Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 bdubgnarkill Jun 09, 2015 9:29:08	Started Horde of the Dragon Queen right when it came out and we finished it in December. Promptly followed it up with The Rise of Tiamat. However, due to inactivity from my group, we stopped playing in March. Last night, we started playing again, and we were all a bit rusty. I am the DM.    I had an encounter with a few fiends, a black dragon and some dragonsouls. I was trying to kill at least one of them (book said I should do so). The group got all cluttered up, and my dragon used his acid breath. I tied them up with my fiends in close combat (who were immune to acid). I then used acid breath a few more times in a row, which kept knocking out a few characters.    The initiative order went like this. Fiends and Dragonsouls, Wizard, Cleric, Bard, Dragon, Barbarian. On the dragons turn, I kocked out the cleric and wizard. So when it was the wizards turn, he had to make a death save, on the clerics turn, he had to make a death save. On the bards turn, he did two quick heals to get them back up. On the dragons turn, I used acid breath again (I was having super luck rolls with the 5+), and knocked out the wizard and cleric again. So the same thing happened again, wizard made a death save for his turn, cleric made a death save for his turn, bard healed them so they could get up.    1. My first question is this, were we playing this correctly? Is the wizard and clerics turn spent by rolling the death save? A player in our group suggested that AFTER the player has been revived, his turn in the order should come up immidiatly. Meaning, that after the bard revived the wizard and cleric, the new order should have been Fiends and Dragonsouls, Bard, Wizard, Cleric, Dragon, Barbarian. Is this true?    2. My bard used a bardic die on my clerics death roll. I thought the death roll was just a 1-9 is a fail, 10+ is a sucsess. I did not think it could be altered by bardic dice or other saving throw bonuses. Or am I wrong?
#2 Cooperjera Jun 09, 2015 10:24:29	1.       You were running the round correctly.  There is no indication to re-order initiative after a creature gets back up.  I have heard of this being a house rule though.  Consider following though:  The wizard attacks at initiative 20.  The dragon attacks and puts the wizard unconscious at initiative 15.  The bard heals the wizard at initiative 10.  Does the wizard get to take an action?  The intuitive answer is no.  However, if the DM needs to manage adjustment of initiative upon a character getting back up from unconsciousness then it adds to the work load and increases the opportunity for error in game play.   2.       The Death save is exactly that a save.  It can be altered by other characters that can affect a save roll.  The one I can think of is the paladin aura that increases saves by their charisma modifier.  If the bardic die can affect saves then it too can be used.  Double check the text in the PHB regarding this Death save to verify the type of roll it is.
#3 OoftaMeg Jun 09, 2015 10:26:49	With the caveat that as a DM you are always free to change the rules, it sounds like you were running initiative and turn order correctly.  People maintain their initiative order even if they go unconscious.   Bardic inspiration can be added to an ability check, attack roll or saving throw.   One side note on the mod - a DM is always free to adjust based on what works for your group.  I know it says basically "try to kill someone" but whether that makes sense or not is completely up to you and what is going to be fun for your group.  It's something that you may just want to ask your players (as a group or individually) how much risk they want.  The DM can always set up killer scenarios, whether or not you should will depend largely on your group.
#4 bdubgnarkill Jun 09, 2015 10:50:16	3. Also, a question about bardic inspiration, can he give that die out during another players turn? Or does he have to give the die out preemptivly, and then the player must consume it when they choose?   4. I know the bard can effect the dm rolls (once until his next turn). The bard always asks for what I rolled. Is he allowed to know according to the rules?   @OoftaMeg, yeah, we have done our fair share of straying from the script, plenty of sidequesting and what not. In this particular case, it said to kill a player (which I really wanted to do) and they would be revived later by a paladin faction. So no damage done, other than getting the point across that this group of baddies was not to be taken lightly. But as far as rules go, so far we have been playing everything by the book, and would like to keep it that way until we find something we deem "broken".   5. A hold monster spell is a REAL dick move to a dragon. I know he has 3 legendary auto passes, but after that, it REALLY sucks to have hold monster on a dragon. Is there something I am missing on this? Can a dragon really be crippled by this move?
#5 bdubgnarkill Jun 09, 2015 11:26:16	6. Can you defer your turn if you are knocked out? Based on the order stated earlier, could the cleric, while knocked out, defer his turn until after the bard?
#6 jaelis Jun 09, 2015 11:43:59	bdubgnarkill wrote:
#7 bdubgnarkill Jun 09, 2015 12:05:53	jaelis wrote:
(Reply to #4) Coredump00	bdubgnarkill wrote:
#9 jaelis Jun 09, 2015 12:40:02	bdubgnarkill wrote:
#10 Greenstone.Walker Jun 09, 2015 18:02:55	bdubgnarkill wrote:
#11 Regin_Vargtass Jun 11, 2015 10:34:35	If you really wanted to kill the cleric or the wizard, the dragonsouls and fiends should have attacked them when they eere down. If attacked in melee with 0 hp, tey suffer automatic crits and two failed death saves ...   To really drive the point home, the minions could ready their actions to attack anyone that falls from the dragon's breath.   Now things begin getting dramatic!
#12 BRJN Jun 13, 2015 19:53:20	In my HotDQ / Tiamat group, Hold Person on Rezmir nuked him; I failed his save.  (Yes, HIS.  It's a long and embarrassing story.)  The rest of the group ran up and melee'ed him dead in less than one full turn.  Hold Monster on a dragon ought to enable every PC to discover how the Assassin's shtick works !   It sounds like you ran the KO / Death Save properly, except that the Bard can help only one ally per turn (uses the Reaction).  And he will run out of dice to pass around very quickly.  (A debuffer Bard can make his enemy wield feathers and marshmallows if he rolls well and the DM doesn't.)  But until then, the dragon should have felt like an ineffective fool.   If the PCs make it out of this and the Dragonsouls don't, will you let your PCs plunder their Dragonbreath Orbs?