D&D For Days

- Get 3-5 major events that you like

- Make a simple story out of those

- Flesh out main characters

- Populate world with fun details

- Add combat

My experience with actually playing D&D went quickly from low powered to OP to optimized. I think this is, in part, due to the people I played with. A big part would be how much time I put into studying and learning the game. There's no 'right way' to play, but I feel there is a 'good way' or 'better method' to approaching the game. Once you fall into the pit of cross classing, feat selection, and abusing game mechanics; well it's a long climb out.

When you first start playing opportunities to make a strong build are clear. This species gets +2 to strength, this class uses strength. It's a no brainer. Having a weak character isn't fun but you don't have to go straight to having a beast either. At this low level (out of game experience that is) the most fun can be had. Everything is new and exciting! If you are in a party all of the same power level the DM can easily adjust and send the appropriate monster out.

It's not until there's a jump in power levels that it gets tricky for the DM to balance. One or two players can play at a higher knoweldability and application, and they will likely end up being the powerhouses of the party. A full party of experienced players who aren't giving it their all makes for a beautiful, dynamic experience. I'm not saying one shouldn't put their full efforts into any in-game situation, but rather when the players know how to optimize but don't use crazy builds. A party acting like this can have a new-to-the-game player come in and learn quickly yet not feel far behind on start up. An experienced player can come in and not feel like they're dealing with a bunch of newbies. At this point you may be dealing with a bunch of books, but nothing that will break your backpack. It's when an 'any book goes' sandbox campaign is used, the beasts start to sneak out.

You've been playing for a year, you've read more than you'll ever need to read and built more sample builds than you'll ever play. You can pick apart game mechanics, explain how they work and how to abuse them. You can look at a list of classes and say, "If built correctly, these two will be the strongest characters, these will be good but over specialized and only function when their specialization if called upon, and these would make good minions to follow my God of a character. This raw amount of knowledge is awesome! But, after I worked with it for a while I found the game was lacking something.

No longer was I RPing but I was playing the progression of my character, waiting to get to it's full potential, narrating the process. It was clear what I needed to do and when, what items to make/buy/look for, and even what to suggest to the DM in order to push things in my favour (unethical, a question of should all players run the game or just the DM, and another topic all together). While playing with players who were mid-way between the first and second level of experience with the game it hit me, "Duh, why don't I just start building unoptimized builds?" and that's where it started to get really fun.

I like to divide game knowledge and ability into the three levels listed above, but there's a forth. When you break through and start to build with odd things intended. Sure, the mechanics behind an artificer making poison will take lots of time and therefore satisfy my desire to put time into a build, but when it comes to gameplay it may not hold up. Especially if I've neglected several aspects of optimization and made for more rollplaying content. This species doesn't match this class well, but oh well. I like this species and this class! If played intelligently I won't get put down right away, and something interesting is sure to arise if I spend most of the time with my party trying to convert them to another deity.

Of course there are always other options. Something I saw on my favourite D&D forum was a call to move back to basics. An attempt to play without the fluff rules which are found across thirty books that make for a realistic universe, A strive to use less classes and other options so there was less temptation to make super powerful builds. I was going to start building in this fashion if it wasn't for the release of 5e which has done a lot of streamlining and has little content to work with. So, I'm stoked to find a group and start the process all over again. This time slower, but I'm going to learn the game and then breath the game (then break the game, but shhh). Making the best character won't be an issue because it'll be fun.

You've been removed from the party, temporarily but alas in the moment, and have had your time in the limelight. Other players are getting impatient due to their lack of skill in time managment, in combination of fear you're going to get too much XP that they could of had a share of.

DM: Anything else?

You: Nope, I'll wait.

Now what?

I've found myself in this spot many times. As a character who's been smitten to the ground, knocked unconscious, or sundered from game play in one of endless possibilities (many being avoidable, but that's to come). While the option to start playing Tetris is there, an option I try to choose as little as possible while still entertaining the idea, you now have three to twenty minutes of time! It's not necessary to make all of your time productive... but why not do it anyways?

One reason I started using Tumblr was so I could have a 'productive' down time. Something which would build, keep me entertained, and the idea of coffee money via Google Ad Sense was appealing. In order to get my ten dollar cheque I'd need a following, and for that I'd need to put out a good quantity of quality content. I'm still working on all of that, and even finding time to put aside and write is a struggle, but the same philosophy can be applied to your gaming time. You have some down time, what can you apply it to?

If you have better things to work on but have put it off anyways, now's a prime time slot. I'm not saying get up and do your laundry, but grind some homework away or even better, save yourself some time later in the game. This will reduce downtime later on and get you more prepared.

When I set up my gaming table/couch/floor space one of the first things I do is boot up my laptop, get my books out, and get my notes out. These don't have to be spread out everywhere (oh what a mess) but rather made accessible. To keep focused and quick about everything I try to apply a bit of a priory system to it all:

Gameplay. Never make others wait for you if avoidable, never put so much attention elsewhere that you don't pay attetion. Nothing's worse than missing something. When I DM anvils drop from the sky when ever someone isn't paying attention.

"Roll a d6." "..." "ehhem, roll a d6." "Sure, why?" "An anvil just hit you."

Issues with the rules. An argument about what the rules say is bound to come up at some point, especially with 3e. While this will be lessened in 5e, it's still going to happen. If something arises be ready to stamp it out. If you have some downtime and don't understand a game mechanic, now's a good chance to take a look. Further more if you have a book open and a debate comes up, it's your obligation to get on that quickly. We're here to fight dragons, not squabble.

Levelling. Want to speed up the levelling process? Do what you can to do so before it has to happen. While your DM or house rules might not want any dice rolls to happen early, there's lots more you can do. Have a list of feats prepared, then upon time arriving you'll of been able to think about them a bit more. You'll see what your player has been lacking. Some would say it's best to have all your levels ready before starting, or at least be several levels ahead of the game play. Personally I feel that takes away from the RP and process; but that's for another post.

Back up character. Always have a back up character ready because you never know when a trap will spring, a sword will drop, or you'll be dropped. The building process takes quite a while if you are carefull and look at the number of sources I would. If you're playing with the PHB only then you may be able to make a character in a few minutes. For those who want the depth of customization that is available, that's just not going to cut it. Be it a set of notes saying 'species, class(es), feats, skill, etc.' or a character sheet with the minimal details filled in, having something ready is comforting and saves time. Just don't fall in love with your new character, that's quite the pit-fall.

Quick reference. Do you cast spells? I hope you have a personal guide to the spells you're using. Crafting complex, multistep, magical items? Don't get caught with your +1 flaming, wand slotted swordbow, surprise weapon missing a piece turning it into a pretty flaming string with two sticks. How about use poison? Anyone who's going to be picking plants, making brews, or caring around a bag of unmarked bottles isn't going to like digging through a book at the last second. Quick tip: if doing anything with poison, plants, or foragables work with your DM to have a percentile table for when ever you search for something of the sorts.

I can't stress how important it is to be prepared. Even more so, I can't stress how much more important it is to pay attention. You can show up to a session a little bit behind on your notes, but if you cause something to be repeated then you're now officially a problem. What else can be done to avoid downtime though?

Playing simple classes is a good start. Any experienced player can run a Wizard 5/Artificer 4/Master of Masks 1/Druid 4/Psyblade 3/ Urpreist 3 (just as an example of a bunch of options thrown together, please don't try this build at the table unless you've refined it to a machine. I feel sorry for the DM who deals with it..) but if you're new to the game don't worry about optimization. Worry about functioning and having a good time.

Have your turn ready as well. Be watching what's happening and think, "what should I do if this, this or this happens?" Depending on the party each turn could be fairly rinse and repeat, or you could be dealing with the situation changing with every player acting. Don't get caught with your pants down when it comes to your turn, and don't be afraid to suspend your turn if that happens. You can pick it up at the end of the order, you'll still get a chance to act, and everything should run a bit more smoothly. This isn't always a good option, but it's there.

Keep the party together! Ughhhhh, one group I played with would separate at the drop of a hat and it just didn't work well. In-Game time has to occur twice when the DM has to go over one situation with one group, and then again with the sundered faction. Sometimes this works, such as markets. The more I think of it the more situations a group could reasonable break apart for, but something tells me nope.

My last few posts, which I took the time to type instead of just looking for interesting content (pftt, effort? Not ever day) and reblogging, were summaries of the characters I've played enough to really get to know as well as a couple other characters who seemed significant. Many of my favourite characters and/or builds I've never been able to play. Perhaps my favourite would be a character I built to resemble Slenderman. This was another 3e build.

I started with a human for the bonus feat. Knowing I might become useless in many regions due to specialization I wasn't afraid to use some Unearthed Arcana flaws to pick up the extra two feats I needed. If I remember correctly most of the feats were from the Book of Vile Darkness (such a beautiful book, 3.0 unfortunately but we were playing with any books available) and a couple from the 3.5 upgrade Hero's of Horror. There was the mutilation feat, which allowed for other mutilation feats. One was my body had been stretched well over seven feet tall, and my arms as well. This gave me a longer reach. My hands had been broken, graphed, altered and made into a tool; essentially claws in exchange for a negative on Dex checks. This also turned my hands into an effective weapon dealing 1d6 damage. Improved trip was in there too, I'm feeling I'm going to need to find my paper for this character to post the other feats for that's all that's coming to mind.

As for an outfit and general appearance: pale skin, dark eyes, and black fine clothes. A small black backpack held a few visible toys such as a sickle, while my hand held a scythe (what's more evil than a sickle and a scythe?). When I spoke for this character I used a voice which accentuated 's' 'c' 'k' 'x' and elongated vowels when it seemed appropriate. My speech mannerism was built on getting the job done, suggesting morally terrible actions, and murmuring possible threats. The rest was left open ended as I could leave it. My goal was for the other characters to build an image, which was rather uniform after discussing it with them. I feel I succeeded in building a character and not just a character build.

As for class I was a Cleric of Darkness and Artifice. This made for some nice 'n evil resembling magic and easier crafting, which came in handy for one of my specializations which I'll mention soon. The cleric spells were a nice bonus for many of them were touch spells. What happens when you have touch spells, improved trip, reach, and an effective unarmed attack? Attacks of opportunity for days. When someone got close and I didn't swing at them with the extra range granted by having reach and a reach weapon, I could make an opportunity attack. Inflict 'x' wounds, +1d6 slashing, plus a free trip attempt (I'm not sure if this is a situation where the free trip was permitted according to RAW but the DM allowed it). Not much got close to me.

Now that I've built an appearance, mannerism, weapon set, series of feats, and picked a class which would allow me to exersize these all well, there was still lots of room for specialization of skills. Craft (Poison) was an easy choice. Not only is poison crafting the best crafting for money making, but it seemed to be just one more potentially evil feature to add. Finding all the rules in one place in a book was difficult but a few guides exist across popular forums. Lots of notes, double checking books, and asking the DM what I could and couldn't reasonably expect to find if I were to look for (this was one of the big flaws of poison which I'll discuss in another post dedicated more to the topic) lead to a good understanding of the aspect of game; which became more and more disappointing with more research. I stuck to it however, and carried around what was needed to whip up a mean brew (given I had four to eight hours of free time, could hit the target, and not kill it before the poison was actually useful).

Once you know how to break the game it's time to get creative. After my Half Elf Druid got executed for crimes against society/intelligence/the progress of the campaign it was time to put together something new and I wanted something creative. A kitty! As punishment for for my actions I met with my deity in the after life. As a plot piece and band aid solution hidden as coincidence I was reincarnated as a cat, who was also a vampire. I think only the vampire part was a punishment, because the cat part was just awesome.

The template needed some tweaking, in particular the part that says it can be applied to any humanoid. Some features were taken away to make for a LA+7 (Instead of 8), and the species was decided to have a negative LA. This left room for some Rouge levels, which I almost forgot about. I'll always remember this character first as a cat, then a vampire, and last a rouge.

So what are rouges good at? Sneak attacks, sneaking, hiding, and skill monkey'ing comes to mind. Cats? sneaking, hiding, jumping, killing mice and in this case any farm animals I found. Vampires? Hiding, sneaking, walking up walls, using the Dominate Person spell, giving negative levels, getting vampire minions, getting ridiculous temporary health points (I think we were doing this wrong, but I won't say no to the DM asking if I should have fifty extra HP instead of the forty five I wrote down), and getting burnt in the sun. This was avoided via a magical cloak and some careful actions.

Once these were all put together I had the sneakiest character I've ever encountered. Getting through a city/camp/courtyard/castle/anywhere that had people and started with the letter 'c' was a breeze at night. I was a cat! No one would question that. If they did I would make a cute check, well the DM called it a bluff check, and most people ended up trying to take me home when I passed by too high a number. Being vampiric did have an effect on my appearance, mainly being a bit grizzly and rough on the edges. Thick black hair, a slightly wolfish appearance and mannerism in actions, nothing which was going to be a problem when you could do this.

Interactions with the party were odd for the longest time. I retained all my memories but wasn't going to admit I was the same dumb ass who just got executed a few days ago. Heck, I wasn't going to admit much because I was a cat and couldn't talk. For the longest time I was just a cat who acted cute and got adopted by the Gnome Illusionsit in the party. He had another cat who I spoke to, who would pass messages onto the owner when needed. It was a Scottish cat and the running joke was its meow was closer to, "MEE-yeww" Later in gameplay the others started to notice odd things, like my tendency to wear a cloak during the day or not leave my owners backpack. I have no idea how that went unquestioned for so long. It wasn't until a feeding urge caused me to take down a farmer the truth was figured out, but at that point it didn't matter.

"Hey guys, um.. so this is what my cat just did..."

In the final battle we chased our target into a demonic plane, were one of the players underestimated our ability to make saves. He thought we'd all be fine if he used a Whale of the Banchee resembling spell to knock everyone else out. The boss passed, no one else did. We were all knocked around like a kid kicking rocks. Fun part about being a vampire is you don't quite die when you die...

So I've just been bashed around and turned back to my gaseous form, and snuck back into the backpack which I called my coffin. To confirm everyone was dead a couple Hell Hounds were summoned and they searched the area. Nothing was found. The building we were in was broken down just to make sure. Where was I? Still hiding. I somehow managed to be good at hiding and wasn't noticed! Oh the beautiful logic flaws that come about from a dice game and unrealistic numbers.

It was decided I had been crafty enough to last that long, and we weren't in a very dangerous area of the plane. I spent the next hundred years or so working my way up in levels via hunting small demons and anything else what wasn't much of a threat. Due to immortality time wasn't an issue, but getting home was. My new character levels were put into some wizard levels until I could telaport back to the material plane. Once there I created a small army of vampire chickens and cats and caused some traditional powerful vampire havoc. Of course this was all done as a cut scene once we knew I was safe.

In a crimp for time after my behemoth of a Shardmind (3.5 conversion) Monk died at the hand of an earth elemental the other players blasted through some quick battles. We wanted to finish the campaign at level 20 in an epic final battle where we'd be destroyed or the much more pleasurable option, we'd defeat the evil Illithid and move on with life. While the other characters did this I pulled out my back up notes and went to throwing a new character together. A human fighter! Nothing to be proud of at the most basic description, but I wanted to specialize in an odd region. This fighter liked to throw things. With a couple feats pulled out of the D&D Wiki I found how to combine some nice feats and features into something which just shouldn't be.

With Int as a dump stat, this six foot something human must of had arms the size of legs and a brain the size of an apple. A feat to allow a weapon to deliver damage as if swung, when thrown; some two weapon fighting; a feat to allow wielding weapons bigger than normal; oh and another one of those, one of those 'greater x' feats; some ranged weapon feats including one which would allow a projectile to pierce through a target and keep going (ooh that moment when a bunch of baddies line up in the perfect spot); just the core details without any fuzz was enough to hold his own in battle. It was some fuzz which really brought it to life. With the ability to hold some pretty big swords and a nice BAB from being level nineteen, the negative from throwing a two handed weapon with one hand wasn't a big deal.

What would you do when you turned the corner and someone started pulling great swords out of not a scabbard but a large quiver? Most targets just got shredded. They didn't even need to worry about making that decision. It made sense to store large ammo in a large ammo case, and a comically large quiver came out of it. With the ability to throw huge items with a decent impact the question was now, "How can I take this a step further?" Blunt force damage is fun and all but not very much when you're throwing rocks (which reminds me, someone ask about my rock throwing build sometime...). When you start attaching things to rocks it gets good.

"I call it my caustic cluster fuck!"

One rock, some rope, three vials. One with acid, one with oil, and one with alchemists fire. It was decided the oil would dilute the acid a bit but adding some extra damage what ever the cost was the goal. Oil made putting the fire out harder, and reserves of oil were kept on a belt. When the fire looked like it would be going out but it was still holing true, the decision was easy. Come to think of it, throwing a vial with that much force might of just turned the oil into a mist which would explode around the target.. too late now.

Other gear included an (oversized, because I could) crowbar, lots of med-kits (we were playing with a variant healing system), and a winter blanket. I'm sure there was more, but these stand out because they became the basis of the items I tend to give every character. It's on my to-do list to write a post about how to equip someone for any situation.

Remember the dump stat? Having an intelligence comparable to an infant was a lot of fun to play. Once I heard that the elderly and children are quite the same, except children don't know how to get what they want. When I knew what I wanted, be it to kill something or to find a home, that's what I received. When you're packing around twice your weight in gear, most of which is sharp, and not quite right in the head NPC's generally just nodded and said yes. By the end of the campaign (we stabbed, pierced, burnt chemically and via raw heat, and otherwise gave the Illithid a bad time, final mission success) I wasn't allowed to go anywhere alone. When told to find an empty spot to call my own I found a house who's inhabitance weren't home. When told I had to find a blacksmith to fix my abused swords I wandered around for a while looking for Mr. or Ms. Smith, who I figured must of had dark skin. When asked to demonstrate my strength and worthiness to join the elite force in the army I may of killed another hopeful for the spot. Things just didn't go smoothly without a helping hand to point the right way, and that is why if someone asked me to play a dumb character again I would do it in a heartbeat.

While playing my Shardmind Monk I didn't get to do many whimsical things. Silly not-having-a-personality. This was usefull at many times, such as when we just escaped a castle which was at the top of the mountain.

DM: Alright, you guys made it out and it doesn't seem that anyone followed you. You're out of earshot. Would anyone like to victory skip?

Others: Of course!

Me: Nope.

DM: Perfect. Make a reflex save.

Others: Hu?

DM: You're victory skipping at the top of a mountain. You do remember you're on a mountain?

My very first character was a 4e Palidian. This character served for a chance for me to learn the game a bit, and then forget about. Seriously, I don't even remember the species. My original DM has the character sheet and I'm unsure where he is right now. Here's some more information about that character and the sessions he was used in.

What I consider my real first character was a Half-Elf Druid, with a badger as my animal companion. For the first few levels that beast of a badger was the main DPS for the party. I was the main fairly-useful-but-not-quite-usefull-enough character, who happened to come around with a beastly badger. Through a ritual I was going to upgrade my animal companion to a dire badger (a quick homebrew'ed solution to being a higher level and wanting a better companion, but finding an absence in the rules of how to upgrade), but that never took full form.

I don't have much to say about this character, in terms of specific events. He was the first to carry what later became a signature of mine, a quarterstaff (which I insisted on calling a Bō). Plenty of shenanigans were caused; many of which were due to how new I was to the game and how harsh we tried to keep things. If you made a mistake you lived with it, no do overs. Things were difficult and unforgiving, but that's how I like my games.

During the travels of this Druid he became the odd one out of the party and I even lost my player to character bond. His death was in vain, after making an action in error and accepting the consequences I tried to make amends... but killing a main NPC and derailing the quest didn't go over well.

"Do you want to sprint straight away or run with an erratic pattern to try to avoid the long bow?"

"What's the range on a long bow...?"

"Way further than you can run."

"I'll go for the zig-zag option."

"Does 21 beat your AC?"

While running the first campaign that took roots we decided to start a second one and alternate sessions. I played as a 3.5 converted Shardmind Monk. The link isn't the exact source I used, but it's rather similar. LA was fought off with removal of a bunch of traits, such as all of the psionic abilities past telepathy. The swarm form has many extra bits that I didn't use as well.

Now due to Shardmind's being constructs and such, they don't do much. By that I mean when it came to eating, breathing, sleeping, digesting, getting poisoned, and all those lame biological functions weren't an issue. Further more the 3.5 Monk is fairly easy to play. Few weapons (I chose no weapons, past caring around a quarter staff for the fun of it. Also 5e has done a beautiful thing with how they've fixed Monk damage), no weapons, no magic. I could walk into any situation and be mostly as prepared with or without my items. This made getting my stuff taken away from me way less nerve racking.

This character was played in the first campaign lead by the particular DM. He made some errors which I loved. One of them was not saying no to much that I asked, as long as it had a good backing. Shardminds have a few different philosophies about life, their origin, and what the implementations were. Originally there was a gate to another plain, fuelled by psionic energy. When this crystal gate was destroyed the pieces of the gate gained conciousness. Some thought this was a sign to keep the gate away in pieces, others thought it should be brought together. Some thought it should be protected, others thought it should be destroyed. I thought a bit differently. Looking at the scaling of size we generated some numbers of how many Shardmind bodies I had to add to mine to go up a size class. As a monk getting my size up was a nice damage bonus (although my dex was a mess by the end of it). It could be argued that 3.5 monks suck (I'll never admit it) and the size thing was there to make them a bit more useful. It could be argued that I had given up a bunch of features that were equal to some size bonuses. It should of been argued that the expected rate of growth was too much and I would turn into a enormous monstrosity near the end of level progression (being level 18 when I made a mistake and got shattered by an earth elemental).

It also could of been argued that going to the slave market to buy all the Shardminds, which were oddly abundant at a couple places, and killing them soon as we were out of sight of the public was an immoral thing; but that's where my neutral/chaotic alignment came in handy. I had a mission. I didn't care what others thought. I was going to get it done by what ever means needed. Could you guess this character didn't work well with others?

By stacking a Monk with feats aimed at grappling, tripping, charging, etc, building up its size, and later on having access to Dimension Door, much fun was had. I may write a guide about how to work with what you've got when you're running at 3.5 Monk. I also have many more characters, adventures those characters were in, and theoretical character builds that I never played with to share.

Some friends of mine had been playing D&D for a few months, getting together once a week in the basement of the DM's parents house. They knew I found the game interesting but I was slow to come for the 'just one session, and then you'll see if you like it or not.' I didn't want to get into something which I had to devote time to, being most of a day once a week; oh I had no idea how much time I was going to throw into it.

My prior experience playing had been a couple sessions of character building or playing with a bunch of people who had never played, and one veteran player trying to organize it. Bless his soul for it's patience. Considering the bunch he was teaching, I would of wanted to leave. The campaign that came out of this never took roots and we had a good time but never went back to it. We used 4e rules. After further research of them and gaining a deep knowledge of 3e, I'm glad we abandoned the 4e stuff. Eww. Not a bad game, but eww.

After that one 'just come once' session I knew I would be there every week. I often found myself first to arrive where I'd set up my laptop which held notes, get all my papers ready, and become annoyed at those who couldn't show up on time. During sessions I'd often be the one who was grumbling about getting back to game play and not getting off topic (excluding the handful of times I started playing Tetris when my character wasn't doing anything, but lets not talk about that for now) My time prior to coming was devoted to some research to make levelling up a faster process. Decision making for character building is something I like time and options, lots and lots of options (and enough time to go with). I also quickly found out how much 3e material there was available. A full on obsession had begun.

This research later expanded into full day sessions of character and world building, sharing ideas, reading and posting on my favourite D&D forum, and while I went about my day it would wash through my mind.