We need to divorce "martials" from "reality" if we want to narrow the "Martial Caster gap" and maybe take inspiration from anime, a thing this game has NEVER taken inspiration

Hot take i know /s xD

So this is something that has always bugged me with martials going back to antiquity honestly...

Martials have always been hamstrung by this stubborn adherence to "realism" that casters never get stuck with. Especially at later levels. Like im sorry but no, Aragorn is not a high level martial. He is like... level 5. Sung Jin-Woo and Yuji Itadori are the only true high level martials in fantasy media.

I feel a perfect sign of how limited martials are is actually seeing some of the footage leading up to the MinMax play group where David and Clark tested jf they could move and strike like a high level martial... and they could. And they are normal humans in the normal world limited by reality. Contrast this to Wizards, druids, warlocks, and what have you that are altering reality itself. As if that's the entire point of spellcasting! Strange.

Honestly I feel like a High level fighter should be looking like something you see in anime, not your standard fantasy. I have no idea what "4e" is, stop yelling at me. It's not like anime has already heavily influenced this entire hobby for at least twenty years. Jumping dozens of feet in the air and striking at enemies, being able to jump off of floating/falling debris to navigate (think like Stark from Freiren or Legolas from the LA adaptation of Za Hobbitō), attacking at range with the sheer force of their melee attacks (why does everyone keep asking me if I read anything but battle shonen?), create difficult terrain by stomping or striking the ground, etc. Like when you get to level like... 15. Yeah, level 15 makes sense for jumping off flying debris and shaking the earth by kicking it like I'm fucking Sukuna. My ideas are so sick and cool dude. Honestly martials should be able to do things that defy logic because they are just that damned powerful. Appendix N? Is that a Nen ability?

...My favourite fantasy novel? Do light novels and shonen battle manga count?

What are yours guys thoughts though?

i just started dming a homebrew campaign and introduced a romance subplot that happened to be heterosexual. my players reminded me that everyone at the table is gay?

so my question is: when did everyone who plays DnD become gay???

oh yeah also D&D martials need to be more like anime

I’m fairly new to DMing and I’m nearing the end of planning a new campaign with d&d beyond. One of my players is a warlock who’s spellcasting ability is charisma and they have followed the instructions in the PHB to make charisma their highest stat as well as putting decent numbers into dex and strength meaning their two main attacks now do 2d6+4 damage and 1d10 damage at level 3.

I know this is perfectly legal in the character creation process and actually recommended by the rules of the game but surely it is a little overpowered and probably metagaming? I feel if you're playing a class that uses a specific stat for something like attack rolls it should be the lowest stat and have a negative bonus.

The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles.

Wizard and fighter, bard and rogue, cleric and monk, in a word, oppressor and oppressed, stood in constant opposition to one another, carried on an uninterrupted, now hidden, now open fight, that each time ended, either in the revolutionary reconstitution of society at large, or in the common ruin of the contending classes.

The casting class, wherever it has got the upper hand, has put an end to all feudal, patriarchal, idyllic relations. It has pitilessly torn asunder the motley feudal ties that bound man to his 'natural superiors,' and has left remaining no other nexus between man and man than naked self-interest, callous 'experience points.' It has drowned the most heavenly ecstasies of religious fervor, of chivalrous enthusiasm, of philistine sentimentalism, in the icy water of egotistical calculation. It has resolved personal worth into exchange value, and in place of the numberless indefeasible chartered freedoms, has set up that single, unconscionable freedom—Extra Attack. In one word, for exploitation, veiled by religious and political illusions, it has substituted naked, shameless, direct, brutal exploitation.

The casting class has stripped of its halo every occupation hitherto honored and looked up to with reverent awe. It has converted the fighter, the barbarian, the rogue, the monk, into its paid wage laborers.

The casting class has torn away from the party its sentimental veil, and has reduced the party relation to a mere combat attack.

Let the ruling classes tremble at a Martial revolution. They have nothing to lose but their abilities that recharge on a short rest. They have a world to win.

Martials of all settings unite!

You keep rambling about "marshall castor" all night and its scaring the kids

My wife's boyfriend's birthday is coming up, and they were saying they were a big fan of dungeons. No I don't know anything about dragons and dungeons. Is it like Pathfinder? because i haven't played that either. No i will not share any other relevant interests, personality traits, hobbies, age ranges, dick sizes or hair colours. If anyone suggests i ask what he would like, rocks will fall, and everyone will die. Dice are a boring gift, but i refuse to elaborate on what is interesting. I have no idea what he does in their role-play so i can't offer you any useful information. Please help (but not too much, otherwise i'll get upset and delete this post)

I am an enlightened RPG connoisseur, who knows that there is something pure about OSR, and tainted about 5.5e.

That 3.5e was the height of game design, and that Daggerheart is for people who like, urgghgh, original characters. I am well acquainted with the styles of play, I have even played 4e at least once, and of course I know all the ways that PF2e fixes any given topic.

However every time that I get onto 5.5e spaces to let them know that it is pointless to play 5.5e, I have a problem typing while also nailing myself into a cross. Does anyone have any tips on how to make sure you get the nails straight between the bones in your arm while avoiding major veins? I have tried doing it in my palms but then I'm not able to let people know that their fun is wrong among my typos.

It would be a big help if people crucified me on my behalf. Just the effort of asserting how unwelcome I am in these fan spaces pulls time and energy away from my ironclad logical arguments that get overwhelmed by groupthink and advertising momentum.

Does anyone know how to strike a good balance? Any advice would be welcome. All love and compassion to you all!

Every time there's a quest to complete, they ignore every plot hook and just stay in the starting village. The entire session is spent planting wheat, plowing fields, talking to neighbors, selling their harvest, and living the ordinary lives of peasants. After three years of this campaign, they still haven't made it through the level 0 funnel.

In all three years we've been playing, they haven't killed a single NPC or explored a single dungeon I designed. They have no interest in the extensive lore, factions, or continents of my homebrew setting.

Every session is basically the same: they wake up and spend four hours working on the farm.

I live in a small town where the Satanic Panic is still very much alive, so I can't find another group that's willing to play with me. However, I really want my players to finally play the game as intended, because I'm starting to fall asleep from boredom myself.

Has anyone dealt with a similar problem? I'd really appreciate any advice.

It's so stupid. So, wizards can wish the BBEG away with a snap of their fingers, but a martial attacking them 15 times can't even kill them, like, they need to roll 15 times, they need to actually hit 15 times, and then they need to do enough damage to the BBEG to kill it, which let's face it they won't.

If the wizard can just make the bad guy poof why can't my rogue just sneak up behind him and snap his neck? Why can't my barbarian suplex him over the moon!?

Like, it's just not fair. With a level 3 spell a wizard can kill 64 monsters, but a fighter can kill what, 10 max? How is that fair?

The devs talk over and over again how the game should be run, but they don't run the game, I do. They really need to change the game to fit my needs because I want a super hero game, not this mamby pamby sword and shield bullshit.

Why can the wizard rain meteors from the sky, but I can't use omnislash? I could just play final fantasy, but I want to play D&D and they really should let me do that.

With the slight buff martials got in 5.5, they've started getting way too carried away, thinking they deserve to stand on equal footing with us casters. We need to widen the martial caster divide to remind them that in this fantasy world, we nerds rule over the jocks.

Here are some of my ideas to widen the gap:

• Remove martial subclasses and feats. (Who let martials make character decisions?)
• Martials are no longer allowed to have backstories. Instead, they'll be assigned a random NPC the DM created to play during combat. (Outside of combat will have to just watch the superior players RP)
• Using magic items now requires access to spellcasting. (Too stupid to cast a spell, but smart enough to use a magic sword? Yeah, right.)
• Fumble table exclusively for martials.
• After every session, martials are required to thank their local caster for carrying them both in and out of combat.
• Spellcasters now get to do all the cool homebrew anime martial stuff. (Martials get to sit in the corner and watch.)

I feel like, with these changes, we could finally get closer to total caster dominance.

Long post.

Today I was furious. Absolutely livid.

I run different RPGs for my group at the local game store. I use Pathfinder whenever we want dark fantasy, high fantasy, post-apocalypse, urban fantasy, detective games, and GURPS whenever I'm really angry and hate my players.

I had just finished running a themed GURPS campaign for my regular group as a form of punishment when someone approached me. It was one of the people from another table nearby. They had been watching our game after it ended.

One of them asked if I could run a GURPS one-shot for them at the next game night. The only tabletop game they'd ever played was Munchkin, and they assumed GURPS would be just as easy since it was written by the same author. I agreed, but I insisted that the game would be paid.

He asked if I would mind using pre-generated characters. I said, "No. You'll miss the true GURPS experience if your very first one-shot uses pre-generated characters."

I also sent one of them a link to the 800-page GURPS PDF so the whole group could familiarize themselves with the basic rules beforehand.

Game night came (last Monday), and things immediately got weird.

Before we started, I asked if anyone had any questions, concerns, or anything they didn't understand. Everyone said they were fine, so we began.

It turned out that none of those idiots had bothered to read the GURPS book, and the whole thing became a disaster.

We spent two hours creating characters.

The actual game lasted fifteen minutes.

One player rolled a 3 on an Electronics check to bypass the alarm on a garage door. He succeeded on the roll, and then he told me that not only had he bypassed the alarm, but he'd also disabled the building's entire security system, giving the party enough time to search the place before stealing their car back.

I told him that we were playing GURPS, not PbtA, and that he didn't get to narrate the outcome of his own roll.

At that point I was so annoyed by his attitude that I declared a hidden trap went off and everyone was electrocuted. Naturally, nobody made their HT rolls, and every character they'd spent two hours creating died on the spot.

One of the players said, "This is nothing like Munchkin. It's way too complicated. We're leaving."

I replied, "Too complicated? These are just the basic rules from this tiny little 800-page booklet. Have you ever tried playing FATAL?"

That's when they admitted they hadn't actually bothered reading any of it. As a group, they decided to leave, called me fat, and didn't pay me a single dollar for my intellectual labor as the GM.

​

hi guys im new to dnd and reddit pls dont be mean.

my character is Fishman. hes a human fighter monk who wears a fish suit. at first he was a meme but then i accidentally made him really deep.

he used to be in an elite group called the Animal Heads. there was Birdman, Bearman, Crocwoman, Newtenby Mantisgirl and Fishman. they hunted gods until they fought a super ultra reality warping evil god named AHumanMan who killed everyone except Fishman because trauma.

now Fishman is super quiet and serious and wants to kill every god and avenge his friends. he has PTSD but he made a little guy in his head to distract him from the evil voice.

also he really likes anime and sometimes starts speaking japanese in combat and subtitles appear for everyone. he fights with martial arts, a longsword, a pistol, and Bearmans shotgun.

he still wears the fish suit because it hides his scars, gives him tactical advantage because nobody can see his face, reminds him of his friends, and its funny because tragic character in fish costume lol.

anyways what do u guys think. pls be honest i know its kinda cringe but i think he turned out really cool.

The D&D market has grown in size and sophistication since paid DMing became popular. I've been thinking about different models for DMs and their customers that are more scalable and consumer-friendly. Here are a few ideas.

Ads: Commercial breaks throughout the session (like random encounters!) with a premium subscription that is ad-free. Ads can still be an option ("You rolled a natural 1. Watch this ad to reroll.")

Microtransactions: $0.59 for Inspiration, $1.50 for reminders about stuff that's not in their notes, $4.99 to stabilize after failing two death saves

Product placement: "As the white dragon swoops down towards you, it cracks open an ice-cold Coca-Cola®."

Curious what the community thinks. Is there a monetization model that preserves the integrity of the hobby while maximizing shareholder value?

I'm the DM for a homebrew D&D campaign, and after our latest session we ended up having a 30-minute debate over wallpaper colors.

At the beginning of the campaign, the party met a mysterious NPC who exists in a yellow room. They already know she's connected to a special resource called Journals, and they know she's important.

As they explore the dungeon, they got a map after beating a mini boss. One room is highlighted in yellow and marked with "???". The idea is that this yellow room on the map represents the location where they'll be able to meet that NPC again.

Later, after the party collected their first journal, I explicitly told them that the question marks on the map started glowing brighter, almost as if they were calling them, as a hint that something had changed there.

One of my players then said his character was looking for "a room with wallpaper that is yellow"

I assumed he meant the room highlighted in yellow on the map.

During the search, I described a door located exactly where that room was on the map. As a joke, I also said that his character found "no signs of a room that was yellow." What I meant was that the wallpaper being yellow doesn't actually matter as much as what that means thematically. However, he interpreted that as confirmation that such a room existed somewhere else in the house and that he simply hadn't found it yet.

A few minutes later, I realized he wasn't actually looking for the room marked in yellow on the map. Instead, he believed that because the room was yellow on the map, there had to be literal yellow wallpaper somewhere in the dungeon leading to it.

From my perspective, the yellow wallpaper was a thematic representation of the NPC's declining mental state resulting from their imprisonment for their own health by their abusive husband. In the game world, neither the room nor its entrance needed to be actually yellow. The real clue was that the room marked with the glowing question marks was connected to the mysterious NPC the party had already met—the one who would later leave them wondering about the ecogothic themes of the dungeon. The room itself is a normal one, and they would be teleported back to the room after the meeting

We eventually realized it was all just a misunderstanding, but then we spent about 30 minutes debating whether I should have made the actual wallpaper yellow to match the map.

I argued that the map colors existed only to help the players identify thematic devices by Perkins Gillman in support of the module's feminist subject matter and weren't meant to merely represent the physical appearance of the dungeon.

My player argued that if the wallpaper is yellow on the map, it's reasonable to expect this just means the wallpaper is yellow and that overanalysing things is bad.

So... who messed up here? Was my map misleading, or did my player just take the map too literally?

I'm running a campaign set on the pre-American continent and my players want to travel to Europe to get horses. They used divination to learn that horses exist and where to find them, now they want to go steal some and bring them back to the Americas to conquer it themselves using calvary tactics.

They're currently gearing up to cross the northern tundra and start island hopping their way to Europe. I told them the diseases of the old world will kill them if they stay too long, but they're countering it with curse disease spells. Now I've gotta plan an arctic adventure and a European mini arc just to get some horses I didn't want them to have.

So my question is, how much ecological damage could a horse do to the American continent? I've gotta punish my players for metagaming 🐴.

I want to clarify in the beginning that I don't believe in any way that my players are stupid or inept, the situations are stressful and they do the best they can.

So to get kick it off, I'll straight up say that 8 players have died over two years on my ranch. My ranch is in the middle of nowhere and I don't hold back during my hunts. But excluding one of these deaths, they pretty all die the same way.

The players find a key to the gates, they then send a scout ahead to investigate, the only problem is that it is like, a mile ahead. The scout player is spotted by my dogs, engages the dogs with an improvised torch, realizes they can't solo an entire pack of dogs, then dies. Another is where the entire player party decides to scout together, gets spotted and instead of retreating they try to reach the gates as fast as possible and end up losing a member or two to beartraps and nail boards.

Now, as a slasher villain, I have told the players that they may die in this hunt and they started crying/begging/threatening me, but I worry they are too ok with it. I want death to be meaningful, I give the players a last hurrah, let them have some form of crippling, but not deadly traps when possible, but it hasn't felt like it has worked. Even I have notes scattered around that suggest running when combat is too difficult. Now, I don't want to baby my players, but I don't want them to give up and accept death. Any suggestions?

Hi everyone, thanks for reading my post. I'm confused and pissed off, and now you gotta hear about it. Strap in, folks.

I play a wizard in D&D because I was told it's a god-tier class that breaks the system, which is clearly the best way to play any game. But my STUPID ASS DM keeps on shutting down my exploits and tech that I learned on Reddit. He always points to some dumb un-fun rule, or shows me that the spell doesn't work like I thought. My simulacrum army's chain of command collapsed. I got no XP from repeatedly killing my own summons like shooting fish in a barrel. I couldn't cast spells while affected by true polymorph. I couldn't fabricate a hundred objects connected with sprues and call them one object. No plane shift without a component that I can't find anywhere. Every trick and cheat I come up with, the DM is there with a rule to shut it down.

As a brain-damaged Martian who just learned Earth language a few minutes ago, it seems very clear that my insanely bad-faith rules interpretations are correct. So how do I teach the DM that RAW I'm allowed to cheat because a wizard is supposed to be an unstoppable god?

I want to clarify in the beginning that I don't believe in any way that my customers are stupid or inept, the situations are stressful and they do the best they can.

So to get kick it off, I'll straight up say that 800 customers have eaten hamburgers over two years in my restaurant. My restaurant is a burger joint and I don't make anything else. But excluding one unimportant example, they pretty much all order burgers.

The customer finds my burger joint, they ask for a menu, the only problem is that it is like, a single entry. The customer gets their burger, eats their burger, realizes they finished their burger, then leaves. Another is where the customer decides to bring an associate, order burgers and instead of ordering another burger they decide they're full and leave.

Now, as a burger chef I have told my customers that burgers may be served in this restaurant and they were ok with it, but I worry they are too ok with it. I want my food to be meaningful, I give the customers a burger, add some ketchup when possible, but it hasn't felt like it has worked. Even I have signs around that suggest ordering burgers. Now, I don't want to baby my customers, but I don't want them to get bored of burgers. Any suggestions?

/uj Meatgrinders be grinding meat, yo.