Dungeons, Dragons & Dorks

A Nerd who enjoys Dungeons & Dragons and wants to share his knowledge with the world.

[dungeonsdragonsanddorks-blog]

NO ROUGES!

Not so much a story as a strange means of coincidences. So in the most recent game my friends and I are playing, I made a rogue character from a professional guild, 1st session was typical meet and greet for the party and some simple adventuring, nothing much. 2nd session we hit a dungeon and my rogue dies to the miniboss of the dungeon so I’m collectivly out for the rest of it. NExt session we hit a new town and new dungeon. GM was kind enough to let me build a new rogue from the same guild as I didn’t get much out of the first. After 1 mook fight and some roleplay, the party goes into the second dungeon, encounter the miniboss and my rogue dies again... from there it is now a running joke that this guild is incompitent and that I am not allowed to play rogues.

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Not the strangest of methods getting there.

Player: Am I in hell?

GM: you chased a panera bread truck down the highway at 70mph then got on the hood of your car and prceded to jump into the back of the truck.

Player: Yup, I’m in hell.

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Forgetful Master

*Combat ends*

Evil Wizard: Ah yes, nothing like looting the freshly defeated!

Monk: speaking of, I wasn’t around when you got those gloves from the last dungeon checked, what was trhe treasure they had?

Evil Wizard: .....

Evil wizard (Player): No there was something in those, and it’s 8 hours back to town, GOD DAMN IT!

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How much is enough? How many sets of dice should you own? typically, you only need one, however, as sessions continue and character’s level up, situations arise where you need to throw multiples of the same die. While you can borrow some from your friends, having multiple sets of dice can be useful should you lose one. I reccommend 4-6, but that’s just my personal opinion, you may have as many as you like, just be resonable and resopnsible with your dice purchases.

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Personal vs Party plans

When playing dnd, it is imperative that you take the opinion of everyone in the party before decided what to do. Some actions may seem appropriate, but not weveryone may agree. You and your party have to deal with the consequences of your actions and if the rest of the party doesn’t agree with your actions, they can choose to kick you out. However, don’t mistake that for always agreeing with them, if you have an issue with what the rest of the party has planned, speak up, let them know, this is meant to be a fun game, and people shouldn’t be forced to do something they don’t like with out the chance to fight back.

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The strangest of mental disturbances

Which my group of friends and I were trying out 5th ed, one of them cast a spell that gave the enemy a status condition called “mentally Disturbed”. The GM asked our friend to describe how he was disturbed, so he got up, walked over to the GM, started to lightly massage his shoulders, leaned in and whispered in his ear, “Mayonnaise”. We don’ get it either, but we sure as hell are disturbed.

[outofcontextdnd]

As long as you are an albatross you have to describe your actions in iambic pentameter.

The DM (via outofcontextdnd)

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Forgetful Minion

(Meeting the new party member in a campagin)

Wizard: “What are you doing here in this forest?”

Dwarf: “Snorri does not remember why Snorri is here.”

Wizard: “Well then it is a good thing we found you before you wondered to far, minion.”

Dawrf: “Ah yes, thank you master.”

Player: *Immediatly changes character alignment from Lawful Neutral to Lawful Evil*

[outofcontextdnd]

“You’re going into the cage with the bread!”

-Our DM, trying to punish one of our players (via outofcontextdnd)

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Proper RolePlay Edicate

One of the major aspects of dnd is how the players can interact with the characters and the world through role playing. Acting like someone you’re not and even going above and beyond for a performance to truely invest in the world. However, there are a few things to note when roleplaying a character that makes the experience enjoyable and peaceful.

1. Understand the character is not the player. Sometimes a situation arises where the character wants to do one thing, but the player doesn’t want to. Just remember that the player is not the character and is free to decide how they want the interaction to go. This also applies to party decisions, A player could understand why the party wants to do one thing, but the character could be completely against it. This is especially important for players playing Evil alligned characters.

2. Don’t mechanically prevent player characters from being player characters. There will be times where roleplaying characters mechanically inhibit the party, as a player you need to try your best to play your character without doing something the rest of the party doesn’t want to happen. Example: Paladins of Good cannot allow any evil alligned characters/NPCs to win, and if they knowingly let one go they lose their powers and abilities. So if one member of the party is a paladin, try not to create a situation where they lose their powers, as it’s not only inhibiting the party by losing a member, but it’s also rude to the player to just force them to not be a character anymore.

3. Have fun. Even with rules, the point of roleplaying is to have fun, enjoy yourself. These characters are your creation and can act how they want, how you want. As long as you’re not being too rude or disrespectful and not mechanically hurting the party, play as you want.

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Making a Monk

Building a 3.5 monk requires dicsipline, focus, and resolve, as well as the will to risk direct combat with almost no armor for protection. 

Monks are nimble, strong, and wise, and this is reflected in the class abilities they get at early and later levels. Their primary means of attack are their fists, elbows, knees, feet, and various staves. 

Stat distribution:

For a monk, your primary stats are Dexterity (Dex), Wisdom (Wis), and a tie between Strength (Str) or Constitution (Con). When building a monk, try to prioritize Dex, Wis, and your choice of either Str or Con. 

Race: 

As monks are Dex based classes, with small benefits from Str, the best race for a monk would be ones that increase Dex without lowering Wis, Con or Str. 

Human: +1 extra stat point to starting stats, 1 extra starting feat, 4 extra starting skill points, 1 extra skill point per level

Half-Orc: +2 Str, -2 Intellegence (Int), -2 Cha, 

Feats:

At level 1 monks get Improved unarmed Strike for free and have the choice between Improved Grapple or Stunning Fist as a bonus Feat.

Improved Grapple prevents you from being attacked when starting a grapple and you get a +4 bonus on all grapple checks.

Stunning Fist givers the player some daily charges of a special attack that, when used has the chance to stun an opponent.

Starting gear:

*This section varies depending on the amount of starting gold determined by the DM*

Monks have a unique ability that adds to their movement speed if not wearing armor, as such their high dexterity makes up for the lack of armor.

Also since monks have Improved unarmed strike as a starting feat, they don’t need to buy a melee weapon. 

Ranged weapon: a monk has proficiency with crossbows, so it would greatly benefit them to have a range weapon. A light crossbow is easier to carry and use and wouldn’t hinder the bonus movement speed. While a heavy crossbow would be harder to maneuver with but deal more damage and has a larger range increment. 

Good starting items for a monk to have would be travel rations, camp equipment, and rope, as well as potions of healing if the player can afford them 

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First off, a bit of a rule review for newcomers, as well as help understand future posts. When creating a character, one of the most important steps to creating a character is to acquire the 6 numbers that determine your character’s stats.

Stat numbers are extremely important as all other aspects of the character derive from one or more of those 6 stats. However, you can not just make them up, or set them as high as you want. There are rules to acquire stat numbers, and only by using one of the following can you get real stat numbers for your character. (As there are multiple ways to acquire stats, you need to talk to your Dungeon Master (DM) about which method to use, as all players in a campaign must follow the same rules.)

Rolling (Important, always have the DM witness your rolls, so they can verify you legitimately got those rolls and not just made them up or ignored the low numbers)

The most basic way to get stat numbers is to roll some dice and add them together. When rolling, please note that you are not allowed to discard some rolls and try again. You must make 6 consecutive rolls and keep those 6 results. If you want to reroll one number, you must reroll all 6 numbers. 

There are several ways you can roll the dice, but two of the most common methods is to roll 3 six sided dice (reffered to as d6) and add them, or roll 4 d6 and add the three largest results. The 6 total numbers should range from 3 to 18 using this method. 

Point-buy system:

http://www.propelled.de/extern/chargen perfect example of a 3.5 point-buy calculator.

A point-buy system has the players buy stat numbers by spending points in exchange for those stats, the higher the stat number the more points needed to buy it. This system requires the DM to clearly tell all players how many points they are allowed to spend. So a 28 point rule means players can not buy stat numbers whose cost exceeds 28. 

This system does not allow players to make everything max, but instead forces them to think about how to maximize their potential and make them focus on what their character does best.

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Welcome to D,D&D

Welcome everyone to Dungeons Dragons & Dorks. Here at D,D&D we bring you various character builds, Dungeon Master tips, and sharing stories of strange, funny or just plain confusing situations. Now before you go and see what we have to offer, there are some things you should know. First off, the edition of d&d I’ll mostly talk about. There are 6 different versions of the base d&d game, with dozens of extras added on over the years. However here on this blog, I’ll be talking about the 3.5 edition. 3.5 is not the best, nor the worst, it’s just the edition I’ve played most and as a result have the most knowledge of. Therefore, most of these posts will be talking about 3.5e mechanic. Second, This blog will mainly be OPINIONS, nothing in d&d is set in stone as the best way to play something or do something so don’t think that these builds are absolute, feel free to make any changes you want, and enjoy!