TOPIC: New Players Handbook Beta

Rob F wrote: Damn Matt. Almost took me two full beers to get through all your comments. Some nice recommendations.

Ha! Long flight today... not much else to do!

Matthew Hayward wrote: Lesser Maze recharges Cloak of Shadowskin?

from the TDb entry for Cloak of Shadowskin :
The magic of this cloak resets itself at the beginning of every combat.
new initiative = new combat
therefore the answer to your question is yes

Matthew Hayward wrote:

Rob F wrote: Damn Matt. Almost took me two full beers to get through all your comments. Some nice recommendations.

Ha! Long flight today... not much else to do!

Thanks to you and all others for the great feedback.

Matthew Hayward wrote: ......

Rogues Box Ettiquite:
- For Rogue: When you open the Rogue Box you will be given a choice of shiny treasure or a clue that may help the party. The choice is yours, but don't be surprised if your team mates take umbragee if you choose fabulous prizes over their well being.
- For Everyone Else: You knew they were a Rogue when you took them with you, be cool when they take the treasure - we're all here to have fun!


The coaches, DMs, and other volunteers are there to help you have fun!
- If you have a concern or challenge you can ask any DM or staff member to fetch an Activity Coordinator (AC) - these supervisors are well equipped to address any issues that might arise, and appreciate you bringing your concerns up so they can be addressed quickly before others encounter the same challenge.

Finally, Team work makes the dream work! You're all in this together!

May want to consider adding in that just because a player has healing does not mean they are required to use it on another. It is there choice.

May want to consider that calling in an AC will not alter a ruling from a room judge and will only take up some of your 12 minutes per room. Best to talk with AC after the run and when you have plenty of time to discuss.

Matthew Hayward wrote: At Gen Con 2017 some treasure volunteers were allowing magnetic wand pulls that fished up multiple tokens to count as 1 pull

Per Jeff, in a thread you started as well as the TDb descriptions for 1× , 3× , and 10× Treasure Chips, one pull = one token.
See this post and this post .

Matthew Hayward wrote: Is it actually a rule that you can't enter True Grind unless you are player level 2+?

yes
I can't speak to how often that rule is enforced, but nonetheless the rule exists.

Matthew Hayward wrote: Why is Silver mentioned in the exception line when below it explicitly says Silver with +x is magical, and Silver without +x is not magical - there is no exception here?

because of Silver Sickle

Matthew Hayward wrote: Staff of Focus and Baton of Focus don't have a +X, but are magical - so these are exceptions to the rule mentioned above.

Look again , they both have a "+Damage" printed on the token. It may be to spells, but it still fits the rule, so not an exception. (that ruling is per Jeff)

Matthew Hayward wrote: The explanation for set bonuses and swapping says you lose your +2 STR from Orb of Might when engaged in Ranged. This is news to me

That rule has been in the DMG and QTR since 2011

Matthew Hayward wrote: If a player has the Mithral Trio and the Supreme Evasion ability and they fail a saving throw against a breath weapon, how much damage do they take? 1/4?

Magical Damage Resolution will answer that question for you.

Matthew Hayward wrote: "A monster with SR 100% cannot be affected by spells". Is this true even when the caster has Eldritch Duo?

yes and no
A monster with 100% SR can't be affected by spells.
However, an Eldritch set character bypasses the monster's SR, thus giving the monster an effective SR of 0%, meaning it can be affected by their spells.

Matthew Hayward wrote: Do we need to distinguish between Magical and Mechanical traps?

Check out the descriptions for Boots of the Raider vs. Pants of Lightstep .

Matthew Hayward wrote: If a Berserker is mostly dead with negative -20 HP, and gets Pushed out of the room with 8 points of Push Damage, and they have a Figurine of Power: Cricket - what happens?

They enter the next room with 1 HP. Fight After Death can't be used across rooms.

Matthew Hayward wrote: I don't think Instant Safeguard can lower your AC, can it?

it can

Does Lesser Maze initiate a new combat if multiple opponents are in the room and only one of them is mazed?

This may not come up often in the main Dungeon, but is likely to come up more often in Grind (when you're usually facing multiple monsters). I could see it coming up in the Dungeon though if a monster puts only one of the players into a maze. It feels odd to have it treated as a new combat in those cases.

Regarding Lesser Maze, I don't like the idea that the master in the maze is effectively frozen in time. If the players get a round or period to buff, the monster should as well - they are in another dimension, not frozen in time.

I'm sure that potential ruling (frozen monster) would make life easier for all concerned.

Druegar wrote:

Matthew Hayward wrote: If a player has the Mithral Trio and the Supreme Evasion ability and they fail a saving throw against a breath weapon, how much damage do they take? 1/4?

Magical Damage Resolution will answer that question for you.

Ok, I'll try to RTFPHB, let's see...

I'm hit with a breath weapon that allowed a Reflex save, I am wearing both Ring of Evasion and Mithral Trio.


1. Oval: Determine Potential/Base Damage - Let's say it's 41
2. Diamond: Is the target wearing a Dragon Tooth Amulet - No
3. Diamond: Is the spell level 3 or lower? - Let's say No for simplicity
4. Diamond: Does the spell allow a saving throw? - Yes, a Reflex save in this example.
5. Box: Roll Saving Throw - Rolled!
6. Diamond: Did the save succeed or fail? - Fail.
7. Box: Subtract point-based modifiers. - Not applicable.
8. Box: Apply percentage-based modifiers (round down) - I'm wearing Ring of Improved Evasion tokendb.com/token/ring-of-improved-evasion/ , so by the Ring's effect I "take half damage instead of full", so I'm now taking 41/2 = 20.5 rounded down = 20
9. Box: Apply modifiers specific to that attack form/monster - I take half damage vs. breath weapons from Mithral Trio - 20 / 2 = 10

I take 10.

Did I get it right?

Matthew Hayward wrote: I take 10.
Did I get it right?

I'm very tired from catching dratini today, but to my weary eyes, it looks like you nailed it.

Finally got around to reading this whole thing!

Page 12: In the example, "Greater Ring of Focus" should be Ring of Greater Focus

End of Page 30 / start of 31: "damage is not calculated after all players ... have slid" - delete the "not"

Page 38 (Sickened): "A successful hits"

Page 40: +1 Fae Blowgun Flute is another Bardsong exception

Page 41: "The party card may also be areas that indicate factors relevant to the current year’s adventure" - change "be" to "have"

Page 45: "Once the trainer has verified your TEs are legitimate, the total of earned TREASURE CHIPS will be recorded on the Party Card for that character." Coaches were recording treasure and trainers verifying. Has this changed?

Page 46: "havn’t" - haven't

Page 46: Psychic powers should be updated to match the changes made in TDB regarding which powers are instantaneous / free action. Also the wording on ESP changed.

Page 64: Relics have a Dark Blue back not Light Blue. Premium tokens are not Black on Gold. (Segments are Purple on Gold, Teeth are Purple on Light Green.) Also, Premiums do have a year stamp (2016 or later).

Great work on this overall. A much needed update.