[OOC] D&D 5e - Hoard of the Dragon Queen

[Ryonara]

I was thinking a Halfling Bard. She's a scholar of sorts (She doesn't like the term sage because that implies she's old) who wants to travel the world and unravel mysteries both magical and mundane. She's mainly a spell caster though she is handy with a knife. While she isn't a blaster caster, she can still help out the party with buffs and such and shut down specific enemies with her spells. Mainly I hope to use her for knowledge checks, specifically arcane and history so she'll always be useful delving into ancient ruins and such. She is a bit on the squishy side however, and despite her intellect she's naive and not good at reading people or noticing details.

I'll admit she's better suited as the NPC the party escorts through a dungeon rather than a bonefide party member, since I don't really intend to bolster her combat ability. She'll join up with the Lore College to further expand her knowledge and hopefully be helpful to the party.

[Hekazu]

@Ryonara Looks good to me. You must not have missed the information about DM Royale and other such things regarding the characters being added to the party, so go ahead. If you are quick and lucky, you might even find them at the ring of wagons instead of having to wait for a good spot to hop in.

[Ryonara]

I noticed. I just wanted to ask first before I app my character.

[The Harbinger of Ferocity]

Hey people, I just remembered something I needed to ask!

So, we can either do this the traditional D&D way of getting experience from encounters and such, or we can go with the milestone rule in which you will go up a level once you have reached important story milestones. I can go with either and to be honest I like the traditional way, even if it sometimes devolves into murderhoboism. I trust you people not to do that though.

Then I could mention my current plan on level ups. Once the needed amount of experience is reached, you will gain everything your new level brings during your next short or long rest. So you'll have any new spell slots available, your spellbooks spontaneously have spells appear and your current and maximum hitpoints go up by whatever amount your hit die average is. I believe nobody has objections?

@Hekazu

I have no issue with milestones for practicality's sake so long as it won't turn into one of those scenarios where we always find ourselves a step behind the expected level for CRs, especially given this is a published module. I have a long, storied history of previous Dungeon Masters doing such things wherein we were always under leveled because whenever we would level, all of the monsters we had fought before just scaled with us; hit points, Armor Class, saving throws, all of it.

That said, I have no issue with your approach where things are unlocked following a rest.

[VKAllen]

No objections. Traditional and on-rest-levelup is fine by me.

[Hekazu]

Well, all I can say about the milestone rule is that the adventure has pre-set points for level ups. I have not got quite far enough with any group to know how well they work to be honest though, but I believe they are balanced well. And as people have been mostly leaning towards the milestone rule, I'm adopting that one for use.

We are only missing two intro posts and I have been in contact with the players and according to what they've told we should have them up soon.

[Ryonara]

I don't mind the milestone idea, though I do share the same concerns as Harbinger does. While I understand that itll get boring always fighting the same weak enemies, a group of orcs I struggled with at level one should not still be a struggle at level 5 if they're from the same group.

[Hekazu]

@Ryonara I'm sorry but I do not quite follow. Are you saying that after five levels of experience, the same band of Orcs should still be a challenge equal to what they were on the first level?

[Ryonara]

Sorry about that, my phone is stupid. They should NOT be a struggle at level five as much as they were at level 1. In fact I kinda like the catharsis of being able to easily defeat enemies who once gave me a hard time. It shows progress.

[Hekazu]

Ah, I see. And indeed, progress is important and that is why we are thinking about how to do it. As far as I've counted, the milestones rule does seem to follow the traditional curve quite well, which would mean that there should be no situation of being underleveled and I'm quite sure the module has been balanced around those milestones anyway. This would mean that as most seem to like the idea, I can adopt it into this campaign. Less work for us to keep tabs on the amount of experience anyway, right?

Now we are just waiting for @VitaVitaAR to introduce their character on the game tab and I we can move the group to where the action is.

[Lucius Cypher]

Awesome sauce. Though I kinda want to post now that we have a sizable gang...

[Hekazu]

@Lucius Cypher I understand the feeling, but that would close VitaVitaAR outside the group given how the big guy that was calling all of them around him to fight dragons would just address the others, ignoring them.

[Lucius Cypher]

Well... Alright.

Speaking of future things, how would you handle multiclassing? I was thinking that later on Orchid might dip a level in rogue so we have a sneak-sneak lock breaker type of guy.

[Hekazu]

@Lucius Cypher While the thought of Orchid of all the people getting all sneaky amuses me, I'll go with the default multiclassing rules discussed on PHB p.163. This would mean to get Rogue levels Orchid needs a score of 13 in STR (to fulfil the requirement of his current class, which is easy) and another 13 in DEX (to fulfil the requirement of Rogue, which they also have). In the end, if they have acted in somewhat rogue-ish manner, you can take a level in the class to show their advancing whenever you would gain a level.

[Lucius Cypher]

Well I meet the stat requirements, so all I need to do now is show Orchid being sneaky hunter like. Now I know rangers are more hunter, but Orchid would just be sneaky steathy and maybe engage in some burglary. Or fight dirty like a real rogue, which is totes in line with his type of scrappy fighting style.

Also one thing that im wondering, how did Ashkar get 18 strength from level one? Does the free feat allow you to take the +2 to an attribute instead?

[Hekazu]

@Lucius Cypher ...I'll just say that Harbinger is probably the one to explain if someone is. I am afraid I cannot say more. It has been approved by me, so nothing fishy/wrong going on here.

[Lucius Cypher]

Huh. Well alright, I just thought something seemed off because he has really good stats. 18 strength, 12 dex, 15 con, 10 int, 13 wisdom, and 16 charisma. 7 skills too, two which I know are from outlander, but I dont know if paladins can access two or three skills, and even with variant bonus that's still three or four skills plus two from the background. And does he have iterative attacks already?

[Hekazu]

No such thing as iterative attacks in fifth edition. And now that you mention it, that's a lot of skills. Going to need to have a talk about that.

[Hekazu]

@VitaVitaAR, how is the intro post going? It won't be healthy for the RP to have much longer a wait right at the beginning, so if we would see yours soon, that'd be splendid.

[VitaVitaAR]

I was about to give up, but I suddenly might have ideas so... hopefully it'll be up today.