D&D 4e: This edition sucks edition - Games

[QUOTE=NotAName;47488015]I think a big amount of the party should be normal races (elf, dwarf, human, halfling, etc) and things like tieflings and drows should be used sparingly, unless the campaign is in the Underdark or something.[/QUOTE] Eh, outcast race parties can be fun too, where everyone is an uncommon race.

[QUOTE=Funktastic Dog;47488302]Eh, outcast race parties can be fun too, where everyone is an uncommon race.[/QUOTE] The one time I played a kobold, I had to bribe a child into buying supplies for me, since the town guard wouldn't let me in, that was pretty amusing.

[QUOTE=Pigbear;47488216]clearly you just need to make everyone racist fucks against those races (as they should be really, iirc drow are pretty much considered to all be evil by everyone) to the point where shopkeepers refuse to sell to them etc[/QUOTE] One of my players wanted to play a gay drow elf who ran away from Menzoberranzan because of his sexuality, needless to say she (the player) has a hard time wherever the character goes, the party almost killed the drow when they initially met him and they only accepted him because of his actions but are still a bit suspicious due to his race, most NPCs just run at the sight and the few who even dare talk to the drow is due to the reputation of Drizzt (I guess it helps that I've read all the Legend of Drizzt books so I know how most people deal with drow elves). Her character only gets to walk the surface because there's at least another goodly drow elf already established in the universe otherwise it wouldn't last very long :v:

[QUOTE=Technopath;47488633]One of my players wanted to play a gay drow elf who ran away from Menzoberranzan because of his sexuality, needless to say she (the player) has a hard time wherever the character goes, the party almost killed the drow when they initially met him and they only accepted him because of his actions but are still a bit suspicious due to his race, most NPCs just run at the sight and the few who even dare talk to the drow is due to the reputation of Drizzt (I guess it helps that I've read all the Legend of Drizzt books so I know how most people deal with drow elves). Her character only gets to walk the surface because there's at least another goodly drow elf already established in the universe otherwise it wouldn't last very long :v:[/QUOTE] How the hell can an elf know if they're gay or not?

[QUOTE=Pigbear;47488216]clearly you just need to make everyone racist fucks against those races (as they should be really, iirc drow are pretty much considered to all be evil by everyone) to the point where shopkeepers refuse to sell to them etc[/QUOTE] Drow wouldn't simply be refused in shops. They're almost universally refused entry to cities on the surface at all if they're lucky. A more common reaction would be outright hostility forcing the drow to either flee or fight for their life. The only exceptions are cities who are unique such as Silverymoon in the Forgotten Realms setting who will allow people a chance but watch them closely (though even Silverymoon refused Drizzt entry at first), places where there's a renowned goodly drow, or places that are allied with drow in the first place. Really though, the setting would realistically have a shit load of racism. (Other than the magic and other races it's essentially the 1300s or 1400s or so technologically and socially.) Even between the common races there tends to be a lot of racism, let alone uncommon or rare ones. And it kinda makes the idea of an uncommon or rare race a completely moot point when the entire party consists of them anyways. Statistically most characters should be human followed by elves and dwarves then gnomes, halflings, half-orcs, and half-elves. (That's a lot of halves...) Uncommon characters should make up a very small percentage (probably 1% at most) and rare characters should make up an even smaller percentage. The only exceptions to this stuff should be fairly unique circumstances such as the main region in the campaign being known to be a melting pot or one of the major kingdoms being a major settlement for an uncommon or rare race.

I just go by the logic that weird people are more likely to be adventurers. No one in D&D plays a shopkeeper or apprentice smith, you're vagabonds, holy warriors or practicers of supernatural talent.

[QUOTE=Rents;47489936]I just go by the logic that weird people are more likely to be adventurers. No one in D&D plays a shopkeeper or apprentice smith, you're vagabonds, holy warriors or practicers of supernatural talent.[/QUOTE] Being an uncommon race doesn't mean you're a weird person. The majority of a given race is still going to be average for that race. Which only serves to make uncommon and rare race adventurers less common in comparison to common races.

[QUOTE=Alice3173;47489977]Being an uncommon race doesn't mean you're a weird person. The majority of a given race is still going to be average for that race. Which only serves to make uncommon and rare race adventurers less common in comparison to common races.[/QUOTE] Eh, being seen as 'weird' to start with is more likely to make people disenfranchised with general society and end up in a holy order or band of crooks or become a hermit or whatever.

That might be true if you left your own society. Most members of most races aren't going to ever have a reason to venture outside the community they're a part of. A very significant of these rare and uncommon races tend towards keeping (mostly) to themselves and often discouraging their people from leaving the community, through cultural standards like the tengu (they're fairly traditional and samurai-esque in attitude) or through other methods such as those of the drow. (The drow method being essentially brainwashing everyone and if anyone still resists the standard method of dealing with them is to murder them unless they show enough promise to still want them around, at which point they'll simply use threats and blackmail to get their way.) Your view of it is relying on a specific point of view and a subjective situation. Which would be that uncommon races are weird and going to be commonly running into people who consider them as such. But that's not the case. Uncommon races won't see themselves as weird, they'll see themselves as normal. If anyone's weird to them it's the others. And they'll rarely deal with those others anyways but if they do and are considered weird by them they're very likely to write it off as the others being wrong. You're far more likely to find people who fall into what you described from the more common races simply by sheer statistics and cultural standards. The common races (even the stubborn and inflexible dwarves) have a habit of having more flexible cultures than the majority of uncommon races. Then you have races like the orcs who are too chaotic and too stupid to have any actual culture. They're likely to end up in a band of crooks or just staying with their tribe since it's basically the same thing.

[QUOTE=Alice3173;47490069]Then you have races like the orcs who are too chaotic and too stupid to have any actual culture. They're likely to end up in a band of crooks or just staying with their tribe since it's basically the same thing.[/QUOTE] wow WOW check your privilege

Way I see it, you guys aren't playing regular joe shmoes. If you want to play the most normal adventurer possible, thats fine by me, but dont expect everyone else to.

Or you could just let people play whatever fucking races they want to. It's a hobby of pretend imagination games. [editline]10th April 2015[/editline] Like arguing which races should and shouldn't be core or in a PHB is pretty dumb. Just let people play what they want. [editline]10th April 2015[/editline] I mean sure you should collaborate with the GM a little - it wouldn't make sense to have everyone playing Halflings in an Underdark game, but that's where common sense comes into play. At the same time I'm of the opinion the GM should allow a little leeway to allow players to toy around with their characters and try concepts out.

I'm doing my first DM in D&D 5e, and for the first session we were expecting 4 or 5 to show up. Unfortunately we only had three, but I figured they could still manage if they played smart. They blatantly just walk up to a pair of dead horses on a dangerous trail with arrows sticking out of them, and they claimed I was being overpowering when they got ambushed by a group of goblins. A sorcerer was one-shotted from the bushes, and some unlucky rolls occurred on the barbarian. Luckily the paladin of the group was able to survive the encounter and nurse them back to health. I just thought it was unfair to say that, but maybe I should have lowered the amount of enemies in the encounter. (Lost Mine of Phandelver)

[QUOTE=ReapDaWrapper;47493301]I'm doing my first DM in D&D 5e, and for the first session we were expecting 4 or 5 to show up. Unfortunately we only had three, but I figured they could still manage if they played smart. They blatantly just walk up to a pair of dead horses on a dangerous trail with arrows sticking out of them, and they claimed I was being overpowering when they got ambushed by a group of goblins. A sorcerer was one-shotted from the bushes, and some unlucky rolls occurred on the barbarian. Luckily the paladin of the group was able to survive the encounter and nurse them back to health. I just thought it was unfair to say that, but maybe I should have lowered the amount of enemies in the encounter. (Lost Mine of Phandelver)[/QUOTE] Numbers can have a pretty major effect on encounter difficulty, especially at low levels. Even a slight numerical advantage can really throw encounter balance off. Calculating Challenge Rating helps but it's not the be all and end all of encounter balance. Unfortunately the only advice I can offer is practice, as it's often something you need to get a feel for. Also yeah your players probably should have been more careful.

As a GM, you can always end conflicts without having to kill the entirety of a side. And you can always modify encounters that are in adventure books, as to keep them fun.

So I could use exactly 1 more player for a 5e game at 11AM-4PM EST if anyone is interested. Starting at level 1. PM me if you want in, had someone end up dropping. Edit: Filled slot again.

Last Sunday I had my first D&D experience, not sure if we should share our stories here. It was quite fun and interesting, we have a party composed of: Thiefling Rogue, Thiefling Warlock, Dwarf Paladin, Human Cleric, Elven Mage, We were send out to map a crypt for a mysterious man, he would pay us handsomely. Since we were all down on our luck we needed the job. When entering the crypt were in a chamber with 2 chandeliers. The party checked everything for traps, the floor, the chandeliers, the doors, the walls everything. This slowed the game pace down quite a lot but since it was our first sessions it was to be expected. Two rooms further the rogue sneaked into a hidden room finding himself some treasure 10 rations and 6 sp which he didn't share with the party because he is a racist. During this little adventure the party was just waiting and the dwarf fell asleep. The thiefling Warlock got annoyed in character by the sleeping dwarf and shouted at the dwarf to wake him up. When the rogue came back the party proceeded to argue that the warlock shouldn't have shouted, the rogue getting tired of this disagreement went on to [b]bluntly[/b] open the two big chapel doors to the next room with the warlock right beside him. And out came a level 3 shadow bat with a combat advantage almost killing the warlock and afterwards almost killing the entire party, since all our dice throws suck. Luckily the dwarf paladin was able to hit with a natural 20 and almost slaying the beast by him self, the mage was able to finish him of with the last blast. When entering the next room we found 2 hanflings, 2 human warriors and 2 free'd slaves that were grave robbing. Our warlock tried to convince them we were there to help them. (Before we knew they were grave robbing) They just looked at us and started their attack. It was a long battle but we managed to stay alive requiring a rest since we were pretty beat. This Sunday we are going to continue and I have to say I'm looking forward to it.

Man, I love being a DM. Burned all of the PCs loot and story clues in one fell swoop after the BBEG set fire to the wooden tower they were in. No ragrets

[QUOTE=RearAdmiral;47493274]Or you could just let people play whatever fucking races they want to. It's a hobby of pretend imagination games. [editline]10th April 2015[/editline] Like arguing which races should and shouldn't be core or in a PHB is pretty dumb. Just let people play what they want. [editline]10th April 2015[/editline] I mean sure you should collaborate with the GM a little - it wouldn't make sense to have everyone playing Halflings in an Underdark game, but that's where common sense comes into play. At the same time I'm of the opinion the GM should allow a little leeway to allow players to toy around with their characters and try concepts out.[/QUOTE] I don't have a problem with people playing strange races, I just have a problem with them being in the core, Players Handbook. Races like Tiefling and Drow are ones you should be extremely careful about choosing, since in most settings they're just about actively hunted down. And a giant Dragonborn city did not suddenly appear out of nowhere in a magic vortex of bullshit in Forgotten Realms, shut up. They're practically a monster race. They shouldn't be portrayed as standard, corebook choices in my opinion. My biggest problem with them being standard races though, is that they're balanced.

[QUOTE=ReapDaWrapper;47493301]I'm doing my first DM in D&D 5e, and for the first session we were expecting 4 or 5 to show up. Unfortunately we only had three, but I figured they could still manage if they played smart. They blatantly just walk up to a pair of dead horses on a dangerous trail with arrows sticking out of them, and they claimed I was being overpowering when they got ambushed by a group of goblins. A sorcerer was one-shotted from the bushes, and some unlucky rolls occurred on the barbarian. Luckily the paladin of the group was able to survive the encounter and nurse them back to health. I just thought it was unfair to say that, but maybe I should have lowered the amount of enemies in the encounter. (Lost Mine of Phandelver)[/QUOTE] When my group played the Lost Mine of Phandelver, we found it to be kind of harsh, difficulty wise, and there were 4-5 of us. Of course, we also got shat on by the random encounter dice. We learned quickly we couldn't stop here, it was Owlbear country.

If you don't like tieflings and drow, you don't have to run them in your games. Simple as that. I really don't think most parties go into the racial complexity of their fantasy world, and if they do then they'll be aware that choosing Drow might be a bad idea.

[QUOTE=Funktastic Dog;47497885]If you don't like tieflings and drow, you don't have to run them in your games. Simple as that. I really don't think most parties go into the racial complexity of their fantasy world, and if they do then they'll be aware that choosing Drow might be a bad idea.[/QUOTE] just add dragons as basic, player races in the players handbook also pixies

Last time I get players off /tg/ I tell you what. Two of them built basically the same character, which amounts to Beefcake Mcdudefast the combat specialist. And by combat specialist, I mean max in their combat skills. They built their characters around the stats, not the other way around as it should be for good characters. The third guy still hasn't even rolled a character when the game is in an hour and a half, and he hasn't been available to talk to, while the last guy is Sibs. Sibs is okay. Sibs did good on his character (and I'm not just saying that because she's lesbian). I can work around these minmaxing munchkins no real problem, but it's just lame to think about how such uninspired characters will be involved. Hey, maybe I'll be proven wrong and they'll be good, but they aren't off to a good start.

Confirming I am indeed the best

[QUOTE=elowin;47498369]just add dragons as basic, player races in the players handbook also pixies[/QUOTE] You know what, if it fits the setting I say go for it. Fantasycraft has playable Drakes and Treants in core and the game doesn't suffer for it. If you're really that opposed to changes in D&D go back to a previous edition

[QUOTE=Aperture fan;47498570]~TG~[/QUOTE] I told you I wasn't that bad mang, but you didn't listen. My shenanigans are pretty tame compared to these folk.

[QUOTE=Aperture fan]Ur ok[/QUOTE] It's good to be the king.

[QUOTE=Smas;47498709]I told you I wasn't that bad mang, but you didn't listen. My shenanigans are pretty tame compared to these folk.[/QUOTE] Don't give me that nonsense you pleb you didn't warn me at all also I was expecting this but I'm still disappointed. At least they aren't ERPers. Probably.

I might be an ERPer but at least I don't play a weeaboo ass game about sailor moon rejects.

[QUOTE=Rents;47498855]I might be an ERPer but at least I don't play a weeaboo ass game about sailor moon rejects.[/QUOTE] Rude. And I'll have you know the game I just recruited for is Mekton, so it's giant robots not magical lesbians.