Topic: The Dungeon and Dragons Thread

@Darknyht So far I am enjoying it. Our group has always made Ravenloft it's own separate realm, mainly due to to how Ravenloft was during 2nd Edition. I did play the Second Edition version that Curse of Strahd is based on, but that was almost 30 years ago. Some parts so far do sound familiar and I will admit, that I had to play what my character would handle the situation even though I myself knew it was almost certain death lol.

@Tasuki It is interesting because I listened to a heavily modified version of Curse of Strahd be live played on a podcast, and the player that has lost the most characters had read all the Strahd stuff that had come out 30 years ago. But each DM puts their own spin on things but I also struggles between my knowledge and what the character knows.

No word on if my group is playing this coming weekend. I'm pretty sure the weekend after next (Easter weekend) is out. I'm actually quite busy that weekend but would maybe be able to play that Saturday evening if it came to it.

@Tasuki I would expect the personalities of your previous characters to not have changed much. Definitely makes sense to me. For old time's sake, it would probably be cool for you to look over those old sheets again sometime if that's an option.

An interesting turn for your campaign, both regarding the escort mission and how prolific the undead appear to be in the area you're in. Especially regarding the priest wanting to...protect? Not let go of?...his son. That could be played into quite an emotional scenario.

@Tyranexx Unfortunately I do not have access to them. The only copies I know of that exist my friend has and he lives in another state. I guess if I really wanted I could have him scan them and email them to me but, I am not in a rush especially since I can't really do anything with them.

Anyone catch the D&D Direct today? I read the highlights and got some mix feelings really. Great to see the Planescape setting coming back and excited to hear more of tbe VTT. Things I didn't like were the Minecraft crossover and supposedly the return of Vecna. I am going to start referring to D&D as Hasbro's two dollar hooker. I get they own the license but do they have to w**** it out?? Not only that but haven't they done enough damage to Vecna's rep? I guess not whatever they can do to destroy a one of the most D&D characters ever created. I am sure Gary Gaygax is just rolling in his grave.

@Tasuki Ah, I figured said friend was close enough by that you could drop in, but living in a different state that is completely understandable. Maybe someday lol.

Didn't catch the D&D Direct but will browse for some highlights.

@Tasuki That I did, I agree the VTT looks awesome so far, I wanna know when that beta opens up, planescape, red wizards, and venger were cool highlights too. I kinda agree about Vecna, but I also personally prefer Exandria to the forgotten realms and they use Vecna quite well in that setting so I guess we'll see how they do. The Minecraft thing... it's fine I guess? My buddies and I just took it as an opportunity to joke about adding creepers and Ender Dragons to the game haha.

Sorry about the minimal updates here from me, we've only done one or two sessions in the last few months and they were fairly uneventful ones (aside from a fight with an armenite). Always enjoy checking up on your guys' campaigns though!

@FroZtedFlake It's clear what Hasbro wants D&D for, just another property to put on toys and t-shirts and crap while doing nothing for the actual game. What gets me is how a few months ago they wanted to stop third parties like Kobold Press and such from publishing materials for D&D, well if you aren't going to Hasbro then are you stopping others? I wish someone would just buy D&D off of Hasbro, I know that won't happen due to it being Hasbro's cash cow but it's really sad and frustrating to see what they are doing with D&D. Clearly they have no thoughts on the game itself just the property.

@Tasuki Exactly how I feel, they care only about the money aspect of it all and it sucks even more because that forces all those people who work there and actually do care about D&D and are active parts of the community, to have to follow through on those harsh corporate decisions. Back when that crazy OGL stuff was going on we all were a part of that group cancelling subscriptions and leaving to pathfinder and the like, so I'm glad they at least amended that.

@FroZtedFlake Don't get me wrong, I enjoy D&D, always will but it's hard to support something when there's nothing to support. I remember during 2nd and even 3rd Edition the amount of material they had for D&D. They had box sets of campaign settings, then they had the adventure modules. With 5th edition all I see are campaign settings no adventures. Yeah that's great for people who have the time to create their own adventures and such but sometimes a person gets writers block and such. Instead of working on material they are more worried about plushies and a movie???

It would be like if Nintendo had a Nintendo direct and talked about the Mario movie and Lego Mario the whole direct and then at the end said oh yeah we are bringing out Zelda Tears of the Kingdom sometime this year.

@Tasuki Wizards of the Coast has settled into the book a quarter rhythm with the last few being phoned in. I think the best they have done recently was with the Essentials Kit that had an additional three campaigns to continue the story. I think my favorites were the series of 3rd Edition books that started with The Sunless Citadel and took characters from level 1 to 20.

@Tyranexx So sorry for the long response. My group didn't play this past Sunday but we did play on Easter.

We finally made it to the town of Valaki (I am probably spelling it wrong) but that was after a fight with some Needle Blights. They almost manged to take me out I was knocked down to 2 HPs by the end, but we defeated them. Our Minotaur Rune Knight managed to knock one of them up into the air with its horns and slam it back down to the ground which was a cool moment. Other then that nothing really to report. Hopefully we will play this weekend and will explore the town.

@Tasuki No problem at all; completely understandable. My group hasn't met recently, hence no updates on my part.

Sounds like that Needle Blight fight was no joke. 😅 Epic move from the Minotaur Rune Knight! That's why horns can be quite helpful lol. I hope you get to properly explore Valaki during your next session since the town sounds like an interesting place.

We have managed to find ourselves inside a werewolf den, surrounded and under attack. While we managed to take the head of the leader, we took a beating on our escape and two of our party took bites (and failed CON saves). I lost my Steel Defender for the moment as it was sacrificed to cover our escape, and I have a feeling our actions will lead to difficulties.

But our Druid got to use an artifact he found to finally throw a Fireball. So he will at least die happy (he was one of the ones bitten). Our Eldritch Knight is enjoying being able to Green Flame Blade plus Bonus Action Attack for extra damage.

That sounds like an intense werewolf encounter. Albeit a fun one. How does lycanthropy work in the Curse of Strahd setting? Instant death if the wounds are severe enough? Loss of humanity?

@Tyranexx We are about to find out, but my guess is that the DM will play it straight by the rules. The issue is that no one in the party can cast remove curse, so I imagine there will be complications to removing it.

One of the party members started cursed as a werewolf. We managed it with chains and a music box he carried that kept him docile. But both were lost when the character was killed in a battle quite some time ago.

@Darknyht I did a bit of reading into the setting, and it appears that Remove Curse can indeed cure lycanthropy. Apparently DMs can decide certain character alignments too, depending on the alignment of the attacking werewolves. Sounds like the next session will certainly change up how the group functions should those characters make it. At least some of the party (if any of the earlier characters remain; if I recall, your campaign is a difficult one) should have a bit of experience with werewolf management thanks to that previous character?

@Tyranexx my character is the only survivor with knowledge, as I have narrowly survived everything so far. One of the interesting things about the campaign is an abundance of written materials you can find. Our party has general knowledge of Fiends/Devils, Hags/Witches, Lycanthropes, Undead and Vampires thanks to one of these. It is because of this I can remind the party of the remove curse option, but there was also a quest that involved the location we were at as a possible cure to the former character’s problems.

Either way, next session will be interesting as we are still accelerating towards the end of the campaign.

@Darknyht In this campaign...sounds like that makes your character a veteran. Good thing there seem to be some compendiums and writings scattered around to help your group determine how to deal with some of the general creatures you're coming across. Sounds like a fun campaign all told, brutal difficulty and all. It's certainly one I think I'd enjoy.