Homebrewing or adding special little bits of inconsequential lore to their story. Even if it's something small like changing how one summons the bag man, it really makes a player truely appreciate the effort the gm put into their stories.
Back from vacation and landed on a TPT video? Winsauce! The best thing my favourite DM ever did was showing us the other side of our character generation. The DM told us we were making level 3 characters, couple magic items he rolled for that we got to discuss who got what, and then the DM told us as a fairly new adventuring troupe in an adventurers guild we were going to be rescuing a bunch of villagers from Goblins holding them in a slave camp. Session 1 rolls around, and we don't get our character sheets. We get base, customised Commoner stats - blacksmiths with slightly higher STR, a Hunter with a slightly higher DEX, etc. Our first session was attempting to escape the Goblins as Commoners with no gear or abilities, and each time one of us died we got a new Commoner to inhabit (think Battlefield). When we got cornered, with no way out, the DM describes this motley mob of adventurers, our characters, ambush the Goblins. We got handed our character sheets, and had to heal the remaining Commoners and then lead them out of the Goblin hordes lair. Seeing our heroes being heroic, from the other side, was cool asf and we had a more appreciation of the NPCs that populated our first hub village - because we played them! Great read Zyl! Thanks for the great video as always!
Now that is very creative. I have done a similar thing where new players started out as prisoners and had to escape captivity before becoming their actual characters, but not from a third person POV, it was just a sorta mini session 0.5.
Our DM likes making taverns interesting. We went to one famous for a nonlethal fighting pit, and of course, my half-orc barbarian was game. She asked who the most proficient fighter was, and challenged them. The opponent lived for the respect of fighting, and aligned with my barbarian's beliefs. Through the very close combat, I found myself enjoying the fight. So after, my character made very awkward small talk with the concussed Elf monk opponent. My DM picked up on this and now my barbarian has a long distance girlfriend. Reacting to what your players are responding to really sells your world.
@@twistedpinttavern It actually went on to spawn a minor plot device. Barbarians don't know Sending and mail isn't very useful when you're always on the move, so we got some magical twinned paper - what is written on one page appears on the other. So the 'barbarian learning to read' subplot became a thing, and the magical paper became a plot-relevent item that people use for business ledgers, which became a clue to finding the henchmen of the BBEG.
Sometimes as a DM you have to just let them do the cool shit even if it breaks the game a little. I had an encounter that was basically a fetch quest where the party had been tasked by the local apothecary to get a specific herb to save a little boys life. Every other group that went into the woods never came back. Turns out, the herb was only grown around the cave where a minatour lived. They tried to sneak, rolled poorly, and wound up in combat. 2 rounds in they're hurting badly (lvl 2 at the time) when the druid asks if they can wild shape into a bull to talk to the minatour. I thought it was brilliant and let it happen, which led to a minatour talking about his retirement and the fact that people keep trying to steal from his herb garden.
As much as I want to applaud you being willing to change the plan up and let the players have fun, I just HAVE to say how much I love an old Minotaur gardener just trying to retire lmao
A little tidbit I've included in my most recent campaign is adding an NPC adventuring party that travels and campaigns parallel to the actual group. They don't really interact with each other meaningfully, they don't interfere with the PC's campaign except in a tangential sense; but they still experience trials and tribulations off screen to the party. Side note: they're also about four levels behind the PC's, so they don't threaten to become overpowered and take center stage. I included them to add some levity to the narrative, as a fun little side gag, but also create brief moments of drama when the party hears "so and so from the other group met their end fight swinetaur" or "such and such was killed whilst crypt diving."
Keeping the NPC party at a few levels lower is actually a really good touch. Having a non-player party in a game can sometimes make them feel like there's a competition or that the world would be fine without the players, but by keeping the NPC group lower leveled it keeps the dynamic of "just a friendly adventuring group" instead of a "rival adventuring group".
The second one did remind me of a story. In the one session that I've run, it was a Ben 10 one-shot based around Vilgax attacking their world and the players having to defeat aliens, get to the airship and defeat him. In the final room, there was Vilgax, an imprisoned Azmuth and chambers containing aliens. I made the mistake of saying that the Omnitrix was bolted to the wall and being extracted for energy. The obvious next step was to get dirty 20s on all Stealth and Strength checks to tear it from the wall while the Bard is getting high teens in keeping Vilgax distracted then, the moment Vilgax saw them, cast Banishment. I tried to use Azmuth, who at the time wanted to destroy the Omnitrix, to try to fix the situation but they cast Charm Person on him to deactivate all safety measures then Sleep so they could kill him easily, despite him being the damsel in distress. Thiccus then used the Omnitrix to clean up the extra aliens since I thought I might as well rewrite the planned boss abilities to work with for a player. After that, Banishment expired and they cleaned Vilgax with ease. Throughout that, I kept considering fudging rolls for saving throws to keep Vilgax in the fight or sneakily increase his HP or damage but I realised they had organised their effort well enough that I should just let it be. Still salty I didn't get to show off all the alien abilities with Vilgax though.
I had a similar experience in the GURPs campaign I was running for my family. They had tracked the cultists back to this old ruin in the forest, where they were using captives and a stone circle to try to summon a sort of giant needle blight. This thing could drain hp on successful attacks, cause the trees around them to crowd in, causing the heroes to have to fight in darkness, animate the vines on the walls of the ruin and cause them to grow into twisting barriers of thorns that would try to grab pcs, and it could turn its hands into weapons clay face- style, being able to wield a hammer with increased crushing damage but no hp drain, or a whip that had crazy reach, and could snag players, tugging them around the battlefield. However, it was not to be. The heroes attacked before midnight, and I had already determined that this would hamper the summoning. They then proceeded to do everything right to stop this monster from being released on the world: pulling bound captives out of the circle, attacking the acolytes, and the cleric/paladin even threw his axe that he had suffused with holy light right into the center of the circle. I could not justify having the thing summon, and that is probably for the best anyway: it was scary, and if it had been unleashed, I believe it would have been my first tpk. That was my first homebrew boss fight, and my first boss fight with lair actions, and I was a bit disappointed. However, I believe that that session was one of the most fun ones we've had with the group, and my players agreed.
I've encountered the "players stop the summoning" thing when I definitely didn't expect it. As long as it still ended up being a fun session, though, it can be a really cool development!
I remember in my 2nd ever session, I tried to do a homebrew character that was effectively a Digimon character who fought through his Digimon as if they were familiars but set up to incorporate the evolutions into his Level Ups. However, all the work I had put together was flawed in several degrees due to no real guidelines for such a homebrew being readily available. So my DM cut me a deal and let me reclass as a Warrior with my partners, who had the trait to become weapons, be used both as familiars for 1 hit each or as my weapons that would slowly better themselves over time as they evolved, getting new stat modifiers on them. It was really helpful to me and I appreciated that he let me do it to help make sure the experience was fun for all of us.
I've got about a year and a half of Dungeons and Dragons under my belt and I've recently started to DM for the first time, I'm running a Pathfinder game with a bunch of buddies who none of which had touched DnD prior to this and luckily they seem to understand fairly well and have a good time. The video definitely has helped me with recognizing a couple of my own flaws while I DM and put few really good ideas in my head. Nice video overall.
Glad it could help! I always want to stress that if you're NOT doing these things, it doesn't mean you're a bad DM by any means, these are just cool things to consider and use if they'd fit your game and play-style well!
In response to "Making Tool Proficiencies Actually Useful": I did exactly this for my blood hunter! He was Order of the Mutant (Subclass) and his race was Simic Hybrid. He had a proficiency with Alchemy. After every battle, I flavored him collecting "samples" to incorporate into his Blood Rite. During downtime, I mentioned him working with them until he had figured out the right recipe for the ingredients before breaking them down into liquids filling up small vials. Then, during each encounter, I narrated him as drinking one of the vials to grant him features of a defeated monster to enhance features I hadn't used yet or just gained from level up. Examples: -His Grappling Appendages (Simic Hybrid race feature) was a pair of Wendigo arms from the first boss fight of the campaign, gained from collecting fur, ash (the light domain cleric with the power of the sun roasted it for the final blow), and anything else he could find around its lair. -His knives, for two-handed weapon fighting, were reflavored as Drider legs. -His fighter abilities, like Action Surge, were even more extra appendages that he grew as a result of samples from some generic shadowfell mobs we had taken out during the encounter with another boss.
I love reflavoring mechanics and such for each character. For example, my Sorcerer/Assassin has Misty Step, and I flavor it as him stepping backwards into his own shadow and disappearing, reappearing out of a shadow at the destination. Functionally the exact same, but keeps the aesthetic in line with the character instead of just "sparkle poof I'm here now" lol
Downtime is tough when you motivate players to action with a doom clock to prevent the 5 minute work day. Roleplaying should not stop when initiative starts. Not so much a heist, but stealth missions are the bomb. We rotate between three game masters, giving us all a chance to play and a break whenever we need it. It works out great. Don't say the name of the creature you are fighting, just describe it! Great video!
Tbh I think role playing in combat is a ton of fun that so many people miss out on! And I've never rotated game masters, I've heard some people do it and say it works well, I just worry about story continuity without giving each other spoilers. How does it work for you guys?
Rumors, 5 of them to be exact 2 good 2 bad 1 false make a collection of rumors the each character has heard and hand them out in session 1, its great to spark early game RP
I've heard something similar to this before and I LOVE it! Everyone gets some rumors about their party mates, and the false one inspires a lot of role play and "clearing the air".
Dealing with player indecision. A goblin was holding a himan hostage and threatened to drop him off a 20ft rise. He offered a deal - kill the bad so hes number 1. NPC hostage said not to trust him. They took 10 minutes of talk and the NPC, who after being tortured for 3 days yeeted the goblin off a cliff and started the fight again
sending his regards and respect to a dead pc is such a strahd thing to do. Rahadin shows up to the funeral: My master wishes to present his respects to your fallen comrade. It was never in his intention for things to end up that way. Or maybe even Vassili von Holtz :)
8:44 So fun thought In critical roll mat mercer has resurrection work like a ritualized skill check. If a bbg or lieutenant pops up at a resurrection ritual for a pc.... Just watches, Or Actually adds something to / partispates in the ritual. I would have so many question marks. The honorable type. Where you let the guy live and while you were opposed. There was still a life debt there to be paid. Or The pc needs to live for x plot to go forward. Or This is nearing the end of a process where this pc is being recruited by the enemy. In disguise the bbeg shows up to aid in his soon to be recruits resurrection. Rubbs hands together. Typically in crit roll mat ruled that uppon resurrection there was a negative 3 or something to the d20 rolls. ( At least 1st season) After three night of rest this was cured. No greater restoration does not cure it. Imagining a bbeg that had them killed expecting a resurrection. Then uses this time of weakness to... Attempt to kidnap/ enthrall them. + Of course the other players have to get a chance to attempt a counter. Could pull it off as well. ++ If were going pc gets captured after being resurrected..... Probably should clear it with at least that player 1st. The whole "not even in death can you escape my service" could be fun to roll play. Especially if.... The pc is playing out the idea that they are deep cover. For the bbeg. Getting killed and brought back is a great reason to have the character turn on the bbeg.
For my adventures in middle-earth campaigns I do session zeros with all of the players so they can come to the table knowing who their characters are. If they are starting out at a higher level than first I have them do their fellowship phases as well during these sessions zeros as well. Their fellowship undertaking sometimes allow for some short role-playing for each one.
I like that tactic for higher level players, a "fellowship" phase to quickly establish the group's history. It's a great way to expand on the history when starting a higher level game!
Oh Ya Crafting is cool as hell and this week i'll be retiring my crafting artificer in my long term game. a 1/3 of the party's gear was crafted by my guy. This campaign allows firearms and my guy invented his own ammo, a volley gun that helped clear a fire salamander hive and kill a red dragon, as well as custom gear for most of the party, giving the kobold cleric/druid a shotgun, the paladin a old west revolver coated in blessed platinum for ranged smites and even gunblades from Final Fantasy 14 for the sword bard. On top of magical gear that the gm let me create at great cost to my character. The reason he's retiring this that the party is in a lost city with little time to craft, and I wanted to play something fresh. In Character, he's leaving as he's a family man who needed riches to support his family. At this point, he's loaded with gold, is the last OG party member from the starting party and lost his friend the Kobold to traps and golems. This lose made him want to hang up the travel bags and cloak to spend his best years with his family, knowing full well this new line up of heroes is up to the task. Note the reason why we were allowed so much stuff is this game was HARD and the DM allowing us cool/op stuff is due to even the less combat focused pcs having to step up to the plate as this world is hostile with a capital H.
@@twistedpinttavern yep and with 1/5 of a red dragon's horde filling two bags of holding. Outside of his own custom workshop and setting his family up for life. My Artie is most likely going to have a reverse bar tab, where his orders are paid for in advanced. Maybe his old stores maybe an intro for future adventurers 😁
If a party member kills your familiar, even if they know you can just resummon it, talk to the DM and have them kicked from the game. No second chances. If you're the DM and you see a player do that, kick them from the game, no second chances. Outright malignant behaviour cannot be tolerated even once. Second chances are for situations where there's room for interpretation, where the player might have merely acted in error. Killing what is essentially your in-universe pet simply goes too far. And in the little story, there was even a stronger emotional connection to the familiar. That is absolutely disgusting behaviour.
I could see a one and done thing if "creepy magic thing" in character if they didn't tell the party about the familiar, but I still think it's a pretty harsh thing. But if it's with malice, or done multiple times, it's definitely a problem. Especially in the context of the story.
What great things does your DM do? Let me know so we can make a part 2!
Rolls with my stupid ideas
Homebrewing or adding special little bits of inconsequential lore to their story. Even if it's something small like changing how one summons the bag man, it really makes a player truely appreciate the effort the gm put into their stories.
Absolutely. As long as their backstory isn't "I'm a god" it's pretty easy to fit stuff in.
Back from vacation and landed on a TPT video? Winsauce!
The best thing my favourite DM ever did was showing us the other side of our character generation. The DM told us we were making level 3 characters, couple magic items he rolled for that we got to discuss who got what, and then the DM told us as a fairly new adventuring troupe in an adventurers guild we were going to be rescuing a bunch of villagers from Goblins holding them in a slave camp. Session 1 rolls around, and we don't get our character sheets. We get base, customised Commoner stats - blacksmiths with slightly higher STR, a Hunter with a slightly higher DEX, etc. Our first session was attempting to escape the Goblins as Commoners with no gear or abilities, and each time one of us died we got a new Commoner to inhabit (think Battlefield). When we got cornered, with no way out, the DM describes this motley mob of adventurers, our characters, ambush the Goblins. We got handed our character sheets, and had to heal the remaining Commoners and then lead them out of the Goblin hordes lair. Seeing our heroes being heroic, from the other side, was cool asf and we had a more appreciation of the NPCs that populated our first hub village - because we played them!
Great read Zyl! Thanks for the great video as always!
That sounds awesome, I really like the idea of witnessing your own characters before playing them! I'll have to try it for sure!
Now that is very creative. I have done a similar thing where new players started out as prisoners and had to escape captivity before becoming their actual characters, but not from a third person POV, it was just a sorta mini session 0.5.
Our DM likes making taverns interesting. We went to one famous for a nonlethal fighting pit, and of course, my half-orc barbarian was game. She asked who the most proficient fighter was, and challenged them.
The opponent lived for the respect of fighting, and aligned with my barbarian's beliefs.
Through the very close combat, I found myself enjoying the fight. So after, my character made very awkward small talk with the concussed Elf monk opponent.
My DM picked up on this and now my barbarian has a long distance girlfriend.
Reacting to what your players are responding to really sells your world.
Unique taverns are awesome, but you also found the secret to getting a long distance monk gf lol
@@twistedpinttavern It actually went on to spawn a minor plot device. Barbarians don't know Sending and mail isn't very useful when you're always on the move, so we got some magical twinned paper - what is written on one page appears on the other.
So the 'barbarian learning to read' subplot became a thing, and the magical paper became a plot-relevent item that people use for business ledgers, which became a clue to finding the henchmen of the BBEG.
Sometimes as a DM you have to just let them do the cool shit even if it breaks the game a little.
I had an encounter that was basically a fetch quest where the party had been tasked by the local apothecary to get a specific herb to save a little boys life. Every other group that went into the woods never came back. Turns out, the herb was only grown around the cave where a minatour lived. They tried to sneak, rolled poorly, and wound up in combat. 2 rounds in they're hurting badly (lvl 2 at the time) when the druid asks if they can wild shape into a bull to talk to the minatour. I thought it was brilliant and let it happen, which led to a minatour talking about his retirement and the fact that people keep trying to steal from his herb garden.
As much as I want to applaud you being willing to change the plan up and let the players have fun, I just HAVE to say how much I love an old Minotaur gardener just trying to retire lmao
A little tidbit I've included in my most recent campaign is adding an NPC adventuring party that travels and campaigns parallel to the actual group. They don't really interact with each other meaningfully, they don't interfere with the PC's campaign except in a tangential sense; but they still experience trials and tribulations off screen to the party. Side note: they're also about four levels behind the PC's, so they don't threaten to become overpowered and take center stage. I included them to add some levity to the narrative, as a fun little side gag, but also create brief moments of drama when the party hears "so and so from the other group met their end fight swinetaur" or "such and such was killed whilst crypt diving."
Keeping the NPC party at a few levels lower is actually a really good touch. Having a non-player party in a game can sometimes make them feel like there's a competition or that the world would be fine without the players, but by keeping the NPC group lower leveled it keeps the dynamic of "just a friendly adventuring group" instead of a "rival adventuring group".
The second one did remind me of a story. In the one session that I've run, it was a Ben 10 one-shot based around Vilgax attacking their world and the players having to defeat aliens, get to the airship and defeat him. In the final room, there was Vilgax, an imprisoned Azmuth and chambers containing aliens. I made the mistake of saying that the Omnitrix was bolted to the wall and being extracted for energy. The obvious next step was to get dirty 20s on all Stealth and Strength checks to tear it from the wall while the Bard is getting high teens in keeping Vilgax distracted then, the moment Vilgax saw them, cast Banishment. I tried to use Azmuth, who at the time wanted to destroy the Omnitrix, to try to fix the situation but they cast Charm Person on him to deactivate all safety measures then Sleep so they could kill him easily, despite him being the damsel in distress. Thiccus then used the Omnitrix to clean up the extra aliens since I thought I might as well rewrite the planned boss abilities to work with for a player. After that, Banishment expired and they cleaned Vilgax with ease.
Throughout that, I kept considering fudging rolls for saving throws to keep Vilgax in the fight or sneakily increase his HP or damage but I realised they had organised their effort well enough that I should just let it be. Still salty I didn't get to show off all the alien abilities with Vilgax though.
Sometimes we write the boss fights, and sometimes the players become the boss fight lol
I had a similar experience in the GURPs campaign I was running for my family. They had tracked the cultists back to this old ruin in the forest, where they were using captives and a stone circle to try to summon a sort of giant needle blight. This thing could drain hp on successful attacks, cause the trees around them to crowd in, causing the heroes to have to fight in darkness, animate the vines on the walls of the ruin and cause them to grow into twisting barriers of thorns that would try to grab pcs, and it could turn its hands into weapons clay face- style, being able to wield a hammer with increased crushing damage but no hp drain, or a whip that had crazy reach, and could snag players, tugging them around the battlefield. However, it was not to be. The heroes attacked before midnight, and I had already determined that this would hamper the summoning. They then proceeded to do everything right to stop this monster from being released on the world: pulling bound captives out of the circle, attacking the acolytes, and the cleric/paladin even threw his axe that he had suffused with holy light right into the center of the circle. I could not justify having the thing summon, and that is probably for the best anyway: it was scary, and if it had been unleashed, I believe it would have been my first tpk. That was my first homebrew boss fight, and my first boss fight with lair actions, and I was a bit disappointed. However, I believe that that session was one of the most fun ones we've had with the group, and my players agreed.
I've encountered the "players stop the summoning" thing when I definitely didn't expect it. As long as it still ended up being a fun session, though, it can be a really cool development!
I remember in my 2nd ever session, I tried to do a homebrew character that was effectively a Digimon character who fought through his Digimon as if they were familiars but set up to incorporate the evolutions into his Level Ups. However, all the work I had put together was flawed in several degrees due to no real guidelines for such a homebrew being readily available. So my DM cut me a deal and let me reclass as a Warrior with my partners, who had the trait to become weapons, be used both as familiars for 1 hit each or as my weapons that would slowly better themselves over time as they evolved, getting new stat modifiers on them.
It was really helpful to me and I appreciated that he let me do it to help make sure the experience was fun for all of us.
Sounds like that DM appreciated the cool idea of the character, and respected it enough to make it work, that's awesome
I've got about a year and a half of Dungeons and Dragons under my belt and I've recently started to DM for the first time, I'm running a Pathfinder game with a bunch of buddies who none of which had touched DnD prior to this and luckily they seem to understand fairly well and have a good time. The video definitely has helped me with recognizing a couple of my own flaws while I DM and put few really good ideas in my head. Nice video overall.
Glad it could help! I always want to stress that if you're NOT doing these things, it doesn't mean you're a bad DM by any means, these are just cool things to consider and use if they'd fit your game and play-style well!
In response to "Making Tool Proficiencies Actually Useful":
I did exactly this for my blood hunter! He was Order of the Mutant (Subclass) and his race was Simic Hybrid. He had a proficiency with Alchemy. After every battle, I flavored him collecting "samples" to incorporate into his Blood Rite. During downtime, I mentioned him working with them until he had figured out the right recipe for the ingredients before breaking them down into liquids filling up small vials. Then, during each encounter, I narrated him as drinking one of the vials to grant him features of a defeated monster to enhance features I hadn't used yet or just gained from level up.
Examples:
-His Grappling Appendages (Simic Hybrid race feature) was a pair of Wendigo arms from the first boss fight of the campaign, gained from collecting fur, ash (the light domain cleric with the power of the sun roasted it for the final blow), and anything else he could find around its lair.
-His knives, for two-handed weapon fighting, were reflavored as Drider legs.
-His fighter abilities, like Action Surge, were even more extra appendages that he grew as a result of samples from some generic shadowfell mobs we had taken out during the encounter with another boss.
I love reflavoring mechanics and such for each character. For example, my Sorcerer/Assassin has Misty Step, and I flavor it as him stepping backwards into his own shadow and disappearing, reappearing out of a shadow at the destination. Functionally the exact same, but keeps the aesthetic in line with the character instead of just "sparkle poof I'm here now" lol
@@twistedpinttavern love that! Very fun way to do it 😁
I've been here since your subs were in the 100s! It's great to see this channel growing:D
Thank you! That's awesome you've been around since the early days!
Downtime is tough when you motivate players to action with a doom clock to prevent the 5 minute work day.
Roleplaying should not stop when initiative starts.
Not so much a heist, but stealth missions are the bomb.
We rotate between three game masters, giving us all a chance to play and a break whenever we need it. It works out great.
Don't say the name of the creature you are fighting, just describe it!
Great video!
Tbh I think role playing in combat is a ton of fun that so many people miss out on! And I've never rotated game masters, I've heard some people do it and say it works well, I just worry about story continuity without giving each other spoilers. How does it work for you guys?
@@twistedpinttavern - we each run separate games. Sometimes it's hard to go back to a game after a while, but we keep good notes.
Ahh that makes more sense lol. We do that as well, we have a game that I run and one my brother runs and we rotate every Monday
Rumors, 5 of them to be exact 2 good 2 bad 1 false make a collection of rumors the each character has heard and hand them out in session 1, its great to spark early game RP
I've heard something similar to this before and I LOVE it! Everyone gets some rumors about their party mates, and the false one inspires a lot of role play and "clearing the air".
Dealing with player indecision. A goblin was holding a himan hostage and threatened to drop him off a 20ft rise. He offered a deal - kill the bad so hes number 1.
NPC hostage said not to trust him. They took 10 minutes of talk and the NPC, who after being tortured for 3 days yeeted the goblin off a cliff and started the fight again
sending his regards and respect to a dead pc is such a strahd thing to do.
Rahadin shows up to the funeral: My master wishes to present his respects to your fallen comrade. It was never in his intention for things to end up that way.
Or maybe even Vassili von Holtz :)
I was thinking that as well lol, it's such a good play!
That’s a nice save if it wasn’t a planned tpk. Good way to do it
Right? Like it's possible it wasn't a TPK, but definitely gives "gotta fix this fast" vibes lol
8:44
So fun thought
In critical roll mat mercer has resurrection work like a ritualized skill check.
If a bbg or lieutenant pops up at a resurrection ritual for a pc....
Just watches,
Or Actually adds something to / partispates in the ritual.
I would have so many question marks.
The honorable type.
Where you let the guy live and while you were opposed. There was still a life debt there to be paid.
Or
The pc needs to live for x plot to go forward.
Or
This is nearing the end of a process where this pc is being recruited by the enemy.
In disguise the bbeg shows up to aid in his soon to be recruits resurrection.
Rubbs hands together.
Typically in crit roll mat ruled that uppon resurrection there was a negative 3 or something to the d20 rolls. ( At least 1st season)
After three night of rest this was cured. No greater restoration does not cure it.
Imagining a bbeg that had them killed expecting a resurrection.
Then uses this time of weakness to... Attempt to kidnap/ enthrall them.
+ Of course the other players have to get a chance to attempt a counter. Could pull it off as well.
++ If were going pc gets captured after being resurrected.....
Probably should clear it with at least that player 1st.
The whole "not even in death can you escape my service" could be fun to roll play.
Especially if.... The pc is playing out the idea that they are deep cover. For the bbeg.
Getting killed and brought back is a great reason to have the character turn on the bbeg.
That has so much potential, I love it
For my adventures in middle-earth campaigns I do session zeros with all of the players so they can come to the table knowing who their characters are. If they are starting out at a higher level than first I have them do their fellowship phases as well during these sessions zeros as well. Their fellowship undertaking sometimes allow for some short role-playing for each one.
I like that tactic for higher level players, a "fellowship" phase to quickly establish the group's history. It's a great way to expand on the history when starting a higher level game!
Oh Ya Crafting is cool as hell and this week i'll be retiring my crafting artificer in my long term game. a 1/3 of the party's gear was crafted by my guy. This campaign allows firearms and my guy invented his own ammo, a volley gun that helped clear a fire salamander hive and kill a red dragon, as well as custom gear for most of the party, giving the kobold cleric/druid a shotgun, the paladin a old west revolver coated in blessed platinum for ranged smites and even gunblades from Final Fantasy 14 for the sword bard. On top of magical gear that the gm let me create at great cost to my character. The reason he's retiring this that the party is in a lost city with little time to craft, and I wanted to play something fresh. In Character, he's leaving as he's a family man who needed riches to support his family. At this point, he's loaded with gold, is the last OG party member from the starting party and lost his friend the Kobold to traps and golems. This lose made him want to hang up the travel bags and cloak to spend his best years with his family, knowing full well this new line up of heroes is up to the task. Note the reason why we were allowed so much stuff is this game was HARD and the DM allowing us cool/op stuff is due to even the less combat focused pcs having to step up to the plate as this world is hostile with a capital H.
It's rare that a character actually retires when you stop playing them mid campaign lol, the guy's going to have a lot of stories!
@@twistedpinttavern yep and with 1/5 of a red dragon's horde filling two bags of holding. Outside of his own custom workshop and setting his family up for life. My Artie is most likely going to have a reverse bar tab, where his orders are paid for in advanced. Maybe his old stores maybe an intro for future adventurers 😁
If a party member kills your familiar, even if they know you can just resummon it, talk to the DM and have them kicked from the game. No second chances. If you're the DM and you see a player do that, kick them from the game, no second chances. Outright malignant behaviour cannot be tolerated even once. Second chances are for situations where there's room for interpretation, where the player might have merely acted in error. Killing what is essentially your in-universe pet simply goes too far.
And in the little story, there was even a stronger emotional connection to the familiar. That is absolutely disgusting behaviour.
I could see a one and done thing if "creepy magic thing" in character if they didn't tell the party about the familiar, but I still think it's a pretty harsh thing. But if it's with malice, or done multiple times, it's definitely a problem. Especially in the context of the story.
Definitely the commoner and bbeg I’ll be using as I’m planning with the help of a few players some will be dying in our last part of our campaign
Yeah I thought that was genius
Well ahhhh shucks, he thinks I'm a good DM....👹
I mean it's been a while, I guess you're going to have to get that wild west game going soon so we can get a refresher!
nice