u/progressivemonkey

I've had the error in the subject permanently stuck in the bottom left corner of my browser for a few days now. I don't have an email account set up with Vivaldi (I tried setting it up with Proton and the Bridge but it never worked).

It's annoying because in some cases the error overlaps with valuable UI from whichever site I'm in, like when using Google Sheets.

Does anyone know what causes it and how to solve it? I've found other posts talking about that but the solutions point to issues with the configuration of mail accounts, but I don't have one...

Thanks for any help!

EDIT: more information

• Vivaldi version 8.1.4087.61
• Running on MacOS 15.6.1

I'm confused by the language of the "Parry" feat:

>When you are hit with a melee attack, you may use your reaction to add +2 to your AC for the purposes of that attack, possibly causing it to miss. Regardless of weather the attack hits or misses, your AC returns to normal after you parry the attack. You may use this reaction after the DM announces the results of the attack roll, but before damage is rolled.

The thing I don't get is: since it costs nothing, why wouldn't you always Parry when attacked, thereby just having +2 to your AC? Unless, of course, you are incapacitated.

Or am I missing something?

EDIT: yeah I was missing something:

• the parry uses the reaction, a player has only one per turn, so you would use it strategically when a +2 AC avoids you getting hit, and afterwards you're more vulnerable.
• Also, it prevents using other reactions, e.g. opportunity attack

Thanks to everyone who answered 🙏

Ok so I might have made a mistake. I started running Curse of Strahd and we had a first session that generally went well, and ended with the characters in the dungeon. Problem: while they discovered the stairs going down from the attic, most of the players sensed a trap and were dead set against taking them. They tried various ways to test them but to no avail, and the momentum kind of stalled. At this point they decided to explore the ground floor to see if there is an access to the basement, and I decided to reveal the trapdoor in area 3.

My problem is: they are now in the Darklord's shrine, very close to the stairs going to the reliquary and the final encounter. I'm afraid they are going to straight there (especially because of the chanting) and miss most of the thing.

I see several paths:

• Do nothing: it's not actually a problem
• Change the chanting mechanics, perhaps have something calling them to the cultists' quarters
• Redraw the map to close the tunnels between area 26, and areas 27 and 29, forcing the players to walk around to get to the stairs

Any thoughts?

Hey folks! I'm about to start my first campaign of CoS. We did session zero (one player dropped out because of the theme, so thank god for that) and we created characters. Here's what we have (the players labelled [EXPERIENCED] have already played D&D a fair bit, the other ones are new:

• Wood elf monk, background of scribe [EXPERIENCED]
• Orc bard, background of artist
• Aasimar cleric, failed to provide a background which is ironic because [EXPERIENCED]
• Goliath barbarian, background of sailor
• Dragonborn paladin, background of traveller [EXPERIENCED]

Does that work? Do we miss something important, or is there anything else I should pay attention to? I know CoS is difficult but I don't want my party to TPK in session two because we started off completely wrong 😄

I was reading u/guildsbounty phenomenal post about running Strahd, and I wasn't sure about one thing: the author recommends making Strahd seem omniscient, which makes a lot of sense, and recommends using a variety of tools for that: spies, scrying, detect thoughts, etc.

Where I'm confused is: it is you, as the DM, who is role-playing Strahd. So how do you get players to see the difference between what Strahd knows through various ways, and what you as the DM knows?

This is especially confusing if the ways Strahd learns about something aren't clear to the players, for instance with the use of scrying. Won't the players just think you're a shitty DM who just has the BBEG know everything that you as the DM knows?

Thanks for any hints about that!