u/Featherman13

I'm ngl, I know I'll get down votes from this, but IN MY OPINION- that gameplay trailer was really damn disappointing.

NOT THE ACTUAL GAMEPLAY

The combat looked pretty cool and I'm still interested in figuring how all those little abilities work.

But... this was a trailer for a totally different game than what I was expecting...

There are COUNTLESS games where you play as a skilled human swordsman. Especially hack/slash soulslike games.

Idk, I'm just a smidgen let down. Feels like we were led to believe you'll be playing as this huge demon creature-

As if you're playing the whole game as a boss from Wukong.

That'd be sick.

Instead we're just a dude with a sword? Literally just "standard protagonist #10000." Nothing unique at all about that, even if his actual moves/abilities will be unique-

It'll be the thousandth game with a protagonist like this. While we were expecting one of the first games with a strange, huge, monstrous protagonist- again, like you're playing as the final boss of another game.

(I know we don't have a lot of info about the game yet- but we DO know that we will not be playing as an fully realized Zhong Kui, at least not for a majority of the game. I DON'T DOUBT it'll be a fun game- but that doesn't mean it's not a bit of a letdown)

Am I totally alone in this?

Sorry I’m late. I had no clue what this show was about when it got announced (I thought it had something to do with Rick and Morty’s “Plumbus” somehow…) so I only just watched it.

So I’m also a bit late to all the theory crafting and speculations yall have probably been doing for months.

But can I just say- man I hope it isn’t an alien invasion. That’s so cliche.

And I’m not saying “man I hope they don’t end the show with an alien armada in the sky,” I seriously doubt that’s where this is going. Even if the virus was sent with malicious intent, I don’t think we’ll ever actually see those aliens in the show.

I’m just saying- if we ever do learn why the virus was created, I REALLY hope it isn’t the cliched “oh no, it was built by the EVIL aliens! It was made to weaken us and kill us off!”

It looks like that’s what the general consensus is, but like- why do the aliens ALWAYS have to be war mongering, planet conquering villains?

Why can’t they just be genuinely trying to help? And maybe it just went a bit wrong for humans.

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Here’s my favorite theory I’ve read-

What if the aliens just don’t consume food or resources in the same way we do? Maybe they “eat” or “drink” in a process similar to photosynthesis? Resources or a lack thereof were never an issue to them, so they didn’t account for that risk when it was made. To them, it really was the absolute best thing in the universe, but for a species that’s biologically different, it’s a death sentence.

There’s also the theory that it was specifically made to be used on a smaller scale. Like maybe the aliens built it for specific professions- I could see a hive mind like that being useful for scientists, therapists, or even law enforcement (though the “no hurting stuff” rule makes that a bit confusing). But without the proper guardrails or knowledge of what it’s for, the hive just assumed it should be used on a planetary scale- basically we’re running a workplace tool for 8 billion people.

(That one isn’t as good a theory, but I still like it more than alien invasion)

Idk, those are just my 2 cents. Anybody else agree?

Anybody have their own unique theories that aren’t just “it’s meant to wipe us out because aliens are always evil.”

Feels like he’s just got the worse version of a bunch of other hero gimmicks.

Omnidirectional dodge attack is great, if it wasn’t ridiculously GB vulnerable. Yet Virt has a totally safe version that hits from 3 sides. Seriously wtf.

I know he’s got dodge cancels on everything, but that doesn’t really help when he’s got basically no iframes on his dodge attacks. I notice it a little bit, being able to get away from other dodge attacks or bashes- but I notice it a LOT more with someone like JJ.

He’s got wide arcing heavy attacks, that’s cool, but with no hyper armor why does everyone say he’s so good in 4v4? He’s not bad, but I feel like he’s really just okay- I get interrupted by basically everything when we’re in a real team brawl.

Of course there are the unblockable lights, but I dunno- it’s not like there’s any skill expression to that. It’s just a move.

This is not me trying to bash Zhanhu. I’m genuinely trying to get better at him and just don’t understand what the high level Zhanhu players are doing that’s unique to him.

His kit feels really basic and easily countered by basically anyone who can react to a dodge attack from 1 of 2 sides. And I don’t see a reason I shouldn’t just play either Tiandi or JJ instead, who both do mostly everything he does and do it much, much better. Unless I’m missing something.

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Also- I know I’m ignoring the CCs on his dodge attacks, which are definitely meant to be used since they do pretty decent damage. Buuuut someone please tell me if it’s just a skill issue or those things are crazy hard to land. I play a lot of warlord, and use his CCs a lot, but these feel like completely different timings and I always just end up doing a regular dodge attack.

Lore dump disguised as a question. But also genuinely asking the question/looking for advice

I just don’t know where to put them/how to explain their origins, but I HAVE been able to smoothly include races like humans, dwarves, orcs, goblins, beastfolk, dragonfolk, hell even dryads. They all have origins and places in the world that feel natural, at least to me. But elves are kinda out of place no matter where I try to smush them in.

(The title is the question, feel free to just answer that. Extra credit if ya wanna find somewhere to fit them in, I would like to include them)

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For some “brief” context, the world of Fen has 3 general types of races-

- The Children of Fen

Consisting of the dryads, orcs, goblins, and various beastfolk, the Children of Fen are the only races truly native to Fen. Their cultures are incredibly diverse, but they generally share some connection to the Worldsong, the ancient religion surrounding Fendrimoora, the Worldsinger and Elder Goddess of Fen. Their mythology tends to be much more whimsical and distinctly fantastical, with nature, ancient magic, the tangible forces of powerful “spirits” playing a major role in everyday life.

Their magic tends to reflect this as well—more mystical, elemental, and strange, with spells that require only thought rather than spoken incantation or gestures, therefore often feeling like an extension of nature rather than a formal system of study. Even among races that have very different cultures, there is generally an understanding that the world itself is alive with spirits and ancient powers, and every aspect of the natural world plays a subtle role in the continuation of life.

Their architecture, clothing, folklore, and traditions consequently tend to have a more distinctly high-fantasy quality, ranging from the elegant and mystical traditions of the dryads, faunadeer, or verskin (deer/goat and rabbit beastfolk) to the more primal customs of the orcs, goblins, or cynphali (wolf/hyena beastfolk).

- The Wayfarer Races (don’t love this name, if yall got suggestions on it I’m all ears!)

Consisting of humans, dwarves, and giants, the Wayfarers originated in their now mythologized home world of Elrea and arrived in Fen thousands of years ago after fleeing the invasion of the Great Dragons. With them came the worship of the High Hall, a religion centered around the “Lord of Steel” and the “Mother of Mercy,” and their “Heirs,” being the various Seraphim and Devils.

Their faith is generally associated with concepts like honor, sacrifice, compassion, loyalty, and family, and their magic is consequently much more holy and divine in appearance than the magic of the Children of Fen. But, at the same time the High Hall is deliberately much more ambiguous than the traditional "the gods definitely exist and answer prayers" fantasy religion; much of its theology is based on tradition, personal faith, and scripture from before their arrival in Fen, with genuine divine intervention being rare enough that people can reasonably question whether it is the act of “Divinity” or simply the natural magic of Fen.

Culturally, the Wayfarers therefore tend to have a more grounded, medieval aesthetic—fortresses, churches, knights, smiths, scholars, and old family traditions—although the three races have developed very different cultures since settling in Fen

- The Dragonfolk

The Cindari (traditional dragonborn) and Veyr (winged serpentfolk) are the two surviving peoples of the Dragonfolk, who originally followed the Great Dragons across countless worlds as their soldiers, servants, and conquerors. Unlike the other two groups, their relationship with religion and magic is heavily shaped by their history of enslavement thousands of years ago.

The Cindari, who formed much of the Dragons' armies, have largely rejected the divine altogether after being abandoned by the gods they once worshipped. Their modern culture emphasizes self-reliance, discipline, physical strength, and personal improvement, and they are generally suspicious of both gods and conventional magic.

The Veyr, however, retain a much stranger connection to the old powers of the Dragons. They practice fragments of ancient draconic magic that even the Veyr themselves no longer fully understand, with traditions built around old ritual sacrifices, strange “alien” relics, and long twisted or faded knowledge passed down from before the Ashen Wars.

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Lol “brief”.

Anyway, obviously the elves aren’t gonna fit in the Dragonfolk section, but I’m not sure how/whether I should place them in either the Wayfarer or Children of Fen races.

I’ve got ideas for both, but problems with it too:

My earliest ideas of this world put them as among the Children of Fen, but they were going to be distinctly folklore elves- small statured, tricky, magic people, basically my stand in for halflings (I do have halflings, but they come way later).

But, I had no explanation for why elves would look almost identical to humans, dwarves, and giants. The whole reason those races look alike is because they come from the same world, whilst the “Children of Fen” races each have more high fantasy origins based off different spirits (spirits are basically gods in Fen).

I couldn’t think of a good reason, so I scrapped that and instead decided to bring on the more Tolkein-esque elves, and put them with the Wayfarer races. Without going too much into the lore, the elves were gonna be the ones who actually created the portals everyone used to flee Elrea.

Buuuut I don’t know if I like the “holy magic” angle of elves. The Wayfarer races are all more low fantasy themed, throwing elves in there really only makes sense if I kill them all off before the modern age, and treat them like ancient legends among humans and dwarves.

I don’t know man, I’m writing way too much- any ideas?

You don’t know how to do it, you’re not helping.

I’m at maybe half health, so are they. You see me get a light parry? Don’t attack, you don’t need to bud! It’s okay! Just take a breath, and relax for a second.

Maybe, instead of feeding revenge, interrupting my attacks, and giving them somebody to dodge attack around- maybe, just go stand there, and look out for the 1-3 enemies who are absolutely sprinting to this location right now.

If I get GBed, sure, hit em. If I’m about to die, sure. If I get hit with some long animation you can interrupt, yeah, whatever.

Just stop jumping into every 1v1 you see. You’re smarter than that, I know you are.

(You’re not. There’s a miniature black hole where your brain should be, but i believe in dumb things all the time)

And on a similar note.

You don’t need to sit on the same point as me. You definatly don’t need to leave the point you just took, to go join a 1v1 in the middle of the map. Because guess what big guy?! WE ALL THOUGHT OF THAT! WE’RE ALL ON OUR WAY THERE RIGHT NOW! STAY ON THE GODAMN POINT LIKE A GOOD DOG!

Ya know what’s gonna happen right as you leave that point? All the enemies who we just killed, who just respawned, who just lost that point… guess where they’re going? Back to the fkn point you’re standing on. Stay there, I promise, you will get to hit something in like 30 seconds.

And lastly. I hate you.

Like a duel gamemode? Or even just an extraction map where there are ONLY players.

The options are really endless- team death match, capture the flag, arena free for all, etc. etc. etc.

Don’t get me wrong, I love the baseline extraction gamemode, but I’m hoping the devs don’t get too overly attached to that system.

Like, sure, maybe a more basic duel gamemode would overshadow the extraction stuff, and spread the player base out a bit. Sure, that might make queue times a bit longer.

But damn it it’d be fun as hell.

And to be perfectly honest- I’m playing the game for the fun PvP combat.

I know there are people more interested in the Soulsborn-like boss fights. Some people are into the actual quests and progression.

But me personally, I could not possibly care less about the bosses and enemies. If I wanted that- I’d play Nightreign.

Ofc I still engage with them, but I’m basically always waiting for my next PvP fight. It’d be nice to have a gamemode entirely devoted to those players.

No im not talking about time travel.

I have no clue how to phrase that question. I’m starting a whole new worldbuilding project from scratch, and trying to lean into a more low fantasy, realistic medieval modern age- but with a very mysterious, ancient, high fantasy history in the early ages that’s been mostly lost, twisted, or forgotten.

I’ve started my writing and I’m already running into a trap of overly fleshing out the “high fantasy” stuff.

BETTER WAY TO PHRASE MY QUESTION:

If you have multiple conflicting origin myths between races/peoples, do YOU have a canonical answer to it? Or do you keep it vague even in your own mind?

Same goes for anything relating to an “ancient mysterious past.” Do YOU keep an actual canonical history, alongside your in-world history.

Some examples I could use some help with:

- Do your races know, for a fact, WHAT the gods are? Not who, but- where they come from, specific things they’ve done, their motives? Do they have tangible evidence to that? Absolute evidence of their existence? How vague should that be in a more modern medieval, but still fantasy, world?

- When two races have conflicting histories that put them at odds with each other, do you know the truth to who’s right and who’s wrong/what the “funny misunderstanding” is? Even if it’ll never actually come up? It feels weird just hand waving it away as “they hate each other, and no one knows why” but writing a definitive truth to it (even just for myself) also feels like it defeats the purpose a bit

- And origin myths. This feels surprisingly tricky to actually map out- as it kinda combines both the prior questions/notes. I’m just having trouble figuring out how much any race should know about where they come from. I want there to be wildly conflicting theories between cultures, but how does that work with a world of gods and magic?

Any help would be great!

You can skip everything below and just answer the title. Just explaining myself.

Tl/dr - level 15 Moon Druid who does not wanna use dinosaurs. What are my options? Or is that too big of a handicap?

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So, I'm a pretty new player- I've done a handful of oneshots, and got into what was gonna be a longterm campaign, which collapsed after a few sessions.

Now I'm joining another short campaign, DM says it'll only go for maybe a dozen sessions, at most. We're starting at lvl 15 (also by FAR the highest level I've ever played, we're supposed to go lvl 18 or 19)

Anyway I know that druids are a bit complicated, but I'm going for the Circle of the Moon bc I LOVE shapeshifting/nature/animal archetypes. Thats just my jam.

My DM was a little worried about all the different stat blocks, so he asked that I just put together a list of like 10-15 beasts I'll most commonly use.

My utility beasts are all pretty much handled-

Just the basic badger for burrowing, raven for stealthy flight, giant bat for combat flight, elk for a companion to ride, and octopus for swim speed.

Now I'm running into a problem that is ENTIRELY SELF INFLICTED.

I just hate dinosaurs in fantasy, and I don't wanna use any of em as wildshapes.

Don't kill me! I have no proble w other people who like them, I just don't get it. Was there a meteor impact in this world? Did the gods make them, and if so, why? Was there a prehistoric era where the gods were just what, chilling?

I don't like it, sorry.

BUT it looks like that MASSIVELY restricts my wildshape options at these high levels? Like dinosaur wildshapes are basically the Moon Druid's big capstone power jump?

Damn. What am I supposed to do? What are some really high CR wildshapes that are NOT dinosaurs?

- this is super contradictory but I'm totally cool with using Ice Age animals. I'm planning on taking Mammoth in a few levels, and the Saber Tooth is definitely gonna be a main stay.

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Also, I haven't asked my DM about this yet cuz it really feels like a "problem player" question, but he'd already said I can become an Owlbear no prob bc they don't have any big mechanical difference from beasts.

Can yall think of any other monstrosities that might fit the same category? Like any monstrosities that you'd allow your Moon Druid to wildshape into? Or is Owlbear a unique case?

I'm jumping into my first real, (hopefully) long running campaign, and have a character cemented into my mind.

I recently got super into DnD with a friend, and we've ran a few oneshots with other friends. But now we're starting our first real sandbox campaign.

Problem is-

This is the first caster I've ever played

We're starting at the highest level I've ever played (starting at lvl 8, I've only done oneshots from between lvl 1 and 5)

And the actual personality/characterization is a lot deeper than I'd made for my one shot characters.

Basically I'm lost, and just looking for some advice on how YOU would build this character.

Also any tips for how you'd roleplay them would be cool, I'm open to all advice!

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Alright, now for the actual character. Again, starting at level 8.

Tl/dr-

Do yall remember Gildroy Lockheart from the Chamber of Secrets? Anyway....

Theodore "Teddy," Ignatius Wetherby-Santos III is a renowned scholar, adventurer, author, thespian, and practitioner of the mystic arts.

He was born in the far off lands of Kara Tur, thousands of miles from the Sword Coast (where the campaign is taking place), where he spent his life becoming a world renowned adventurer and hero.

At least- that's what he writes in his memoirs.

In reality, Teddy is from the tiny village of Thundertree in the Neverwinter Wood. Growing up, he spent all his time reading history books of great heroes and legends.

When he got older, he moved out of his small town, and into an even smaller, unnamed village in a remote region of Faerun.

There, he learned he could pull magic and power right from his lies, and he restated his life as Theodore Ignatius Wetherby-Santos III. He grew in local fame as he passed off his little parler tricks as proof of his legendary history as an adventurer across the sea.

He wrote memoirs and books all across the continent, and while they didn't grow overly popular, he did make a small, niche name for himself.

Then, one night, a group of real mercenaries and cultists decended on the town. The town barely panicked- they had Theordore- he's slain armies of dragons and spoke with the gods themselves!

Well, Teddy fled, and the village was destroyed. He then devoted himself to actually becoming the hero he spent so long pretending to be.

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Alright, sorry that was a lot

Really all you need to know is that he's Gildroy Lockheart on a redemption arc lol

Also, he's a bard (Elequence)! If you couldn't tell- but here's where I'm running into my biggest issue.

How tf does he give Bardic Inspo?

Hes not musical in the slightest. His magic comes from his silver tongue- he can talk his way around almost any problem, enthrall a crowd with just his words, and most of his spells are based around speech.

So, with all that in mind- how would you build this character?

I wanna take the Actor feat because it just makes sense, but beyond that I have NO CLUE what I'm doing.

I wanna make him a halfling, but idk- that seems a bit too obvious? I could also go in the opposite direction and make him a dragonborn, so his cowardice is more of a shock.

Just absolutely any mechanics advice or tips on what you'd do to build this character?

Spells, feats, races, roleplay advice, etc.

Does your world have any peasant uprisings/revolutions?

Did I just watch the trailer for that Uprising movie and get hella inspired to write a peasant revolution? Yeah, yeah tf I did, Andrew Garfield could inspire paper to beat scissors.

I don’t know why I never even thought about this concept before- Ive got countless stories of royal coups and infighting (a surprising amount of my world’s history is just “he was a great/terrible king… then he got assassinated by his sibling/son/daughter/advisor/closest friend etc”).

But I don’t have any where a the common-folk themselves are the ones to rise up and overthrow their royalty.

Any of yall have situations like this?

Gimme specifics! Why did they revolt? Were they successful? And more importantly, were they successful in achieving their goals for change? Or did you do the whole “absolute power corrupts absolutely” angle?

Tl/dr - whats been your experience using Roll20 on mobile devices? Does it work at all? Work slightly? Work perfectly fine? If there are issues, what are they specifically?

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I’m trying to get back into DnD, I used to play with a small group on discord YEAAARS ago- but that was entirely on discord. It was fun but pretty messy, and from looking into groups now it seems like almost everyone uses Roll20.

Problem is I don’t have a computer. I can only use an iPad.

I’ve tried looking online and through the posts here and I’m seeing insanely contradictory opinions. Some people say it works perfectly fine, some people say it’s overly complicated to use on mobile, some say it messes with maps and you won’t be able to interact with anything, some people say you can’t even open it up.

Now I was able to get on and start building a character, and can tell it is absolutely not made for mobile devices just from how frustrating it is to maneuver through the webpage.

But is it completely incompatible with mobile devices in an actual campaign? Like what problems am I gonna run into there beyond just the UI being more difficult to use?

Having no friends is an exaggeration and even then not something I'm especially "self conscious" about or anything.

I'm 23, working nonstop, and helping my fam out with some issues.

I do have old friends scattered all across my half of the country, but it's not like I can consistently contact them, or get them interested in DnD- I was always the only "fantasy nerd" of the group.

Anyway, I have played DnD before- a looooong time ago when I finally caved and joined a paid campaign from StartPlaying.com or whatever that site is. And for several months i got SUPER invested in that campaign.

So while I'd ~technically~ still consider myself a beginner, that's not totally accurate. I know the mechanics and rules very well, even if I'm not an experienced player.

Alrighty, with all that in mind. Any advice?

From what I can tell, it is EXCEPTIONALLY hard to find a spot as a player online. Of course everyone's looking for a DM, but I already know that'd be a mess to start off as (even though I am definitely interested in DMing in the future).

I'm going out on the assumption that other people here have been in the same boat before, so, how'd ya find your groups?

Basically the title, from what I can tell- basically everyone on this sub has done at LEAST 2 playthroughs. Maybe still not finished a playthrough, but yall got a few different PCs at this point.

I just had the idea cuz I’m starting my 3rd playthrough right now, finally starting a Dark Urge run.

My first playthrough was kinda just “act however ya feel in the moment,” and my character came out to be a bit of a lying cheat (I was a charlatan so it works out). His name was Bartholomew.

Next playthrough I wanted to put more thought into actually playing like my character, so I chose an Oath of the Crown Paladin and did the whole playthrough as a noble, heroic knight. His name…. was Tav.

Now, I’m doing my Dark Urge run, where I plan to fully embrace it and basically go in the complete opposite direction of my Paladin. Name’s Myrcus (Marcus with a Y, hella medieval)

Then I thought, damn, if Tav met the Myrcus, he’d smite him until there’s nothing but ash and bone. Of course, the playthrough JUST started, so give Myrcus a few weeks and it’d actually be a pretty cool fight.

And Bart would’ve tried to get an alliance with either of them, and when that didn’t work he’d cast invisibility and run, maybe come back to loot the corpse of the loser.

Anyway, who’d win in a free for all between every PC you’ve created?

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The only real rules, none of the Tavs get any companions to help them out, obviously.

You can use any potions, coatings, scrolls, or other equipment that you usually buff them with before a big boss fight. Basically pretend you’re walking into the High Hall Courtyard or the Myrkul fight, but instead of the boss, it’s all of your previous Tavs.

Feel free to take it fully mechanically/gameplay wise, or your own imagination of which one is actually more skilled or who has the tactical advantage over the other, whatever ya wanna do, I’m curious.

I don't know how to better phrase the question.

I'm pretty new to DnD, only done 1 short campaign that fizzled out after a couple months, and a bunch of one/two shots.

Obviously this is a pretty role-play heavy multiclass, and that's what I plan on playing it as, but I'm also just curious about the deeper mechanics and synergies between the 2 classes/subclasses, (if there are any).

If the 2 classes REALLY clash and suck together, I'd also love any suggestions or advice for this character idea? How to make them both mechanically viable while still fitting my original vision?

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You don't actually need to read anything below this. Its just the actual character concept I'm tryna build.

The character idea is basically just a drunk Sherlock Holmes type. (Also really wanna make em a Harengon, but idk if that race is commonly allowed by DMs- it seems a bit out there).

I've got a short but (IMO) interesting backstory written up-

Parents fled the Feywild for unknown reasons, joined a guild of petty criminals, and were killed by corrupt Waterdeep law enforcement. Before they died, his mother taught Flynn (my PC) a bunch of spiritual stuff about balance and ki (I honestly had no clue how to include the monk side of things, this is the best I got). Then he grew up on the streets until he was taken under the wing of a city investigator. Then the investigator is framed for a crime/killed and the corrupt officials push Flynn back out onto the streets.

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Any help or advice would be amazing!

If you wanted to play a character like this, how would you build them?

I believe my next one shot is starting us out at level 8, and there's a chance that'll turn into a full campaign. But even if it doesn't, I'm really interested in playing this character and wanna make sure it's really fun.

I don't know how to better phrase the question.

I'm pretty new to DnD, only done 1 short campaign that fizzled out after a couple months, and a bunch of one/two shots.

Obviously this is a pretty role-play heavy multiclass, and that's what I plan on playing it as, but I'm also just curious about the deeper mechanics and synergies between the 2 classes/subclasses, (if there are any).

If the 2 classes REALLY clash and suck together, I'd also love any suggestions or advice for this character idea? How to make them both mechanically viable while still fitting my original vision?

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You don't actually need to read anything below this. Its just the actual character concept I'm tryna build.

The character idea is basically just a drunk Sherlock Holmes type. (Also really wanna make em a Harengon, but idk if that race is commonly allowed by DMs- it seems a bit out there).

I've got a short but (IMO) interesting backstory written up-

Parents fled the Feywild for unknown reasons, joined a guild of petty criminals, and were killed by corrupt Waterdeep law enforcement. Before they died, his mother taught Flynn (my PC) a bunch of spiritual stuff about balance and ki (I honestly had no clue how to include the monk side of things, this is the best I got). Then he grew up on the streets until he was taken under the wing of a city investigator. Then the investigator is framed for a crime/killed and the corrupt officials push Flynn back out onto the streets.

----

Any help or advice would be amazing!

If you wanted to play a character like this, how would you build them?

I believe my next one shot is starting us out at level 8, and there's a chance that'll turn into a full campaign. But even if it doesn't, I'm really interested in playing this character and wanna make sure it's really fun.