Captcorajus’s 4e video has good info

 Time 7:23, on yt, has list of dns clones from around year 2014.

Osric

Labyrinth Lord

Dungeon Crawl Classics (has a new type of magic also, has some tables makes it a little complex, … see other guys video of 3 things DCC does better than DnD, and 3 not so much)

Basic Fantasy- i bought it. Pretty cool but way too simple. 

Swords and Wizardry

Castles and Crusades

Dark Dungeons 

Sly Flourish house rules for 5e

 Some seem good. Some r just nerfs.  Consider

Animate objects is max 4 objects… nerf  hmmm  

Arcane eye not inviz, has v good stealth. 

Counterspell… if u get counter soelled, u can cast a new lower lvl spell as reaction (((i might switch to cantrip)))

Heat metal- doesn’t cause disav on att rolls (too nerfy)

Wall force or force cage- dex save to avoid trapped  nerf  Dmg can take down wall?! Huge nerf  

… ok keep watching bcuz good arguments… and he tweaked the nerfs.  

See this for 2024 spell changes, similar. Like Counterspell wont waste a slot.  

https://www.wargamer.com/dnd/changes-to-spells-2024-players-handbook

X-Files, Clyde Buckman’s Final Repose

 Season 3 ep 4.  We just watched (rewatched at least for me). 

Rly good.  Funny parts, but sad. Kinda deep.  Wikiped talks about it ALot.. many ppls fav or top 5 episode.  

Fan trivia… even tho he says Scully never dies, it was bcu he liked her.  But bcuz fans went nuts, later they rly made her immortal.  See wikiped.

But what I wanted to figure out was, why at the end did Scully see him normally (dead), but then saw him under plastic, with the tear and/or water.  ?  I think it was some kinda psychic stuff.  

Me n the kid have theories.  She got the “woman’s intuition “ maybe right when Clyde dies… like it passed to her.  His psychic stuff went to her.  Ofciurse she doesnt see dead ppl, but close enough.  

She saved Mulder, how? Her woman’s intuition.  

Devastate a great 2e dnd spell

See page121 yt about it.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPcn0Kd_VCQ

Level 8 spell. 1 round per level duration. https://adnd2e.fandom.com/wiki/Devastate_(Wizard_Spell)

Cast on self, now your spells are buffed for that many rounds… 

• -5 penalty to enemy saving throw.
• +2 to dmg on each die of your spell, but can't do more than normal max (ex., 60 normal dmg max as in 10d6 the fireball limit in 2e).  
• which reminds me of https://www.enworld.org/threads/fireball-throughout-the-ages.670886/
• Amazing how the damage drops on average over the editions*...
  
  OD&D - d6/level
  Expert - d6/level save for half
  1e - d6/level save for half
  2e - d6/level save for half, capped at 10d6
  3e - d6/level save for half capped at 10d6 (metamagics could boost initial damage)
  4e - 3d6 + Int modifier, save for half (metamagics could increase number of damage dice)
  5e - 8d6 save for half (metamagics could increase number of damage dice)
  
  ...while at the same time everybody's - monster and PC alike - hit points generally increase.
• * - the exception beng 5e, which - rather oddly - has the highest damage of all for casters of 5th-7th level yet by 9th caster level, absent metamagics, has lower damage than any other version except 4e.
  
  Another big difference is that in 2e and earlier the fireball expanded to fill its entire volume, where in 3e and later it doesn't. (((AKA weaker but easier to control and calculate)))
• More info: https://deltasdnd.blogspot.com/2011/07/spells-through-ages-fireball.html
• So RULES CYCLOPEDIA after 2e, caps dmg at 20d6. Interesting, is that one place where it actually went back up in dmg? 
• Figured I'd check in here on the 1990 Allston Rules Cyclopedia product, representing the culmination of the whole Moldvay (B/X)/Mentzer (BXCMI) product line.
• Finally, something else that was added to the spell description (at the end of the second paragraph above) is a mechanic to try and restrict shooting fireballs through arrow slits. However, I found that in practice that this was not very much of an effective restriction in 3E (motionless target ACs are very low, and fireball-casting wizard attack levels with Dexterity bonus quite high, which along with a lack of any ranged penalties for the spell, made for an almost trivially easy to-hit requirement).
• Orig orig: https://www.enworld.org/threads/the-fireball-spell-through-the-editions.169729/

Page121 made the point that it is not in the PHB, it's not even in 1e, but he felt it was great to introduce as loot around a level 16 (I think he said 16) MagicUser b/c too many things are a 50/50 coin toss with strong saving throws around that level. 

Pathfinder stuff - about Deflection Bonus. About Pathfinder 1e Vs. Pathfinder 2e.

BTW, path2e rules for spell saves vs, a DC, a 10 below the dc is critical fail take dbl dmg, a 10 above is critical success zero dmg.  (A nat 20 or a nat 1 increases or descreases one step further) Think about it both ways tho.  Vs baddies, or them vs party.  Exciting for sure  

AND, COVER… only +1 AC for creature in way.  +2 for standard cover, and object in the environment.  Come to think about it, is +2 AC for ranged into melee way too muchin 5e? Since AC is so low? 

UPDATE: Just bought the Pathfinder 2e beginner Box. Is really is that good. And I like the fact that the little handout cards are mostly just the differences between Pathfinder 2e and DnD5e. 

• Heard that they have the BEST modules to play
• I already have a million of their flip maps, super good. 
• Those new minis were pathfinder

  So I was just thinking about how in dnd 5e, you cant get but +2 AC total from stacking a ring of protec and cloak of protect. 

How's Pathfinder handle it? Well that lead me to 
https://www.d20pfsrd.com/basics-ability-scores/glossary#TOC-Bonus-Deflection-

which then lead me to 
https://www.reddit.com/r/Pathfinder_Kingmaker/comments/9qvr4o/an_explanation_of_what_bonuses_and_penalties_stack/

The answer, is that in Pathfinder-

• You cannot stack Deflection bonuses
• Deflection bonuses are from magic
• But there is no Cloak of Protection anyway, it would seem. Only cloaks of Resistance. 

Quote on a few interesting ones from Pathfinder (thinking back to 3.5e dnd days):

• Deflection bonus; usually up to +5 and can be obtained via Ring of Protection, Shield of Faith, and various Protection from Alignment spells; covers both Flat-Footed and Touch AC.

• Dodge; various abilities and the Feat Dodge gives you a Dodge bonus; covers Touch AC; stacks.
• 
  

So, Pathfinder 1e vs. 2e

Quote from https://www.reddit.com/r/Pathfinder_RPG/comments/q3obv3/whats_some_of_the_pros_and_cons_of_pathfinder_1e/: 

I agree with wingnut. There is less you can do in combat in 2E. Most fights are going to be apply simple debuff, make attacks until enemy dies. If an enemy has high AC you, can't do much about it. You can't try to attack from different angles by targeting touch AC or CMD. Even if you use combat maneuvers most of their debuffs don't stack, so you can't overcome the situation without damage.

Example from a recent 2E game. We had a tough enemy prone, flanked, and feinted, but all this amounted to was they were flatfooted. If this was 1E they would have lost their DEX mod to AC/CMD, taken a -4 penalty vs melee, and you would have gained a +2 bonus to hit them.

REBUKE: 

Most fights are going to be apply simple debuff, make attacks until enemy dies.

I'm glad you haven't played at any of my tables, I never advice new players to do simple tactics because I will kill them if they do stuff like this.

You can't try to attack from different angles by targeting touch AC or CMD.

This actually isn't accurate. You can attack Fort DC or Reflex DC or Will DC with combat maneuvers, so you get much more angles to attack than simply CMD.

Even if you use combat maneuvers most of their debuffs don't stack

Yes and no. Flat Footed doesn't stack, but being flat footed and frightened does. So you have to be diverse in your debuffs to get them to stack and not simple.

We had a tough enemy prone, flanked, and feinted, but all this amounted to was they were flatfooted.

prone and flanked do amazing things that you don't seem to realize. A prone enemy has to spend an action to get up to not suffer a penalty to attack. 2e focuses more on efficiency of actions and an action not spent trying to kill the PC is good for the PC. The Feint probably should have been a disarm attempt or demoralize.

NOTE: Combat Maneuver Defense (CMD) in Pathfinder is a measure of a character's ability to resist combat maneuvers like grappling or tripping. It is calculated using the formula: CMD = 10 + Base Attack Bonus + Strength modifier + Dexterity modifier + special size modifier + any applicable bonuses or penalties.

http://www.tenebraemush.net/index.php/Understanding_CMB_and_CMD

Your CMB

 

CMB = BAB + STR + Size Mod + Other

Your CMD

 

CMD = 10 + BAB + STR + DEX + Size Mod + Other

Scuttlebutt, parish-pump, furphy, the water cooler, the coffee area

Funnily, all these terms are related to a place people hang out and talk/gossip. It's always around a communal drinking area. 

parish-pump = 

• It was an old fashioned water pump shared by locals. 
• Now it means only important or interesting to people in a small area.

scuttlebutt =  

• Rumor or gossip is the meaning now. 
• It was a sailor thing -> a drinking fountain or a cask of drinking water on a ship.

furphy = 

• a false report, Australian slang. 
•   From John Furphy, an Australian blacksmith and engineer, who designed a galvanised iron water-cart on wheels, displaying the name FURPHY in large letters. In World War I the Army bought many Furphy water and sanitation carts for camps in Palestine, Egypt. and Australia. When soldiers gathered around them, the carts became centers of gossip. The word scuttlebutt originated in a similar way.

• "Bookmakers are confident in the integrity of the AFL and the security used to guard the Brownlow Medal votes, believing any leaks are mere gossip and unfounded. Centrebet spokesman Gerard Daffy said last week's leak tipping St Kilda midfielder Robert Harvey winning a third Brownlow was a furphy."

  Darren Cartwright; Voss Still Brownlow Favourite; Fox Sports; Sep 18, 2003.
  "If it is proved that the bugs originated from space, then the damage to the ozone layer may also have originated from space. This will render the ozone theory a furphy."
  Rob Horne; Bugs in Space?; The Advertiser (Adelaide, Australia); Aug 3, 2001.  

https://wordsmith.org/words/scuttlebutt.html

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/parish-pump

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/furphy

https://wordsmith.org/words/furphy.html

Min Max Stuff...

 I dunno if I should read this. Stuff about 5.5e, paralyze and chromatic orb. ... ....

https://www.enworld.org/threads/the-bg3-effect-control-and-paralyzing-5-5-meta.712563/

Funny (scary) quote - Terry Pratchett, Hogfather... (Death)

Thanks to https://www.enworld.org/threads/the-d-d-memes-thread.693664/page-11 for leading me to this quote.  

Hogfather Quotes Showing 1-30 of 365

“All right," said Susan. "I'm not stupid. You're saying humans need... fantasies to make life bearable."

REALLY? AS IF IT WAS SOME KIND OF PINK PILL? NO. HUMANS NEED FANTASY TO BE HUMAN. TO BE THE PLACE WHERE THE FALLING ANGEL MEETS THE RISING APE.

"Tooth fairies? Hogfathers? Little—"

YES. AS PRACTICE. YOU HAVE TO START OUT LEARNING TO BELIEVE THE LITTLE LIES.

"So we can believe the big ones?"

YES. JUSTICE. MERCY. DUTY. THAT SORT OF THING.

"They're not the same at all!"

YOU THINK SO? THEN TAKE THE UNIVERSE AND GRIND IT DOWN TO THE FINEST POWDER AND SIEVE IT THROUGH THE FINEST SIEVE AND THEN SHOW ME ONE ATOM OF JUSTICE, ONE MOLECULE OF MERCY. AND YET—Death waved a hand. AND YET YOU ACT AS IF THERE IS SOME IDEAL ORDER IN THE WORLD, AS IF THERE IS SOME...SOME RIGHTNESS IN THE UNIVERSE BY WHICH IT MAY BE JUDGED.

"Yes, but people have got to believe that, or what's the point—"

MY POINT EXACTLY.”
― Terry Pratchett, Hogfather

NEXT TIME 3+ monsters, 3+ vulnerabilities. Siabrae fight

• UPDATEaw xxxxxxv—- what i go simple. Red eyes n symbol is firey (attacks) so weak to cold.
•  And blue skellie is cold dmg att, but weak to fire. 
• And yellow is electric, weak to…. Force and radiant (yeah bcuz no AOE force… but does have AOE Radiant)
• Blackend bones still… with white fog coming off
• What if twigblightPLUSskellie combined? 

• 
  
• ORIG BELOW—————-
• DRY-YELLOWISH-Twig-thorn-vine-blights and DRY-treeblights and regular Woodwoads weak to fire.
• Woodwoads - Resist piercing and bludgeoning still, regular.
• Weak to/Vuln fire, and can't regen if fire.  
• DRY-YELLOWISH is a new type I'm making up... weak to fire. 
• Resist pierce, slash, and bludgeoning. 
• Extra dry, seems brittle and crackles as move around. 
• Blights/Skellies w/ blue eyes weak to electricity or force. Symbol carved on skull, it is blue.  
• Blights/Skellies w/ red eyes weak to cold or slashing. They also have a weird red symbol carved/glowing on skull. 
• Skellies w/ blackened bones, Black with White smoke symbol on skull, weak to Radiant.

Thinking, make it so they have a lot of HP for skellies, but one blast/hit by the correct element kills in one shot no matter how weak. Need some weak to SLASHING or FORCE? 

EXAMPLE FIGHT:

• Vs. DRY
• burning hands/fire bolt from Warlock
• breathe fire from druid
• Vs. BLUE
• lightning bolt from druid
• eldr blast from Warlock
• Vs. RED
• cone cold warlock
• slashing Barbarian
• Vs. BLACKENED
• Radiant from Fighter

EXAMPLE TEST FIGHT: The monsters, VERY SLOWLY, approach in a line or something from FAR AWAY, see them a mile away so can test stuff. 

Kid needs to figure out this.  Sees a handful of them on way to big fight.  

• ARCANA check (DRUIDIC?), DC 15- read symbol and figure out weakness. 
• NATURE check, DC 15- based on physicality of monster, figure out weakness. 
• FIGHTER check??... Know Your Enemy (if kid also got the Battle Master option at level 10)? 
• SUNSWORD RECOGNIZES SOMETHING IS WEAK TO RADIANT MAYBE. I would have to DM-allow-it completely to allow the fighter to know weaknesses... it's not a normal fighter thing at all. 

• KNOW YOUR ENEMY (requires Battle Master subclass, kid was Champion so far, but can pick a 2nd at level 10)- Starting at 7th level, if you spend at least 1 minute observing or interacting with another creature outside combat, you can learn certain information about its capabilities compared to your own. The DM tells you if the creature is your equal, superior, or inferior in regard to two of the following characteristics of your choice:

CURRENT HP, AC, DEX, STR, CON, and...

• Total class levels (if any) Fighter class levels (if any)

Siabrae anti radiant, but what vuln? Not necrotic? Sonic(boring dislike)?  Piercing? How to figure out? Force ? 

Spike Stones spell, 1e AD&D, 3.5e

 Super interesting. V v good as pit trap… can put on walls (dm call).

V v good for monsters to use to defend home.  

Page121 has good yt on it.  Put on walls even better for pit.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hXaSzNXwV3U

1e - gotta roll to hit every step basically. 25% chance people notice the spikes, so likely you are gonna walk into it... and if the first step doesn't hit you, the deeper you go and the more trouble you might be in. Talks about what if in a pit (and Page121 talks about, what if you put it on the walls of the pit instead of floor). 

2e - sounds like 1e: https://adnd2e.fandom.com/wiki/Spike_Stones_(Priest_Spell)

3.5e and The Pathfinder version exists, but it doesn't talk about the 75% chance you don't notice and just walk into the whole thing. https://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/all-spells/s/spike-stones/ and https://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/spikeStones.htm

• Notice that it does 1d8 (no roll to hit) in pathfinder. 
• But they don't mention how visible it is, no 25% AKA 75% thing. 
• Some weird stuff about feet injuries and can't walk full speed till Healed. 
• Saving Throw Reflex partial; Spell Resistance yes
• Now spell resist = yes is interesting, b/c it's so similar to Spike Growth by a regular Druid low level spell in 5e, etc. We've debated if the Spike-Growth is magical damage or normal dmg. I think magical. 
• 
  

Books Bricks and Boards has detailed reviews of DnD alts

Alts..

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Etgn3TsykRQ&pp=ygUuTm90IGludGVyZXd0ZWQgaW4gZCZkIDIwMjQ_IEhlcmUgYXJlIDEwIGJldHRlctIHCQliAAYKOfT1XA%3D%3D

And his Adnd 2e overview is impressive 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Omz6gsUe8-M

NEXT TIME Undead Druid, Siabrae incoming

 Doesn’t have to be a fight.

If fight, lots of dmg resist and dmg vuln types.  

Evil berserkers and e.druids help… when die, reaction to turn into conjure fungal undead skeletons.  

See fungus, spore druid build for ideas.  

But the Siabrae,  he likes radiant… treelike.  Heals him.  Maybe just the SUNLIGHT aspect heals him… brightness out to 60 ft. Wow.  

But 2nd half of his army are fungal guys.  Radiant does dbl dmg or 1.5 dmg.  ?.?? See other post.  

Shambling Mound healed by lightning.  

Force dmg, is something resistant???

Fire resist? Maybe a super wet shambler.

Treeblight and wood woads… resist to what, piercing or slashing? SEE OTHER POST. 

Whats the good Barb gonna do, axe or energy bow?

UPDATE , maybe spore Druid, use shillelagh.  https://www.nerdsandscoundrels.com/circle-of-spores/

Sidenote on bonus action spells like shillelagh https://www.nerdsandscoundrels.com/bonus-action-spells-5e/

Circle of Spore Spells
Druid Level	Circle Spells
3rd	Blindness/Deafness, Gentle Repose
5th	Animate Dead, Gaseous Form
7th	Blight, Confusion
9th	Cloudkill, Contagion

Dnd, Magic Item Loot on a countdown timer - plus more Amber Temple custom Loot

 Instead of “save it forecer and never use it” resources… 

how about, “gotta use it in 48 hour or maybe a WEEK! Expires....” -- as in, "when you pick up this magical item, you read Draconic/magic text on it... this magic will cease to work in X number of days when you leave the Amber Temple. 

This will be more fun and get the kid to use stuff while it is still useful before end game. 

Examples

. Potion of gaseous form. 

. Powder of sneaking silently

. Potion of haste

. Oil of… etherealness.  

. Oil of Sharpness (1 hour, +3 weapon)

. Powder of Str / Dex / Con / Etc. 

AMBER TEMPLE custom Loot:

• Melee amulet of Hacking… u get once a day, an Advantage attack, plus add half your level to dmg.  
• Blast Scepter... the one that gives Fire and Lightning Resist/cast thunderwave (I'm saying cast just once a day). He gave it to the Elf Wizard NPC. 
• https://dnd5e.wikidot.com/wondrous-items:blast-scepter
• Ring of +2 Concentration on spell checks (Ring of Careful Casting)
• similar to https://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic-items/wondrous-items/r-z/tunic-of-careful-casting
• DRUID learn the 
• the earth move-through spell, that also heals. My old custom spell. 
• the EarthMaw... 1e or 2e spell that bites and might swallow you
• Dragonborn breath 0 
• Consider:  https://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic-items/Wondrous-items/#table-belt-slot-lesser-minor
• https://www.realmshelps.net/magic/items/rods.shtml
• https://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic-items/wondrous-items/r-z/robe-of-bones
• https://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic-items/wondrous-items/r-z/robe-xorn
• https://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic-items/wondrous-items/r-z/robe-blazing
• https://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic-items/wondrous-items/r-z/vest-of-the-cockroach
• https://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic-items/wondrous-items/r-z/tunic-snakeskin but ... probably better if it replaces actual armor so that the AC lines up for 5e reasons. 
• 
  
• 
  
• Consider - a super heal item (since no Cleric, give to Druid)... that heals the party once a day for 60HP in any combination for 30 ft range. Similar to the twice a day Cleric power I have on my hi level cleric.