Tabletop Roleplaying Games (D&D, Pathfinder, CoC, ETC.)

[Hummingbird]

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I got one for the list: "I wasn't picking a fight, I'm just messing with him."

 

[The Ugly One]

I'll agree reputation and expectation play a part, but part of it is design.

D&D pre-3e characters are just assumed to die. the PHB speaks to playing as the character you roll, not the character you design.
Even in 2e that was starting to shift and after 3.5 it was about making your super special novella backstory wizard, hooking up feats and backgrounds to min-mix to the fullest represent your character.

Its also player commitment. There is no character building in B/X, you roll 6 stats and adjust the numbers on the class grid. Fill in a name, and now roll out. 5e even with the reddit guides telling you what your perfectly min-maxed build is, it still takes a while to fill out the sheet.

Combat in 5e is a fairly drawn out affair, an hour or so usually. In OSE its like 15 minutes. Players spend more time interacting with the world (and trying to figure out where the trap that will kill them is hidden) than crossing swords.
5e characters are not as relatively beefy as 4e but they are still hard to kill.

Again, you can - and peopel have - taken the 5e rules and make an expected lethality system with them. but you need to rewrite about half the game to do it.

I only had to change a single 5e rule to make it lethal: I stretched out the XP table so you don't hit level 5 after a few sessions. From that point on, I just run AD&D-style dungeons instead of 5e-style sequential "balanced encounters." That's really all there is to it. Stop holding players' hands, stop carefully balancing every room so they can Leroy Jenkins it with swords drawn, put in traps that do serious damage, don't fudge rolls, and stupid players will die a lot. You don't even need to rely on cheap tricks like save-or-die.

 

[DDBCAE CBAADCBE]

I have a question.

How do you feel about the Monk’s Slow Fall in 5e. This is my first time playing a monk and well it just feels really broken.
For instance yesterday my character fell 100ft and survived without taking a single damage. Then before that I was subjected to a Geas which I was able to dispel with an Action via Still Mind. It just feels like I’m way more powerful than most other players with just base monk and that’s not even getting into what ridiculous bullshit I get up to with Shadow Step, Darkness, and Blindsight(From a Feat), as a Shadow Monk. Am I crazy? I was told this was the worst class.

 

[Mr. Manchester]

I have a question.

How do you feel about the Monk’s Slow Fall in 5e. This is my first time playing a monk and well it just feels really broken.
For instance yesterday my character fell 100ft and survived without taking a single damage. Then before that I was subjected to a Geas which I was able to dispel with an Action via Still Mind. It just feels like I’m way more powerful than most other players with just base monk and that’s not even getting into what ridiculous bullshit I get up to with Shadow Step, Darkness, and Blindsight(From a Feat), as a Shadow Monk. Am I crazy? I was told this was the worst class.

Slowfall is so circumstantial that you'll probably only use it once in the campaign if that unless you plan around it, which you should totally do. Still Mind is going to come up a little bit more but not as much as you think, that particular use fits the class really well anyway. Everything else is comparable to other classes. I played a shadow monk for a little while and although I think they're a good class I wouldn't call them diviner wizards. It's actually really cool you got to use all your stuff.

 

[Adamska]

I have a question.

How do you feel about the Monk’s Slow Fall in 5e. This is my first time playing a monk and well it just feels really broken.
For instance yesterday my character fell 100ft and survived without taking a single damage. Then before that I was subjected to a Geas which I was able to dispel with an Action via Still Mind. It just feels like I’m way more powerful than most other players with just base monk and that’s not even getting into what ridiculous bullshit I get up to with Shadow Step, Darkness, and Blindsight(From a Feat), as a Shadow Monk. Am I crazy? I was told this was the worst class.

It's so circumstantial that has a good shot of being one of the only times you ever use it. I played a monk and in the words of the veteran powergamer in my group I was the first time he's EVER seen anyone use it, and he's played DnD for years on end.

Monks suck complete shit in 3.x, but in 5e they're pretty decent at dealing with single enemies due to being reworked. 5e's biggest strength is that classes tend to be balanced well for each other and what seems horseshit to you is balanced by the other guys having horseshit too.

It's why I think people are smoking crack when they want to make a hardmode version of 5e. Just fucking use older editions, B/X comes to mind in particular and is just as simple.

 

[DDBCAE CBAADCBE]

Slowfall is so circumstantial that you'll probably only use it once in the campaign if that unless you plan around it, which you should totally do. Still Mind is going to come up a little bit more but not as much as you think, that particular use fits the class really well anyway. Everything else is comparable to other classes. I played a shadow monk for a little while and although I think they're a good class I wouldn't call them diviner wizards. It's actually really cool you got to use all your stuff.

I personally end up using Slowfall a lot. My DM uses a lot of elevated terrain and my character usually works out of the campaign’s main city. I do a lot of jumping off buildings and such as I’m navigating using City Secrets.

 

[Adamska]

I personally end up using Slowfall a lot. My DM uses a lot of elevated terrain and my character usually works out of the campaign’s main city. I do a lot of jumping off buildings and such as I’m navigating using City Secrets.

You're literally the first person I've met that uses it so regularly then. But I raise you this: Wizards learn how to do this but better by level 5 with Fly. And can spiderman around by level 3.

Again, usually circumstantial.

 

[The Ugly One]

I have a question.

How do you feel about the Monk’s Slow Fall in 5e. This is my first time playing a monk and well it just feels really broken.
For instance yesterday my character fell 100ft and survived without taking a single damage. Then before that I was subjected to a Geas which I was able to dispel with an Action via Still Mind. It just feels like I’m way more powerful than most other players with just base monk and that’s not even getting into what ridiculous bullshit I get up to with Shadow Step, Darkness, and Blindsight(From a Feat), as a Shadow Monk. Am I crazy? I was told this was the worst class.

5e monks are glass cannons. Tough getting them past the first few levels, don't really kick ass until later, and they do go down easily at any level, relative to other characters.

 

[Mr. Manchester]

I personally end up using Slowfall a lot. My DM uses a lot of elevated terrain and my character usually works out of the campaign’s main city. I do a lot of jumping off buildings and such as I’m navigating using City Secrets.

Well that's just awesome then. To further the wizard comparison they can cast feather fall as a first level spell and hit the entire party with it, but they're assholes so I wouldn't worry about their bullshit. That's just a creative way to use a weird minor ability you have.

 

[DDBCAE CBAADCBE]

5e monks are glass cannons. Tough getting them past the first few levels, don't really kick ass until later, and they do go down easily at any level, relative to other characters.

That’s the only real downside I’ve noticed which is why I took Mobile. I play the character as a hit and run rogue getting in and out of the enemies line of sight and speed so I can’t get melee’d. It’s a pretty amazing build.

 

[Adamska]

That’s the only real downside I’ve noticed which is why I took Mobile. I play the character as a hit and run rogue getting in and out of the enemies line of sight and speed so I can’t get melee’d. It’s a pretty amazing build.

Throw in some Stunning fists; you can really fuck over particularly nasty monsters. I've played monk in 5e; it was such a fun ride, especially since I played him dumb but good at readin' people.

 

[The Ugly One]

That’s the only real downside I’ve noticed which is why I took Mobile. I play the character as a hit and run rogue getting in and out of the enemies line of sight and speed so I can’t get melee’d. It’s a pretty amazing build.

Yeah, they're pretty dope. Way of Shadows is one of the more underrated classes in 5e.

 

[DDBCAE CBAADCBE]

Throw in some Stunning fists; you can really fuck over particularly nasty monsters. I've played monk in 5e; it was such a fun ride, especially since I played him dumb but good at readin' people.

Oh yeah, Stunning Strike is stupid fun. Especially in 1v1 fights where you can stun lock your opponent or in my case sometimes multiple opponents allowing your allies to massacre them. I think it’s the first time I’ve used Pass Without Trace and that’s really another thing that puts this build over the top for me. I mean I’ve played a lot of other classes, other ridiculous builds but this is easily in the top two. It feels wrong.

 

[Mega Black]

If anything it's the opposite problem I have where any attempt to write a character that's grounded, I find myself sitting between to "Adelf Hitler" and "Poo poo Pachoo the goblin artificer that throws poo".

This happens to me all the time, but it usually makes for fun character interaction. My friends don't usually veer into Poo poo territory but they're usually some wacky flavor, which makes my relatively archetypal or grounded characters the straight men. It's not a bad niche to fill and the DM usually appreciates having someone he can build reasonable conflicts around.

Citation needed. I have been playing TTRP with others for almost 25 years and still have zero clue where these people are getting such stupid impressions of our hobby. They all seem like paper tigers at this point. I am not the usual demographic gender or colour wise and I've had zero issues.

It's an impression garnered mostly from clickbait youtube videos reading greentexts about how the creepy guy at the table tried to pin down and rape the local totally cool and not at all made up gamer girl who was just getting into the game and who really liked me but not him and we had sex later. There's a lot online about these sorts of interactions and internet personalities fan the flames for the sake of easy ad-revenue.

If you're perpetually online or constantly playing with randoms then, yeah, you're probably going to have a negative experience or two but that's what you get when you enter any kind of public space. The good times aren't as notable to you because they're more prevalent, so the bad ones stick out and make for entertaining stories to recount because they're rife with conflict. As someone who has only recently gotten into tabletop my experience has been largely positive, but I'm also not a retard who plays with transgender superqueers. I play with my friends.

 

[Abella]

Citation needed. I have been playing TTRP with others for almost 25 years and still have zero clue where these people are getting such stupid impressions of our hobby. They all seem like paper tigers at this point. I am not the usual demographic gender or colour wise and I've had zero issues.

All one need to do is: Shut up, nut up, understand what you're doing (AKA read the fucking rules), being enthusiastic and happy and engaged, be gracious and kind to others who like the hobby, thank people who give you advice, thank people who take the time to play with you and most important: Play. The. Game.

That is it. Are there some social weirdos out there? Yeah sure. Every LGS has that guy. But my overwhelming experience has been good and people have been accomdating and nice. I guess it helps to not take offence at every little thing or when people try to give you lore dumps or info you already know. They're enthused to share something and that is genuinely nice. I just match it and give them lore back. Y'know. Like a normal conversation.

I think a lot of these same screaming about how awful the Hobby is stems from people assuming the absolute worse in others. Seems so utterly cynical. I don't know how they function in society just thinking everyone is awful.

The thing is with these players is that they’re usually the annoying ones. They’re the ones who want their character to be a troon or something else that’ll make them an exception. I’ve had players like that roll up a character and then say they’re gay because they don’t like that a -cubus is trying to seduce them.

The TTRPG hobby’s also become appealing to the type of people who are boring and want to make it a lifestyle rather than just a hobby. As such, they can’t refrain from even the idea of not including real world matters or identity politics and it becomes exhausting fast.

 

[EnemyStand]

The thing is with these players is that they’re usually the annoying ones. They’re the ones who want their character to be a troon or something else that’ll make them an exception. I’ve had players like that roll up a character and then say they’re gay because they don’t like that a -cubus is trying to seduce them.

Oh yeah, that happened once. Too bad it's supernatural so faggotry is no defense, and even if it was there's always rape. Use that Chaotic Evil alignment!

The TTRPG hobby’s also become appealing to the type of people who are boring and want to make it a lifestyle rather than just a hobby. As such, they can’t refrain from even the idea of not including real world matters or identity politics and it becomes exhausting fast.

Yeah, hence why I ban them from my table.

 

[The Ugly One]

I find it really easy to get rid of faggots in public games. I tell them I don't give a fuck about their back story, your story is your heroic deeds in the campaign. Also, expect your first few characters to die, because that's the only way to ensure the one who survives will be a legend.

 

[Snekposter]

Monks suck complete shit in 3.x, but in 5e they're pretty decent at dealing with single enemies due to being reworked. 5e's biggest strength is that classes tend to be balanced well for each other and what seems horseshit to you is balanced by the other guys having horseshit too.

Except fighters. They're horseshit-free near as I can tell if you rock a traditional build. Its when you go Archery+Crossbow Expert+Sharpshooter that DM's start crying since at 6th level you can toss out 2 shots per turn out to 400 yards that ignore all but the heaviest cover with no range penalties, and with a +5 to hit plus whatever your Dex bonus is. If you choose Champion at 10th level you can snag Two-Weapon Fighting and dual-wield hand crossbows in melee like a Medieval version of Equilibrium.

Sadly, things aren't nearly as fun if you go down the strength route unless you go with polearms or dual-wielding, since the bog-standard great weapons don't get any unique feats in the way polearms do. Great Weapon Master also gives its benefits to polearms since they're Heavy, and Dual-Wielder lets you use a longsword in each hand with no downsides. Gone is Monkey Grip for greatsword and board fun.

(Really, Crossbow Expert and Sharpshooter are absolutely broken feats out there in 5e for anyone wanting a ranged martial.)

 

[Corn Flakes]

Except fighters. They're horseshit-free near as I can tell if you rock a traditional build. Its when you go Archery+Crossbow Expert+Sharpshooter that DM's start crying since at 6th level you can toss out 2 shots per turn out to 400 yards that ignore all but the heaviest cover with no range penalties, and with a +5 to hit plus whatever your Dex bonus is. If you choose Champion at 10th level you can snag Two-Weapon Fighting and dual-wield hand crossbows in melee like a Medieval version of Equilibrium.

Sadly, things aren't nearly as fun if you go down the strength route unless you go with polearms or dual-wielding, since the bog-standard great weapons don't get any unique feats in the way polearms do. Great Weapon Master also gives its benefits to polearms since they're Heavy, and Dual-Wielder lets you use a longsword in each hand with no downsides. Gone is Monkey Grip for greatsword and board fun.

(Really, Crossbow Expert and Sharpshooter are absolutely broken feats out there in 5e for anyone wanting a ranged martial.)

Two things:

1 - things are never as fun if you go down the Strength route in 5e. It was already bad in 3.5e but at least Weapon Finesse didn't allow you to add your Dex to damage so Dexterity was always more of a defensive thing. In 5e Dex just completely overshadows Strength at nearly everything.

2 - you can dual-wield hand-crossbows in melee like a Diablo character as a Fighter, meanwhile Rangers are still weeping in the corner.

 

[40 Year Old Boomer]

The only way vanilla dual wielding competes with other fighting styles is if you invest in crossbow expert/sharpshooter. Without that, even Dueling style shits all over it. And having played 5e for like 7 years now, I can attest that strength martials are always more fun than dex martials. I will not elaborate, if you can't figure out why, you should stay at shallow end of the attribute pool because you won't pass the strength (athletics) check to keep from drowning.