Extremely fair point

@@kaleidoslug7777 you know, i really wanted to make a joke about the point of a pen or pencil here, but i don't know what the joke would be.

The pen may be mightier than the sword, but what do they share? A fair point

You fool... that IS the rule of cool.

@@laumotan8862 Point of fact, the point of a pen is pointless in D&D There, a joke about writing points for you. It's a terrible joke and nobody laughed, but you asked and I delivered, because I care.

Indeed! Every Historical Martial Arts enthusiast can tell you is that being outnumbered even just by one basically means you lose because it is hard enough to counter one person, but countering two or more is almost inhumanly difficult. This is why armor and teamwork were developed, because one person can't cover all their angles all the time. Flanking definitely should grant advantage to the attacker and disadvantage to the defender in any system.

That only makes sense if you have a front and back.

@@rogerwilco2 true, for most humanoids it should, but for things like a beholder it does make sense to not give advantage.

True. I'd only not give a benefit when the creature is somehow able to fight multiple directions at once or when up against big creatures, I deem that flanking needs more people. So you don't count as flanking a gargantuan dragon if there's only two people, you need like 8 or more, 4 for a giant and so on.

@@gregortheoverlander4122 Yeah, some monsters should just be flankproof.

Nods agreeingly in Rope Trick

Yes! I actually think that’s a great idea! Limiting long rests to safe places should not only increase the amount of thought players put into travel but also further increase the value in spells like Tiny Hut, Rope Trick and Magnificent Mansion. These are spells specifically designed to allow spellcasters and adventurers access to a safe place anywhere they are. But by default it’s almost entirely just for RP purposes when you get the same benefit from a bedroll and a basic bitch tent and some rations.

"...and long rests take 24 hours." (edit, this is a homebrew joke)

I thought the idea is the risk of resting, long or short, is that something will come along and try to rob/kill/eat you while you sleep. Mechanically someone can't rest, or a few people can get a short rest but no long rest, and if attacked everyone but the guard would be surprised. Seems to me that's enough to have to decide if it's worth the risk, or better to try to make it to somewhere safer. That's how we generally play, leads to interesting discussions of how bad people need to heal/get spell slots/abilities back vs chance of getting attacked in our sleep. And sometimes we are attacked... and it's tough and makes us think twice the next time, ha!

Just cast alarm. If anything comes near u instantly wake up (not just u but your entire party if u choose the one they can hear as well). It last for exactly 8 hours and since it’s a ritual u can cast it even if u don’t have a spell slot left (if your class can which I’m sure most that can get that spell can).

Which is already what is used

fawn is another, submitting to an attacker is a survival mechanism, it's why we're advised to not resist and just surrender to burglers, because it can save your life. (edit: not that we have to be advised to do that, we're just taught to prefer that response whenever possible)

Faint is another, which is like just pass out, makes predators think your not food

@@arctrog So like the opossum response?

Flatulate, like a stink bug, a common response to make yourself less appetizing is to just sh!t yourself. Flagellate, like self mutilate yourself with a whip like that guy in Game of Thrones. Fornicate, a bard's response to any stimuli

"There's a beautiful painting, all of you recognize it vaguely as being such and such famous painting" Players: neat _leaves with no painting_

This is quite literally the point of encumbrance mechanics.

Mona Lisa is pretty small though.

A 10 ft x 10 ft painting that's worth like 20,000 gp if they can get it out of the dungeon lol

Classic D&D means hiring an entire baggage train to help get all of the valuable furniture and art out of the lich's keep once you've killed him. Don't forget the adamantine door hinges your DM mentioned kept you from simply breaking down the door, those are worth some serious cash!

Funny seeing you here. :D

well i wasn't expecting you to be here

doorngeon

He solved this by gluing himself to the ceiling, obviously.

Brizzy plays DnD?! I’ve watched you since 2013!

Yeah flanking makes complete sense. It's hard to defend yourself when you are fighting someone both in front of you and behind you.

I would say that rather than being able to see in multiple directions, if an attacker has something like a tail and bite attack, it can't be flanked outside a 2 way flank, but a Beholder is unflankable as the eyes ARE the weapons and are omnidirectional.

​​@@jackwilliams1039Any creature that has the ability to attack two or more creatures at once in any direction, such as a beholder, cannot be flanked. Although, a creature with low wisdom or low dexterity might be unable to defend against multiple attackers even if it has eyes and arms on its back. It might just not possess the mental awareness or dexterity to handle multiple combats. Some creatures may have weapons on their backs but are unable to see and focus on multiple combatants so could be flanked from the rear. Also, a creature when flanked would need to make concentration checks to avoid getting disadvantage once flanked. Also, ground within a hostile creatures reach should be considered difficult terrain and would require an acrobats check to move while within reach of a creature's attack. A creature with a tail attack could attempt to trip a hostile creature within reach as a reaction if one would try to move past it. There are a lot of rules for CQC that are ignored for simplicity.

Hi adan

@@Nutellla wassup Amar

@@darwis1464 im good whats with you

I'm partial to bestowing the condition of being flanked, which is "melee attacks against you are made at advantage" and it actually provides a tactical feel because anyone can receive the condition.

Yeah, he seems to keep describing flanking as not being seen and I'm wondering if he's just conflating it with sneak attack. I'm fine with flanking for the same reason you described. If a barbarian is trying to beat your face in you don't have the resources to then also defend against the fighter who is now stabbing you in the back.

Yes, guarding up two sides at once is very hard. This happens even in videogames with third-person or top view, it's not because you can see everything that you can dodge everything. Of course, this doesn't work with creatures that don't have sides or are just as good at fighting facing any direction (oozes, gelatinous cubes, beholder, etc)

yeah, basically the help action but for not just for a single moment, and both players get the benefit

Understandable RP-wise, but mechanically that's not how that works, how you described it. :-/

Encourages playing warlocks

*Laughs in dream druid*

Woaaah, warlocks… being *GOOD* ?!?!

Does Rope Trick still exist in 5e? Would be the go to solution.

I mean, you get your spells, sure, but really nothing else

I agree with you but would make one change on the basis that the Freeze response is the most common response humans make to a stressor, so instead I would suggest you roll a D4 1: Fight 2: Flight 3-4:Freeze

Maybe have the players choose their characters default. You can also train yourself to force a specific response and be more controlled in your response, though I'm unsure how to model that rules-wise

@@weakamna well if we’re being fair, something as simple as a single dire wolf would cause just about anyone to become “frightened.” The frightful presence is given to creatures SO terrifying, it strikes mortal terror into experienced adventurers who can look at a horde of bugbears and think critically, and even then only if they fail the wisdom saving throw. In fact that’s actually what I think you CAN train yourself to do: think clearly even when facing mortal terror. Which based on that, is already represented by your Wisdom score. I’d say that failing the throw would then represent something so terrifying and so horrific that it throws your training out the window and causes you to act on pure instinct. Hence the attack disadvantage. I’m no expert on it though, I’m just trying to take something I only roughly understand and translate it to a tabletop game

@@adamwoolston253 In that case it could just be a difficulty modifier for wisdom saves against fear I guess

Pre determined reaction would be best, with the option to change it, maybe at level up? Really, Jacob's rule has the same flaws, or his logic is flawed. The amount of focus required to cast a spell would not be possible by his logic. Thus he transfers the advantage of it from mage characters to fighter characters. Plus, disadvantage on attacks makes sense using his logic, because it's a knee jerk reaction, not a planned attack. What I would do to balance it more would just make a spell caster roll to cast a spell with a target number and the relevant magic stat modifier. Maybe a 15tn with failure meaning the spell fails because the caster couldn't summon the focus needed to actually cast the spell. I'd also just get rid of the not being able to move closer rule. Maybe halve movement speed on approach, or have it require an action might be better, and unable to use skills/abilities that would put you closer to the source.

Those Cyclop bastards are fucked!

I just hope he said it by mistake and meant two eyes, because you definitely can flank a humanoid no problem. Unless they're Spider-man.

@@fragile4408 yeah especially if they're flanked by 30 rogues with crossbows

wait

'More than one sets of eyes' may be more the intent.

Just thought of possibly an interesting way to play it: normal advantage gaining flanking rule, but being "flanked" by allies cancels out being flanked by enemies.

For example, add "camp guard" duty: one character stays on guard as other characters rest. Pros: 4 hours of rest, Con: 1 character does not get it. Random: if a party starts camping a lot, make a designated "guard" roll on "sleeping while on duty" and you, as a DM, roll on random low-level monster ambush.

@@ThePamastymui I mean as per the rules long rests only require 6 hours of sleep and 2 hours of light activity which specifically mentions keeping guard. Hence any party of four or more adventurers should be keeping a rotating shift of guard duties while sleeping in potentially dangerous areas.

You mean, it makes paladins even more broken?

Yeah, short rest classes excel, which is a good thing. Making classes built around short rests and never having short rests kinda ruins that aspect of the character. Also, for "safe", its really just tying a game mechanic to a logical part of the story of the game, just the same as how, in real life, you don't have to roll any dice when you swing a sword, or how logically, the lower your HP is the less effective you should be in combat. I logic it where long rests require safety, food, comfortable living areas, etc, really anything that can't be obtained in the middle of the forest. Yeah, you can argue Leomunds tiny hut is "safe" logically, but that defeats the purpose of introducing these rest rules, which allows the DM to create encounters without having the characters go nova in each fight. These rest rules are not to make sense of the world, but to mechanically make the game more interesting. I introduced these rules in my campaign to increadable effect, probably the best homebrewed rule I've ever used.

I don't think it awards them, I think it balances things more. The dungeon master guide assumes the party has 6-8 encounter per day. A lot of DMs can't squeeze in this amount of combat into one day unless your doing one dungeon crawl after the other. So if you have 2-3 encounter per day the party will probably only take one short rest max, which means a warlock lvl3 would he able to cast 4 spells. Caster classes like wizards or druids can blow all their spells (roughly 6) while also being able to go ham on their short rest abilities like wildshape forms or regaining a few spell slots. This will make long rest caster classes out shine every other class in pretty much every fight and short rest classes will turn into one-trick ponies since they will use their few resources for the same few things they deem as the most efficient.

Also doing the math and assuming that a round is 6 seconds it would take about 4 and a half rounds to even reach the ground at that point. I'd love to tell players that damage first and see what they could do with that time.

If you want to talk reality... you probably die before touching the ground...

@@estebanrodriguez5409 Unless you have a weak heart, that's not how falling works. It's not the fall that kills you, it's the sudden stop at the end. That's how Spider-Man accidentally kills Gwen Stacy.

You can feel bad knowing you're screwing over your players :)

@@ChildOfTheDivine You can also have sudden stops while falling. Gwen felt from the Manhattan Bridge, that's a 98 m fall, I was picturing something more in the likes of stratosphere... To be blunt, you can DIE from slipping in the bathroom... and that's not even "1d6" damage (or you could say, the floor crits against your head and rolls max damage... BOOM, 12 hp, goodbye commoner).

In 2E they had an optional rule that taking more than 50 damage meant a saving throw or you die, which meant giant falls usually carried the threat of death

Honestly that sounds like one of 2 things: 1. Your group just isn't compatible with that rule and that's okay. You just might have to change things up in other areas to buff difficulty. The DMG has some optional rules that aren't amazing but can be modified. 2. This may not help because it is very similar to the no long rest while travelling rule, but it's different enough it may help. I play with the Gritty Realism (DMG 267) rest rules. It lets the players explore the safe zones because they have to take a week of downtime to have a long rest. When the players state that they want to long rest I ask them what they wanna do and for how long (since a week covers a long rest but they might wanna work some odd jobs for extra money), then I ask if they wanna do any roleplay. Settling a long rest is usually 10-30 minutes (closer to 10. 30 is if RP is involved). At the end they are energized and ready to explore the world. It takes some discussion before hand to express that exploring the world outside of cities is going to be rewarding because everyone (including NPCs) are effected by long rest rules so weaker individuals seldom go exploring. I tell them if they want cool stuff they have to prepare to risk the dangerous areas. If everyone ends up hating this they can vote not to do it. But I probably won't continue to DM simply because I don't have fun with the long rest rules. Thankfully the group seems to enjoy it. End of the day, communication is key.

Fancy door knobs you have... it would be a real shame to keep them here...

simple solution is to reward players with items they would rather have instead of gold (after a certain point)

As for b. You should always have a cart (loot everything may not be able to sell it but bartering works well aka I can't pay for a night in the inn but I do have this really nice set of cookware and set of plates and bowls yours are looking quite worn how bout replacing them) and a buyer isn't nesserassy just take it to the blacksmith and melt it down into bars

Here’s a fun one, put about half of the loot as art, furniture, and random items, and see if the players actually start taking the stuff.

@@jesternario what I really dislike about that, is that the tables for art treasures are rather short and... boring

Have you ever had a night where you're really tired but just can't seem to fall asleep?

@@ryankunst668 yeah

@@ryankunst668 the sleeping servers were just full at that time

@@ryankunst668 inner demons of course

TES has that as well "You may not rest while there are enemies nearby". I find it a stupid mechanic. I'd go for another solution.. I'd allow you to rest, sure... but you may get attacked and if that happens your long rest replenishment are gone, you get disadvantage on your first couple of rounds, if you don't set up a popper watch, and you get a level of fatigue the entire next day. And if you do set up a watch, the people on the watch don't get a long rest.

No but even in a fantasy campaign you can stretch the suspension of disbelief too far. I don't cap falling damage as one example.

It fully depends on if you can slow yourself down at all during the fall tbh. If you're falling and you manage to slow yourself down near the end, the impact won't be as harsh on you as you hit the ground.

Shouldn't max fall damage be terminal velocity?

@@usxldcom7543 I mean think of it like a cliff with ledges. You fall 10 feet hit a ledge hard slide fall 10 more feet hit another ledge

I worked in metal fabrication and got hit with a "fireball". I didn't die, I was just annoyed and angry at the idiot who f***ed around with the cutting torch.

I like this, but maybe roll a d4 for each time you get frightened? Because I don't know if a person's involuntary response will be the same every time, for every type of thing that will frighten them. I know it's another dice roll, but it makes a fear effect that much more chaotic, feeling much more like the characters are losing control of themselves.

🎶Well, Well, buddy you found it🎶 🎶Now how do you think you are going to fix them~🎶

🎶 trynna make content while stuck in a room 🎶 🎶 there isn't much more to say about it 🎶

maybe freezing should be a critical fail. There isn't much that would make a seasoned fighter shit his pants and be unable to move.

I really enjoy the idea of freezing on a really low roll. It should probably be up to the DM to define the final condition from the roll, based on the creature they are fighting. A scarecrow might not be as scary as, let's say, the god of madness and hopelessness that the mere sight causes people to loose their mind. In the first case, I think a critical failure is a good condition for freezing. On the second, a critical failure would leave the PC with scars for life and probably completely remove him from that fight. The DM should have a feel for these stuff as they plan the encounter and study the monster, so they would probably end up with an option that would work for that table.

I think that the freeze should be on a critical fail and that the party needs to spend a bonus action instead of an action

@@TheLucasdms nothing should ever remove a player from a fight, unless they flat out die. As for the God of Madness, that kind of monsters rarely use the actual conditions, but specific abilities of their own.

I've never before thought of how frightened is a kinda weird effect in 5e.

Yeah, in Campaigns where you are mostly close enough to cities or something like that to get a long rest, it can be okay, amd for a gritty game that adjust the monsters and challenges accordingly it can work, but not for something like the Underdark. The biggest problem is it completely changes the balancing between classes. Warlocks will become way stronger, and Monks and Fighters will be more powerful than they were before, while Casters get fucked over. Cantrips are okay, but unless you adjust the encounters, even normally balanced encounters can be TPKs using that rule.

I just change short rest to 4 hours and long rest to 24 hours. It usually fixes the resting issues for 5e.

I feel like that also needs changes to short rests and/or creating a medium rest so that abilities that only come back on a long rest can be recovered during a long travel but not every day of travel.

Perhaps the players could "create" a safe place by spending time or higher DC checks to find shelter that can operate as a base/safety. That would almost totally put the resting pace into the DM's hands in harsh environments like that.

a way you could fix this is by allowing your party to logn rest anywhere, but (if its not a known safe place- so a tavern or a house, even an empty one could work fine)with a few conditions: 1-have them roll to set up camp(if they fail no long rest), with multiple poeple it shouldnt be that hard 2- at least 1 person must stay awake and guard(no long rest for them) 3-roll if they get attacked/disturbed(maybe if you roll more than their survival check for setting up the camp) 4- the guarding players have to hold off the attackers/deal with the poeple disturbing them(it doesnt necessarily have to be something aggressive, maybe just guards checking out whats happening), maybe even waking up some of the sleeping players for help this is pretty realistic and would work well to discourage just setting up camp anywhere

Maybe charisma or wisdom save?

Nah, cuz that won't necessarily line up with what the player wants to do or what the character "would" do. I'd say 11 or up they get to pick, 6-10 they're forces into flight, and 1-5 they're frozen in fear for the turn.

Cuz I remember a moment in a campaign where the DM described a TRULY TERRIFYING event to both me and the character, and I honestly couldn't think of anything to do. And I knew that for sure it fit the character to be absolutely actionless in the face of such terror. And it was one of the most awesome moments ever

Did the dm actually give everyone access to the absolute bullshit that is sharpshooter? I'd be pissed too tbh.

@@armitroner basically the 3.5 version of the sharpshooter feat. Which required a few class features and feats. But pretty much everything associated with ranged combat was house ruled away except for roll attack and damage. All my range increments, my firing into melee, my ignoring cover... all of it. The fighter, rogue, and wizard in my party were doing the same things I had invested my character into. Pretty difficult to handle

@@cuross01 Thats even worse tbh

@@armitroner it was. I lasted two sessions and a few encounters, constantly badgering my friends that they're firing into melee or that they're beyond their range increment for accuracy. They got annoyed at me, the gm got annoyed at me, complained I was rules lawyering, and insisted on the "rule of cool". Yeah, it sucked.

@@cuross01 I did have a gm that ruled out the shooting into melee portion of ranged combat, but I'm pretty sure he gave anyone that took the stuff allowing it to get some kind of bonus for it.

Admittedly, having rule like that can be rewarding to the wizard that jots down either of those spells, invalidating the original purpose of the rule, but creating a new purpose.

@@Shalakor I wouldn't count the tiny hut as a safe place. You're both sleeping on the ground/a mat like if you were camping. Not to mention it also would be rather cramped for 4 medium creatures to unload and lay down inside it. The mansion though? Yeah, if you want to spend a 5th level slot to create a safe place to sleep, that's fine with me. Just requires you to enforce the time it takes to change out spells, so they are stuck with the spell after rest. Trading a prepared spell for a rest.

@@Leivve Why wouldn't you? The tiny hut is climate controlled and impenetrable unless an enemy has Dispel Magic, which if you need to beat the spell, is an easy way to do so, but also the majority of enemies in the majority of places won't have it. Tiny Hut is just cracked.

@@TheWarwolf102 As someone who has done long distance hiking and backpacking, I can assure you, there is a difference between sleeping in a tent, even if it's nice outside, or even in a cabin; and sleeping in a hotel or a bed. One or two days might not seem like it, but by the 5th day of cross country cheap arrangements like what the Hut would provide you, stop being enough to recuperate to 100%.

@@Leivve It’s still a perfectly safe space. Did u miss the part where the only way past it is through dispel magic? Cause that was already said. Also y u putting realism in d&d? That’s just dumb. And who says we’re spending 5 or more days in the hut? It can be used every now and then when long rest aren’t able to be had (which will not be all the time).

I think you can throw the Flanking Rules and use the Facing of the DM (pg 252)... I think you can actually make it work... some creatures just don't have a "blind spot". You can still use the HELP action, to give advantage to a friend against something you are both fighting... so it's not taking away the strategy involved in combat positioning

yes

Yeah, I always saw flanking more as gaining advantage against a creature because it's distracted by having to actively combat 2+ people at once. Even if it can see both of them, it would stand to reason that it couldn't perfectly defend itself from attacks coming from multiple angles at once.

No that’s legitimately what flanking is lmfao

@@skelitonking117 It's more about flanking certain kind of creatures

Yes I loved it and now I have the song stuck in my head

@Douglas Bonbeck bo burnham song from his new special on netflix, its called look who's inside again

@Douglas Bonbeck yes

@@smokapopierdolio1157 gotta do him dirty like that

Don't 😭

And well deserved! For her that was simply 300 hybris damage.

@@gazelle_diamond9768 *hubris

@@k-rodkev-dog7449 Aw damn it, should've known those English men had to change it up again.

HA!

You forgot Friend and Flop. Tis when you try to appease the threat with... whatever. "Friendship." And also when you just play dead or faint.

How would you decide freeze though? because given a choice nobody is going to choose freeze except the roleplay heavy.

@@Elessar0wind roll percentile maybe? Let’s the DM set his own range based on a bunch of factors, let’s you accommodate various weights of probability, I dunno, house rules are pretty house specific.

@@Elessar0wind Aside from reinventing the Confusion spell to decide "fright, flight, or rage" you could ask a player to pick(one or two) from a conditions list, like half speed and Blinded if they want to move towards the beast while squinting at the ground in an effort to overcome their fear.

Problem is, the Fear condition doesn't cause running by default, but the Fear spell does, so by changing the condition, you're putting the spell into an awkward position. Maybe change the spell so that the caster gets to choose the fear response? But, then, does that step on the toes of other control spells? If you're afraid of an Ancient Dragon, does it make logical sense for someone's fear response to conclude that the fastest way to remove the object of fear is to attack the giant HP pool?

Yeah! Role play over all

I love it!! I suggest temporary hit points after the comfortable long rest instead of inspiration. Feels a bit more consistent. Though, I could see how that wouldn't be useful if the characters don't face combat that day.

My favorite kind of DM.

Awesome

Nothing like finding out your character is worthless 8 sessions in because your dm found out about 3rd level spells and decided they don't like them. So your wizard only ever has access to second level spells.

this checks out

@@adamkaris that sounds terrible, I’m sorry for your loss.

Or players giving each other inspiration, which is an optional rule. Only works in certain groups but my group is very pro-rp and encouraging each other to to so it works well.

@@morganmcinroy4211 You can do what Numenera does in a way. You still give the player Inspiration, but that player ALSO chooses another player and gives them inspiration.

Would also make for some great rp moments for long rest, since you only need 6 hours of sleep and 2 hours of relaxing/meandering.

As someone who played 3.5 in a campaign where we all decided to play busted builds, I second this. A 6th-level adventurer should not be capable of 30d6 bludgeoning damage multiple times in a row lol Also he makes an error: the limit is 20d6, not 10. I also had a DM once houserule that past 4d6 fall damage you take max damage on the dice. So a 50ft fall would do 4d6+6 damage, for example

I tend to change the damage die used according to the size category of the victim. The D6 are for medium creatures. Large get D8, huge get D12 and gargantuan get D20. Small still get D6, but tiny get D4. Then, a creature described as being denser or heavier than normal for it's size may top out at more than 20 dies.

Also "should someone with 60 HP be able to survive 1000ft. . ." Fucking yes???? Do y'all forget that 60 HP is FIFTEEN TIMES more health than an average human being? And there's people IRL who have survived stupidly high falls, terminal velocity is real and of all the shit that doesn't kill DnD characters this is probably the least egregious.

If one of my players ever go "I'mma grapple the BBEG, cast fly, and bring him kicking and screaming to the stratosphere to drop him" I would never, ever, try to take that from them. Heck, I might make that an instakill instead of just damage. That shit would be so lit

@@zoromax10 DUNK

Because when everyone is Cool, no one will be!

Someone give this man an award

That absolutely is what happened. Just because you know where both people attacking you are doesn't mean you can just ignore it. I assume in the actual universe, whoever is attacking to harm signals the other, who either attacks, or feints, so you aren't able to actually defend from both simultaneously, and thus, not getting hit is harder.

Super glad someone else was thinking this.

@@joshuaarnett762 Honestly, I believe that flanking rules fall in the same category as "counting arrows", that being "unnecessary realism". While it is true that defending against people attacking from blind spots is more difficult, a normal/usual fight never plays out with people moving around a 5ft square, but with people moving around other people. So it begs the question that if this piece of realism is in line with the other pieces of realism that are already in the game, and if the benefit of that mechanic is good for the system itself. In my opinion, flanking as written in D&D does not even reflect properly the reality of a melee fight (should be when surrounded by 3 or more enemy units against a single unit and only give benefit for the 3rd and above attackers), nor is in line with the things that should be considered for "realism" in D&D System, and the bonus it gives is too powerful.

Exactly. This guy has some great ideas, but then has a very fundamental misunderstanding of some things. I find this very similar to his thinking that fighting with 2 weapons is just as easy and accurate as fighting with one, which he demonstrated by swinging 2 swords wildly with absolutely no accuracy. You can't hit as well with 2 weapons as you can concentrating on one (at least not without a LOT of training in 2 weapons) just like you can't defend well against opponents on completely opposite sides of you just because you know where they are. You're right that it has nothing to do with stealth.

@@GunarBastos um, yes, because unlike counting arrows, where you can just pick them back up afterwards, or even craft more as long as you have the arrowheads, and arrows don't usually break from being fired, flanking is one of the few pieces of realism that would apply, even in a fantasy world. You could literally say you use mending on any broken arrows and then you have no need to count as long as you don't have a number you could use up in a fight, and obviously there would be more motion, but flanking makes that worse, as if someone is in front and behind you, moving is a terrible idea, as someone almost certainly will hit you, plus, fighting in D&D would be more fluid if it was real time, but obviously on a table that is near impossible. As for getting into that position with constant motion, while you are busy dodging or blocking an attack, the second attacker can come into your blind spot, now you're flanked. Obviously I don't want a ton of realism in D&D, it has magic and dragons, but there are some things that even in a fantasy world would hold true, and flanking would absolutely be one.

I brought that spell into my campaign this week. We are all noobs, and I am only one spells geek there :D. We go out of the underground tunnel tired and beat up. We see an adult red dragon sitting on the ruined stronghold nearby. We slowly pull back into the tunnels... and I set up a Tiny Hut. Next week we fight red dragon fully rested. I think The Party likes this spell :P

*The enemy simply walks into your tiny hut* For me it’s not an inter-dimensional space; all you did was legit spawn a tiny hut

@@skelitonking117 You made a 3rd level spell the equivalent of a 2 gold item? How did your players feel about that?

I'm torn on this rule. On the one hand, you don't want your players long resting after every room in a dungeon, but you also don't want them skipping important encounters/story beats just to save resources. I prefer random encounters or a ticking clock to make them feel like a rest may not be worth it.

Exactly that, just how you can have that sort of thing happen with a good roll after randomly making a loud noise

After failing stealth roll being invisible you clearly alert people that there is something. They can became more perceptive or alert everyone that there is something wrong. Also in fantasy setting I believe guards know about that type of magic and can assume there is some indivisible dude...

@@romanabanin2216 Yeah but it's not uncommon for things to make a sound in the environment only to be stuff like the house settling, unrestrained objects rolling over, the works. Plus if the guards immediately suspected an invisibility spell every time a noise was made, it'd be a very paranoid kingdom.

@@TheTwinkelminkelson probably bad wording from me. I just meant some other situations. I like and use the idea of 2 or more rolls for things like stealth, perception, investigation, survival and so on. You get a hint and it is yours to continue. Same for passive checks (balances some 20+ passive skills) And about paranoia. Of course it isn't the 1st thought. But it depends on creatures and circumstances

Passive perception just in general makes no sense. How is a guard or dungeon delvers "passively perceiving" when literally they'd be actively looking for the very thing you're using passive perception for? Then, once something has triggered a passive perception, there's a 50/50 chance they actually get worse at searching when they're actively aware of what they're watching and listening for.

Agreed though I think it should be more a focus on them using their survival skills to find or make a safe area.

This is EXACTLY what I was thinking! No way would a nature-loving Druid not sleep well in nature!

I like the idea of - and will be using this in a game I'm going to run one day - using 3 different scales for rounds/turns: Wilderness Exploration - 1 turn is 1 or 2 hours (haven't decided) Site Exploration - 1 turn is 10 minutes Combat - see the PHB Out in the wilds, between adventure sites/towns/dungeons the Wilderness Exploration scale is used, a short rest is 8 hours, and a long rest is 2 days (allowing for light camp activity, eg small game trapping, supplies collecting. Proper Combat™ might interrupt this rest) and a character can't benefit from a short rest more than 1/day, long rest more than 1/week. As a balancing factor, certain spells/abilities that last X hours are naturally extended. In Site Exploration, which includes in towns/cities etc. the PHB rules apply for rests and spell/ability durations.

Sounds like a good reason to be proficient in survival ^.^

I've seen 'medium' rests implemented in some games that were a good balance. Basically it's a long rest but because you're in danger or an non-ideal place to rest, you get some but not all abilities back due to stress, standing watch, poor sleep etc. So... everyone get more HP them short rest but not all of them, the casters get some but not all spell slots back, other classes get some but not all abilities back and so on.

@@mattkennedy9308 That's a very neat idea, huh :o

@@mattkennedy9308 just want to point out that in a party of four+ adventurers standing watch should be an assumed activity of long resting in unsafe locations as per RAW. The split goes something like 6 hours of sleep and 2 hours of light activity which can include guard duty.

What could also work is for the PCs to wake up with temporary HP (maybe equal to their level?) when they long rest somewhere really comfortable. And maybe half of that when it isn't fully unsafe or uncomfortable but it still isn't quite a real bed with a locked door. For example when they cast Tiny Hut they gain half, without anything they gain nothing but with Magnificient Mansion they gain the full amount

Suddenly I'm inspired into playing a ranger like Forrest Gump

Barbarian earns it by TAKING advantage too. You feel satisfied with your crits until you take a crit from a mind flayer.

@@TaismoFanBoy Can’t get hit if you kill it first. Barbarian code.

@@falloutboy9993 and people say that rogues and barbarians have nothing in common.

Rogues with the steady aim feature gang rise up

Touches forehead "They can't gang up on you if they are dead"

Almost spit out my drink, that was hilarious to read

Welcome to the Dread Louvre!

Imagine your party defeats a dragon and hollers, "Yay gold gold gold!" DM then informs them that the heat and compression of being a dragon bed has compressed all the gold into a single gigantic ingot weighing 3 tons. "Good luck bringing *that* home, guys!" You could have a whole adventure centered on the party trying to levitate the boodle back home and defend it along the way...

@@troyterry5759 the coin bed never made sense, unless they are using copper coins (and even then)

@@estebanrodriguez5409 Certainly there are some logistical issues (that's a lot of specie, roit?), but it can be done well. Consider Smaug with all the jewels impressed into his chest ... *that* is a great mental image!

I can see it with something like a legendary monster like a Beholder

@@snazzyfeathers Oh sure but at that point it's got enough going on that it makes sense that it can't be flanked.

@@MB-sq7yn because which way your character is facing isn't a thing or you'd be at disadvantage anytime someone walks up behind you.

Because Jacob complains about rules he doesn't understand.

@@NEKOEVE yes like.... Flanking

omg i would love this. do you still have your list?

@@lapuntv8432 no I don’t unfortunately. Although i based all mine off some really old (old now anyway) posts by” The Grinning Wyrm D&D” on tumblr. Im sure you could still find them there

This is genius, and I've implemented it into my games. Thanks dude, this is genius!

Same here

Yeah the rules were always like that. The DM decides when you can long rest, not the players UNLESS a spell is cast. He can't just say ''UMMM YOU CAN'T USE THAT SPELL BECAUSE.... I DON'T WANT YOU TO!''

@@trappyboi8678 a very long way to say "counterspell" or "you will be out of time"but I like it

@@hugofontes5708 It's very hard to justify not having 10 minutes to set it up since you'd need 1 hour to short rest which jacob seems to allow. Also just protect the wizard at full force during that time.

@@trappyboi8678 oh, hell yes. You do need a counter set up, like splitting them or some nonsense like that.

@Gray El entrenador Pokémon I'm a wizard, if i dont have all the spells by the end of the campaign then the campaign isnt over >:(

That's definitely a factor for me and my friends as well. I'm usually one of the dedicated casters, and using my extremely limited Big Cool™️ spell and having it either miss entirely or have its effects reduced to nothing is absolutely infuriating. an archer can miss an arrow and it do nothing without much consequence, they've got 59 more arrows, I have two spell slots capable of casting that spell and I just completely whiffed on one of them.

That is actually one of my pet peeves with DMs. Hey guys we are going to limit your abilities and resources, and to make it even harder, you can only get a long rest at a "safe" locations. This just translates to, "Don't play a caster other than Warlock." As a person who generally plays a caster this idea isn't new and just as aggravating. What counts as safe? Why is that village safe compared to that abandoned cave with a narrow entrance? With this kind of system, how does anything get done in the kingdom? Merchants can't do long scale hauls as there is nothing safe about being a merchant outside of cities walls. Do they just show up at their intended locations in a semi-catatonic state from being unable to properly sleep?

@@kylelouthan4759 Because Merchants hire adventuring parties to protect them on those long hauls. Between towns not a big deal, but for long haul excursions they often hire multiple groups of adventures. Which would be on rotation for so called long rests. However at that point you are talking about caravans. Most merchant paths will be no longer than it takes to reach the next village or town.

I dislike any DM who limits my already limited resources because it should be harder. DnD is not LotR. Nazgul are not hunting you tirelessly all the time. A week long journey and you only get naps? You just die of fatigue or attrition. The system is built on 2 shorts and 1 long rest for 6 encounters in an average day iirc. What if some crits happen, your cleric is out of spells (or you do not have one), so you just have the party be exhausted and die? It is a system failing from at least 3.5. If you are not under an external time clock, the 5 minute adventuring day is the optimal and sensible thing to do. You are out of resources? Stop regroup, go at it fresh. It is suicidal to be all "huh we all exhausted. no one has anything, its only maybe halfway through this dungeon, lets press on at 3 hp each! Cannot be that many goblins right?" Thats super dumb, and any adventurer who wants to survive would never do that. If you cannot challenge a party unless they have nothing bit single digit hp and no options but move attack end my turn, as a DM you are failing. I also hear the goodberry and survival thing way too much. You class specifically was designed to be good at surviving, and you take that away from the players? They are playing to their strengths, they picked a druid or whathaveyou. Let them use their abilities. Would you tell a fighter okay you cannot attack cause i do not like how easy it makes combat. Tell a bard he cannot buff his allies because its too good? Let your players use your abilities. If a simple ability solves a common issue, good for them. Your players are the heroes who have been going at it, they should succeed at common stuff easily, especially if its their speciality.

And dont even get me started on the campaigns with 3 or 7 day long rests (Grit).

+10 seems excessive since you can still make noise and affect the the ground or objects nearby

@@romanthegm pass without trace gives a +10, so there is precedent. It's meant to be better than advantage, which is a +5.

@@sanguinemluna4337 I think the purpose of invisibility should be to open the option for stealth when it would normally not be possible instead of being a universal stealth go-to but that's just my opinion

advantage for standing still while invisible is probably as far as I would go without other factors

It's an optional rule in the DMG.

@@Akabeche so it’s not really a “hard” rule for D&D 5E then. Explains why I couldn’t find it in the PHB.

@@Gothic_Analogue Yeah it's an optional rule found in a corner of the DMG and one that I wouldn't recommend to play with unless you tweak it or want to make advantage worthless

Flanking is awesome. As a DM you regularly outnumber the players. So flanking turns lesser creatures into truly dangerous foes. It forces the players to think about movement and position, you know actually fighting as a team. It also promotes the use of the environment. Most players and DMs envision the characters always getting advantage but its normally to monsters that get the bonus until the characters have killed enough of them that the power balance swings in their favour, which helps finish off encounters instead of them dragging on. Of course if you're not into combat that much or are playing theatre of the mind it is difficult to manage. So you do you.

@@davidhamer7820 I made the mistake of playing a Warlock with Repelling Blast in a mostly theater of the mind campaign. Mainly, it was a matter of the DM not always wanting to go to the trouble of preparing and managing a map, since we doing that one discord only instead of using a virtual tabletop. Still using the flanking rules in that game made not having a map cost more time than it saved.

except there weight would increase the impact force.

@@Ghorda9 weight is not the same as HP and I meant "heavy" connotatively, as in "not-squishy"

@@Ghorda9 also, "their"

Just so long as you're happy in knowing that you're actively making the world more absurd.

@@Amrylin1337 the world is already absolutely absurd. A barbarian with 100hp and in rage can take a blow that should by all rights shatter a castle wall and simply be annoyed. Dragons by all rights should never actually be able to fly. Gnomes simply exist. Wild magic causes all sorts of lunacy. The dnd settings have always been silly to a extreme, especially spelljammer and even ravenloft.

YES. Have to do this in an appropriate campaign

We had one given to us specifically for a dungeon crawl. Was cool.

Every campaign needs a convoluted excuse to find a submarine

@@Charoy612 pay 15k gold to Lantan clerics of Gond and they will create you a real submarine (waterdeep heist or whatever that adventure is called)

It would, and make the wizard or whoever feel like they made a good choice. Same with Magnificent Mansion and Widogasts Tower. But due to Tiny Hut and the lower level "house spells", I'd probably make the non interdimensional ones give more than a short rest, but not all of their things back, because they either are not sleeping in a bed or in an extremely safe space.

That is what i was thinking.

You could just choose to not have that spell in the game if you're going this far for making it gritier

id probably say you wouldnt regain that spell slot, maybe flavor it as preparing and maintaining the safe space not allowing you to fully rest or something like that

@@fanservice1101 its a ritual spell (no spell slot) that doesnt take concentration so that wouldnt really make sense either

Tbf, if that is the case, then that probably isn't the only problem. The rules shouldn't assume the DM is biased.

Me, who gives inspiration to all of my players whenever they collectively do something cool:

Yeah, I give inspiration when a player shows obvious progression like giving their character a voice, instead of saying "Its what my character would do" they make their character confronting the party to come to an agreement instead of upsetting others. Or doing something outstanding.

That's a DM problem, not a rule problem

@@kaldo_kaldo agreed

I did last week, but I've moved on to Bezos I

@@icannotchoose CEO, entrepreneur, born in 1964...

You wear hats with a 6 foot diameter inside width?

@@sanguinemluna4337 yes

@@_TimelessX respect. I assume you also mostly play gnomes or halflings?

@@sanguinemluna4337 no, I play half elves, half orcs, and tieflings because I’m gay

@@_TimelessX callout posr

if you want to stress them out, dont let them spend time thinking about which one they choose and if they take to long, either choose for them or reroll till you get something other than 4.

KZfaq dropped an ad in there with perfect comic timing and I lolled

But even that gets repetitive and feels super shoe horned in if you do it nearly every time they try to long rest. I just feel like the default should be each session is between long rests. It challenges the players to actually manage their resources.

Even leomonds hut is lying in a hard uncomfortable floor. And it’s still not safe if any enemies have dispel magic or you know, patience

@@11DaltonB I mean, that's why it's dice rolls to determine if there's encounters when camped in an unsafe location. The more the party does to mitigate the risk, the less likely to be found by hostiles. In fact, every type of long rest can have an encounter chart attached to it, with say even a safe rest rolling for a chance of a non-hostile encounter after the rest is completed (and/or 1% or 0.1% chance of someone coming for you at the inn/in your own home).

At that point, you are already at a minimum, level 13. And you're wasting your only level 7 spell slot (until lv 20!) to be able to long rest. So you're already a very experienced adventurer using a very limited resource to be able to rest. I'd say that's a fair trade

@@LetztezBatallion sure, then what about Galder's Tower? 3rd level spell :)

If the DM manages to do it fairly (as in no complete long rest in a dungeon that isn't cleared or no complete short rest when you are awaiting the guard to come down the corridor) but make complete short and long rests still regular, it's okay, but if the DM is bad, it can be horrible for the players

Perfection