Session 8: Of Daemons and Summoning Circles

The Story So Far

After escaping from a slave camp Rurik finds himself surrounded by strange allies, and wandering the Underdark trying to find his way to a dwarven town.

Journal

It has been 12 days since this motley crew escaped the prison camp of Krezzik Dar the Shadowlord. How I wish I was back at home with you, beloved Drahzda, this group of people are the strangest creatures I have encountered in the years since I have been away. The orc seems to be some sort of warlock, consorting with daemonic creatures. The only reason I don't kill his simpering imp is because thus far he has proven to be an ally. Even so I must keep one eye open, he is an orc and a follower of the same types of creatures we are trying to avoid in our journeys.

Our party has decided that our best bet is to try and avoid whatever these large circles are marked on the map as we trek towards Cragmire. Ancestors alone know what sort of thing warrants a daemon army’s attention enough to make note of it upon their maps. Even avoiding these hotspots our trip thus far has not been uneventful. The underdark is fraught with peril, and our supplies are limited. If not for the good work of Torvanor we would have run out of water days ago, but he calls upon his patron at each water source we find to cleanse it. This gives us safe area to rest and clean water.

It seems that the daemons are trying to expand these tunnels, on our seventh day out from the camp we found a group of enslaved duergar. They were being forced to mine for the daemons. Our dark cousins may be evil, but that doesn't mean they deserve to suffer under a daemon’s lash. We rushed to their aid, breaking their chains and slaying their masters. They ran off without so much as a thank you, and for a moment I believed they might have attacked us as well if not for some diplomatic words. HAH! If only Kardin knew that his lessons would have amounted to something!

Finally yesterday we discovered what the circles were. Coming upon one, that we had no chance to avoid, we saw a group of waxlike creatures under the direction of several imps expanding a chamber and inscribing a summoning circle upon the floor. Krezzik Dar still owes me a grudge, and so mustering the party we attack the creatures and destroy the summoning circle. These foul daemons will have to find another way onto our plain to aggravate me.

My turn is coming up for watch. 46 years 7 months and 16 days until I get to come home. The first thing I am doing is marrying you, and making you a princess.

Behind the Screen

This was the first session that I really got to play my Dwarf Battlemaster, and let me tell you it was a blast! It is so great to run a character that fits his role so well. I have found that I am able to protect my teammates decently well as long as they stand by my, which makes for a killer combination with Willis the rogue. He stands and sneak attacks for a ton of damage, while I impose disadvantage on anyone who chooses to attack him rather than come at me directly. The maneuvers I choose for my first level of Battlemaster were: Parry, Riposte, and Goading Strike. I knew from the get go that I would be using Goading Strike the most, with the others being extra in case I get the chance to.

The only issue I am having currently with being a tank is that I don’t have enough reactions to keep up with everything I want to do. Two of my maneuvers, my protection ability, and attacks of opportunity are all reactions. It’s because of this that I am not 100% sold on the Sentinel feat. I feel like it would force me to be even more picky about how to use my reactions.

Party Roles and You!

The adventuring party comes across a group of goblins in the woods, and immediately they jump into action. The warrior drawing sword and shield yells a taunt and places himself between the monsters and his friends. The mage prepares his first spell to put several of the beasts to sleep. The rogue moves to flank any that engage the warrior. Meanwhile the ranger begins to pick off his targets towards the rear, and blessings are being chanted  by the cleric in the background.

This is a pretty typical idea of how an adventuring party should handle threats in your basic fantasy RPGs. We all have the ideas of party roles, and how they work out to make things run smoothly. In a large part the class roles became codified from MMO’s and the concept has trickled in and become a major part in many games. Whether we are looking at FPS, or tabletop RPG. Any game where you are working with a group, it helps to know what each person is in charge of, and so we have adopted universal terms to know where everyone stands. These roles are broken down into 4 basic concepts: Tank, DPS(Damage Dealer), Healer, and Utility. Most characters have a primary role, but they can help out with others.

Here is a breakdown of the roles, and their sub-roles:

Tank: This is the bulwark behind which the party can feel safe performing whatever role each member has to do. Without a tank things can get very ugly as the party can’t survive long enough to defeat encounters. The main characteristics of a tank are high defense, and health as well as an ability to make sure that monsters continue to attack him rather than go after his squishier friends.

For 5e the classes and roles that are best suited to tanking(in my opinion are):

• Fighter: Either Champion or Battlemaster can make a good tank, but I feel that the battlemaster’s maneuvers give them an advantage as far as battlefield control and stickiness(the ability to keep a monster from ignoring you)
• Barbarian: A bear totem barbarian has just about the best survivability of any class in the game at the moment. This makes them a good tank, but he has a hard time getting mobs to stay on them.
• Paladin: I feel that oath of devotion and oath of the ancients can make for some very good tank builds. They have abilities that allow the paladin to survive a beating, and exert some minor control over the battlefield

The other class can  make builds that are hard to kill or can control the battlefield, but have a much harder time doing both at the same time. A monk tank built as a defensive duelist has some potential, but is going against the grain. While this isn’t a bad thing, its just important to note its not the easiest way to go about it.

Tank has one sub-role, the off-tank. This is a person who when there are far too many monsters for the tank to cover easily or when the tank goes down, can step in and protect the party. Typically this is one of the classes mentioned above, but built more towards a DPS role. This way when tanking isn’t needed they are pumping out damage and still helping out the party.

DPS: Even the hardiest tank with the best healer can only withstand an onslaught for so long. It is the job of the DPS to make sure that an encounter is finished as quickly as possible to conserve party resources. There are people that say that this is the easiest role, because its purpose is so straightforward. Find a target kill it and dont die, repeat until the encounter is over. This fails to take into account that a DPS person needs to make sure that their damage is optimized and that they need to be able to pick their targets to keep things going.

DPS is split into two types: melee DPS and ranged DPS. That is to say those who are up close and in the battle and those who rain death from afar. Nearly every class can be built to do damage, so I am only going to list the ones that are in my opinion the best at each of the sub-roles.

Ranged DPS(RDPS)

• Warlock: The warlock is currently the king of RDPS in 5e. The fact that their spells scale with them, and that their base cantrip has so many options to improve it make it difficult for other RDPS to keep up with them. They lack versatility, and unless they build themselves towards it battlefield control.
• Ranger: The ranger has the advantage that they can be built depending on what you expect to be dealing with either colossus slayer or horde breaker. With either of these as long as you are in your comfort zone you can do a ton of damage. The ranger also has a fair bit of utility.

Melee DPS(MDPS)

• Barbarian: Frenzied Berserker path has the ability to pump out huge amounts of damage per turn, because of their extra attacks. This coupled with their high health makes them ideal for getting in close and beating down targets.
• Fighter: The Champion path with a great weapon has a high critical chance, and the ability to reroll low damage. This lets them be very consistent in the damage they deal.
• Rogue: Assassin is different from the other two MDPS because they are very front loaded, or crit dependant. An assassin has the chance to kill a target in the first turn with their automatic critical sneak attack, but the longer a combat drags on the other MDPS can catch up, and even surpass them.

Healer: This is the least complicated role to describe, and also the most essential to a party’s survival. The healer prevents his companions from falling unconscious either through preventing damage or healing damage as it is done.

• Cleric: This is the standard healer for Dungeons and Dragons, and has been for decades. They have a wide variety of spells and builds that allows them to adjust their playstyle. They can also wear armour which means that they can survive being in the thick of things to apply healing where needed.
• Druid: Another divine caster, the druid plays very differently than the cleric. Their heals tend to be somewhat smaller, but they have a variety of buffs to make combat go more smoothly.
• Bard: I have only started to experience the bard as a healer recently, but I must say I am impressed. They can cast cure spells, and they can prevent damage using bardic inspiration. Spells like Vicious Mockery allow them to give extra defense to the party, which prevents a large amount of damage. The icing on the bardic healing cake is Song of Rest which increases a party’s healing during a short rest.

Utility: This is a catch all term for party members whose abilities are either devoted to controlling the battlefield, or are best suited for being out of combat. Most often you will not see a character who is primarily a utility role, this tends to be in addition to what they do in combat. These hybrid characters are often less powerful in the combat roles, but they are still needed for getting through all those times when a sword isn’t the right answer.

I tend to split utility into three distinct roles: the academic, the dungeoneer, and the controller.

Controller: These are characters that either disable or disrupt the enemies during combat. They will also have a variety of abilities out of combat to keep things moving if the party encounters resistance.

• Wizard: This is the controller that most people think of when they think of the role. They have access to spells of all sorts that let them either put monsters to sleep, control where they can walk(grease and entangle), or otherwise keep monsters from moving and attacking freely. The wizard also has the ability to fulfill the academic role, and some serious damage potential depending on the build.
• Sorcerer: Similar to the wizard with less variety, but more spells per day. They have a harder time filling the academic role, but they can do more damage
• Druid: Druids fulfill the controller role primarily by affecting the environment or monster movement.

Dungeoneer: This is the role that used to be filled almost exclusively by the rogue. Finding Traps, secret doors, and scouting the terrain to provide the party with an advantage. 5e has allowed the role to be filled by any character with stealth, perception, and investigation as class skills.

Academic: Like the dungeoneer gives information about the area that the party is dealing with the academic gives the party knowledge about where things can be found, what a Monsters strengths and weakness are, and what magic items do. This is typically filled by high intelligence characters with access to skills like history, arcana, and religion. I feel that this role is best filled by wizards and bards.

 

That is the breakdown of how I see the roles in 5e. You can see how the roles work out when you look at parties throughout the genre from the Heroes of the Lance to the Companions of the Hall. It is even easy to see in Rurik’s party, Rurik is the Tank, Kova is the Healer, Willis is the MDPS and Azhag is the RDPS. These roles being clearly defined I think is why the second party has been more successful than Aurelion and his friends.

Let me know what you guys think of the break down. Do you have a really cool build for one of the classes you want to share? Let me know in the comments section

Session Seven: Prison Break

The Story so far

Rurik is the eldest son of the Thane of Clan Wolfhammer. From birth he was bred to be a proper dwarf, he would serve his time in the guilds as a child and then his time in the army when he reached manhood. All in preparation for the day when he would take over from his father.

During his time with the army he served with distinction a solid shieldman, and a good friend to the troopers in his command. One day while on patrol they spotted a group of orcs running from a burning farmhouse. Taking a quick stock of his soldiers, he ordered them to follow. Chasing the orcs through the mountains took hours, and when they finally caught them it was an ambush. Each dwarf fought hard, and in the loosest of senses the battle was a victory. Only two dwarfs survived the battle though, Rurik and, his brother who had been assigned as the cleric for the squad, Ruik.

Ruik blames his brother more than anyone else and when they returned to the hold demanded a full trial be conducted. Rurik instead chose to leave. He would serve a term of 50 years in exile, and only then would he return. No sooner was the choice made than Ruik changed his thoughts. He wanted his brother punished for his foolish acts, but not for him to be sent out into the wilderness alone. Rurik promised him he would return when the time was right, and that they would rule the clan together wisdom and strength when the time came. With a final embrace Rurik began his long walk.

He still carries with him a warg tooth from that battle. A reminder of his failures, and a reminder to act with a cooler head.

Journal

It has been 3 years 3 months and 12 days since my exile began. In this time, I have travelled south. My hope: to arrive at Cragmire, the southern dwarven kingdom; perhaps there I can make myself useful to my people. I could find redemption in serving.

Along my road to the south, I was captured by the foul servants of the Overlord of Shadow Krezzik Dar. Little did he know a cage can not hold a Wolfhammer for long. Everywhere I looked more despair came upon me, my fellow captives were of types I couldn’t recognize, or I couldn’t trust.  Finally when I felt the time was right, I launched the plan to escape. Leaping at the wall of my cage, I knocked it to the ground causing a commotion. If I was going to be in a cage, they were going to have to kill me, I am no demon slave. An imp guard came to see what I was doing, and seeing my cage knocked over he attempted to indulge his cruel tastes by stabbing me with his dagger. Little did he know this was my trap! Allowing the blow to land, I grabbed his arm and beat him against the bars of the cage, stunning him. The other prisoners, each with their own dreams of freedom, began to act. Using my actions as a distraction, they were able to act without being seen.

Seeing their comrade in trouble, two more imps came to attack me. Unfortunately for them, their brother was already dead. Worse: now I was armed. Their tails lashed out into the cage, trying to kill me with their poison. HAH! I am dawi! I am of the earth, their poisons are nothing to me. I lashed out with the dagger, killing another imp. The remaining imp flew away, ignoring the insults I threw at him.

I looked around to see what the other prisoners were doing. An orc had managed to unlock his cage. Calling upon all my strength, I lifted my cage and ran over to the orc so that he could release me. A risk given that he was an orc, but one that paid off. He unlocked my cage and then proceeded to murder two drow that were also prisoners. It seems his favour is random... he also released two duergar.

In the end, 5 of us grouped together for mutual safety: Azhag, an orc spell caster; Torvanor, a cleric of Poseidon who seems touched by the elements; Kova, a ship’s lookout with planar blood; Willis, a halfling rogue; and myself. Stealing a map from one of the tents, we gathered our gear and supplies and ran off into the tunnels leading towards Cragmire.

I know I will be making sure that any followers of the Overlord of Shadow repay me for the grudge I now carry against their master

Behind the Screen

After last weeks TPK we each made new characters. This time the party was specific about each role, I was to be the tank. Being a tank means that you have two main roles in the party, survive being hit and make sure the rest of the party isn't getting hit. This is a job I am really familiar with since I have had characters perform it in dozens of different games. Being new to 5e I was excited to see what it brought to tanking.

One of the first things I noticed was that there were plenty of tools to actively help your party if a mob decided to attack someone beside you. As a battlemaster I had picked up goading attack, and I have the protection fighting style. This mean that I could potentially  force disadvantage on two foes per turn, as long as my friends were near me. This is a huge upgrade from 3.5 where as a tank you had to depend entirely on forcing attacks of opportunities to make sure mobs didn't get passed you to the squishier members of the the party, which doesn’t help other melee characters.

As a fighter one of the big things is a huge amount of Ability Score Increases(ASI) as you level up. In a game using feats this gives fighters the chance to tailor their build for a wide variety of roles. For a tank the feats that I was looking at were:

Shieldmaster: Allows you to push foes as a bonus action, increases your defense against harmful effects, and gives the ability to take no damage from dex based attacks.

Lucky: The ability to either take advantage or force disadvantage 3 times per long rest. Most importantly it can be done after seeing the roll, but before knowing if it was a success or not.

Alert: Bonus to initiative, and can not be surprised.

Sentinel: Increases your ability to make attacks of opportunity(AOO), and forces enemies that you hit with an AOO to stop moving.

Tough: Increase HP

Fell Handed: Bonus to attack rolls with dwarven weapons, chance to knock enemies prone, chance to do damage even on a miss with disadvantage, can give an additional bonus to hit when aiding another.

Heavy Armour Master: damage reduction(DR) and +1 Str

Each of these feats is designed either to either make it harder for the enemies to kill me, or to control the battlefield in some way. The most important ones to me are Shieldmaster and Lucky. The other feats has their utility, but it will be a close call between the feat and just gaining bonus stats.

Level advancement: Unlike other builds that I had looked at I was pretty happy with stopping at a 16 str and an 18 con at least at 4th level. This means that my plan as I level up as far as feats is:

4: +1 Str +1 Con

6: Shieldmaster

8: Lucky

12: Fellhanded

14: Sentinel

16: Tough
19: Heavy Armour Master

This means at level 20 I am sitting around a 26 AC(assuming +3 Full Plate and +3 Shield), DR 3, 20d10+120HP(220 average). I have a ton of abilities that let me control the battlefield, to assist my friends in having advantage, and forcing disadvantage on my foes. It's going to be fun to see how it plays out. Next blog post I will go in depth into how I see the battlemaster maneuvers.

Session 6: TPK

Story So Far

When last we left our heroes they had left Rathe’s Wall with all haste in an effort to catch up to Dohl’shelt and prevent the destruction of the Mistwall.

Journal

Once again we left in all haste, our carts loaded with supplies for the journey ahead. Our travels are quiet as each considers the task ahead, only Syr Spar seems unflappable even in our grave situation. Dohlshelt is at least 2 days ahead of us and we can only hope that that isn't enough time to finish the ritual.

On our third day of travel we came across another cart that had a broken axle. It was being used by cultists. Hoping that we could get more information I spoke to them as comrades, and the believed my tale. I was able to get more map locations for them before being interrupted by a woman. After speaking with her we realized it was Shae Rahel’s mate, Thal Askar Kor. She gave us a sign that we were to continue our travels, and that she appreciated what we did for her mate. As we rode off the dying screams of the cultists let us know that she had gained her freedom.

Our journey came to an end at a large submerged city. This city that I have no knowledge of in all my studies. We continued following our map until we came upon a sunken temple of Hades, this was it.

We descended into the temple, and we saw dozens of dead cultists. Their throats were slit, and it is clear that the ritual is either complete or at least has begun. We just stepped into a room, and there is an old mage speaking with a young girl. This must be the ritual it must be stopped.

Behind the Screen

Death, I am going gripe a little on this one. This session ended with the whole party being killed, and it was mostly due to a leap before you look attitude on the part of the paladin. We came across a ritual and as we were getting ready to observe what was going on in ran the paladin atop his spidery steed. His initial attack was impressive knocking a little girl unconscious and preventing the ritual from competing. Aurelion charged behind him, and as the dice hit the table it looked like we were going to have a very heroic boss battle, I had rolled a crit and some decent damage. Thats when the DM told me that the caster had hellish rebuke. Aurelion was vaporized instantly. Then over the next four rounds of combat the party was taken apart by magic until everyone was out cold except the paladin and the barbarian. At this point the ghost had recovered enough and possessed the barbarian who then murdered everyone.

Once the encounter was done the GM told us that if we had just watched for a second the caster(Dohl’shelt) would have died from the ritual and the fight would have just been the possessed little girl. Which we could have handled. Basically, we all died for interrupting the cut scene too early. The only member of the party to survive was Willis, because he wasn’t present. This makes Willis’s second TPK that he survives.  It is also the first time I have had a character die since 1996.

We sat around the table discussing what to do next, and the GM tells us to reroll characters. We are going to be in the same campaign setting, but elsewhere. Good news with this is that since we are all together to make our characters we can sort of create a more coherent party.

New Party

Artek Orc Barbarian- Torvanor Water Genasai Priest of Poseidon

Willis- Is staying as Willis because he survived

Syr Spar Gnome Paladin- Azhag Orc Warlock

Thalous Half Elf Warlock- Kova Tiefling Ranger

Aurleion Elf Bladesinger- Rurik Dwarf Battlemaster

The new party was built with everyone taking specific roles in mind. I went back to what I prefer to play the tank. This was going to be the first time I play this character in 5e, but Rurik has been created in many different games. For 5e he is a Mountain Dwarf fighter on the battle master path. The goal was to prevent as much damage to the party as possible, so I took protection. The only problem I see with the concept right now is that there are too many reactions I need to use and I only get one. It's going to be tricky to decide which one to use each turn, and how to save them. Sitting at 19 armour with almost 40hp makes for a pretty sturdy meat shield, combined with the fighter ability Second Wind I should be able to survive most encounters. Let’s see how it goes.