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[NJW2000]

Tell the dragon the dwarven elders laughed and claimed she wasn't even a threat. One burnt-out hillocks later and dwarven steel is on your side.

Just make sure it sounds like the dwarven leaders were really dumb, rather than your songs being really bad and unclear.

[Mephisto]

Last night's session was amazing right up until the end, where it was revealed that the final battle was an intentional TPK and that it was All Just a Dream because a good chunk of the party weren't going to be there.

I got to do more support than usual, which was nice for a change. Mantle of Inspiration is pretty great if most of the party is getting ganked by attribute-draining shadow monsters, and the DM hates it when he clumps up enemies and I take advantage of the situation by casting Faerie Lights, forcing him to roll six Dex saves.

Oh, and we lack a cleric. Our only healing came from my bard. I blew half of my first level slots on Cure Wounds and I got to use Song of Rest for the first time. Technically the ranger could have sort of helped out, but it was his first game and he thought "Goodberry" was a joke.

I feel kind of bad that we showed our hands in a session that ultimately didn't matter. I guess the deer in the headlights look the DM gave us several times made up for it.

DM: "You're all locked in jail cells." Me: "I cast Knock." Sorcerer: "I Dimension Door."

DM: "You hear chanting in a language that you don't understand." Sorcerer: "I cast Comprehend Languages."

[Jimmy]

Got a fun few sessions prepped for my group.

They're still working their way through the demon dungeons featuring the seven deadly sins, and they're close to encountering lust.

I'm extremely pleased to have built the encounter containing the following features:

• The male demon avatar of lust with three succubi triplet minions
• All enemies naked (wearing no clothing or armor)
• Succubi featuring extremely strong grapple abilities
• Equipment to render captured characters helpless
• Lust demon wielding two revolvers with appropriate puns
• Bard ranks on lust demon for extra hip-thrusting dance moves whilst fighting

A pretty difficult CR 16 encounter with some fun mechanics overall. Looking forward to seeing how it plays out at the table.

[smjjames]

I’ve heard the grapple rule book is as thick as an Oxford Dictionary.

I guess they just finished the greed one and lust is next?

[SOLDIER First]

You got that dictionary’s number?

[Mephisto]

Assuming 5e as that's pretty much the only game most people play ( )...

Grappling isn't bad. There's a short blurb talking about modifiers. There's a short description of what being grappled does to your character.

If you want a lengthy tome on grappling, however, look no further than GURPS.

[IcyTea31]

IIRC Jimmy plays 3.5, where the grappling rules are complex enough to need a flowchart, but really not that long.

[Criptfeind]

Grappling rules have a really overblown reputation for complexity in 3.5. It's really just a couple of checks that are basically attack rolls, then a list of things you can and can't do when in a grapple.

Here are the rules for them. Really not that complex at all, only really possibly so in comparison to just 1d20+modifiers "Do I hit?" I suspect the reason why they have this super exaggerated reputation is just because it's not something that the normal party actually purposefully does a lot (humanoids almost never want to grapple a monster unless they are hyper specialized in it, and monsters normally have an attack routine that a gm is unlikely to deviate from a lot of the time.) so that when it does really rarely come up it prompts people to need to open the rule book since they've not memorized it. But I think overall it's a lot less complex and intellectually stressing to use then say, a magic user choosing what spell to cast every turn.

[smjjames]

I was trying to make the same sort of joke Darths and Droids made here about grappling rules, or possibly here.

I think they use 3.5

[Mephisto]

Having advantage against everything medium or smaller sounds great. There are other ways of getting lots of advantage if you're determined, however, though probably none of them work for a polearm fighter.

If you're doing a bunch of dungeon delving or movement in areas unacceptable for horses, it'd be kind of a dead feat.

[pikachu17]

Well, that is assuming you don't have access to griffons, and such.
Or centaurs.
But yeah, regular horses are really hard to take through dungeons, and even flying mounts tend to have some trouble in dungeons.
I don't know what precisely that subclass does, but if it pretty much requires mounts, then mounted combatant is good, as it gives advantage to melee weapon attack rolls against creatures smaller than your mount, and makes your mount much harder to kill.
 If you can take two feats, may I recommend Sentinel, considering you already have pole arm master?

[Rolan7]

Our 5e paladin just earned his mount, and we're still in a dungeon, so he chose a riding lizard.  He didn't use it yet (because we don't know how mounted combat works in 5e, heh) but it has a climbing speed and can attach to ceilings...

[IcyTea31]

(because we don't know how mounted combat works in 5e, heh)

With an unintelligent mount and a rider without the Mounted Combatant feat, things don't change a lot:

• It costs half one's movement to mount or dismount. If the mount is moved against its will or if you go prone while mounted, DC10 Dex save to not fall off and prone next to it. If mount goes prone, reaction to land on your feet, otherwise prone next to it.
• The mount can be controlled or act independently. If controlled, it takes its turn at the same time as the rider, and can only Dash, Disengage or Dodge. Disengaging or dodging only gives benefit to the mount, not the rider. If it acts independently, it gets its own turn with no limitations to actions, but is controlled by the DM.

Basically, when not given free rein, a mount speeds you up and frees action economy for mobility but doesn't actually "do" a lot. When given free rein, the mount is an allied creature that might help attack your enemies, but also might act unexpectedly. However, due to the wording of the Find Steed spell, which I assume is the case here, there's a bit of a gray area. The spell states that the summoned mount is intelligent, loyal and follows commands as best it can, so it's up to the DM to decide whether the rider can let it act 'indepedently' but still give verbal commands as a free action, which would give the best of both worlds.

[smjjames]

Our 5e paladin just earned his mount, and we're still in a dungeon, so he chose a riding lizard.  He didn't use it yet (because we don't know how mounted combat works in 5e, heh) but it has a climbing speed and can attach to ceilings...

Is it that yipping bird-lizard from Kamino?

[Kadzar]

Are you talking about a varactyl? They're actually from Utapau.