Inspired by frustrating conversation I had. For those curious, that was the statblock of Caine, father of the vampires.

  • invertedspear@lemmy.zipEnglish
    2·
    16 days ago

    Also WoD:

    Player: I’m a mage I’m literally changing reality, I will cure that vampire.

    System: vampirism is a curse from God, do you really think you can roll more successes than God?

    • jjjalljs@ttrpg.network
      1·
      15 days ago

      We used to talk about how to cure Vampires in Mage (awakening, 2e).

      The easiest is probably time magic. With Time4, rules as written you can rewrite their history so they never became a vampire. It persists until the spell elapses, but you could make that last a year without too much trouble (assuming time4, gnosis3, a rote skill of 4).

      With Time5, the “fuck you” level of Mage, you can use the Unmaking practice and prevent them from being embraced, though that’s big hubris and risks butterfly effects at the GM’s discretion.

      Other approaches I’m less sure about. You could probably do something with Life5 (make a new body), 5 or so points of Death or Spirit to get a new soul (fun fact: in awakening, souls are fungible), and Mind5 to put their mind in the new body. Kind of a ship of Theseus situation.

  • rudyharrelson@lemmy.radioEnglish
    2·
    17 days ago

    The dog on the left is such a strawman lol. Those who would say such a thing are few and far between. I know plenty of DMs and players who think the PCs’ combat encounters should be challenging and even lethal.

    • SuiXi3D@fedia.io
      2·
      17 days ago

      The number of times my cleric/sorcerer has had to revivify the rest of his party…

        • DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social
          0·
          17 days ago

          It is actually bad game design in the sense that there really isn’t a decent mechanic to escape monsters.

          5.0 orcs, for example, had double the speed of the average PC with their dumbass free move action.

          The solution is rolling disengage as a series of skill checks (like World of Darkness would…) but then you have to explain how, exactly, a dude in full plate escapes a dragon.

          • jjjalljs@ttrpg.network
            2·
            15 days ago

            D&D, especially 5e, is just missing broad sections of game stuff so it can “leave it up to the DM”. Other stuff is really underbaked. Degree of success, succeed at a cost, non-violent conflict, ending combat other than totally wiping the other factions…

            That can be fine if everyone’s on the same page, but since D&D is the mega popular game you’re likely to be playing with new players, or just randos, and that can lead to tension.

          • fieldsofgold@ttrpg.network
            1·
            10 days ago

            Pre-firearm plate armor was pretty lightweight, lots of videos of people running and rolling and climbing in it. Is D&D supposed to only be like jousting armor where you can’t move? I’ve never been clear on this and I’m more willing to look like a twerp about it on here than with a DM in person

      • TheGreatDarkness@ttrpg.networkOP
        2·
        13 days ago

        Before my group got bored with D&D and we decided to give it a break and switch to Mage, it got to a level I was prepping to have the this level 13 party fight Vecna and Zariel at once, just to make it at least a little hard.

  • jjjalljs@ttrpg.network
    1·
    17 days ago

    I do feel like sometimes players have a sort of laid back, “we should just win without too much trouble” attitude. Sometimes this manifests as “we take a long rest after every fight”. And that’s a fine way to play, so long as everyone’s on board.

    It can be kind of bad when half the group is kick-in-the-door-lol and the DM is expecting more tactical depth.

    I think because D&D is many people’s first RPG, you’ll find a lot of bad habits there as new players rediscover them.

  • entropicdrift@lemmy.sdf.org
    1·
    17 days ago

    I feel that this is really 5e and 4e specific. 3.5 is kinda borderline and in my experience 2e and older definitely do feature things that are effectively “if you go in there you die, lmao” types of obstacles and trend more towards a sort of survival-horror tone, where surviving is in itself an accomplishment.

  • MouseKeyboard@ttrpg.network
    1·
    16 days ago

    You say that, but IIRC there are official DnD statements that gods do not have statblocks because they are too powerful for mortals to even try to fight. They renamed the Tiamat statblock to Aspect of Tiamat for precisely this reason.

  • Moah@lemmy.blahaj.zone
    1·
    14 days ago

    WW also made a guy who was a vampire, mage, werewolf and eventually ashtray, so i wouldn’t put them on a pedestal

  • Ziggurat@jlai.lu
    0·
    16 days ago

    I am not that much a D&D player, but doesn’t it a huge power scale meaning that in the lower levels, it’s fairly easy to design a you fucking loose encounter. And isn’t there The Tarasque who is basically a you fucking loose statblock

    I am all for a choose your fight approach where you should definitely not mess with someone bigger/stronger especiully without a plan or a lot of explosives. However, I expect that PC can make it out of an ordinary fight (just make sure it’s not a target shooting practice and put 1-2 PC on the ground). Then if the 13th gen newborns vampire want to fight the 5th gen prince, not my problem if they have to burn their character sheet afterwards.

    Finally, one of the best rpg out there is 10 candles where you know from scratch that everyone will die

    • Angry_Autist (he/him)@lemmy.world
      1·
      16 days ago

      Things I have learned in 4 decades of DMing:

      1. There is no encounter that cannot be cheesed by creative players

      2. Same creative players will also party wipe by doing stupid things like trying to run on lava

      It’s basically impossible to accurately scale encounters beyond astrology and good wishes. I’ve seen a party of 6th levels get wiped by seven starving goblins in a tower.

    • TheGreatDarkness@ttrpg.networkOP
      1·
      14 days ago

      Even in Heroic Fantasy the enemies should be challenging, while in D&D (not even 5e, 3.5 had this issue too), it’s basically inevitable that high enough PCs will rollstomp everything, laughing all the way.

  • Ithorian [comrade/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
    0·
    17 days ago

    The Pathfinder game i play can be brutal. The party has learned to just nope the fuck out if something looks sketchy. The dm told us at the beginning that the world was “real” and we’re just thrown in it, so nothing is level adjusted.