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[Iduno]

True Light in the roof to make plant farmable indoors

Yes, but that's tougher without having access to new seeds. Although I'm guessing you've got all of your free space in town dedicated to farming now. They probably didn't plan for a massive amount of extra space in the vault/kaer, and the population will change some in 400 years.

[scriver]

Can't they use the grain they get from the harvest like they did in the olden times? Or do you mean because it won't get pollinated (if they require that, I don't know off hand) because there are no inside bees?

...Suddenly the "insect swarm" spell get a whole new use xD

I just played in a campaign where we explored ruined buildings from a sort of underwater bunker living people, and the remains of their indoor farms, but how they farmed them never really came to my mind beyond "oh cool they used UV everlanterns in the roof the get sunlight"

[Iduno]

Can't they use the grain they get from the harvest like they did in the olden times? Or do you mean because it won't get pollinated (if they require that, I don't know off hand) because there are no inside bees?

It's more of a problem of forgetting to bring them or something getting into the seeds. Although I guess blights and rodents aren't as much of a problem when you're in sealed vault.

But I'm guessing you don't have a lot of livestock inside a cave (lack of anything for them to graze on). So cotton would be the only source of fabric unless you use...other leather.

I guess you could find a way to pollinate the plants by hand, or whatever people do with houseplants. Wind and bees are not going to be reliable. Although I should check the spell lists like you said. I wonder how much stuff might be useful.

[Iduno]

Bored for short periods of time at work, so I'm checking old 3.x spells for fun. http://dndtools.org/spells/ and http://dndsrd.net/wizardSpells.html will get you most (all?) of them.

Anyone know of fun ways to do way more damage than expected/damage at all from non-damage spells? Knocking someone out and coup-de-grace is greatly effective, but I'm thinking of stuff like making a wall that is shaped like a cylinder, on its side, at the top of a hill with enemies below. Just stupid ideas that were possible because the rules were permissive.

A favorite:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Launch item, a level 1 spell, taking advantage of the falling damage rules. Dropping any object that weighs at least 1 pound 70 feet does d6 damage (60 feet for 6-10 pounds), which is okay for a 1st level spell. The max falling damage is 20d6 at 190 feet above that, so 260 feet max. The spell allows for an object to be moved 400 ft + 40/level, which is somewhat larger than max damage. I believe 20d6, if it hits, is enough to kill most enemies you'd bother to target with a level 1 spell. Although, as it's not intended as an attack, you'd have to figure out some way of determining if you hit (geometry/int-based ranged-touch attack?).

[Culise]

Bored for short periods of time at work, so I'm checking old 3.x spells for fun. http://dndtools.org/spells/ and http://dndsrd.net/wizardSpells.html will get you most (all?) of them.

Anyone know of fun ways to do way more damage than expected/damage at all from non-damage spells? Knocking someone out and coup-de-grace is greatly effective, but I'm thinking of stuff like making a wall that is shaped like a cylinder, on its side, at the top of a hill with enemies below. Just stupid ideas that were possible because the rules were permissive.

Depends.  Do you count metamagic that technically adds trivial amounts of damage?  One traditional solution that's (a) definitely a stupid idea and (b) definitely takes advantage of permissive rules is the Locate City bomb:

Spoiler: Here lies questionably-legal munchkinry (click to show/hide)

The Core
1. Learn Locate City (Races of Destiny): Area of effect 10 miles per level circle, effect is to locate a city
2. Apply Snowcasting (Frostburn): Spell now has the cold descriptor
3. Apply Flash Frost (PHB 2): Spell now deals 2 points of cold damage to all in area and makes the area slippery

Here, we have two options:
Type A: The Punt
4. Apply Energy Substitution (Electricity) (Complete Arcane): Spell now deals electric damage
5. Apply Born of Three Thunders (Complete Arcane): Spell deals half electric, half sonic damage. All damaged creatures are stunned (fortitude negates) and all stunned creatures are knocked prone (reflex negates)
6. Apply Explosive Spell (Complete Arcane): All creatures/things in area that fail their reflex saves are shunted to the outside of the area of effect and take 1d6 damage per 10' moved

Type B: The Dawn of the Dead
4. Apply Fell Drain (Libris Mortis): All living creatures in the area that take damage gain a negative level. If the subject has at least as many negative levels as Hit Dice, it dies (Drain).  Creatures killed by level drain (read: every level one creature) are revived the next day as wights.

The first is either lethal or amusing depending on whether your GM interprets the closest distance to the outside of the area of effect as being the outer edge of the circle or straight up/down (a circle being a two-dimensional shape), or merely throws the rulebook at you (or rules that the list of available areas of effect for Explosive Spell are exhaustive and thus does not include a circle).  The second is one of the traditional starters for a wightpocalypse, and may also result in a rulebook being thrown at you. 

[Iduno]

I was looking for spells, but these are some wild feats.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

1. Learn Locate City (Races of Destiny): Area of effect 10 miles per level circle, effect is to locate a city
2. Apply Snowcasting (Frostburn): Spell now has the cold descriptor
3. Apply Flash Frost (PHB 2): Spell now deals 2 points of cold damage to all in area and makes the area slippery

That's...they did not word those very carefully. Snowcasting is potentially a worthless or overpowered feat, depending on how easily you can find snow/ice. And Flash Frost clearly is intended to add damage to damage spells, but didn't bother saying that.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Apply Fell Drain (Libris Mortis): All living creatures in the area that take damage gain a negative level. If the subject has at least as many negative levels as Hit Dice, it dies (Drain).  Creatures killed by level drain (read: every level one creature) are revived the next day as wights.

+2 levels to make a spell drain levels from your opponent? Way too good. Get some metamagic rods.


Edit: I also like that the description of Stinking Cloud also lets you know it works with a permanence spell. I don't know why you would need to, but it would be hilarious.

[Iduno]

Does anyone have any campaigns they'd love to play/run?

I've got 4 from normal to weird.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I have had an intro to Shadowrun campaign sort of half-formed in my head for the last year or so. I should get around to finishing that out, even if I don't have a group. The idea is that people who have never played before but are interested, could do so.


I'd like an intro Earthdawn campaign. I've never played, but "Bronze-age Fallout the TTRPG" is a pretty good selling point, and the living weapons (and a few other things) were a cool enough idea that D&D tried to copy them. Not nearly as well as the original, but they tried. A from the kaer to mid-level or so campaign would probably want higher karma rewards to get to see everything in a reasonable amount of time, but at least would give players the chance to see what's possible.


Higher-powered D&D (probably 3.x) could be fun if everyone involved is on-board. Probably would fit best with the "each character from a different campaign setting" idea. Each player provides the information necessary to run a campaign in that setting, and makes a character using some of those books with the generic stuff, and a decent enough backstory to provide a reason to want to go back.
Perhaps the Forgotten Realms character has beef with the Harpers' meddling, and needs to kill Elminster (because, given the opportunity, it sounds like a fun thing to shoot for). That sort of thing. Dealing with big-name NPCs and trying to get to places like Athas (only connect to other primes though the elemental plane of fire) means cleverness and power are both required.


Shadowrun: Slice-of-life comedy. Runs are reduced to a few rolls and some stuff happening in the background over the course of a few minutes, then the characters solve their own problems in their downtime. Getting the rigger's van out of lock-up before they figure out how much illegal stuff is in it, one of the characters has to hide their life from their parents who are visiting, or helping the socially-inept combat character make it through their date with the mafia don's daughter/son. Would require players experienced enough in the system to enjoy ignoring the main portion of the game and playing with sitcom-like plots and other stupidity, but it would be beer-and-peanuts fun.

[Kagus]

Does anyone have any campaigns they'd love to play/run?

Is it wrong to want to run a campaign where the antagonists are two necromancer brothers from Kara-Tur, just so you can prove that two Wongs can make a wight?

Aside from that, I think some kind of murder mystery might be interesting, even if it isn't specifically the "gotcha" scenario I've fiddled with a little bit.


I'm also intrigued by the concept of a sort of "shadow apocalypse" taking off in a town, where some rogue shadows have started killing the townsfolk and turning their shadows into more living monstrosities. The party has to determine the cause and source of the killings quickly, otherwise the shadow tide will grow exponentially and may become too much for them to handle...


EDIT: Just had another session tonight, first one in a month or so. Unfortunate events lead to us starting close to an hour and a half after scheduled go time, but that's not entirely unusual for us.

During this endeavor, the party (all three of us) encountered our very first puzzle! What strange and tantalizing riddle would our brave adventurers have to-


Sudoku. It was a simplified sudoku. Put the skulls on the grid so there are the correct number of skulls on each row and column. Skulldoku. Cue one player simply bailing and the other two sitting in absolute silence as we worked it out on scratch paper.  **Gameplay**

But hey! When the puzzle was solved, the ground stopped existing and I got to use Feather Fall for the first time this campaign! That was fun.


Then the bard asked if we'd leveled up.

[Jimmy]

Not a great puzzle, but not a bad one either.

Has anyone else used puzzles that work well in D&D or the like, especially with the combat round system? Personally, I think the best puzzles are those that combine the combat system as with the puzzle, where one or more characters have to spend their combat actions to actively solve the challenge while the others defend them against enemies that only stop when the puzzle is solved.

I designed a puzzle that worked this way for one of my boss encounters. In the centre of the boss room was a reactor, drawing power from four machines in each corner of the room. The reactor channeled power into the boss monster, giving it 5 regeneration per round per active machine. Each machine had a lever that could be pulled as a move action.

The trick was that the four levers toggled the machines active or inactive, and some would affect more than one. At the start, the first machine toggled itself, the second machine toggled itself and the one clockwise from it, the third toggled itself and two clockwise, and the fourth machine toggled all four. Each time a machine was toggled, the sequence would rotate clockwise, such that the second machine only toggled itself, the third toggled itself and one, etc.

A simple puzzle if you knew the trick, but trying to derive the pattern via observation is tricky, especially in a combat situation where other things are happening at the same time. Eventually the players decided to bypass the puzzle by just smashing the machines, which I admit is probably the best solution to that Gordian knot.

I'm always on the lookout for similar puzzles I can adapt to my games. I'm trying to invent something using number patterns like the Fibonacci sequence or so forth, but while the math is great, it's harder to game-ify it.

[Iduno]

Puzzles in the game are always weird. Why did the inhumanly smart character not know how to solve it? Or why was the dumbest character the one to do so easily?

Giving the players a bonus to their roll/a reduction in the difficulty if they have a good idea how to solve the puzzle speeds things up a lot, and means that usually having a character who is good at that kind of thing is beneficial.

I see it the same as people who want the player to be good at debating if they want to be allowed to play a high-charisma character. You don't make the player actually pick locks, or get stabbed, or whatever. It's a game, let people play something different than themselves.

[scriver]

or get stabbed

clearly we have not been playing the same kind of rpgs

[Loud Whispers]

My DM has finally reached his apotheosis

The setting has birthed the blacksun after hell a player deleted hell with minimal effort because of a DM oversight
Rampant mugabe inflation has finally spread from the power creep to the actual currency, rendering the gold standard worthless after a caravan full of cursed wealth egressed from a temple of doom
Everywhere there are big guys 4 U
The wholesome characters have all become incessantly edgy, punished bards
There remains but one more gigachad for our player hero to defeat

Meanwhile I'm having a blast playing NPCs in this campaign. Though NPCs is probably the wrong term if I'm playing them. My favourite playable supporting cast character is easily Miss Carbuncle, who the party still can't decide whether she's helping them or betraying them, as she's always present when things go wrong but she always claims to and always seems to be helping; despite oozing unnecessary amounts of sinister intent. May or may not be evil Granny Mushroom. Even I and the DM don't know if Carbuncle is really betraying them, we just both agreed it'd be hilarious to have a character who would trigger a witchhunter's worse stereotypes. Also there's some great amusement in that magic is supposed to be extremely rare in this world, and it's one of those "we're fantasy but actually this is post-scifi apocalypse campaign." Despite that the two players use magic to solve just about every problem. Carbuncle, being a hag of some kind, is a magic user but has yet to resort to magic for any of her problems. This was a matter of great amusement when the bard player clocked that it was very strange for the frail old lady to have 18 STR

So far I've just been using the stats for a hag NPC but the DM suggested I add some player levels to accommodate more Mugabe; what'd be a good witch themed one? Druid of spores for Granny Mushroom obvs but I'm also wondering what'd be some other nice ones. Wizard anything is always very witchy

[Iduno]

I think this is the blog of one of the current Earthdawn developers, sort of working on ideas or as a place to store stuff that doesn't quite fit with the game. It's a description of one of the Horrors (something like demons from the spirit realm that return when magic is powerful enough in the world to feed on any suffering they can cause). This one leans more into the horror elements of the game than the adventuring bits, and is entertainingly wtf.

https://pandagaminggrove.blogspot.com/2020/10/earthdawn-4e-anatomy-of-horror-13.html

[Loud Whispers]

Flesh of Theseus (Sustained): The Pritchman cuts off a piece of a marked victim and devours it, then cuts off the equivalent piece from his body and attaches it to the victim, which blends into the victim’s body shortly and gives them at least one Corruption Point (more may be appropriate for larger body parts at the gamemaster’s discretion). His body part quickly grows back and looks reminiscent of the victim’s body part. This functions like Horror Thread (Gamemaster’s Guide, p. 464), but there are no additional costs and it is always successful. However, The Pritchman can only control that affected piece of the victim’s body—this allows him to see out of their eye, listen from their ear, use their hand, etc. The Pritchman’s mark can never be removed or sequestered once this power is used.

Gonna yoink this one for my NPC fleshcrafter who offers "upgrades" in exchange for "downgrades"

[Jimmy]

I think this is the blog of one of the current Earthdawn developers, sort of working on ideas or as a place to store stuff that doesn't quite fit with the game. It's a description of one of the Horrors (something like demons from the spirit realm that return when magic is powerful enough in the world to feed on any suffering they can cause). This one leans more into the horror elements of the game than the adventuring bits, and is entertainingly wtf.

https://pandagaminggrove.blogspot.com/2020/10/earthdawn-4e-anatomy-of-horror-13.html

Great stuff there! I'm currently running a kyton-heavy scenario, and something like this is great material for a bit of flavour to the scenes I'm developing.