Dungeons & Dragons social commentary Podcast hosted by Margaret and Jack - a literal pair of nerds. We focus on inclusivity and creating a safe, welcoming space in the TTRPG community. 💜 Want to work together? Email us at business@eldritchpodblast.co.uk
My go-to worst homebrew is a prior DM of mine who didn't understand what Performance and Survival were actually for. He'd have you roll the former to see how well you *performed* a task, like picking a lock. He had you roll Survival in place of things like CON saves... 😅 I tried teaching him what those were actually for, but he could not be swayed.
AD&D 2e Clerics were not guaranteed to be healers. specialty priests were a thing. Clerics had weapon and armor proficiencies and were able to frontline too. even AD&D 1e, BX and Whitebox Clerics were frontliners.
Rule 5: Well to the last point, if you have a party of level 8's, the guy coming in would be level 7, since they come in a level below the lowest-leveled character... But that also feeds into a terrible cycle as well, where the DM can kill the same person over and over, but it's fine because they get to level up alongside the party, but will always be weaker. It feels like it could lead to weird abuse, like if the DM is mad at someone, they can keep killing their character and claim it's for "balance", but it's really to keep them behind everyone else to punish them. Bringing lower-leveled characters into a game makes sense, but not at the rate this DM seems to be working; throwing characters into a meat grinder like this is so old-school in a bad way for how modern gameplay styles work. It's the way some people like playing, and is valid, but for modern players who want a character they can grow and evolve and tell a story through, it doesn't work.
Rule 4: Okay, that one sucks. When a druid wildshapes, they lose all of their spells and druidic abilities, unless they're super-high-level, and can only turn into creatures that are, at most, CR 2 or 3, I think? So you're talking creatures with, like, sub-20 hit points and 11 AC with fangs, claws, and maybe flight or swimming, but any wildshape can be undone with a few decent attacks, and the druid doesn't regain HP for their normal form while wildshaped, and can only wildshape a limited number of times per rest, so if the DM thinks it's broken, it's because they're playing in games where people are using it wrong.
For real, I always heard this but I've played a druid twice now and having to wildshape in combat suuuuuuuuuucks. It means I'm just turtling to avoid going down because I'm usually a main healer.
Rule 2: Wait, so how were attack rolls resolved? If you use an Attack Card, you just automatically hit the enemy? Their AC isn't taken into account at all? And no possibility of critical hits or misses? There are so many problems with that system.
Rule 1: Could work, with modifications. First, no multiple levels of exhaustion given per instance; you only get 1 at a time. Second, any time that a character takes a Critical Hit, they make a CON Save, where the DC is maybe 10 + the value of the highest damage die rolled for the attack, and if they fail that, they take a level of exhaustion, and maybe that level only kicks in after combat ends, or at the end of their next turn or something. And exhaustion does kill you; in 2014, six levels kill you, and in 2024, I believe it takes ten levels.
The card rule just seems strange to me because it says it takes out the swingyness of the d20 but its not replacing a d20, its replacing action, bonus action, and movement choices. This sounds like it would really slow down combat as well, especially if the DM is drawing cards for each monster.
Been playing Baldur’s gate again and then some supermassive games so not had the same time for podcasts, enjoying the fact I’ve got like four episodes to watch whilst I do some work 😎
The person who did the card rule doesn't understand the fundamentals of using cards in a game where you have a character. The cards are used to make a build. Not give you actions to do.
I like the card rule. If the goal is to remove the luck a bit, make a deck for each player based on their class and subclass. Give them each 3 movement cards that allow them ti move 10 ft each, and they refresh every turn. Character with variable or higher speed either start every turn woth more movement cards, or add movement cards to their deck to draw. Make attack, spell, special( class or magic item ability), dodge, grapple, shove, and item interact each a card. Then give appropriate cards to each player based on class and subclass. If you have limited use items or situational interactions, give the players a "burn card" that is removed from the deck after use. This could be used for potions or ammo or hanging chandeliers. Let players modify their decks in long rests to allow them to prioritize what they want their character to do. Assuming nothing else changes, this should work fine. Of course, barbarians probably shouldnt have alot if any spell cards.
Rule 2 reminds me a bit of Fabula Ultima initiative. The party rolls a group check against the GM. Then you go back and forth. Player, GM, player, GM for example. And the players choose who acts on the party turns in whatever order.
I run a similar exhaustion mechanic (playing icewind dale homebrew.) Only at 10 you half movement and 20 is death. Short rests restore 2 exhaustion and long rest gets you a full reset. It's been fantastic so far. The players are always mindful of it but it's never such a hindrance that no one can accomplish anything
if combat isn't challenging enough there are a plethora of simple safe things you can do to amp the difficulty in a fun way without unintended consequences that make things to difficult or just not fun for your players- if I think a fight was a little too easy or difficult and that wasn't just down to the dice or a bad decision, I simulate fights with my players character sheets when I'm session prepping and fiddle with adding/removing more low CR grunts or increasing the CR of the enemies there until I get a sense that they can handle it and it's the right level of difficulty for the pacing n mood I wanna set at the time- also easy fights are only an issue if your players aren't having fun bc everything is too easy and they don't feel any stakes, everything should be for the enjoyment of the group as a whole- This situation sounds more like the DM was mad that his players were doing well and wanted to punish them for that which just isn't nice :(
While I appreciate the recommendation and am glad to hear WoW's writing seems to be improving after how badly they mangled characters like Sylvanas I just can't get invested in it anymore. Plus to be fair FFXIV has already filled that MMO void for me as well. Still hope it continues to be enjoyable, its nice to hear other people are enjoying themselves.
Just make the combat encounters harder. Straight up Punishing players for excelling at combat is unacceptable. You wanna add drama or stakes. Cool. Im sure we all can agree that a well set up encounter can be challenging and exciting while also being fair.
Yesss this is it, the only reason easy fights should be a problem is bc the players themselves find the fights too easy and it's taking away the element of risk, stakes and tension- all it takes is some fiddling with CRs and quantity of the enemies in a fight during session prep to find the right challenge for the people you're meant to be enjoying the time with lol
Cards as abilities is far, far too similar to how they handled "powers" in D&D 4e. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but the powers (at will, once per encounter, and once per day) were crafted specifically to the race/class that got them. Spells were cards. Abilities are cards. And everyone should have all of the common action cards. Movement should NOT be a card.
There's a bloodborne board game that utilises cards like that homebrew. But you can get Upgraded cards and each card has an effect like draw an extra card or something. They make for really fun gameplay and explosive turns. It can definitely work with a lot of variety in cards and a lot of tinkering with balance.
It is criminal that you guys are as big as you are. I genuinely enjoy every episode I see, and it's a shame that more people don't know about this channel.
Only removing one point on a LONG REST is just ridiculous, the whole idea of them was to encourage long rests, so adding loads of them for bullshit reasons just makes it ridiculously tedious and impossible to deal with
A simple solution for the cards rule is that they could turn any card into a move card (but perhaps it's half-speed so that an actual move card could still be a useful thing to get). (or make the move card "dash" so you're going double your full speed) (p.s. this is a cool episode and congrats on getting books!)
hey it's Kalmia! (No notes on the pronunciation, it was perfect!) Just some extra info and updates. I have played with everyone but the cleric before and they got a pretty strong grasp on DnD, so I don't think it's an issue of inexperience. I'm drafting a message to send to the group chat tonight to explain my feelings and hopefully reach a conclusion. Also, two of the people in this group (the paladin and the warlock) are co-DMing a campaign soon and hopefully all wants will align then!
I was on board.. Until crit hits added 2. Getting a point of exhaustion for going unconsious, I think is perfectly fine, using 1DND's exhaustion mechanic. It add's a downside, and stops the whole "but you can heal as BA so it doesn't matter" argument dead in it's tracks. It also hadd a whole new element to DND that effectivly been removed because traveling is rarely difficult and always complicated or the difficulties neuterd due to a class ferature.
Hey y'all! The "Whooooo aaare you? Who who? Who who?" song WAS the theme for the big main CSI show from before it was a franchise - CSI: Las Vegas! It's admittedly the scariest iteration of the show, me and my mom watched it on TV every Tuesday evening and it gave me nightmares a few times but I loved the mystery and justice of it all so I made her keep on schedule 😂
The episode of CSI with the “baby swallowing hair,” was it the one where the older teen/young adult breathed in the hair from the inside of a rug he was wrapped in while having a “second birth” experience?
I personally run a homebrew world but have been running through the modules. Of a nice halfway house between the two. Oh idea for the last story, a spiritual weapon that talks to them as you suggested. However, add on that it's an extension of the celestial they will later summon!
For the how the fighter got a hellhound. In CoS theres the amber temple that has a bunch of cursed sarcophagi that gives the character that accepts the dark gift it offers and one of them gives a hellhound so my assumption is that the fighter touched that
Update: Thanks so much for your helpful advice for my loot mum. I sat down with my mum and spoke to her about how I felt and while she was resistant at first, she did take it on when I said I'd asked you guys for advice. She said she just thought the game felt a bit pointless without any immediate rewards since she was used to that kind of reward system with computer games. So I'm taking your advice and I'm designing a special happy fun ball type device that spits out super low-level 'prizes' that she can get every couple of days and hopefully, that'll be the fix we need at the table. Thanks again.
Saw dinosaurs immediately bought. Was looking for a birthday gift for my friend. I think the discount code is wrong in the description you swapped the P and the B
If optimizing is not Spencer's way to play, that's fine. But also Twilight clerics are absolutely broken, both in combat and out. We LOVED our twilight cleric in our tyranny of dragons campaign, and they had to work really hard not to single handedly sweep combat. So I'm surprised to hear they're struggling with it
Hello! Spencer here. I think it would have been helpful to have mentioned that this is my first campaign. I think that’s why my DM allowed me to pick that subclass, he knew I wouldn’t know how to optimize it! Lol. Both the other two players are veterans and make very good choices in combat. Out of combat is debatable haha! I don’t necessarily want to be an optimizer, but do you have any suggestions as to better serve my party and scratch my combat itch? I really liked their suggestion of adding more descriptions to my actions, something I’ll definitely be implementing. Thanks!
@spencerfreeman1914 Hi there, this is her twilight cleric husband. In combat, I always made sure to activate my channel divinity aura turn 1, which kept the party healthy, and sure that they stayed in their right mind (which was particularly helpful dealing with draconic fear). Then turn 2, I would usually cast a concentration spell. Some of my favorites were aura of vitality to keep people fully healthy, spirit guardians to do tons of damage, or circle of power to shut down enemy mages. After that, I would usually cast toll the dead, guiding bolt, or another healing spell as needed. Outside combat, you have some fun skill options. Clerics can get persuasion proficiency, which is nice for RP. But your main use is as a diviner. You get See Invisibilty as a domain spell which is real nice. But mid-level spells like augury, divination, and Commune can be massive out of combat. Hope that helps!
i had a twilight cleric in CoS and it was soooo busted broken so i’m sure you’re doing some invaluable stuff even if you’re not playing super optimised, you’re doing great i’m sure! but maybe that style of character might not be what you’re into, which is also ok
@spencerfreeman1914 I will have our twilight cleric edit this later, but the quick way to really power up is have the spirit guardians spell and the aura at level 6. Bonus points if you multiclass into paladin for extra auras and attacks.
