Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
The
VOIDRUNNER'S CODEX
is coming! Explore new worlds, fight oppressive empires, fend off fearsome aliens, and wield deadly psionics with this comprehensive boxed set expansion for 5E and A5E!
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
How Was Your Last Session?
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Richards" data-source="post: 9302965" data-attributes="member: 508"><p>In tonight's "Ghourmand Vale" session, after explaining to the DM our plans for what the PCs would do between last session and this one (talk to the head cleric of the Ghourmand Vale Temple of Boccob, explain what we found, offer to slay the undead for them and return with all the books and scrolls, and allow their scribes to copy the info out of the book that had become a phylactery before we destroy it, because we would definitely be destroying it before we went to fight the lich), the PCs:</p><ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Went to the Ghourmand Vale Temple of Boccob, to find only two low-level acolytes there, but they were apparently in a position to authorize us to go destroy the undead, and warned us copying the book could take up to a week, which we agreed to (but stipulated that we would have at least one of the five of us present with the book at all times (as we didn't want them pulling any fast ones in an effort to prevent the phylactery from being destroyed)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Heard a sudden wind pounding at the doors and started casting pre-combat spells, thinking this might be an invisible stalker or something sent to fetch the phylactery</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">After three rounds of readied actions to attack anything coming after us through the doors and with the clock ticking on our 11-round <em>haste</em> spell, the paladin finally opened the front doors and saw Andrew the lich and the two mummy fighters from the hidden library three rounds into returning to physical form after having <em>wind walked</em> to our location (after the lich used a <em>discern location</em> spell to find us, which he wasn't technically able to cast - more on that later at the end)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Had to wait two more rounds for the full manifestation to take place, at which time we all got in our readied actions, and then my sorcerer, the halfling rogue, and the elf archer were all paralyzed by the mummies' <em>aura of despair</em></li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Had the half-elf paladin and the elf druid take on the three undead for a bit, until the rest of us were able to act again, during which time the druid caught all three up in a <em>wall of thorns</em></li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Killed off the two mummies after a fairly tough battle, by which time the lich had summoned a Huge earth elemental (which the druid countered by summoning a Huge air elemental to try to take it out)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Ended up with the paladin and the lich inside the <em>wall of thorns</em> duking it out, which became even more problematic when the lich cast an <em>antimagic field</em> spell, which - combined with his DR 15/bludgeoning and magic - meant none of the other PCs could do anything at all which could have hurt him in the least</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The paladin finally killed the lich, but only by using Power Attack, which meant most of his attacks failed to hit (and even those that did hit did minimal damage); he was dealing 0-4 points of damage at a time each round while the lich was dealing 7-14, and the paladin was down to around 16 hp (from his normal 85 hp) by the time it was done</li> </ul><p>So, discussing it in the office today, I learned the DM had misinterpreted how bonus spells worked, and had allowed the 11th-level cleric lich (with access to spells of up to 6th level) the "bonus" 7th- and 8th-level spells he "gained" by increasing his normal Wisdom via the <em>owl's wisdom</em> spell. I had to explain to him that's not how that works, and he didn't believe me until I reminded him his wife runs a dwarf cleric in my campaign who, at character creation, had an 18 Wisdom and thus would get a bonus 1st-, 2nd-, 3rd-, and 4th-level spell above and beyond what she would normally be able to cast, but <em>only when she was able to cast spells of that level</em>. Then it finally clicked in his head.</p><p></p><p>So we were facing a lich who had access to spells he shouldn't have been able to cast, making him much more powerful that he should have been, and we still ended up 347 XP short of becoming 12th level (because we got standard XP for a lich of that level). There were also no less than three instances during this game session when the DM's immediate ruling was, "Nope, you fail, it doesn't work that way" until we showed him in the rules where that what we were having our PCs do was in fact how that particular rule works. (And then he pulls the same thing in reverse, trying to do something illegal by the rules as written that benefits the enemies and screws us over, until we point out in the rules that that's not how that works, either.)</p><p></p><p>My son, nephew, and I are kind of looking forward to this campaign's end, when my son regains the DM's chair once again. The DM is a good friend and a decent player, but after 48 game sessions as a 3.5 DM he still hasn't gotten over his "AD&D 1E Adversarial DM" ways....</p><p></p><p>Johnathan</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Richards, post: 9302965, member: 508"] In tonight's "Ghourmand Vale" session, after explaining to the DM our plans for what the PCs would do between last session and this one (talk to the head cleric of the Ghourmand Vale Temple of Boccob, explain what we found, offer to slay the undead for them and return with all the books and scrolls, and allow their scribes to copy the info out of the book that had become a phylactery before we destroy it, because we would definitely be destroying it before we went to fight the lich), the PCs: [LIST] [*]Went to the Ghourmand Vale Temple of Boccob, to find only two low-level acolytes there, but they were apparently in a position to authorize us to go destroy the undead, and warned us copying the book could take up to a week, which we agreed to (but stipulated that we would have at least one of the five of us present with the book at all times (as we didn't want them pulling any fast ones in an effort to prevent the phylactery from being destroyed) [*]Heard a sudden wind pounding at the doors and started casting pre-combat spells, thinking this might be an invisible stalker or something sent to fetch the phylactery [*]After three rounds of readied actions to attack anything coming after us through the doors and with the clock ticking on our 11-round [i]haste[/i] spell, the paladin finally opened the front doors and saw Andrew the lich and the two mummy fighters from the hidden library three rounds into returning to physical form after having [i]wind walked[/i] to our location (after the lich used a [i]discern location[/i] spell to find us, which he wasn't technically able to cast - more on that later at the end) [*]Had to wait two more rounds for the full manifestation to take place, at which time we all got in our readied actions, and then my sorcerer, the halfling rogue, and the elf archer were all paralyzed by the mummies' [i]aura of despair[/i] [*]Had the half-elf paladin and the elf druid take on the three undead for a bit, until the rest of us were able to act again, during which time the druid caught all three up in a [i]wall of thorns[/i] [*]Killed off the two mummies after a fairly tough battle, by which time the lich had summoned a Huge earth elemental (which the druid countered by summoning a Huge air elemental to try to take it out) [*]Ended up with the paladin and the lich inside the [i]wall of thorns[/i] duking it out, which became even more problematic when the lich cast an [i]antimagic field[/i] spell, which - combined with his DR 15/bludgeoning and magic - meant none of the other PCs could do anything at all which could have hurt him in the least [*]The paladin finally killed the lich, but only by using Power Attack, which meant most of his attacks failed to hit (and even those that did hit did minimal damage); he was dealing 0-4 points of damage at a time each round while the lich was dealing 7-14, and the paladin was down to around 16 hp (from his normal 85 hp) by the time it was done [/LIST] So, discussing it in the office today, I learned the DM had misinterpreted how bonus spells worked, and had allowed the 11th-level cleric lich (with access to spells of up to 6th level) the "bonus" 7th- and 8th-level spells he "gained" by increasing his normal Wisdom via the [i]owl's wisdom[/i] spell. I had to explain to him that's not how that works, and he didn't believe me until I reminded him his wife runs a dwarf cleric in my campaign who, at character creation, had an 18 Wisdom and thus would get a bonus 1st-, 2nd-, 3rd-, and 4th-level spell above and beyond what she would normally be able to cast, but [i]only when she was able to cast spells of that level[/i]. Then it finally clicked in his head. So we were facing a lich who had access to spells he shouldn't have been able to cast, making him much more powerful that he should have been, and we still ended up 347 XP short of becoming 12th level (because we got standard XP for a lich of that level). There were also no less than three instances during this game session when the DM's immediate ruling was, "Nope, you fail, it doesn't work that way" until we showed him in the rules where that what we were having our PCs do was in fact how that particular rule works. (And then he pulls the same thing in reverse, trying to do something illegal by the rules as written that benefits the enemies and screws us over, until we point out in the rules that that's not how that works, either.) My son, nephew, and I are kind of looking forward to this campaign's end, when my son regains the DM's chair once again. The DM is a good friend and a decent player, but after 48 game sessions as a 3.5 DM he still hasn't gotten over his "AD&D 1E Adversarial DM" ways.... Johnathan [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
How Was Your Last Session?
Top