D&D Stew
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@bored I am nearly finished with Curse of Strahd with one TT group and it has been brutal. In that campaign, I really really want my Aasimar Paladin to die. They keep going unconscious (and I've scored that nat 20 death save) every single session to the point it's getting to be the norm. Without spoiling, it's definitely a horror game when people think they can split party and not very newbie friendly.
I am looking forward to the conclusion, but I'm afraid we're only level 7 right now and probably halfway in the big map. I think now that i know how the campaign goes, I'd like it more with a second play through with experienced players.
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Ominous sighs. I knew I should've stuck to my OSR games and not let them talk me into 5e.
The original Ravenloft was epic and wonderful; though, it did inspire the multitude of railroad-y modules that followed it, so it should be cursed for that travesty. Still it was magnificent. Hopefully 5e didn't tarnish it.
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I'm getting ready to do a 5e Eberron game and I'm trying to decide what to play. I want to play ALL THE THINGS.
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@Bananerz I think we finished at 10. If you're using the milestones system from the module it follows a pretty predictable curve. Although even that was its own problem, because the mod encourages exploring... and then yanks focus this way and that with the 'events.' But if you do half of x, and then go over and do y, you can go long stretches at the same level and then kind of jump a couple very quickly. You can also easily outlevel or encounter the wrong content, or end up skipping stuff. Plus there's weird backtracking (We didn't do the Mill, or finish the werewolves, and found another solution but... didn't bother to backtrack with it and just went and killed Strahd). A big issue is that Castle Ravenloft itself, while definitely deserving of its famous status in dungeon design, is not something that you can really tackle all at once. But the story can make repeated visits a very odd and artificial choice.
My own wonky character story was an issue with a forced alignment change. It wasn't a problem playing with friends but playing with people who know each other less well... I can see it being a huge issue.
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@bored I went to Castle Ravenloft at level 6 and the cold the DM had us roll against nearly wiped us entirely out due to one character forcing his way, thankfully we departed back with the entire party. He's a very hardcore tough DM and I feel sometimes he pumps up the difficulty of the enemies to see how close to death we can get. The house of death and bonegrinder were crazy fun and the Drow we encountered we were able to spend a few hours setting up traps on the map to prepare for which I've never been able to do before.
I want to go back to Barovia with my party as:
- Kobold Swashbuckler Rogue
- Lizardfolk Circle of the Moon Druid
- Tortle Circle of Spores Druid
- Aasimar College of Lore Bard
- Warforged Life Cleric
- Yaun-ti Fiend Warlock
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@Bananerz Obviously I don't know about your DM, but I don't think much of the stuff in Strahd would need to be bumped up to be incredibly lethal. As the published modules go, it is quite extreme in terms of letting you encounter stuff out of your league. You can also just run into a lot of problems with ubiquitous nature of physical resistance on monsters vs. the availability of class-appropriate magic weapons. I had no gear for 3/4ths the game... and then all the gear, and probably did 80% of the damage on Strahd. Now I want to wait till you're done to properly discuss it all!
I am curious about the whys of your party. The one thing we didn't have that I really felt would have improved our lot was an archer (although I'm not sure the module even has a magic bow! so maybe not), or just better dedicated long-range nuking anywhere. Our party was... Sword and board devotion Paladin, Fiend Warlock (who the DM did some fun setting tie-ins for), Knowledge Cleric and Duelist Rogue/Bladesong Wizard (me). Small party so there's always going to be issues, but i feel like if the Warlock had been a full caster, or the Cleric had been light, or I'd been a ranger or ranged fighter, etc, we would have been a little better off.
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@bored We've obtained one +1 AC ring so far. I recall when we wanted to buy a health potion, it was about 150 gold and we had among ourselves about 70. I believe from the tarot deck that we're supposed to find a weapon that is required (or will make our lives easier) to deal with Strahd but we haven't found that yet. Still, there's about half the map still to uncover I think, but that group doesn't link up until mid January.
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@Bananerz Yeah, the weapon from the card is part of what turned my char from 'ok' to 'Strahd-slaying menace.'. I'd forgotten about the tarot thing so that makes it a bit less of a spoiler to mention. There definitely is good loot, including some stuff way overblown for a level 8-10ish party, but like everything depending on how/where you explore you can miss a lot of it.
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Not to spoil Curse of Strahd 5e but the joke is when run properly it is not when players finish the module but IF they finish the module. It is meant to be one of those campaigns that ends horribly or even in outright failure. If that isn't your cup of tea or your DM isn't comfortable playing in that headspace I would question whether you're getting an authentic experience.
That being said looking forward to running Baldur's Gate Descent into Avernus. I think it'll be the bridge between 5e as it is now and planescape.
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@bored So there's hope for us yet!!
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One of my favorite stories of a group going through Castle Ravenloft (the original) and killing Strahd comes from an OSR blog. Warning: spoilers. http://dreamsinthelichhouse.blogspot.com/2011/07/die-strahd-die.html
http://dreamsinthelichhouse.blogspot.com/2011/07/gothic-greyhawk-game-35-end-of-strahd.html -
How do people feel about one shots running about 4 hours. Is that something you think tabletop gamers enjoy or do you think it's just something that groups that have been in a longform campaign do to mix things up?
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@Jeshin They are fun. For the last 18 years of kids and family shit, on a pragmatic level that's the only format that I can do tt in (as well as most of the people that I have done tt with in that time period). I don't think it works so well with classic RPGs (even when I knew WoD rules well, I've forgotten most of them now), but there are a number of systems that make grab and go very easy. I really really enjoy it, though sometimes getting people to try something new and not what they did in jr/high school as a kid can be a hard sell at first.
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Personally, I couldn't do that. The four hour mark is about when stuff usually starts getting good.
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The one shots I've been a part of where we're maxed fighting some legendary level enemies goes for about 6-8 hours. Usually closer to 8.
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A one shot running about four hours is normal where I play. And they're great fun.
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The D&D game I am in that is run by and played with good mu friends is just the best. As a party we are collectively a bard and we just doctor Seuss rapped in a language we barely know.. and it was dope. Its fun wild crazy original setting and we would like to tell you about our Lord and Savior, the forgotten god, here is a silk pillow to pray with.
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If any of you own the D&D: Lords of Waterdeep board game on Steam & want to play, hit me up.
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@Pandora Is it a standalone? I don't own it but potentially I could own it since I still have about 500 dollars in steam credit left.
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Someday I'll play D&D again. I didn't for years and years because I was so burned out on it, but I think I'm ready to get back in the saddle.
