/5eg/ ~ 5th Edition General

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>>53301940
Personal Opinion: I've found that 5th Edition's combat lacks a lot of the weight and depth (and thus fun value) that the previous editions had.

3.5 and its unofficial successor Pathfinder had been and still are criticized for devolving into full-attack spam, but Bo9S and Path of War give martials interesting and powerful options in and out of combat.

4e had a very good combat system that was well balanced, however it was also criticized for relying too much on a combat grid/miniatures, and that it was too abstracted and 'gamey' or that it felt like an MMO.

So here's my question: How do you feel about 5e's combat? What do you like? What are your complaints? How do you feel it can be improved?

From prev. thread, about to first time GM

The plan so far (going to play on Roll20):
>sort of a 5 Room Dungeon
>villagers complain about goblins/lizardfolk/haven't decided yet snatching their sheep and cattle, pitchfork militia and even a few lowly adventurers went to track the stolen animals, haven't returned
>party (starting at 5th level) arrives at a cave w/stalagmites where they fight off the guardians, proceed to find that the cave transitions into a man-made dungeon, entrance is sealed
>booming voice introduces himself as the dragon who is about to run them through a trial of wits
>puzzle gauntlet ensues, haven't thought of good puzzles yet, ideas:
>a sealed door with a human figure carved on it, in the center of the room floats a sundial with a magical light resembling the sun, four pressure plates in the room (you could probably guess what this one's about)
>a match-the-mirror puzzle with torches and shadows (realized through fog of war), gotta match the shadows with how they are in the reflection
>possibly something involving magical silence and communication in gestures?
>last trial is just the dragon asking them a really simple kid's riddle

Next is the boss, should be some monstrosity/beast, released from a cage by the dragon's minions (lizardfolk? kobolds?)
Last room is the players finding out the dragon is actually a dragon cub whose mom left somewhere and didn't come back, so the minions stole food for him. He likes it when people come to play. Most are so dull they die to the guardians, though, or starve in the puzzle rooms - the ones that his mother ordered to be made, not the last one. The last one he "made" himself, and is pretty proud of it. Shame no one before lived long enough to go through it.

This is probably terribly uninspired, but I'm really pressed for time. Would like some advice on what monsters to put in the encounters to make it work for 4 5th-level adventurers and take longer than 3 minutes, maybe ideas for other puzzles as well.

>>53301940
Hello! I need some help with an upcoming event. The Tournament of Heroes is held in the capital city every 5 years, and allows adventurers from all over the world to compete against one another for fame and rewards galore.

Basically it's a huge battle tournament held in a colosseum. That part I've sussed.What I want is some ideas about arena types, as there are mages/wizards/etc who shape the field each new battle, so as to provide no two spectacles exactly the same. There's some obvious ones like light forests, lakes, rocks etc, but what do you reckon, 5eg? How do I make compelling arenas with things that affect the combat? Basically, help me Pokemon Battle Arena this shit!

>>53302000
The idea is to also drop hints that the dragon isn't all that mighty or mature along the way through the trials, culminating in him sitting in a hidden room on a tiny hoard of a bunch of silver and copper coins to emulate grown-ups. This'll probably be a one-shot, but if it isn't, could be a hook to find his mom or something, dragons' favour sounds like a swell deal for both profit-bent characters and virtuous ones (reuniting mother and child).

>>53301940
How would we implement the superiority die and maneouver system with all martials?

My idea is:
>martials know a number of maneouvers equal to their proficiency bonus.
>number of superiority die is (Dex or Str mod+proficiency bonus)/2 rounded down.
>superiority die scale with character level starting with d4 at lvl 1, d6 at lvl 5, d8 at lvl 10 and d10 at lvl 15.

>>53301944
I haven't tried the previous ones. 5e feels fine - so far I've only played with one DM and she's pretty shitty, so it's all a bit of a muddle. And a lot of the time my 2d6 Sneak Attack + Hex damage feels outclassed by the Barbarian who just rages and has a 2d10 battleaxe. It feels weird, because he can also tank, and I think if I didn't do so much planning and leading of the party, my character wouldn't really have much of a purpose, because the Fighter is proficient in Thieves' Tools and we have a Wizard.

Overall, the actual design of combat feels pretty balanced though.

>>53301944
It does a good job of being a quick base around which I try to mediate the shenanigans of my players. If they drop a boulder on somebody, I could go look for the stats of how much damage that boulder should do, or I say "yeah, he's dead."

I let it go both ways until they're clearly superhuman/demigods, then they might be able to tank things that would kill lesser men.

It's not perfect, but it gets the job done for normal stuff while leaving things open for additions/houserules. I mean, I've introduced stances for martials in my group, based on the stances from KOTOR. And it works just fine and the players are having a blast. I love 5e because it gives me the freedom to change things on the fly.

>>53302005
>water field with floating islands that move of their own accord
>hazard field with spike traps and pits
>battlefield field with stray arrows, fires, charging cavalry
>ice field where you move in a direction until you hit something or use half the speed you used to stop yourself

>>53301944
4e is just a refinement of Bo9S and Path of War style combat.

I massively prefer that style to 5e. I understand the need to simplify, but a lot of depth was lost.

>>53301939
It's an at-will conditional 'make this enemy useless' if I recall right. The main issue is that wizards probably shouldn't be in melee unless they're some bullshit 'I have 20 AC!' wizard, and even then.. They probably shouldn't be in melee. But I like the option.

>>53301944
It works well if the DM makes good battle maps. Sure, other editions work like that too, but 5e more than the others.

>>53301944

I feel like casters are for the most part very fun to play and fill their niches well. I do think that the system is currently extremely poor at allowing for martials with a variety of combat options that are equally viable, without DM fiat.

Barbarians, Fighters and Rogues will all be doing basically the same thing with little tactical consideration barring interesting terrain or unique monsters made by the DM. Paladins and Revised Rangers are considerably more flexible, but still ultimately are basically just taking the attack action most of the time. Even so, I think that Paladins, Rangers and Rogues are mostly OK.

I think that Warlock might actually make for a really good chassis for building an interesting martial. Agonising blast is almost the same as just getting four attacks, they can get a pool of martial maneuvers that regenerate per short rest in the same vein as warlock pact spells and the level 6-9 warlock spells can be super-powerful per-long rest powers.

How big do other DMs make their dungeons? I'm currently up to seven main rooms with three corridors, and a hidden corridor with room on the end of it.

It's pretty much linear apart from the hidden one, but it's designed as a trial for heroes rather than a practical location, so I don't think it matters too much.

>>53302102
>It's an at-will conditional 'make this enemy useless' if I recall right.
Yeah it's a wisdom save or the enemy can't do anything for either an hour, they take damage or until you release it.

It's a woefully underrated ability both in and out of combat and I honestly think Enchanter's one of the more powerful Wizards.

>>53302116
I've found Rogue to be the worst about this, because any improvised action that takes one of my attacks means giving up 100% of my damage, while for n other martial it's only like 50% or less. As an AT I'd basically never cast anything but bladespells in combat.

>>53302134
7 rooms, depending on how thoughtful your players are and if these are mostly fights or puzzles, will probably be about 2 sessions of 3-4 hours each, which is pretty much ideal and about how long I make my dungeons. Any longer than that, especially if you're only meeting once a week, will make your players fatigued of the dungeon unless you've set it up for several weeks in advance with cool background lore/character advancement.

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>>53301944
3.5's combat was a slog. The only fond memories I have of 3.5 was the customization levels as well as the expanded list of skills. The combat is the main reason I'm DMing 5e. Fuck AOO on everything, split movement, martials being even more boring than 5e, etc.

4e's combat was great imo, but the game lacked in so many other areas that people didn't really give it enough of a chance. At will abilities and creatures having way more to do per turn (chalk that up to PC martials as well) made it more interactive. However, a lot of the wording was a bit muddy so the books came out a lot more.

5e's combat is really simple and that is both a good and bad thing. Some of the problem's from previous editions have been addressed at least slightly (Wizards vs. anybody, the flow and speed of combat) while not really stepping on OOC play. Problem is, its a bit too simple and a lot of stuff has to be sorta improvised on the DM's end. If you have creative players and DM's, though, it works

>>53302147

I've always figured that the best thing to do with rogue would be to make 'sneak attack' dice a pool that can be spent on different sneak attacks, like being able to spend some to knock an enemy prone, or take damage if they move, etcetera. So you can go full damage and enjoy 10d6, or you can spend 2d6 damage on knocking them prone, 3d6 damage to make them take 3d6 damage if they attempt to move, 2d6 damage that forces them to make a concentration save to cast a spell in the next turn, and just dealing the remaining extra 3d6 damage outright. Would be hard to balance, but I think could be really interesting.

Hi all. I've been trying to replicate an oWoD Garou for 5e. This is the best I could come up with.
Barbarian 3/Druid x.
Barbarian to get things like reckless attack, (constant advantage to attack and be attacked in turn) and more importantly, enrage and bear totem (To get damage immunity to nearly everything and rage bonuses)
The druid will be a moon druid, so they can still cast spells and stuff, but have the bonus of being able to turn into a huge beast then enrage and be stupid hard to kill with all that damage resistance.
To make it more killy, perhaps make the race an elf or half-elf to get elven precision, which will allow it to re-roll the re-rolls it gets on it's attacks.

How does this sound? Any good?

>>53302159
Do you think it'll take that long? Each room generally contains either a fight or a single, comparatively simple puzzle.

Examples:

Corridor 1 -
>full corridor of traps all made of steel
>just prior to the traps, there is a large lever. A DC12 Investigation check reveals that the lever itself is trapped, and if it's pulled, a shadowy shower of darts rains down on the lever-puller, 1d10 piercing (Dex Save 12 for half damage).
>Whether they make the rolls or not, they take no damage, and the traps themselves prove illusory

Room A -
>All but one PC see a large, unidentified beast in a cage, growling and snapping, surrounded by bones, dripping acid from its teeth.
>remaining PC sees a young woman, sobbing her eyes out, who'll spin a tale of how she was chasing after her lost son when she was trapped in here.
>In the corner of the room, there's a chest, but it's a Mimic if they attempt to open it.
>Alongside the cage are two levers, one labelled "Open", one labelled "Purge". Neither are trapped. The cage opens in two places - onto the room, and into the next, making this the only route through.
>The Open lever opens the cage's other door, while the Purge lever shines a dark light through her, reducing her to bones and then to ash. If the door is opened, she thanks the one who can see her, and passes through, shortly before the main door opens. If the Purge lever is pulled, she/the beast is killed with violent, miserable screams, and disappears.
>After a few moments, the main door to the cage opens. Ultimately, neither answer is wrong, as she's simply an illusion.

I was concerned the dungeon might actually prove too short with rooms like these - I've made five of them and had to write them all quite quickly because I didn't know I'd be running my campaign so soon. I like everything I've written, but it seemed like it might be quite brief if it's linear.

>>53302136
There're ways it can be countered and it puts you in a dangerous position, but wisdom saves are good to target, I think.
To be fair, it's better as a 'self-defence offense' type thing.

But yes, out of combat it really has some things going for it, too.

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>>53302159
We've been stuck in the same dungeon for 3 sessions now, cleared maybe 4 rooms. Last session ended as we stumbled upon 15 identical enemies in a room with otherwise nothing else in it.
Wish my DM understood the very basics of adventuring.

>>53302238
What did the previous rooms have in them?

>>53302252
Just enemies.

>>53302216
Alright, if it's as straightforward as that (and especially if it's something that can be solved by a simple check, especially if you're the one putting it forward and not leaving it up to the players to make the check) then yeah, those might go pretty quickly.

I leave puzzles/traps/fights a little more open-ended, which eats up more time, but makes the players interact more. I like Room A quite a bit, I know my players would get stuck for 20 minutes just arguing either side of the problem, knowing what the levers do.

That being said, if they figure out everything's an illusion, the players might be... disillusioned with the dungeon, so try to keep it sold as reality until the twist at the end.

Consider these two resources for dungeon building, especially the first pdf, it's helped a TON
http://hackslashmaster.blogspot.com/2011/02/on-tricks-empty-rooms-and-basic-trap.html
http://hackslashmaster.blogspot.com/2012/06/on-set-design.html

>>53302238
Your DM would be better off running 4e, then. And even then, they're still a suboptimal DM, because it's not like 4e is there to do everything for the DM, it just makes cases of 'blank empty room' a little more tactical.

>friend of mine is doing a campaign online
>a couple of well known flakes have asked to join
>chances are only half the group will turn up

I like these guys when we do hangout but it bugs the shit out of me that they ask to come and never turn up, let them know weeks in advance

Just curious, /5eg/, as this question may very well depend on the kind of player you are AND the kind of DM you have.

Would you prefer an entire 4 hour session of just interesting roleplay, or an entire 4 hour session of just interesting combat?

>>53302238
Sorry man. Try voicing your grievances to your DM in private, making sure to let them know you're genuinely trying to make the game more fun. Sounds like they're a new DM, they might just need an experienced, guiding hand. Point them in the direction of the two links I posted there: >>53302277

Also, as >>53302280 said, 4e might have things to make combat more interesting for your DM; I've actually been porting some of the terrain hazards from 4e to 5e because it makes combat awesome. Like moving swarms of blood-sucking bugs that immediately attack anyone who gets 'bloodied' at half-health, which allows your players to act either more cautiously or more aggressively. It shakes things up.

>>53302297
Easily interesting roleplay, I play enough video games to have interesting combat, and at least in roleplay I can theoretically act whenever I come up with something interesting, whereas in combat you'll have to wait a minimum of half-a-minute, if everybody else is on their toes perfectly, and the DM is enforcing time limits on turns, neither of which happens often in my groups.

>>53302183
This was basically how playtest martials worked, from what I remember.

>>53302297
Depends on the buildup to the combat. 90% of the time, I'd much prefer to have a long period of roleplay. But if it's a fight against an enemy I've wanted to end for a long time, or one who's been really hyped up and established as something stunningly important to the setting's current situation or history, then fighting them will feel like a character moment in and of itself. So interesting combat with them is the best part of DnD imo.

TL;DR

Interesting combat with a strong build-up > Interesting RP with buildup > Interesting RP > Interesting combat.

>>53302297
Just interesting combat. You'd expect combat to have some roleplay elements as well, and also other dungeon crawler elements along the way.

If there was no middle ground whatsoever, neither. I'd really prefer maybe 25~50% combat, 25~40% dungeoning, 20~30% roleplay and 10~20% other.

>>53302297
>Combat
>Interesting

Pick one. Combat is the least interesting part of any good roleplay in my opinion, and really only exists to create stakes or tension in the rest of the plot. The actual mechanical act of doing combat itself is, and always has been (yes, even in 4e), boring as piss.

>>53302000
>>53302000

Please respond

>>53302277
>That being said, if they figure out everything's an illusion, the players might be... disillusioned with the dungeon, so try to keep it sold as reality until the twist at the end.

It's an illusion-based dungeon, but it's both the first room they come to, and some of the "illusions" are real, so I think they'll be wary (the knack is that anything in steel or flesh is an illusion while anything shadowy is real).

I'll have a look at the links, I appreciate it. I'm gonna try and add more rooms to the dungeons they don't go in before they get to them (they can enter any one at any given time, but there's a timelock before they can do another one - so I needed something in writing for each).

Would it be too complex/convoluted to make a half-caster martial that uses a system similar to this ( >>53302183 )?

Essentially the idea is that they have a gradually increasing pool of d6 dice they can spend when taking the attack action. They can spend the dice to do damage, or they can access a small pool of maneuvers with them. The dice size is quite small (d6), and they don't get as many as rogues (I'm thinking level/3 rounded up), but they refresh as they start each turn, and they can expend spell slots to increase their pool size for a turn. They won't get extra attack, so they depend on this pool entirely for at-will damage.

Basically the unholy child of paladin, rogue and battlemaster, but lacks the nova potential of paladin and battlemaster.

>>53302280
Not like he's a bad DM outside of that he just has no clue on the mathematical balancing aspects of the game I guess.
Dude just wants epic battles, which turn out to not be so epic.

>>53302428
in my opinion, all martials should be something similar to battlemaster in the sense of having a die pool of special abilities to use

Go for it.

>>53302297
Interesting roleplay, with the caveat that it IS interesting.

Interesting roleplay > Interesting combat > boring combat > boring roleplay

The number of times my DM has made us RP out travel by just chatting among ourselves until she decides we've arrived is ridiculous.

>>53302428
That sounds pretty neat, actually. I'm a sucker for at-will things.

>>53302440
This isn't even a mathematical problem. The problem is they don't put anything into the environment or into varying the enemies.

>>53302349
Kobolds in general tend to be the dragon-worshippers. They'd be ecstatic to work with dragons. Especially if there's some draconic blood in their tribe. Have the leaders be part-dragon, with wings and breath attacks and stuff. I'd definitely suggest them over lizardfolk, especially in a dungeon setting; lizardfolk tend to like open-air.

Keep in mind throughout the entire dungeon that 5th level adventurers are approaching town guard captains in power and expertise, they're actually pretty strong and can take a lot, especially if they have a decent composition.
Have the Kobolds be aware of this, and try to avoid a direct confrontation with the players. Use small tunnels behind the walls that would be hard to crawl through for human-sized beings.

In the boss fight, don't be afraid to down a player or two, get those death-saving throw rolls going. I'd genuinely suggest a CR 8-12 creature for the boss of the dungeon; it can only take one or two actions per turn whereas there will be probably 4 or more players, yes? And if it's too powerful and you think you might kill your players, don't feel bad knocking down its hit points a bit or lowering its damage, just do so secretly.
Maybe a Stone Golem, it'd be easy to justify having long-term in a dungeon.
https://astranauta.github.io/bestiary.html#Stone%20Golem
If your players are even somewhat smart, they'll be able to figure out ways to use their numbers to their advantage. Make them feel smart. Give them cover (+5 to AC), maybe environmental assets like vats of oil that they can slick onto the floor to make it hard for the big thing to move, and then they can light it on fire for extra damage. Pillars the golem knocks over that become difficult terrain.

As for monsters in dungeons, I'm a big fan of slimes and the like. Look up a PDF of 5th Edition Foes, in there you have the Blood Pudding and Slithering Tracker, both of which would fit in just fine in a dungeon like this, and each has interesting abilities.

>>53302339
That is, of course, your opinion.

Not sure why you aren't playing DW or some other fantasy game with simpler combat resolution, where 80% of class features aren't combat related like in 5e, though.

>>53302486
Thanks for the advice, I'll definitely try and follow!

>>53302543
Best advice I can give is trust your gut and be willing to improvise. Hopefully you're playing in-person so you can hear your player speculate; sometimes they'll think you're going in a direction you weren't, but if it's a good idea, take it and run with it. They'll be smug because they 'guessed correctly' and you'll be happy because you'll have a good idea.

Other good dungeon encounters are rooms with actual uses; they find the kitchen that the kobolds have been using to prepare food for the dragon- another chance for you to hint towards the fact it's a baby, a chance for the kobolds to get some characterization, a chance for the players to loot kitchenware or maybe get interesting foods and stuff. And that's just the kitchen.

As for other little monsters, I like non-traditional mimics. Treasure chests are awesome, but what about a mimic doorframe? It lets the players pass through into it, to a real treasure chest that they are certain has to be a mimic, or at least trapped, then boom, the door shuts behind them and grows teeth. They'll remember that one for sure.

>>53302486
One thing, though - one of the points is that dragon mom had a thing for collecting odd beasts, so one would be released from his cage as a boss. Stone Golem doesn't quite fit with the theme, any cool beasts you can recommend?

>>53302566
Gloom Crawler on page 122 of Fifth Edition Foes is a decent contender, though its 10 tentacle attacks might be a bit much; just make it so it can hit each character within reach once? Make it old, weak, or crippled to justify it. It probably hasn't been fed/treated well.

Alternatively, a Gohl on page 124, slightly less powerful. A mass of connected snakes sounds like a good way to scare your players properly.

As for other beasties the dragon mom might've had under lock and key that aren't the boss, consider a collection of spiders of all kinds that she kept around for venom collection, maybe a displacer beast?

So now that 5e's ability scores and numbers are bounded, what exactly do the scores represent? Is STR 20, for example, representative of Captain America's strength and is STR 30 Superman's?

>>53302565
Oh, I'd never have thought on doing any other rooms than the one required mechanically for the dungeon. Good catch!

>>53302662
Thanks a lot, just gave Foes a look, 1st ed must've been metal as fuck.

>>53301944
3.PF is too complicated

4e starts off decent, but after 10th level seriously slows down in terms of resolving a combat. Also doing anything outside of combat is not handled very well.

5e is the most elegant of the three.

>>53302713
5e literally handles out of combat like 4e.

Except worse.

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Anon posted this yesterday, think I night try it. What do you guys think?

>>53302134
I'm a rebel: my dungeons are only two or three rooms of any real importance of detail. The rest of the dungeon I just describe in general terms to give players an idea of the kind of place they're in and don't even bother with any kind of map.

>>53302713
>4e starts off decent, but after 10th level seriously slows down in terms of resolving a combat. Also doing anything outside of combat is not handled very well.

As someone who has never played in a game that's made it past it's sixth session before the group collapsed, TPK'd, or got bored and started a new system, I have to say I'm pretty jealous that you've been able to find this out.

>>53302671
If you have a DC 15 strength task, someone with 20 strength will succeed 50% of the time and someone with 10 strength will succeed 25% of the time.

So basically it's the difference between the average joe and a football player. Not nearly a big enough difference to be representative of Captain America.

>>53302751
The cheerleader with 8 strength will also pass roughly 20% of the time.

How do I learn to make a poker face?

>>53302743
I was the one DMing, and frankly I did it by speeding up the rate of advancement by handing out increased XP over the norm. It kept the players engaged. I tried to keep each session balanced between 50% combat and 50% roleplay, but the closer the group got to level 20 the slower the combats got even though I wasn't doing anything spectacular and just using monsters straight out the Monster Manual. I was genuinely surprised because I thought 4e was supposed to fix all that, and it was precisely what I hated about 3.5

>>53302751
>>53302762
Think you need to add 5 to all those %'s

>>53302885
>Getting 10 or better on a 20 sided dice is a 1 in 2 chance. 50%.

50% is getting BETTER than 10. if 10 is included, it's 55%, since there are 11 numbers to succeed.

>>53302885
10-20 is 11 numbers
15-20 is 6 numbers

>>53302134
The dungeon, which does not exist save for in our minds, is precisely as big as I need it to be.

I had prepared 20 rooms. The wild-mage sorcerer opened a gate to the abyss, summoning a Balor. The party barely managed to close it, but after that most of the combat felt anti-climactic. At that point, I took 20 rooms down to 12, 6 of which they had already been through.

Do what is fun!

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So the party I'm DMing managed to survive the fall from an airship (thank feather fall and shitty parachutes), but now find themselves in the middle of a lake with no land in sight.

What sort of shit could they encounter on the "seas"? Merfolk? Wandering ship?

>>53302995
Whirlpool to the plane of water. Merfolk rescue them and need their help! A cavern has formed on the border between the plane of water and the plane of earth, and they can't get in - but creepy crawlies are coming out.

They will send the party to safety if they kill the kraken! Or whatever monster you like.

>>53302728
Similar but not exactly the same. The key difference for 4e was that you had to artificially inflate the difficulty of skill checks to keep pace with a character's bonuses to them. In 5e you don't have to - A high level character stands a very good chance of completing a minor task but isn't guaranteed success.

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>>53302995
A Dragon Turtle, which spends most of its time laughing at them.

It offers them a ride somewhere in exchange for valuables.

>>53303113
>The key difference for 4e was that you had to artificially inflate the difficulty of skill checks

You don't "have to". It just doesn't make sense for master thieves to hang around kobolds with poorly locked treasure chests when they could be robbing liches instead in 4e.

I'm not sure how the reverse is a point in favor of 5e.

>>53302995
Water dungeon. Everyone loves water dungeons.

>>53303132
>dragon turtle
>int 10

i guess you learn something new every day

>>53303152
Because there are still some things which should present at least a minor challenge to seasoned adventurers. Finding a guy hiding in a big city, for instance. Or climbing up a mountain.

You're putting words in my mouth by assuming I want the players to hang around low level kobolds their entire career. No, I want them to progress to that Liches horde. But players may eventually figure out they could go rob shitloads of kobold tribes and are guaranteed auto-success on everything from the way 4e skill system worked (unless you arbitrarily boosted the difficulty of all the checks) instead of taking the bigger risk of going after that Liche's castle.

At least in 5e there is the chance of fucking up even a simple lock which at least makes the risk less worth the reward.

>>53302023
>2d10 battleaxe
nigga what?

>>53301944
5e's combat is better simply because it allows for a breadth of options that are actually meaningful out of the box and combats don't take forever.

If you wanted static, boring as goddamn fuck, I only hit them with a full attack combat, go 3.5 and its successor PF, ToB and PoW notwithstanding. If you wanted deep tactical combat, go 4e but while its combat is fun it'll likely bore you out of your goddamn mind just with how fucking long it takes.

What 5e needs is a ToB equivalent but framed using 5e's assumptions and power level.

>>53303113
>A high level character stands a very good chance of completing a minor task but isn't guaranteed success.

Which is fucking bullshit and means that your game can't even handle adventures of Conan the Barbarian.

>>53303152
>It just doesn't make sense for master thieves to hang around kobolds with poorly locked treasure chests when they could be robbing liches instead in 4e.

This is bullshit too but for two different reasons - first if your game is still about relocation of fucking wealth by means of thievery, it is not high level, and your liches are just reskinned kobolds (again, even fucking Conan had quite swiftly graduated from stealing stuff to leading masses of people to take other people's stuff in quite organized manner); and second, the same applies if any sort of locks or mechanical traps are still a relevant method of keeping your stuff from being taken by other people.

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>>53303353
>Which is fucking bullshit
>a game that uses a dice to decide outcomes can sometimes have failure

well colored me surprised

>>53303353
>This is bullshit too but for two different reasons - first if your game is still about relocation of fucking wealth by means of thievery, it is not high level, and your liches are just reskinned kobolds (again, even fucking Conan had quite swiftly graduated from stealing stuff to leading masses of people to take other people's stuff in quite organized manner); and second, the same applies if any sort of locks or mechanical traps are still a relevant method of keeping your stuff from being taken by other people.

4e does it like this:
1-10 local level (i.e. Kobolds). Thief can disarm traps and open locks.
11-20 country level (liches, scheming nobles/dragons/noble dragons, etc.) Thief can disarm traps and open locks that are magical in nature.
21-30 "world" level (demons, primordials, things that threaten the entire world) Thief (okay, to be fair only the very specialized ones) can disarm traps and open locks that are metaphysical in nature, i.e. he can pick your heart to steal your love for your wife.

In 4e, players are always in the center as actors, not as... facilitators? Point is, even if you become the king of some place, the game is based around the players themselves going out doing stuff, not sending armies/henchmen. Beyond that, they can have whatever goal they like.

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I need ideas on stuff my players can spend all their accumulated gold coins on. Lifestyle expenses help but can only do so much compared to the massive influxes of wealth they'll eventually get from typical rolls on the random treasure charts.

I'm okay with letting them buy expensive magic items, but this can eventually get out of hand, so I got to cap it which means there will be coins left unspent.

I'm okay with characters training in additional skill proficiencies during downtimes - at a cost of course. As long as it's a skill they could've picked at character creation. Sound good?

I'm toying with the idea of allowing my players to outright buy one or two feats at great expense.

I like the idea of all the players pitching in to buy some kind of "headquarters" - are there any guidelines as to how expensive buying real estate and hiring staff would be? How about sailing ships and crew? What mechanical benefits should stuff like this provide in game?

I also need more ideas. Because over a typical campaign most adventuring parties can expect to get shitlloads of coin, if a DM is following the DMG guidelines for doling out the treasure. Which I am.

A couple of questions:
Should monsters have access to more than source for spellcasting? Say they can draw from both cleric and paladin spells.

Should paladins get proficiency to Con?

>>53303437

1: I wouldn't say that they 'should' get it, but if it fits the individual monster sure. Creatures don't follow the same standards as PCs.

2: No, definitely not. They already have a strong saving proficiency, and Aura of Protection means all their saves are good anyway.

>>53303414
>headquarters and real estate

Yes. The DMG has a section about maintaining and even building shops and strongholds and the maintenance includes showing the amount of skilled and unskilled hirelings. That part is between Page 126 and 128.

>>53303353
>Which is fucking bullshit and means that your game can't even handle adventures of Conan the Barbarian.

The adventures of Conan the Barbarian were bullshit.

>>53303404
>can disarm traps and open locks that are metaphysical in nature, i.e. he can pick your heart to steal your love for your wife.
Might as well ask, anyone know a good system for this kind of thing? Like taking high fantasy and attaching a rocket onto it into higher fantasy?

I was thinking of running a Feywild game and letting players do things that generally don't make physical sense, but if there's a system better suited for it I'm all ears.

>>53303465
Thanks!

>>53303452
Sorta figured for the first, and it's thematically appropriate.

Someone was sperging out because the paladin didn't get Con proficiency and said it was a design flaw. But he was someone coming from 3.5.

>>53303570

Yeah, feel free to ignore them or point them at the Resilient (CON) feat. Paladin is absolutely fine as is. A bit boring for my tastes, but I think still the best designed martial in 5e.

>>53303260
Well, exactly. It's the first 5e I've played so I didn't know if it was normal or not, but then he was just doing so much more damage than the rest of us.

She gave me daggers than do 4 necrotic damage with every hit, but then we're just fighting undead.

>>53303610
Most common undead do not resist Necrotic. Have her check that.
d10 is average 5.5 so if you're dual wielding you don't stay behind.

>>53303580
Cheers brah, all in all the classes in 5e seem pretty well designed...they're just lacking in something which I can't really put a finger on.

>>53303641
She's nuts anyway. It's far from my biggest gripe about her. She's off this week and next and I'm running in her absence, and all the players have said "how are we going to go back to her after this".

>>53303646

I think it's novelty. 5e is probably the least 'new' feeling version of the game ever, in that it focuses very much on trying to distil the archetypical DnD experience, which means a lot of different things to a lot of different people, into one set of rules.

Except for how dull martials can be, I think they managed that, but at the cost of not treading much new ground.

>>53303655
Why the absolute fuck is she the one DMing? No game is better than a bad game.

>>53303113
>had to artificially inflate the difficulty of skill checks to keep pace with a character's bonuses to them
Oh hey, another person who can't fucking understand the simple chart. Medium DC means that is the average difficulty challenge that the PC's face at that level. The same cliff face does not increase in DC, it means that they're not climbing the sheer cliff face but climbing the 90 degree stone tower and might not even have to roll to climb the cliff face anymore. If they are still adventuring around that cliff face then they're already naturally getting punished by going to places where their gains are less than what they could be getting elsewhere because they're somewhere too easy for them.

>>53303663
Hopefully we get to see them treading new ground in their UA hardcover. And if only they could break away from their bias of the wizard class and actually distribute their design talents into making less bland classes.

>>53303685
We didn't get a choice. It's a Meetup group where new players show up and are assigned to tables, and we all just ended up on her table.

After a few weeks people generally realise what she's like, and we've had dropouts, but the others in my group haven't, and I like those others and want to have them as my players (which is why I'm the one DMing temporarily, I had a campaign mostly written up already) so I've just been holding out for when hers finishes so I can pick them up. I've tested the waters and everyone's willing to swap to my table, but they don't want to upset her by running off mid-campaign.

In my ideal world, she just doesn't come back from holiday, or does and says she needs a break, then stops indefinitely.

Were you here for my Oil Baron stories?

What if you kept the current proficiency bonus for the casters but reintroduced the old 3.5 proficiency for the martial classes? But at half spread, so 20th level is getting a +10 proficiency.

>>53303663
>Except for how dull martials can be, I think they managed that, but at the cost of not treading much new ground.

You keep harping on this. I hope you realize there's a lot of players who appreciate how simple it is to play a martial for the same reasons you criticize it for. So with that in mind, martials as the way they are now are what some players actually hoped for. There are still other classes that cater to your apparent need for complexity and options, so not every class should be designed your personal tastes.

>>53303754
Oh, it's you. Was kinda missing you already. Man, just tell her it isn't the kind of campaign you guys were looking for and keep your own going, you don't need to slog through a shitfest just not to hurt someone else's feelings.

>>53303771

I don't think that having simple martials is a bad thing at all actually, and you're very mistaken if you think that every post in this thread about martials being too simple comes from me. My issue is that there aren't options for people who do want complex martials yet.

>>53303771
That's a very absolutist view. Simple martials can exist alongside complex ones, it's just that it'd be better to have more balanced number of options.

>>53303754
Just kick her out.

>>53303783
Like I said, it's not really down to me. I implied to one person I might keep going after she's back and they said they wouldn't join me if I pulled out mid-campaign, though they're fully on-board for moving over at the end.

I'm patient. She's been comparatively better as of late so there haven't been many stories, but this is the first time I've been able to get some DMing in, so I'm not eager to go back.

>>53303821
It's a Meetup group. I can't kick her out - the person who runs it would kick me out. I could mention my gripes to him, but at best I'd lose half the players to her with them not wanting to stir up shit, and at worst I'd completely poison the well. The guy who runs it is like real life Hardcore Lawful and I'm not sure he wouldn't be a pain about it.

>>53303852
Then talk to her about whether she can be less of a shit DM, but more diplomatically. Whether she can improve by focusing on less boring bits and generally trying to up her game so the rest of you can actually enjoy it rather than wanting to an hero.
Hardcore Lawful as in overbearing? Cos fuckers like that need their shit kicked in.

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>>53303902
This is a woman who has told us how gay marriage isn't legal in the UK (where we live - it is) and how much she hates gay propaganda being shoved down her throat (in front of at least one gay party member), how evolution is a crock of shit, and how much she hates Italian men (in front of an Italian man party member).

She also slaps arses, kisses cheeks, and sniffs hair, which makes the one person who suffers through it super uncomfortable, but who's said not to say anything about it.

She also yells at people for dumb things, like not RSVPing to the event (which Hardcore Lawful man gets annoyed about too) even when they thought they did, and because we sniggered when she said "the goblins grease you up" after she instigated a long discussion about blowjobs.

She's a complete psycho. And I know your next line is something along the lines of "just get out", but we're so close to the end now and I'm so close to taking over full-time, it's just not worth risking it.

Hardcore Lawful man isn't overbearing as such. More like pic related, and that I brought in a slice of birthday cake for each party member the day after my birthday and he came over and moaned that I had to ask the pub staff if I could eat it in there (we book a room). We literally just waited until he left and ate it because the pub staff didn't care.

>>53303976
Jesus, the rest of your party must be fucking saints if you're willing to put up with all that.

I'm playing a Tabaxi Order of the Knife Mystic, what first three disciplines I should take? We are starting at level 3

>Oilanon is STILL having problems with his shitty group
Anon, you have to know when to call your quits.

>>53304014
I think it's a case that none of us had played before this group, and by the time we'd realised that it wasn't meant to be this way, we were in too deep. We do sort of want to finish the campaign out of a sort of morbid fascination.

Plus, I've got everyone on board for some full-scale derailment, because my character wants to take over a crime faction and everyone else has valid reasons for joining him. It's what the oil barrel was originally for, but at this point, I've replaced the oil barrels with our wizard picking up a couple of transmute rock spell scrolls at this point. We're going to drop a mountain and an ocean on a vampire. Well, we might not. Depends if we get that far.

We've just been in the major fight with the bulk of the enemy force. We think it's the big climactic battle and then we're done, so we can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

>>53304025
Nearly there. Get to DM this week and maybe next week. Nearly out the other side. To be fair, she hasn't been *as bad* lately, hence why I haven't been posting new stories. It's more like an air of discontent rather than blind rage, which was what it started as.

Just holding out for the end now.

>>53303976
Sounds like they're both complete pieces of shit. I'm sorry to hear about your situation. We've also had to deal with autists and people with no self-awareness but I'm glad we're gaming with actual and good friends.

Why not just organize your own meet? Or play in someone's home? It really sounds like they just want the power to lord over and look down on people and don't actually give a toss.

Sure she can have her opinions but she should only express them if you're really good friends, otherwise she should be rightly ostracized and belittled.

I'm actually baffled how people like this exist. Surely they recognize they're colossally annoying, no one likes them and everyone wants to punch their lights out?

>>53304100
> To be fair, she hasn't been *as bad* lately, hence why I haven't been posting new stories.

She's finally getting a steady supply of cock. If she ever turns up the bitch mode again, just fuck her right there on the table in front of everybody. And reassure the Hardcore Lawful man that you'll sponge and mop up when you're done.

>>53304142
This desu senpai

>>53304142
You wouldn't have enough brain and eye bleach in the world.

>>53304161
Man the fuck up and take one for the team!

>>53304217
Only if she wasn't fat and she was good looking. Even then don't stick your dick in crazy.

>>53304142
She definitely hasn't been getting a dicking. I wouldn't say she's been complaining about it, but she has mentioned several times how difficult it is for her to date after age 30 or in her case, at all.

She's not attractive at all and I've heard her do way too many bad voice impressions to think about it. Nice rack, but that's about the only point in her favour.

>>53304109
I'd love to organise my own meet. I've got space in my flat - but I get the vibe the others wouldn't go for it (plus some of them would have to travel twice the distance). You know that sort of sense you get when you watch political thrillers, where everyone knows the other conspiracy members, and knows they know you know, but no one quite wants to voice it in case it turns out they're not and you get sent to execution? It's kind of like that.

As for recognising that they're awful, she always tells her what a nice DM she is and how we should be thankful and stuff, and gets really offended if we question it.

There's one guy in the group who's a bit of a dick and I'm not that fond of him, but he's turned super cynical lately. At one point she said her rabbit was sick and she was "apologising in advance for taking it out on us". He said "so what's new?" She said she was going to target him for the rest of the session, but the rest of us gave him a nod and were all like "worth it".

That is the upshot of all this. The party is super united, because we have to be to survive her.

>>53304233
Who said anything about dicks? This isn't about you, man. Put on that rubber glove and make a fist.

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>>53304251
>Nice rack, but that's about the only point in her favour

There's ways to deal with that

>>53304251
>As for recognising that they're awful, she always tells her what a nice DM she is and how we should be thankful and stuff, and gets really offended if we question it.
No one needs her entitled arse. She deserves to be repeatedly tazed and cattleproded just for being a smug piece of shit.

Otherwise meet up there or near there and don't tell any of them about it. When pressed say your pets have been sick and you needed to take care of them.

>>53304257
Coat your gloves in bleach or acid first.

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>>53304257
https://media0.giphy.com/media/arbHBoiUWUgmc/giphy.gif?response_id=591db45d5648335846f51bc5

>>53304316
I've actually included a mild reference to her in my next campaign, in the form of the backstory to a tavern's unusual name - The Judge's Thrust.

"Ered Eithel once had an evil, unreasonable judge. He would pronounce himself the fairest judge in the land, demanding praise, but all the while offering out cruel and terrible judgments, disproportionate to the crime - or even to the innocent, having them slaughtered for the most minor of offences, or even if the judge was the only one to see any fault.

But one day there was a woman accused so defiant that the judge declared that they would no longer be fair, that from thereon out they would be harsh.

Unable to face such an unthinkable fate, someone amongst the city rose up, and the judge was found the next day, impaled upon his own katana, right through the heart. His house was declared a tavern, so that his death could bring some joy to the world."

She is also typically edgy and katana-loving. I wonder if my players will notice the jab.

Starting a new game with some of my friends. The DM and I have been playing for a bit but the four other players are brand new to DnD.

I was talking to the DM and I said I would take a Life Cleric that way the rest of the people can take the more active classes, doing huge damage and fun shit and I would be a bit of a safety net.

I have never played a Cleric, but our setting will have me being either Life or Nature so I thought that Life would work best as a way to buff and help the party. I was thinking of going with 16 Str / 16 Wis so I can work in Melee and cast well enough.

Am I going to be be a bit bored with this though?

>>53304529
I'm not experienced in 5e Clerics either, but from what I hear, the name of the game in 5e is preventing damage rather than healing it. So concentrate on debuffs, and take a look at maybe playing clerics whose religion is more geared toward that. That way you can contribute to big damage (if not cause it) and still keep the rest of the party on their feet.

>>53304529
Clerics arent very boring.

You wont be a fantastic martial or anything. But you will be very well rounded.

>>53304529
If you can spare the feat, I strongly recommend getting Booming Blade via Magic Initiate or Spell Sniper. It's another 3d8 damage, 7d8 if they move, on top of your weapon damage and radiant rider. Means you'll be kicking out enough damage to feel very effective.

>>53304529
Should've gone Wizard. Healing in combat isn't very effective, and just having a healbot available makes people more sloppy. It's a lose-lose.

>>53304529
Do you absolutely have to be Life or Nature? The Cleric has far more interesting domains, some of which turn them into blasters or even fully capable martials.

>>53304695
Not the guy you're talking to, but I might also be rolling up a Cleric. What are your thoughts on the War domain? I wanted to make a front-line Cleric.

Where are the stat blocks of Leosin Erlanthar and Onthar Frume from HotDQ and Rise?

They are key NPCs for the story.

>>53304722
It's okay, but you won't really be full-on 'front liner'. Any cleric can be just as good / better a 'front liner' by putting on spirit guardians and using the dodge action while standing at the front with sanctuary on them.

>>53304874
Light Clerics honestly make a pretty good frontliner, their Channel Divinity works with sanctuary and Warding Flare lets them take risky moves.

Plus at high level disadvantage on the save for Spirit Guardians.

>>53303414
If they're buying magic items, do it in an auction. Gives you a chance to bump the price as needed thanks to a particularly fervent bidder, who if needed could become a sidequest or some shit. Crazy old Wizard man trying to acquire magical items for some reason.

>>53304695

Yeah, the God in the setting we are going to be a follower of is a Nature of Life god. I would rather Tempest Cleric if the option was open.

>>53305091
Why would a D&D setting have one god?

Hell even the ones that don't have any always have a weird or creepy way that clerical powers work anyway.

>>53304622

I am a variant human but I was thinking War Caster for advantage on Concentration saves and I wouldn't need a free hand for casting.

>>53303976
Gay marriage is legal in the UK though, or at least 75% of it. I don't see much issue with her opinions, so much as her firing they'll out (I'm assuming) unsolicited. She just seems socially retarded, which can be fixed

>>53305113

That's the Adventure the DM has us going on. We are all bought together because of 'reasons' and I didn't want to argue. I have two other games going on so I don't mind being the bitch-tier Cleric/Healbot.

>>53305119
>Gay marriage is legal in the UK though, or at least 75% of it.
That's my point. We live in the UK, and she was going on about how it was illegal, and when we told her it wasn't, she told us how she hated having it forced down her throat.

>>53305288
What the shit? There's a difference between not wanting to hear something and fucking lying about it.

>>53305288
Is she from Northern Ireland or is she just a bit dozy? I can understand her complaint, I just can't understand why it's coming up during D&D. What prompted the rants about gays and Italians?

>>53302005
Rogue Duel
small maze the crowd can see into with a treasure, a fake treasure, and a sentry that only has to touch them for them to lose.

>>53305302
>>53305308
She just didn't know. She's very much unaware of society outside her very small bubble, and very untrusting of it. She'd probably fit in well with /pol/, to be honest.

The rants are fairly well unprompted. Like, the topic will come up in-game and she'll take the opportunity to complain about it. She's very big on metagaming-y, OOC stuff - there have been a number of times where I've roleplayed something out with the party, using a character voice, and lied through my teeth (because my character is a lying bastard out for himself) and she interrupts to say "but that's not true - X is". It's very easy for her to get off-track.

She also has obsessions with random things, like David Bowie and old films, and she'll sing "Ziggy Stardust" any time the Bard does anything. Anything that amuses her OOCly, she does in game. Someone made a joke that a Flumph would be a funny familiar, and her eyes went wide, she went "YES!" and then said that player's familiar could only be a Flumph for the rest of the session.

>>53302730
I had a similar idea for a sorcerous origin based on being the seventh son of a seventh son. It had a focus on healing and divination, but I could never get it quite right. I might steal some ideas from cosmic syzygy for my own homebrew class.

>>53303468
You could easily fluff a boon or two to fit this, I remember one anon ran a campaign and in it there was a feywild market that leaked into the real world once very 100 years or so. There you could sell literal memories, all the sensations included, for power ups. The more precious the memory to you the better power up you could get, however you would always know you were missing something, in that you'd know you sold the memory but would have no possible way of ever reobtaining it.

>>53305091
>it's monotheistic so it's like picking one god from polytheism, and having a very narrow portfolio!
What the fuck is up with this? The whole point of monotheism is that EVERYTHING is under one god. And when they tried to convert Celtics who believed in animism instead of telling them, "NO, GOD DOES NOT BELIEVE IN TREES." they simply consecrated the tree, and said any prayers directed to it go to Jesus.

Nobody ever parted the sea in the Bible? Nobody was ever a part of a great storm, or something? There's no Crusaders (War Cleric), or numerous scholars (Knowledge Cleric) that made inventions in medieval times just for the sake of understanding the world their God made?

It doesn't matter if 90% of the scripture points to one or two domains, because 90% of the people are going to have different interests, and specialties beyond impersonating Jesus.

>>53303468
From what I can tellthe earlier poster was referring to the 4e Epic Destiny Thief of Legend. Among the things it can steal:

>Laughter
>Memories
>Colour from a painting
>A maiden's sigh
>A warlord's ambition
>Their own soul from Death
>The colour of someone's eyes
>Any object or vehicle (this one is mechanically spelled out)
>The Scepter of a Lord of the Nine while they are holding it.

>>53302000
Cute idea. I think it seems good, but what happens once they answer the dragon's riddles? Are the townsfolk still there, and the does the dragon free them? Does the dragon offer some of its treasure?

>>53303580
I have to agree on the potential for being boring, but came up with a paladin OoA mixed with bard. A noble who's only goal in life is to bring joy to people across the land through jokes, song, tricks, a good roll in the hay or protecting them and seeing justice done.

>>53305398
She just sounds like a shit DM. Her personality doesn't even seem too abrasive to me (I'm not English though so we probably differ there) just not a good DM at all.

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Give me one reason you're not supporting our boy, Whil Wheaton.

>>53305430
Maybe it's like Alara, some fundamental forces are missing from the world.

>>53305424
That would be a very interesting start to a campaign.

You sold a memory, but you don't know what it was, or even what you traded it for.

>>53305486
Trust me, she's abrasive. Mostly yells at people for stupid things and throws hissy fits over completely irrelevant stuff.

>>53304737
Can someone help me stat Leosin and Ontharr? What level should they be. There's no Monk or Paladin template in the books that I could just adjust.

>>53305608
I'm just still confused as to how Italy came up during a campaign

>>53305487
>play the Gary Gygax adventure in DDO
>Narration: THE GATE SLAMS SHUT BEHIND YOU AND SKELETONS RISE UP FROM THE FLOOR
>Narration: YOU WILL HAVE TO FIGHT
>30 times

>>53305288
Imagining all of this insanity coming from a whiny female BRITISH accent is the worst part of this for me.

>>53305645
Can't remember. Think she was complaining about the player who was Italian.

>>53305681
Not sure whether to be offended. At least I'm not female, I guess?

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>>53305288
>not knowing basic laws of your own country

>>53301944

5e feels like one of those few cases where "streamlining" is actually a good thing and not a case of simply dumbing down for the benefit of retarded normies. The pace feels fine and the mechanics are fine, one of my favorite additions are the spammable cantrips for casters. Simply saying "whoops you're out of spells you have to use a beaty stick for the remainder of combat" felt dumb, having weak on-demand spells for consistent damage makes combat as a caster much more bearable and speeds up dungeon crawling since you aren't resting as often.

>>53305681
Nothing wrong with British accents, nothing wrong with feminine voices, but if you put those two together and add whinging it gets real bad, real fast.

Like peanut butter and marinara sauce. They're both great for their respective uses but don't put them together.

>>53305708
>tfw other countries keep stepping up to show the world they can be just as stupid as your own
whew

>>53305487
>Our boy
>Whil Wheaton

Nice bait I'll give it 2/10

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>>53305848
>implying you wouldn't

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>>53302238
That is called Sir Bluto's Murderhole, and you are going to like dying in there.

Spoilers for White Plume Mountain
I am DMing White Plume, and the party came across the Splash Mountain Kayak ride into Murderville. They had to retreat. One PC fell, rolled 20 on the first death save. Their hireling fell (and made their saving throws). The rogue saved everybody by finally using his beads of fireballs. I think that everyone hates nets now. On the plus side, Sir Bluto is still alive, and will probably ambush them somewhere that his Boots of Striding and Springing are going to be fun (read: Fucking Magic Bullshit.) I added a barracks in the secret tunnel for Sir Bluto and the Murderers in their secret tunnel, so they don't just poop in the magic river. The most annoying part of the entire room was handling groups of PCs coming in one by one. We had 3 kayaks, and the rogue player fell off the last one. 4 full rounds before the rogue showed up, and by then they had lost the combat. Rogue player was bored out of his gourd waiting. Gotta say, I was happy the nets worked this time, because earlier in the campaign I ambushed the party with net wielding bugbears, that missed all their attacks.

I know war forged were introduced in the first UA, how is their race looking balance wise a couple years later?

>>53305899
I wouldn't, he needs stop so more squats and eat his oats.

>>53305968
It's fine.
Oooh~ I'm stacking AC in a way no one else can~.
If something like that ever happens in your campaign with a non warforged you'll be forced to use more saving throws anyway. It just makes it a little more extreme.

I don't always follow the UA releases but I heard there was a samurai class now? Is that true?

Hey guys, I'm working on this ( >>53302428 ) idea as we speak, and have built the general class chassis and subclasses. Just need to finish off a list of potential ideas that work well as 'at-will' maneuvers that could be activated by trading in dice. Suggestions (both mechanical and thematic) would be much appreciated.

>>53306047
It's just an archetype for Fighter. Makes 'em a mini-Barbarian.
And Monk, if you want to interpret Kensai that way. Makes 'em a better damage dealer.

>>53306047
You heard correct

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>>53306047

>>53305644
Leosin - Use Martial Arts Adept from VGM.
Ontharr - Use Priest from MM

Those two should not be in combat, so it shouldn't terribly matter.

If you want to crank them up, for full badassery:

Leosin - Gladiator from MM, refluff all attacks as punches and kicks
Ontharr - War Priest from VGM

>>53306115
>Leosin - Gladiator from MM, refluff all attacks as punches and kicks
Ah man, my group just fought a modified Gladiator as a boss. That thing hits really fucking hard.

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>>53306160
My party found that out the hard way, it sucked even more for them when the assassins hit them from behind because none of their passive perceptions were high enough and none of them checked the room even after fight other assassins in the same place.

>>53305937
I'm planning on running this next, are your players enjoying it and how big is your party?

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Sorry if this is the wrong place to ask, please ignore me if so.

I'm thinking of multilassing Cleric and Wizard in my upcoming 5E game. Of course, with the two having conflicting casting stats, its not very optimal, but my DM has always been more about lore than really pushing us in combat.

My main question is, what are the MAJOR pitfalls i could fall into with this build? based on your experience what should I avoid that could turn this sub-optimal character into a terrible one?

Pic unrelated

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>>53306047
>>53306077
>>53306110
Sa-sa-sa-SAMURAI

>>53306050
Archery fighting style would be OP because +2 accuracy when you have a ton of dice riding on one hit is obviously better than anything else that's just a little flat damage. In that sense it probably shouldn't have fighting styles, or should have a melee only fluff that lets you offer the other fighting styles.

You also need to start with a list of things they'll be better than, and worse than other classes at. What percentage more/less sustained damage should it have over an optimized comparable class? How much more/less when that class novas? How much more/less health/AC/utility/likelyhood to apply a status effect?

From a balance standpoint it should almost always be worse to apply a status effect for the sake of gaining advantage, or auto-crits or whatever when you're alone. If you have to option to knock them unconscious, or restrain them for an amount of time that you do more DPR than just doing damage it turns into "Ivory Tower" game design where worse players won't know that doing damage is actually less DPR. Status effects should become more palatable to use only when you have a friend to combo with which means you have actual variance on what you want to do.

This is why resources are normally limited. Even if you want to do it every time you're limited, and you get variety in t hat way.

>>53306473
Pick a domain that compliments being a caster. War domain wouldn't be a good fit, Tempest would be eh, life Cleric gives heavy armor but unless you are planning on healing a lot it wouldn't be great.

My suggestions are knowledge nature and light cause of cantrips skills and class abilities.

I had a Wizard 13/Cleric 1 with a knowledge deity and it was good.

>>53306563

I'm considering using a Familiar so I can cast touch heal spells without getting in the front-line.

Did you use point buy? If so, what was your starting Int & Wis?

I need some flavor for clerics. Any ideas?

>>53306683
Strawberry

>>53306543

I've already ensured that it won't have Fighting Styles or extra attack-I figure that if the extra dice is enough for Rogue, it should be enough for this.

In terms of raw numbers, I've calculated it mainly against paladin as main competitor. Endgame damage for a Magus is (weapon damage) +5d10, whilst paladin is rocking (weapon damage + 1d8 + fighting style bonus) *2. Magus uses a special action for attacking however, which means that peak optimization paladins out-damage it considerably. In terms of nova potential, for most of the game the Paladin is considerably ahead slot vs slot, although this levels off at 20. However, the Magus can only spend one slot, whilst the Paladin can burn two and has smite bonus action spells, so Paladin peak nova humiliates Magus.

>>53305654
>Gee maybe killing everything will un-slam all the gates because killing everything always solves all problems, right?

>>53306640
As a human variant with magic initiate I had at least 16 in intelligence and 14 in wisdom and that held well. If I went for observant that would have been good as well.

I had spells like healing word identify detect magic. Stuff that didn't need an amazing score to work.

>>53302023
Abuse bonus action hide if you can. My party's rogue is basically just strictly worse than the UA hunter because the gm thinks it's bullshit to just hide every turn for whatever reason.

>>53306280
The players seem to be enjoying it. And I like how challenging it is.

White Plume Spoilers ahead.



I dropped the dungeon on an island, and the party stopped by the nearby town (redesigned) and got some help to clear the dungeon. A bunch of "hirelings": A knight, a level 2 UA artificer, two guards,and two scouts. The guards fell in the first encounter, and I've been picking off the other hirelings ever since. They've grabbed one artifact, Wave, which saved two PCs in the Boiling Bubble room when it started to collapse. Those two are now making their way back to the dungeon, and I think they'll reappear at the finale against Nix, Nox, Kix, and Kox.

Since this is mainly a thinking/puzzle dungeon, the threats aren't purely combat. So I am not resizing the encounters based off the number of people that show up. Max players was one session with 7 where two PCs and two hirelings fell, the minimum was 4 PCs (burned through two more hirelings).

I got some complaints that Sir Bluto's nets were unfair, since there wasn't a defense against them. But I did shift it so that the bandit knights needed to succeed on an attack roll to catch the kayaks. The book just says that they automatically do. So, whatever. The PCs were the ones to hop in the kayaks without scouting. Choices have consequences.

The time it takes to get through this dungeon seems very variable, especially if they are camping out in the dungeon during rests. The PCs have Leomund's Tiny Hut and Alarm spells, but set them up in such a way that Snarla could dispel them one by one to get an ambush.

I'd recommend shifting the puzzles around. I have changed the Sphinx riddle to a logic puzzle, and changed the number puzzle chamber. Just in case anyone spoils themselves, you can catch them off guard with that.

The other chambers are challenges to bypass even with them spoiled, as they need bring special equipment, or use character skills.

>>53306280
>>53307040
>Cont

Because of the puzzle aspects, and how players might want to slow down an encounter that is going sideways, the time it takes to get through the adventure seems pretty variable. I know that the book says that experienced people could get through it in one session, but my group of a couple of 3.5 grognards are taking maybe 5 sessions to complete.

>>53303414
I think it's either Middle Finger of Vecna or Walrock that has a full guide on making buildings, along with time, prices, and customization options in thorough detail.
It's pretty sweet, you should check it out.

>>53306843
You should point out that you can hide behind tonnes of stuff. The trick is that arrows coming from unexpected angles can still trigger advantage and sneak attack, even if the foe would expect something to be around the corner.

https://www.dmsguild.com/product/210790/Hiding-and-Stealth-Rules-Clarification

>>53303414
>>53307116

This one seems pretty good. I am trying to implement it in my game. Get everyone invested in a winery.

https://www.dmsguild.com/product/207377/WH-Fortresses-Temples--Strongholds-rules-for-building-and-customizing-playerowned-structures

>>53302428
I think it's a simple and effective way to do it, it takes away some of the resource management that battlemaster gets (assuming you get short rests between encounters, it's basically a maneuver a round) but still gives options beyond just attacking. I think the only potential pitfall is that on medium-high levels it may become "I attack, prone, disarm and push him, slide through his space and make him attack me his next turn".

>>53306115
oohhh I completely forgot about the NPCs in Volo's.

Martial Arts Adept works perfectly! CR3 should be fine.

There's a paladin as well but it's CR8. I need something CR2-5 or will arrange from Veteran or something.

>>53303244
That's just it being more swingy and less ready to hand out flat bonuses, and besides the risk/reward you presented isn't significantly more risky and makes for a weak argument. Just because you have a tiny chance to fail doesn't make it any less worth it. If (med-high level D&D) adventurers just wanted a bit of money they'd get a job as a bodyguard or something anyway, they have incredible skills and the reward needs to be proportionately high for it to be worth adventuring if that's all they're in it for, I don't know why you're making the argument that PCs would just rob kobolds even if it was some guaranteed cash.

>>53307741
The robbing kobolds thing was just for the sake of answering the guy I was talking to. It could be anybody they want to rob, but the most ready example that springs to mind are the poor schmuck NPC townies they probably came across levels 1-10. I guess the disconnect is that 5th ed keeps players "grounded" to a certain level even if they make it to level 20. I'm fine with that and that's the D&D I'm used to. 4th ed eventually turned all the characters into superheroes on the level of Superman, The Flash, Wonder Woman, and the Green Lantern. All other editions keep the PCs grounded closer to a Batman level (yes, even the mages who can occasionally toss out a Wish). I guess my beef is that if I wanted to play a cosmic level superhero game, I'd be playing an RPG actually dedicated to superheroes. All other editions of D&D keep it at the LOTR level of power I'm more used to dealing with.

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I'm planning to start DM'ing my first campaign in a few weeks. We had played around with 5e before, but never actually finished a campaign. Our group is only 4 guys, so I'm planning on piloting a DMPC for most of it just to give the party some more substance. I'm thinking of having it go something like this:

>leader of a small town somewhere hires a veteran soldier friend of his to check out a weird island nearby that villiagers have been reporting strange lights and noises coming from
>soldier(my char) in turn hires a few noob adventurers, telling them it's probably just some ghosts or something
>soldier brings his magic sword for that purpose
>party gets there in a small boat
>find a hidden stronghold
>soldier tells them to check it out with him
>eliminate some enemies, maybe some kobolds, but run into cultists of some kind
>bad_feeling.jpg
>at some point, party finds out a lich/evil wizard/general Big Bad has taken up residence on island and maybe find out that the BBG is planning on doing some bad shit to all the people nearby
>I flex my DM muscles to get the veteran soldier killed, possibly by a trap, possibly by the bad guy himself, and his magic sword lost
>as the party runs out, they might find a minor noble(possible 2nd DMPC) trapped in a cell
>if they rescue him, he tells them about the mcguffin magic item that can beat the BB and several other tasks they have to complete or at least should
>noble came to the island to become a cultist in order to restore his families seat of power, but was captured and intended as some kind of sacrifice
>if they dont find him, they are going to have to take a detour when they get back to town to speak with a sage to obtain the prior info
>town leader begs party to stop the BB, giving the(admittedly non-creative) main quest for the campaign

That's what I've come up with. Any ideas, or advice?

>>53302831
It took a while for WotC to realize that they added HP bloat to a lot of the monsters in the first Monster Manuel, and corrected it by the time MM3 came out.

There is a conversion chart out there for the HP of those monsters, but I think it ended up being that you had to cut their HP by a third.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mw9mbPXSuCA

>What GWM/PAM Fighters actually believe

>>53307117
It's largely due to it being swashbuckler and the player being obsessed with character image means he won't do much ranged, and because the player doesn't do much fictional positioning lawyering and doesn't set himself up to do it, basically not thinking about his features and how to abuse them. But the gm also obviously is soft nerfing what he considers to be too good by not allowing it even if it makes some sense fictionally.

>>53307996
>Our group is only 4 guys, so I'm planning on piloting a DMPC for most of it just to give the party some more substance.

You don't need this for 4 players. If you must have an in-game presence, make a talking animal or a sentient speaking item.

>after reading

Nevermind, as long as the guy is going to die and doesn't overshadow the players, it might be ok. That's not a DMPC though, that's a friendly NPC.

>Any ideas, or advice?
Flesh out a few of the big bad's important minions so the big bad has a presence without having to physically be there. Leave hastily scrawled messages hidden messages from the noble NPC to give them another opportunity to learn some of what he knows. You don't want "go back to town to speak with a sage" to be the only other avenue to learn the info unless there's something to point to him.

>>53307996
Sounds a little railroady, but if you tell the Players that the general plot is going to be a stop the big bad dude one, it should be fine.

I'd drop the second DMPC, and let the players handle the first in combat. Death by DM fiat isn't a bad fate for an NPC.

Notes from the prisoner should be fine. >>53308286

>>53308314
If he wants to do a DMPC, just make it an RP one who uses the group as protection.

That is, if he HAS to make one.

Currently planning out a mass combat situation, where the plan is to get the battering ram to the gate in order to allow the army in, whats a good stat block to use for a battering ram?

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Any tips on fighting a mystic as a wizard? I'm going to be fighting one next session/soon and they just seem difficult with all the mind bullets

>>53308374

AC 10
HP 100

resist all physical
weak to fire

>>53308206
that vid lmao, ornstein is a pretty cool character regardless, though.

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I'm planning on a battle for my session tomorrow to have 100+ combatants so I am going to use large scale war rules. Is the UA for "when armies clash" any good? Any suggestions for it?

>>53308434
how much prep work?
mystics can get advantage on initiative and elemental immunity but overall their firepower is not nearly as big as a wizard's at higher levels.
str hold person lore master or portent hold person/any other disable is enough to instantly remove any humanoid from combat.

>>53308374
Resist piercing damage. Resist fire damage. Resist necrotic damage. Immune to psychic damage.
(10)*PlayerNumber*PlayerLevel health.
AC.
Speed is 5ft per person moving it, up to 4 people pushing it. Though anybody with a suitably high strength / good strength check may move it 10ft per person, up to 40ft.

Attack is arbitrary as it's only really going to attack gates and such.

>>53308510
I'd just operate it as a sort of 'zoom in, zoom out' thing.

You don't simulate the battle where the players aren't near enough to care about, just have a general roll to dictate the flow of the battle elsewhere.

Probably get some inspiration from that UA, but no need to adhere entirely to it.

>>53308286
I plan on the noble being pretty hard to miss, due to messages and items left behind by him and because I plan to have him start screaming for help once he realizes there are other people in the fortress with him.

I'm planning on using him as a DMPC because a group seems smaller than most groups I hear about, and frankly I just want to play in a successful campaign, even if it's my own.

>>53307996
Set pieces, and scenarios are one thing, but "The sword WILL be lost" and "You WILL go to the sage" are absolutely 100% wrong ways of thinking about a collaborative game where one side makes a decision and the other reacts.

The one reacting should be you. That's the whole fun of being a PC: having control over yourself. Decision making in D&D doesn't mean what feat you take, or which road that leads to the same information you go down.

The very same thing you want to have happen might happen if you just say "There's a noble in a cell, and he'll probably pay to be saved." and leave all the other clues spread around. And if they don't bite? Let them run into the woods skinning bear asses. The cult gets +1 victory point, and become that much harder to miss next time.

>>53308206
Ornstein is a gay furry.

>>53308314
I'd like for the exact things they have to do to be dependant on what they find in the fortress and who they talk to. About the only thing I'm going to force is that the BB is gonna erect a barrier around the island to prevent them from entering again, and they have to find some method of taking it down, a few of which are going to be known to the noble, assuming they find him, or the sage, assuming they don't.

I'm kinda insistant on keeping the noble around though, because I want to play too ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Find Familiar is the best(most fun) non-restricted level 1 spell to take as an arcane trickster right?

>>53308590
The reason I want to make sure the soldier dies and his gear is lost is because I feel like having him around is going to be a problem later, as I'm gonna roll him a decent bit stronger than the other characters just to make sure they don't die before they leave the island. If he doesn't die on the island, I'm not going to sweat it and will just try to find some other excuse to take him out and force my buddies to take the reigns.

I'm gonna make the noble pretty fucking obvious, as in screaming for help once he hears the sounds of the party running out of the dungeon. My idea for the sage is just a last-ditch attempt to provide them with information on how to beat the bad guy, in case they miss the noble. I'm fully prepared for them to miss everything and have to completely improvise some sort of motivation to kill the bad guy.

>>53308867
This is also why you should start your campaign building process with "So, what do you guys want to play?". You don't have to force anyone to do anything if you already all agreed that it's what everyone wants.

>>53308894
They've said they would be cool with a pretty bog-standard, kill-the-bad-guy story, and all I'm trying to do is establish a setting, a list of challenges, and potential plot devices to throw at them.

>>53308658
Havel was a scalie. Gays don't exist.

New book announcement when?

>>53308524

I have a little prep work, but am already tied into transmutation, I'm thinking that polymorphing myself is the best way to fight it

>>53309172
June 2nd.

>>53308845
It's the strongest.

Does magic resistance ever feel funny to ya'll?

I can see how it would work on things like a INT/WIS/CHA Save or Suck spell (Hold Person? Suggestion? My mind is not so weak!)
But then I think about stuff like Grease, Stinking Cloud, or Web where the results really aren't that magical at all, it's just grease, straight up stink, or sticky stuff. "My magic resistance has made me much more dexterous against getting caught by your grease and webbing! Haha!"

I'm going to have to remember to just bring a normal bucket of grease and a fist full of rotten eggs with me everywhere I go, just to fuck with enemies with MR lol.

>>53309287
It's not just any grease. It's magically enhanced grease that will disappear after a minute. It acts like grease, but it's still magical by nature.

However, it's not clear how magic resistance would resist that other than 'magical effects are dampened, thus it's like there's only half the grease there'.

Normal grease doesn't scale with your spell DC.

>>53309173
what level?

>>53308577
The game is made for a 4 person party though. People have bigger groups than that only because they try to cram all their friends into one game.

>>53308577
People have bigger groups than 4 because the DM is a pussy who won't say no and/or he's inviting 7 people knowing only 3-4 will show up consistently.

>>53309287
i would rationalize it that magic resistance in that case would partially dispel the magical effect, you have an easier time avoiding it because as it approaches you it partially dematerializes, or that your magically resistant nature weakness the effect on contact.

maybe the mind flayer didn't dodge the fire ball, but took reduced damage from it (as if succeeding on the save) because his arcane and psionic powers make him resistant to the magical fire it produces. maybe he didn't dodge the faire fire, just waved its tentacles and dispelled the effect.

it's all in the presentation.

Would it be unreasonable for a paladin's single-target Channel Divinity option to grant vulnerability to radiant damage?

>>53306047
It's a fighter subclass/archtype/whatever that is kind of good at not dying, and nothing else. Knight is kind of less shit because it gets AoO out the ass and some mounted features.

DMs, sum up each member of your party in one sentence each.

>Gunslinger
Angry sailor with a list of names that doesn't seem to end.
>Warlock
Foolish woman that is meddling with powers she couldn't even hope to understand.
>Bard
Man who just wants to recapture the glory days of sailing the seas.
>Rogue
A confused young woman having her morals challenged by the group every day.
>Ranger
The father of three bastards now, he doesn't know any of them exist.
>Barbarian
Brute of a man out to prove that he deserves to lead his tribe over his brother.

>>53309583
>Mystic
Not!Keyleth

>Sorcerer
Confrontation is normally the route to go since she'll piss off someone some how.

>Monk
Trying the wise old man angle, not working out too well mostly because he doesn't try

>Cleric
Self insert, atleast he's entertaining

>Barbarian
Fight, especially if it's a dragon

>>53309442
Yes. The best nova channel divinity out there is from a UA some people have issues with that gives 2d10 (11) + Level (min 3) = 14 damage at level 3, or 20 + Level = 23 if you manipulate for advantage. It's also poison which is by far the worst element.

If you have 1 attack with 1st level spells only it's 9 damage gained.
If you have 2 attacks with 1st level only (PAM variant human, or dual wielding) it's 18 damage.
If you have 2 attacks with 2nd level spells (level 5, no PAM or dual wielding) it's 27.
If you have 3 attacks with 2 2nd level spells (level 5, PAM, or dual wielding) it's 36.

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>>53309659
>not not Keyleth

>have a story prepared
>ready and hype as fuck to DM
>tfw friends are always """too busy""" to play

life is suffering

>>53309702
They don't use the ! to mean "not" outside of programming. Not!Thing is more properly read as "ersatz thing," and its etymology is
the style of old comic book covers.

>>53309583

>Tibit Rogue AT
Basically Neal Caffery from 'White Collar,' only with the ability to turn into a cat whenever he wants.

> Halfling Totem Barbarian
Ancestor worship appearing as totemic powers, flings herself around on a Greatsword while Raging (houseruled it that so long as she's raging, she doesn't suffer from Heavy disadvantage for being a Small size creature).

> Tiefling UA Beastmaster Ranger
She loves all the animals and wants to cuddle and care for them forever and ever, with a slight druggy/boozing subtheme.

> Wood Elf Moon Druid
A centuries old forest park ranger who walks around the continent making sure nature stays natural and observes/roots out corruption.

>Wood Elf Glamour Bard
A man who pretends to be deaf because he just doesn't care what people say, and has a bottomless pit for a stomach.

> Half-Elf Phoenix Sorcerer
A man trying to understand his fire-based powers and get them under control, so he stops lighting anything he touches on fire.

>>53309702
>That'sthejoke.png

He still argues and maintains that he didn't make a Keyleth clone.

>>53309583
>Champion Fighter
Literal nigger from fantasy Africa

>Rogue Tabaxi
Furfag that's a literal fag. Bisexual at least. Tries to fuck anything drawing breath.

>Wizard
Fucking Jew that's always trying to finagle me OOC or NPCs for a better reward.

>Nature Cleric
Heathen cunt IC and OOC that won't shut the fuck up about environmentalism IC and OOC

>>53309583
>Monk
His only power is being a decent guy
>Paladin
Not smart out of combat.
>Fighter
Tried to be evil. Failed.
>Rogue
Not a smart combatant.
>Wizard
Not smart.

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>>53309813
>Fighter
>Tried to be evil. Failed.

>>53309583
>Fighter
Got his sensitivity training from Dirty Harry
>Sorcerer
Only learns damage spells.
>Monk
Likes to find creative ways of getting his characters killed.
>Cleric
Has a melee domain. Never went into melee in twenty sessions.
>Paladin
Is there to be cleric's muscle.
>Rogue
Went to Cleric's school of tactics and strategy. Despite being a swashbuckler, is yet to be seen closer than 100 feet to the battleground.

>>53309813
How do you fail at being evil?

>>53309984
By being a guy who can't bring himself to do bad things OOC and can't bring himself to then do it IC either.

>>53309798
I sense anger within you.

>>53309813
>Tried to be evil. Failed.
>tfw this happened to me

>>53309984
Personally it's because there weren't many opportunities to be evil that didn't involve outright dicking the party over, which is no fun, and now my character is slowly turning neutral or good due to character reasons.

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>>53309798
>Kill them Johnny, kill them all

>>53309798
but environmentalism isn't really a problem in most D&D game worlds. It's not like the industrial revolution has happened yet.

>>53310148
We know it's you, mysterious player X.

>>53309583

>Elven Wizard
Knowledge obsessed, raised in a human city but still somehow an elven supremacist, took 12 levels to learn that pacting to devils was a bad idea.

>Dragonborn Eldritch Knight
Killed his family as a preteen on the behest of a blue dragon, and only proceeded to get edgier from there.

>Paladin/Sorcerer
Insane dark lord aspirant who pacted to the devil, then his evil future self, then finally settled on a Black Blade who convinced him to become a lich.

>Half-Elven Paladin
Noble justicar sworn to the service of good who wishes to destroy all the evils in the world, no matter the cost.

Got all the way from level 1 to 20, and they were no less dysfunctional by the end than they were at the start.

>>53307040
Just a thought: since the hook of this game is often pretty public, why do you think of running competing adventuring parties through it simultaneously as NPC's? They can function as hints or foils if need be

>>53309583
>Rogue
Irreverent fool who lucks her way out of all danger
>Warlock
Mad scientist that thinks the side effects of one dangerous, ill-advised project can be fixed by his next dangerous, ill-advised project.
>Cleric
I'm taking notes and playing a video game.
>Wizard
I'm playing a video game.

>>53310164
>but environmentalism isn't really a problem in most D&D game worlds. It's not like the industrial revolution has happened yet.

Oh you'd be surprised how many Druid and Elf players flip their shit if they come across anyone cutting down a tree for any reason at all (like build a house) or kill a forest animal (for food)

>>53310164
>we should wait for problems to happen before we solve them
Why are you even adventuring? The lich hasn't killed all the Gods and replaced them YET.

>>53310209
This is why I'm glad the Wood Elves in my DM's world are a warrior culture that don't give a fuck about "muh nature" and the High Elves are all DEAD.

>>53310164
>We know it's you, mysterious player X.
It's not tho. I play a cute witch girl. Not a fighter.

>>53302000

Honestly if you're about to first time GM just run a module. You can focus on how the game actually plays and not worry about working out all of the details yourself.

That's not to shit on your idea it's perfectly fine but as always it's in the implementation and specifics which a module provides

>>53310225
So all the druids are going to protest 'In four hundred years time, rainforests on a continent far away are going to be chopped down for farming issues, and you must address these issues by finding a suitable alternative to palm oil when making chocolate!' or 'After a great war people will make great world-destroying bombs, can you please stop cutting down this tree in case it accidentally invents the nuke?'

Or, 'If we dig up all these coal resources we can't actually feasibly dig up yet and burn it, it'll cause acid rain and the melting of ice in a place you've never even heard of'

This isn't environmentalism. This is 'Some crazy guy claims to come from the future and know everything and wants us to stop doing things we like'

So I've been focusing on indie/OSR games recently but want to get back into the mainstream. I was raised on 3.5 so the basics of 5 aren't hard to grasp, but are there any surprising twists and turns to be aware of? Also, is the game inextricably linked to the Forgotten Realms? I don't really care one way or the other about the Realms as a setting, but I don't want players to assume I know anything about it, because I don't.

Also, I'm mostly an improviser as a DM, but I haven't seen any helpful hints for structuring encounters like there were in 3.5. If memory serves there were even suggested groupings of enemies in the MM.

>>53310240
I also have warrior culture wood elves that act like a desert version of the Mongol horde. The high elves are necromancers.

>>53309583
>Fighter
Actually a Druid / Monk / Rogue / Ranger.
>Wizard
Secretly the familiar of his secretary, the real brains behind the operation.
>Warlock
Cowboy and tentacle fetishist who hates his family and anyone in proximity to them.
>Rogue
Shipless sailor with a deathwish and remarkably little chill.
>Cleric
Idiot peasant-vessel for a God's power; has no idea what he's doing, not actually sure that healing spells even exist.

>>53309583

>Human Totem Barbarian
A powerful nature-loving, freedom wanting, end of days vision having man trying to save the world.

>Elf Assassin
A calculative yet, occasionally cowardly man who wants to do good, he has lost a lot of his friends since his journey started and it is weighing heavily on him.

>Halfling Lore Bard/Arcane Trickster
A kindhearted gigolo stuck in a love triangle with a rival of his, he likes going with the flow.

>Human Maestro Bard
A regal, well mannered, and quick to anger man on a journey to save his cursed wife.

>Aasimar Magus
A very quiet man on a hunt for the people who took everything from him, the only thing left from his past is talking sword with one goal in mind "Keep him safe."

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I'm not a very creative person and I'm not a very good writer.

I've somehow ended up being DM to give our forever DM a break.

Is there anywhere I could s̶t̶e̶a̶l̶ borrow ideas from?

>>53309583
>barbarian
Does shrooms and is easily corruptible, despite wanting to be good

>artificer
Rick from rick and morty, annoying and makes the worst choices.

>samurai
Fight for honor except he's a murderhobo. Died to a random trap, for no reason.

>ranger
No personality

>warlock
Became sasuke slowly without me knowing, also has legendary skills in making the worst decisions. Died by eating poison to gain its power.

>>53310346
>Magus
Did you design it, or are you using the one from the DM's guild?

>>53310403
The one from the DMs Guild.

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>>53310295
a) environmental problems predate the industrial revolution
b) man-caused environmental problems occur in regions with barely medieval levels of technological development, even now
c) these dudes can actually talk to trees and nature spirits and faeries and shit and get magical powers from them
>lol what's wrong with a little defiling, there's plenty of grass

>>53310336
It's not linked to FR.

The most shocking thing coming from 3.5 will probably be that the game just fucking works and isn't constantly trying to fuck your players in the ass because they forgot to take their six mandatory functionality feats and dip four classes by level 7 if they're not playing straight wizard.

The DMG has all the information you need on encounter logic, and the Monster Manual has the rest. Encounters tend to be much less predictable than 3.5e, so I guess that's something to watch out for.

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>>53310355
woah, since when can we do strikethrough

>>53310418
How are you liking it, as the DM?

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>>53310379
>Died by eating poison to gain its power.
oh my fucking god yes

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>>53309583
>Warlock
What happens when a small summoning ritual happens to coincide with a meal by a Demon Lord: a scared man doing what he can.
>Warlock
When feathers and eldritch power meet, mimicries of laughing elven children will be the least of the npc's worries.
>Barbarian
Fuck trees, the dragoning.
>Cleric
The choir boy who is trying to unfuck the first warlock and yet is scared of ghosts.

>>53310467
>>53310355
[s]WHAT[/s]

>>53310434
The only environmental issues I'm aware of that don't take place in the modern era would relate to farming, and even then farming doesn't dominate the entire landscape.

The main issues I can see are about fantasy elements - aberrations and unnatural beings or interplanar issues, or demonic corruption.

>>53310467
>>53310545

I̶'̶m̶ ̶a̶c̶t̶u̶a̶l̶l̶y̶ ̶m̶o̶o̶t̶ You can just go to a website that generates it and copy paste.

How does a threeheaded whip that can put fear on enemies sound? 3d4 damage on a hit?

>>53310434
>I'VE GOT TWO PICKS
>While you held two picks, I was cleaning the blade

>>53310598
Is this some magical mcguffin?

>>53309583
>Human Vengeance Paladin
Wants to be a full blown paladin, is actually a viking. Sleeps with as many women as he can, doesn't worry about it since he's immune to disease. Hates dragons but apparently not enough to do anything about it when he sees one
>Dwarf Shaman (homebrew)
Is tied to the humans past somehow but hasnt really explained it. Can tell then future when we dont need to know what it is. Does nothing but has his fire element fight for him in combat and then drink and act belligerent, IC and OOC.
>Wood Elf cleric of life
Worships Apollo for some reason. Literal deus ex machine. Would have been TPK every session without him
>Dragonborn fighter/sorcerer
Mary Sue snowflake munchkin. Has proficiency and advantage in everything. Whatever your character can do he can do better. Doesn't know what to do outside of rolling.
>Human Bard of Lore
Has a solution for everything. -Is- the solution for everything. Has slept with anything that moves including the paladin.

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>>53310470
It's not bad, it's like a lowered HP and AC Eldritch Knight, with more spells, divine smites and limited bonus action magic armor and weapons.

My party is currently level 8, originally we had 2 Magus, but one was killed and taken away by cultist.

The now dead magus really enjoyed his class (Teleporting, booming blading, helping his allies), but he found he was always using ranged options even though he wanted to play melee cause it was safer and just as strong (He was dex based and the ranged cantrips are just as strong as the melee ones).

The Aasimar likes his class, but he's new and he feels it's a little too complicated for him so he feels like playing a different class.

I really want to see some of the other Magus options in play, both of these guys were in the Arcane Order so it's all I really have experience with.

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>>53310669
>Has a solution for everything. -Is- the solution for everything. Has slept with anything that moves including the paladin.

No homo, or complete homo?

Just hit level 4. I'm a bow-lock and have 18 dex and 18 cha (we rolled for stats, I was a lucky one). Should I boost a stat or take a feat?

>>53310708
Paladin joked OOC that he and the bard fuck everything and could turn the tavern they were in into an orgy. The absolute mad lad Bard went ahead and actually made it happen IC

>>53310756
Sharpshooter you stupid nigger.

>>53310669
>Hates dragons but apparently not enough to do anything about it when he sees one
This was my group's Fighter about the Drow. He insisted that he hated them more than anything in the world and when he met one he just told him to fuck himself.

>>53310756
You mean UA Moon Bow? You probably run out of spell slots to smite with quickly, so Sharpshooter is there for after that.

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>>53310756
>rolling for stats
>not throwing a hissy fit and quitting the moment 'rolling for stats' even comes up at character creation

>>53310873
>throwing a hissy fit
This is the kind of player that likes point-buy or array.

Take note.

>>53310873
DMs who make you do that retarded shit always use the same argument.

>in a game where you roll dice you want to avoid rolling dice XDDDD

>>53310873
Oh I probably would have if it hadn't went in my favor. I ended with 14 14 15 15 16 17 though.

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>>53310549
>environmental effects are local
>humans will eventaully "have enough" and stop
Okay, so, your fucking peasant ranch has unnatural masses of cows free from predation being fenced in one spot, and those grasslands only exist because you deforested a large area to begin with. This has displaced an entire ecosystem which has large-ranging effects on neighboring ecosystems, not just from a plant/animal interaction perspective, but from knock-on weather effects as well.

Creatures that used to go into that forest to hunt or preyed on animals that did are now out of their food supply and dead, which dominoes along the landscape leading to mass die-offs or a population explosion of some animal (or creature) previously kept in check, which itself may lead to another explosion of another animal which preys on that. Lacking any predation, their numbers may swell to such a size that they quickly exhaust their food supply and go through repeated feast and famine cycles with massive quantities of beasts keeling over during the famines and creating health crises through all that spoiling meat rotting away in the countryside which can now spread to other populations, including humanoids.

Getting back to your pasture, large-scale grazing in the same location has led to overgrazing and not given the groundcover adequate time to recover. The compulsion for the herd to migrate is gone now that you've fenced them in, and irrigation ensures the animals can stay in one place when, naturally, they would have left long ago to find more abundant food and water. That same irrigation is also fucking up the distant water ecosystem you're draining from; altering the flow of rivers or the water level and thus chemistry of lakes, or in the case of groundwater, depleting local aquifers and causing ground collapse and subsidence which prevents later refilling when the rains come.

>>53305487
I don't really care about him but I do like the MMO. It's rather enjoyable, even if I have no one to play it with.

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>>53310971
The topsoil's dead now from overgrazing and is little more than dust which blows away on the wind. This dry, consolidated soil is useless for farming and blows away to coat plants elsewhere, choking their growth. Compounding this effect is the loss of moisture in downwind environments which would been previously carried there on the breeze from respiring plants which fixed moisture in the soil and their biomass, far from coasts or mountains where storms can't carry precipitation. This is a critically important point: by virtue of existing, a desert creates more desert, because any ecosystem is partially reliant upon and shaped the moisture coming from bordering ecosystems.

Once the plants near the desert are abraded away by flying particles, choked under silt and sand, and withering from thirst, they also die and their root structures crumble, leading to more loose soil which is blown on the wind. In addition to trashing biodiversity, this displaces the animals that previously lived there and forces them into environments they aren't suited for (or which aren't suited for them), where they either die or disrupt the new ecosystem.

CONGRATS, YOU JUST MADE A DEADLY AND EVER-EXPANDING DESERT
ALL BECAUSE YOUR DUMB ASSES WANTED CHEAP BEEF AND FIREWOOD TO COOK IT WITH
MAYBE IF YOU'D LISTENED TO THE DRUID CIRCLE THIS WOULDN'T HAVE HAPPENED
ENJOY THE ONCOMING INVASION FROM THE NOW-DESERT BARBARIAN HORDES NOW RIDING WESTWARD TO TAKE ALL THE SHIT FROM YOUR SLIGHTLY-LESS-RUINED LAND

>>53310971
>In a world of magic
>Any of these problems won't be easily solved with such

>>53305697
I think you know what to do, congratulate her on her charity and proceed to dunk her with buckets of iced water.

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>>53310379
>Died by eating poison to gain its power.
Son, you KNOW you're not getting out of here without a storytime for this.

>>53311006
Yeah, that's why the Druids go around casting Plant Growth so your dumb farmer asses don't have to chop down more forest to feed the same number of people. And if you still chop down forests after that, they lightning bolt your ass. Magic can solve this problem by KILLING YOU.

>>53310439
If I'm running a game at FLGS and I want to have a relatively balanced player progression compared to monster challenge level, are there builds to be aware of? Can I spot broken stuff from Unearthed Arcana with a pretty cursory glance, or are there hidden combos? As I mentioned, I've been mostly playing story games where balance isn't a concern, because (in that logic) roleplaying as weak or strong are somewhat equally entertaining.

I don't mind unpredictability, but it's good to be aware of.

>>53310657
Just a magic item in general. Thinking about it belonging to an arcanoloth.

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>>53311027
>He doesn't realize I was the wizard poisoning the land while traveling with him
>All for a science experiment

Once you understand someone's magic it's easier to corrupt, congrats.

>>53311006
>Athas
Yeah, magic has solved every problem they've ever had. Just think about how terrible the lives of all those people in walled desert cities would be without the Sorcerer-Kings to help feed them.
>Eberron
We've only ever used our magic to heal the land, not create arcane apocalypses that glass hundreds of miles of land, ha ha.
>Toril
Fun Fact: exactly zero mighty arcane empires have exploded with devastating results for the surrounding regions and peoples, a testament to the world's ability to handle magic with intelligence and respect for the betterment of all.

>>53310900
It goes both ways

>>53307050
How are your 3.5 grognard players finding 5e?

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>>53311071
You say bad I say good, progress can't be made without a few bumps in the road.

>>53310971
You destroyed an old ecosystem to make room for a new ecosystem. Big deal. The issue is when you demolish those old ecosystems into oblivion - which isn't happening. At best, you might observe that healthcare within the humanworld is improving, mortality is down so humanity might expand beyond its norm and thus it might take up more farmland and endanger these habitats, but that's a bit far-fetched and really often during campaigns the heroes are trying to protect humanity from dying to some lich army or orc horde and you shouldn't be so worried about humanity's expansion when they're just about to go into decline.

Animal husbandry is indeed a bit of a concern for nature-hippies, though I rather wonder if druids aren't guilty of it too, to a certain extent. It's better that humans have a reliable source of food that's still way more natural than battery-farmed-hens than humanity hunting everything in the forest to extinction.

Still, I guess a farm that only grows one crop is less diverse than a forest in any case, and would promote a lot of a creature type.

I mean.. These problems do exist. But in these cases, it's a matter of 'The druids should teach the farmers more efficient farming methods and also kill the fucking humans at the same time'. Most of the issues that a typical 'save the forests!' druid comes up with aren't really major issues, but I can agree there are some disturbances that might worry druids. They should be more worried about aberrations.

>>53311106
I have a DM right now who's trying to make a fairy who was spreading forest into a natural desert the good guys and the dragons that pushed it back the bad guys. I could see some Dark Sun-like argument for this, but my character is from Dry Town in the Dry Desert.

>>53305470
Townsfolk died to guards long ago, so did the adventurers. Wyrmling didn't do any of the killing, though.
If they go through it all and find the dragon, it's strongly implied for them to go find wyrmling's mom, and he'll want to tag along or something. Or they may kill him for the handful of silver and a few GPs that the kobolds stole for him. He proudly calls it his hoard.
Everyone's gonna level up at the end regardless.

>>53311127
Absolutely, I'd love to see you fighting the fairies and probably the dragons at the same time.

>>53309794
She can fling herself on my greatsword.

>>53311102
>finally, our arcane science has progressed to a point where we can peel back the layers of the multiverse
>our supreme divination spell has revealed to us that everything is a false vacuum. what the fuck does that mean? let's just poke a tiny hole in this universal brane and peer inside
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1cqp3W-b12k#t=6m05

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Looking for some input /5eg/.
Have a hexblade who wants a bit more utility instead of straight damage since our party is only three people. I was thinking about an alternative invocation to Cursebringer: a gauntlet (mechanically a shield) which is able to store life essence stolen via the hexblade curse, up to half the warlock's total hp. As an action you can touch a creature and transfer life essence to heal the creature. The gauntlet also allows for curse redirection upon cursed target's death.

Any thoughts?

>>53311170
What the fuck did I just watch?

Also yes science, especially today, seems to always ask "can we?" but never the more important question of "should we?"

Take that thinking and turn it up to 11 and you have wizards.

>>53310978
But you have everyone to play with.

>>53311236
I'd say it's fine, provided that's what the player wants.

Still, they played a 'waste all your invocations on being good at fighting' class, they should suck it. ... But that suggestion is a good suggestion.

>>53311170
Goddamn, I get chills every time I watch one of these.

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I need your good homebrew classes, races, subclasses, whatever. Just give em to me. Good ones though, and balanced.

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Anon's Quest for scaling artifacts/legendary items continues!

>Dawnflower's Ward
Added!

>>53310164
And? There weren't many environmental issues back when Zoroastrianism was the state religion of Persia but not polluting is a big part of the religion still.

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>>53311309
>I need your good homebrew classes, races, subclasses, whatever. Just give em to me. Good ones though, and balanced.

Anon I.......

>>53311334
And what did they think pollution was? Women and alcohol?

>>53311309
>Homebrew

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Is there any good 3rd party shit for 5th yet?

After 3 years, why not?

>>53311152
She's a very practical lady and is the group blacksmith, and always has to keep herself busy doing something because her hometown was like that (everyone pitched in to make stuff).

But she's a bit of a blockhead when it comes to social interactions, and the last time someone made a suggestion to her she thought they were trying to steal her soul (the rogue wanted to make dolls in her image to sell to kids to go along with her Folk Hero background).

>>53311403
I've heard Tome of Beasts from Kobold Press is really good, but I haven't seen it myself.

>>53311403
>>53311425
>implying that good things can exist even in principle

>>53311242
>What the fuck did I just watch?
gravity
also inspiration for ridiculous boss fights
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjR8PiBjRSU#t=1m50

>>53311403
There's almost no good 3rd party shit because all of these tiny jew corporations that want to get rich quick off the back of 5e don't understand the design philosophy, and can't even follow the basic syntax used in the PHB.

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>>53311410
>Didn't think it could get any better
>It does

Only way to top it would be a tall fit woman, think Zarya for reference.

>>53311425
As with everything from Kobold Press, it's really not. There's a reason why it's made fun of. Because it's fucking terrible.

Also the fuckers made the Tyranny of Dragons modules, so you know they do quality work.