D&D Campaign 2: D&D Harder

[Raid]

Yeesh, you were at the ability cap from level 1? I thought my rolls were good!

[Sly Boots]

Yeesh, you were at the ability cap from level 1? I thought my rolls were good!

Yeah, I had a good roll, plus I think being Aarakokra gave me +2 dex also

[Mantis]

You couldn't tell he already had 20 Dex from his accuracy with a blade? -_-

I just bumped my Int up to 20 from 19, I rolled pretty well for stats too.

Tempted to swap out my increase for a feat now that I've found a decent looking one though.

[Raid]

Ahh. See I had the minor disadvantage of going with a race that did also get a +2 to dex, which is obviously of paramount importance to a wizard. Opus' stats are really well rounded, but I'm still chasing that 20 int which I may go for at level 8.

[Sly Boots]

Found a better feat that also did what I wanted... now, in addition to being able to boost my AC as a reaction to getting hit, I've also learned cure wounds. I feel this is probably going to be pretty useful for the self-harming blood hunter

[Mantis]

Had another look at what feats I might take on future milestones and when combined with some of the level 4 and 5 spells I think Dharnon is going to be putting out scary amounts of close quarters damage with his Bladesinging skills. Assuming he survives that long of course.

Really enjoying this campaign so far. The group dynamic has been very fun with the new characters.

[Sly Boots]

Yeah, it's great. It'll be interesting where the next few sessions take us, as Corvus is going to be VERY motivated to head south as soon as possible to check out vampire-related leads.

I've got a vague plan to aid his survivability as well, thinking I may dip into fighter for a level or two, but likely wait until after level 5 so as not to delay his two-attacks per action...

[Raid]

Yeah, extra attack isn't something you want to put off in my opinion. Arctiss got there one level late because he started the campaign Ranger 4 Warlock 1, and he felt quite weak compared to the other melee characters in the group.

I decided right from the off that I wanted Opus to pick up some significant support spells, having already done the pure nuker with Charr. I've just grabbed my first support-focused spell as part of the level up, I'm not sure if it's one I'll stick with, but there's the possibility of it being quite funny. I think part of the issue I'm imagining is going to be concentration, as there are so many good spells coming up that are going to be vying for it. I'm dimly aware that there are possibilities for boosting this in some way, but that knowledge mostly comes from Tiberius in Critical Role, and Acaba cheated so often I'm not sure how much of it was actually genuine.

[Mantis]

As far as I'm aware there isn't a single class bonus or magic item in the raw ruleset that lets you maintain concentration on more than one spell at once. In fact I'm struggling to think of anything that you could really consider a "boost" either apart from War Caster which gives you advantage on the saving throw and Bladesong which gives you a flat Int modifier bonus to the check.

[Raid]

I have a feeling Tiberius had an item that allowed him to retain concentration on a second spell with limitations.

War Caster is certainly something I'm considering, but then the entire reason I went with a tabaxi is because they're quite mobile and my focus is more on avoiding being in melee range than taking the hits. Getting advantage on the concentration save won't do me much good if I'm lying in a pile of my own gore. I think it'll depend on how I feel about my save DC once we hit level 8 as to whether I decide to go with a feat or just the straight ability score increase to get me to 20 int. I've just gotten an extra point on my save DC and will get another when we hit level 5 as the proficiency bonus increases.

[Sly Boots]

Playing D&D with kids is an odd mixture of horrifying and inspiring.

In tonight's session, they stumble into a cave inhabited by three towering reptilian creatures. It very quickly became apparent the kids had no intention of initiating combat. My youngest began by challenging one creature to a rap battle. I decided to do it as a contested skill challenge, which she won, and the ashamed lizard-man fled from the cave in tears.

Getting into the spirit of the encounter my mage uses his mask of fear to successfully cast that spell and send the second creature fleeing from the encounter also.

Then my eldest steps up to the plate. "I put on a mask and tell the creature I'm its father." I tell her to roll a performance check (to which I put a DC of 20), and she rolls a 19 with a plus-1 modifier.

The turns proceed with youngest trying (unsuccessfully this time) get the creature to leave in shame after a makeup tutorial. I damage the creature with a spell. Then eldest has her next turn.

"Does it still think I'm its father?"

"I suppose so, yes." (try to imagine my wearied parental tone at this point)

"I ask it to go outside and play catch with me."

*smugly* "You'll have to roll a nat-20 for this one..."

*rolls a 20*

*A few stunned seconds elapse, before I begin to imitate an 8-foot tall lizard man skipping happily outside to play catch with his dad*

*Kids cheering*

[Wrathbone]

[Raid]

I dunno, I feel like we've done some similarly outlandish stuff. I seem to recall an instance of spider beatboxing.

[Sly Boots]

Ha, had forgotten about that!

[Wrathbone]

Everyone good for tonight?

I’ve a bit of a DM dilemma that I’d happily take advice on how to handle. In short, while I’m absolutely having a blast with our group, I’ve been burned out on my Monday group for some time and I’m not getting out of it anything near the effort I put into it. I don’t think the players are having a bad time so much as most of them aren’t fully engaged (though they never were in the previous campaign). I’ve tried ways to improve that with little success, and honestly given how much busier work has got recently I think I’d rather just quit that group and recoup the time I spend on it.

The trouble is that they’re all friends I know and hang out with locally, and I don’t want to hurt their feelings if I quit DMing for them while I happily keep on DMing for us. I think it might come across as me suggesting they’re all terrible players. Any thoughts?