
Prequel story: player got his first encounter. The level 1000 enemy called DMs nerves.
Man i have a good memory of preplanning relationships lightly with other players for a serious campaign. The vague idea was we were all weed buddies in the woods on the outside of town. The most sweet thing to me was later earnestly asking my dm if there Was recreational drugs and him going "yeah? How else are you guys gonna hotbox the bathroom!" Bc that was something fun we had talked about in his dark castlepunk campaign.
I am sure this doesn't need to be said, but a Death Knight is essentially the Paladin version of a Lich. It is kind crazy to just throw it in as a lvl 1 encounter, and die in one hit from anything.
Invisibility is one of those rules where you have to read the condition which brings you to another rule and then to another rule, it’s very much up to the DMs interpretation of it when it gets advantage or not.
I imagine that in the intro story, the player that got kicked either made a derogatory remark regarding a low roll the DM made for an NPC's stats (something along the lines of "wow I bet that Charisma stat lines up with yours IRL") or tried claiming the DM was either purposefully fudging their stat rolls or using a bot to purposefully get high rolls (something like "there's no way you can't be using a cheat bot to roll stats if you got a natural 16 like that!")
That last DM can suck an egg, way to make your players into sidekicks and make yourself into someone about to get kicked.
I originally wanted one of my characters to be an NPC since i didn't think her story worked for a pc. But after working through some things i think she could. Long story short, a rogue who spent her entire life under mind control, with minimal ability to think for herself. After her master was slain, she needed someone else to give her orders and latched onto the man who killed her master. I decided that the way to make her work as a PC was to have her current master send her on a mission to increase her independence. She will obey any order given by him without thinking...but he's not around for most of the story. So she has to learn to think for herself.
8:40 so I looked into this a bit more
Invisibility: A creature you touch becomes *invisible* until the spell ends. Anything the target is wearing or carrying is invisible as long as it is on the target's person. The spell ends for a target that attacks or casts a spell.
Invisible Condition: An invisible creature is impossible to see without the aid of magic or a special sense. For the purpose of hiding, the creature is *heavily obscured*. The creature’s location can be detected by any noise it makes or any tracks it leaves.
Heavily obscured (the environment): A heavily obscured area-such as darkness, opaque fog, or dense foliage-blocks vision entirely. A creature effectively suffers from the *blinded* condition when trying to see something in that area.
Blinded Condition: A blinded creature can’t see and automatically fails any ability check that requires sight.
so the real answer is that you don't have advantage on stealth rolls, but creatures automatically fail perception checks based on sight.
I do have some rules when it comes to making homebrew,
1: the more universally applicable a feature is the better it is,
2: a feature shouldn’t force you into only one way of playing,
3: the more powerful a feature the later you should get it,
4: if you want a more powerful feature early on, use restriction on when it can be applied, example would be divine smite, you can do it at any time but if you smite a fiend they take an extra damage dice.
5: aim for something strong enough that it makes you want to play it all the way instead of feeling forced to multi class or be weak, while also not being so strong that you feel you can’t multi class if you want too.
When making a really relevant npc that accompanies the party it is important to either make the npc find their strength in their dynamic with the party or viceversa, it's not bad for them to be important, it's bad when their importance ends up overshadowing the party rather than raise their qualities as a group
I’ve used your videos as drawing background noise enough that starting this video switched my brain into art mode
8:49 that’s because it says so in the rules for the “invisible” condition, which is applied by the spell. Instead of the rules for the spell itself.
I’ve found some wikis online about how to build a death knight character, and I kind of want to make one. It looks like fun to try building. Anyone have any ideas about building a DnD death knight character?
I do have a sort of “doomed to die” character but it’s one I created and one I worked with the dm on. I had a player reach out to me to ask if I was ok with it when they started seeing the foreshadowing and putting pieces together. I reassured them that it was intentional and I was fully in on this. And I also discussed this with the group as I realized this might be making them uncomfortable. I put forth my reasons and also made it clear that, while the most likely outcome would mean her death, my character does still have a chance of living, depending on how the adventure pans out. I also made sure to inform them that I had full intent to play this character like she wanted to live. I just also let those death flags go up whenever I could imply them. Lol. As for why it’s the “doomed to die” thing. This is because the childhood friend my character is loyal to, is a leader in the cult our party is fighting and dismantling. My character and this friend are still friends! (Lots to unpack though, lol). But my character also accidentally killed their childhood friend’s current lover and hasn’t yet said so to their friend. Now, my character is working like crazy to get what they need for a true resurrection but that’s a long way off and leaves plenty of time for the old friend to find out what she did. Even though it was self defense, well, the friend, for all that she is fond of my character, isn’t exactly a nice person. The moment my character becomes labeled an “enemy” she’s going to lose all protection that the friendship provided her from this friend’s more cruel nature. And considering my character is devoted to their friend, well…lol you can see how and why this is an ending meant for tragedy right? Now, things can still be spun in a way that will turn this around. This is also some subtext going on that both the friend and my character have held secret romantic torches for each other and are both almost obsessively codependent and loyal to each other. It’s a high possibility that these things can be twisted in such a way that will let the pair live and not have a, relatively, tragic ending. Either way, should be fun right? 😉
@9:00 honestly, I wouldn't even roll a stealth check for a person with invisibility, unless they are coming up against something the detects by something other than sight, (or has blindsight / truesight)
Nothing wakes me up or gets my on my feet faster than hearing the sound of one of my fluffy menaces gifting me their undigested food. They never aim for the hardwood, either. During our COVID campaign, I went abruptly AFK because I heard the noise downstairs. 😂
"Having No Options" - ...a SCRIPTED TPK.... as the SECOND encounter after introducing the new party member.... I get the feeling that DM hated the characters and was trying to push them to use his homebrew from the get-go. Honestly, I would've dipped the instant he decided to murder everyone's characters with no explanation. Sad part is, I could see a TPK being an excellent way to start an underworld campaign, where the players are fighting to get back to the land of the living after being unfairly cast in. In fact, I'm reminded of a comic series called "Knights of the Dinner Table" that introduced a fictional module that had the players murdered early on by high level monsters and resurrect as a unique hybrid soul creature that stood a solid chance of reviving themselves if they survived long enough to get back to where they'd fallen.
"Brand New DM" - Desperately needed to learn how to balance a story/campaign. I would've given him at least a few pointers. Random encounters is somewhat fine, but you should never be picking something at COMPLETE random.
"Banning Everything" - I think it was less about 'banning' and more about the DM deciding how some things were going to go and ignoring or auto-failing anything that would deviate from his DMPC getting the chance to shine.
8:48 I think the reason being invisible gives disadvantage to see, rather than advantage to hide is because there are so many ways a monster can see the invisible creature. If the DM tells the player not to roll with advantage, then that reveals information about the monster.
I wouldn't call it "disadvantage to see" since you have disadvantage on attack rolls to hit what you can't see, assuming you're aiming at the right place to begin with. Even if you know there's an invisible person in the room with you, it's not a simple matter to narrow down their location to a five foot cube
@@M_Alexander disadvantage on perception checks is what I meant
That makes more sense
18:15 Bro coulda done anything, he could have given the leader truesight or a magic item that let him see through illusions, or he could have said he would roll to see through the fake owlbear and lied about succeeding. And yet of all the joykill methods of DM cheating, he just blatantly admits he doesn't care.
For the brand new DM story I am said wizard that invited him to play while in the campaign which never actually got further than that session. He seems like a brand new DM he wasn’t. He’s been playing for four years at that point never been in a real campaign, but still four years And he always tried to DM and didn’t know what he was doing or took the time to learn, but then insisted on DM and always and refused to be a player so nothing ever got far and he still spent 100s of dollars on book and miniatures and cool set for every thing
Back in 3.5 I always made my character sheets in Excel.
So many calculations and in 3.5 you needed to plan out 20 levels of a build at the start.
So building in Google Docs doesn't sound strange to me.
i like when you end the video saying "hey, that's a rat"
I know people underestimate how tough DMing is but it's shocking by how much they misjudge it.
It was only about eight months ago when I DM'd for the first time. I had only played a handful (like three or four) 5e sessions and not many more sessions in any other systems at that point. Baldur's Gate 3 hadn't even released yet, or at least I hadn't played it yet.
The main thing though, I was running a short homebrew module that I'd read through in advance and had spent two weeks preparing on roll20. I'd also been listening to about a hundred of these episodes and took to heart what _not_ to do. It was a little sloppy of course but everybody had fun and nobody died; we're still running those characters and at this point half of the content of sessions is what I've written myself. I'm rewriting modules and adding extra scenes to tie together an overarching narrative.
The best use of a DM PC of games that I’ve played in was used as a guide and support for the players which was great!
I am really cautious about DMPCs. When a friend first mentioned it, I thought the idea was absurd. And to be fair in that case it really was. Her group had three DMs who took turns DM-ing and each had one to three PCs to be "fully engaged" in the story. (Not to mention that all the players had various social or mental health problems they tried to bring into the game...) It just sounded like a total clusterf*** and I noped out before even starting to build a character.
Then our DSA (Das Schwarze Auge - known as The Dark Eye) DM had a DMPC that was originally intended as a guide but really pushed the drama and didn't let us do anything. It really soured my impression of the idea even more...
Our current DnD and Pathfinder DM also adds DMPCs. At first I was almost freaking out and told him, I'm not sure I would stay in such a game. But his DMPCs fit really well into the groups we are playing. Usually it's a character to fill out whatever the group lacks, like a healer or a tank. Sometimes it's an NPC we really grew to like. But he always stays more in the background and only takes center if we are ok with it. So it works really nice.
Like everything in PnP it's about communication, boundaries and respect as well as making sure everyone is enjoying the game. It can be great and it can be really horrible.
regarding invisibility, by raw technically no, but it's kinda up to the dm if you want to give advatage.
the invisible condition states that you are heavly obscured, which gives essentialy the blinded codition, which in turn states that you automatically fail any perception checks based on sight to see you.
However you do still are audible which allows creatures to locate you based on sound, so an you need make a stealth check to stay silent, on which you don't technically have advantage on. By raw invisbility just grants the ability to hide anywhere you want.
Granted most people do grant advatage, and it's in the dm right to do so. The dm's guide does suggest some situations where dm can give advatage, and does say that you can give advatage if _"Previous actions (whether taken by the character making the attempt or some other creature) improve the chances of success."_ which most cases does apply with the invisibility spell does grant, since for most creatures without special senses, it's kinda difficult to locate and tell if there is an another creature from the sounds alone unless they make it obvious and it's much easier to be sneaky if you can't be seen, and cut of their usual way of perceiving stuff. but this rule depends on the dm decision and they don't have to grant it.
This issues has more to do with the fact that both listening and spotting stuff is catogorized as "perception", and most players/dm do both when they roll perception or use passive perception, but so one type of perception situation auto fails and another is a straight roll, so most dm just say advatage. this was less of an issue in older editions since both "spot" and "listen" were different skills (although in 3.5 case, you could use the spot skill to counter the "hide" skill and detect an invisible creature if you rolled over a 20, and listen skill specifically countered the "Move Silently" skill so stealth was also split in two).
A good example with this problem is the cloak and boots of elven kind. both give advatage stealth, but for different situations with the boots for moving silently and the cloak is more based on sight, but both give advatage on stealth checks, so if you have only one of them, instead of tracking both and doubling the chance that you get spotted, most dm just say "roll with advatage" if you have either item equiped and don't roll seperatly for both listening and seeing, and most dm i know do the same for invisibility since it's easier than seperetly tracking both sound and sight for creatures.
the only time i personally might say it doesn't apply is if you have a creature that doesn't use eyes to see, or has some form of blindsense/tremmorsense, but feel free to run/play it how you see fit
The cat beard the gruesome transformation description, it made it queasy and BEUWARP! *PUKE*
I am chilean. I quit a game before session zero bc I was immediately sexualized by other player 😐 then after a huge silence he said" you can play a thief, probably you are already familiar with it irl". Waste of time that was... I never got to even present my idea of character... I wish I can use that warlock one day. The patron was a sort of doubt angel/ demon. Morally grey. Played with the dynamic of harrowing uncertainty vs fully innocent curiosity and inquiry.
"Actually ... not that bad!"
That final GM. YIKES. I'm sure the GM also had basic knowledge of how a combustion engine works, so ... why isn't the party riding around in cars? GM prolly has an idea of how penicillin works so ... who needs healing potions? I think this GM was just weaponizing his incompetence so that he never got asked to run a game again. Especially since it wasn't mentioned that in game where GM was a player, he was always confused about why OP didn't run the same rules--nor any other person's table GM sat at.
Sometimes it's malice, more often it's (supposedly) incompetence. Far more often than a lot of folks think it's the stupidest, most frustrating combo of the two to be achieved. Ar least, by someone whose spite *and* idiocy are neck and neck in the footrace.
I’m just waiting for Crunchy to start giving subtle details about the clones that we can track and eventually see them start fighting back against being used as pawns in his skits. Then one day Crunchy will show up for a video and on the outro we’ll see that it’s not really Crunchy. Dun dun DUUNNNNNNNN!
Starting out as a DM I also did stat blocks in Google docs, and battle maps in google sheets
I used a Google Doc character sheet before. It was mostly because our DM had made a system that was a combo of the Dragon Age TTRPG and 5e because he really wanted to run the Strixhaven module but hated 5e and preferred D6 systems. Yeah... Honestly I could almost write my own horror story about that campaign since the DM is my friend and was venting to me how one of the other players was being a total "That Girl" behind the scenes asking for more power and freaking out that we almost failed a heist and got scolded by a teacher. Apparently that level of consequence was too much. But sadly that's where the details I know end and DM doesn't want to talk about it anymore so I don't really have enough for a full story. I didn't even level up once so I don't actually know how bad the google doc sheets were at exp logistics and how we would handle the mix of dragon age and 5e skills. Problem player tanked the campaign after like 3 sessions of mostly RP. They were really fun in game though...
Saying you also bring Martin to the table = Instant Kick, as I don't have the mental energy to teach him his class for the fourth time, while he's looking ad politic.
Hero Point is not Heroic Inspiration, it's better as you can stablize when dying (saved me many times) and re-roll a roll.
just love your horror story series
12:24 I feel obligated to defend the google docs method. Most of my group uses google docs and/or sheets for playing Pathfinder. I have my own custom spreadsheet document to keep track and auto generate my numbers while others use a premade one. It's nice because it can be customized for each character, can easily link to online resources and be easily accessed, shared or printed.
Honestly, I think all methods are correct as long as your character info is accurate and easy to find. (That's the biggest problem I had with my one 5e character on DnD Beyond; I couldn't find my stuff because it's all stacked up in tabs and hidden.) (And paper sheets run out of room once you're past a few levels and you have to be incredibly brief with ability explanations)
Invisible is actually BETTER than advantage on stealth checks. This gets a little complex. The invisible condition grants the benefits of heavy obscurement. That environmental effect specified that people within it are blinded. This means when trying to specifically perceive an invisible creature or object, you are considered blinded. This means that people trying to perceive you with sight fail automatically. You do still have to roll stealth for your noise level but if that doesn't reasonably play into it (it's super loud, you're out of earshot, the people you're sneaking by are deafened) then you essentially auto succeed at stealth. MUCH better than just advantage because even if you make a noise, they still can't SEE you which means you are still able to stealth check again if they are alerted so you can slip right by them.
2 things.
1. Can someone please tell me why they through the guy out of the game before session 0 in the first story?
2. If you're new at running games, I strongly suggest running a couple modules. Looking up a "simple 1 shot" will give you plenty of direction and notes on running your game. The biggest challenge will be managing your friends chaotic nature.
In all fairness, if my only options for tracking a character sheet were D&D Beyond and Google Docs...I'd pick Docs, too. At least WotC isn't going to randomly alter what you have in Docs without your consent.
I love your videos Crispy but also I like that you use Hearthstone art because it's the only game I actually really play and I recognize which cards or art of works there from.
On the topic of instant kicking, I've had a player in a Blades in the Dark oneshot who wanted to make it their character's vice that they are addicted to bathing in actual human shit. I still let that person play, but told them to immediately change this aspect of their character out, so to me it'd have to be something pretty big.
Ooh, you have new animations? Awesome.
"Damn that's a high charisma roll bet that character will be screwing everyone" could be a guess XD. Maybe going into a little more detail.
I've used the exact google sheet crispy showed for character sheets, and it's been useful for me in keeping my characters in one place, as well as seeing changes over time (version history my beloved)
Will say I haven't had any games that used roll 20 though, so ny experience isn't universal.
16:00 TPPK in Diablo 2 hardcore. Calling it
I was not prepared for the megalovania ringtone
Undertale music doesn't seem like something new for Crispy's videos.
@@ArcCaravan yeah, I’ve just never heard it on a glockenspiel before
Worst part about the last story... Its not just Illusionist who might be screwed over, Enchanters and Necromancer's to an extant might also be screwed over.
You could Dominat Monster and the DM would make the charatcer not say anything they might know, even thou they should still say something... in the Necromancy part its abit diferent.
You could raise a Skeleton (cleaner and easier to transport) and later keep one active at all times to use as a Bodyguard and equip it with some armor, light finese weapons and alot of clothing to hide that its a skeleton... the DM would make every guard attack the skeleton and arrest the Wizard, for no reason.
Honeslty Im glad they improved, but I understand the general mistrust, hopefully they never repeat that with other stuff.
If that last DM is going to blatantly metagame, you should blatantly metagame right back.
Ooh what is that soundboard thing?
Same! I wish I knew
Another comment has Crispy replying that it's called Kenku.
To be fair, if someone was warned for being annoying then made obnoxious comments at me I'd probably kick them too xD
Watching this because I want to dm and never done it before so I know what not to do
Oh so all the Crispy(s) are clones...
It's confirmed:
Crispy (Prime) is a bard of at least level 18
Using the Magical Secrets feature he acquired the 'Awaken', 'Plane Shift', and 'Clone' spell
He used True Polymorph to turn himself into an awakened rat!
All the clones were grown from the original body and awakened so they could to do his work for him while he dedicated his time to his research:
How to use the Plane Shift spell to break the mythical "4th Wall"
1:58 "...and I've never actually watched Pokémon."
Now, you need to correct that mistake. Heh!
I actually use that same Google Sheet shown! I enjoy it a lot, but maybe not for new players or those not good with the program.
"actually not that bad" innit
I'd like to mention for the "Brand New DM" story. That's not really a behavior of a "Brand New DM" it definitely could be but it's also the behavior of an old school DM. in OG D&D they didn't have CR, just XP value. Many old school DMs would just plop random monsters they thought were cool and plop them in front of a party, maybe adjusting some of the values to make it so it didn't 1 shot someone but sometimes you just run into bad luck or created a fun narrative out the random monster the DM decided to pull on you. Not saying this was a good DM, just that it might not be a new one.
Encounters really shouldn't be balanced unless you're going for a specific narrative, the really fun stories come from unbalanced encounters that resolve in unexpected ways.
What program do you use for soundboarding? I really want to know! It looks sooooooooo good!
That new DM seems completely incapable of separating DM knowledge from the knowledge of the monsters he is running....which makes SO many spells and tactics completely useless. Very annoying and I hope he learns to fix that. Same with his propensity to have his DMPC be the big cool hero and not the PCs.
So 3 of them become legendary heroes? I assume the idea was that they would have died in the final fight. Would that not make them legendary heroes to? Martyrdom is a thing.
hi petal here love reading your questions
as far as i know from what i remember the scripted characters weren’t going to die in the final battle but in serval battles before the final encounter
@@blakehd6131 But then what were the players supposed to do?
@@LordTheCyril we were told that we wouldn’t be able to make new characters and could spectate
@@blakehd6131 Thats insane...
@@LordTheCyril yeah no that dnd campaign was not worth sticking in for both the in game and out of game reasons
Crispy, you've never watched Pokémon? Really?
Just... just watch a little bit. A movie, a few classic episodes, something. Please. Do it as a favor to this old lady.
Doesn't even have to be Ash, watch Origins or Horizons or any of the shorts at least!
Invisibility really is just not a good spell XD