/5eg/ Fifth Edition General:

I'm making a Wizard. What school should I specialize in? What's your favorite school of magic? Is illusion actually useful like the Treantmonk guide says, or should I stick to blasting?

>>53738365
Meme answer: LEL DIVINER xD
Real nigga answer: Transmuter

Don't blast. You're a CC / utility class. If you can't figure out a way to kill every creature in the room with a spell that doesn't even do damage, you need to apply yourself.

>>53738388
Why/how is transmutation useful?

>>53738365
Did treantmonk start writing 5e guides?

Still looking for feedback on my first campaign.
>>53737973
>>53737993
>>53738022

>>53738397
When you become a man who can kill every creature in the room with spells that don't even do damage, you'll understand.

>>53738406
Yeah and they're fucking awful.

>>53738365
Illusion is only good if you are level 14

Abjuration and Spellsinger good if you want a tankier wizard

Diviner is pretty good, solid for anything you want

>>53738415
As with every DM you've designed a massive world with huge over arching plots that a level 1 party would have no way to deal with and forgot to include any gameable content.

All you actually need

>A village
>A nearby dungeon

>>53738436
Are there any good 5e guides?

>>53738454
Of course, that's the next step, actually making towns and shit for them to start with. I wanna lead up to it, and have them start this all around level 10 or so. Shoulda made that more clear, sorry.

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Please respond to my witcher 3 ripoff

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yuMH-PKbr34&

>>53738349
Isn't that a Pathfinder whateverthefuck?

>>53738397
>buff yourself / the party for any situation without Concentration; give the frontliner Darkvision, make your Rogue hyperfast, shore up someone's weak saves, send a guy in to deal with some crazy elemental damage no problem
>free polymorph get-out-of-jail free card; not the best feature, but it's arguably always useful
>turn shit into other shit so that it can be exploited by other transmutation spells, used to tunnel through walls, to sell to dumbasses, or to arm your party with silver swords all day

What is the point of treasure if you can't buy magic items?

>>53738454
Not necessarily. You can tweak that format depending on what sort of feel you want. My most recent campaign, instead it was
>A neighborhood
>A nearby criminal's front

>>53738522
Outfitting your keep with the latest in ballista technology and hiring the finest guards.

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>>53738522
Seriously? You can buy

-land
-followers
-fancy hats
-castles
-political power
-religious power
-donate it
-rent whores
-buy a whorehouse
-buy the best whorehouse and franchise it
-bank it and live off the interest
-start a family
-of whores
-wait, no, not that. Instead, buy cattle
-did I already say fancy hats?
-an aqueduct
-shares in a mercantile concern

>>53738471
Yeah I suppose my point is that needs to be the first step. Creating an engaging starting town and nearby dungeon to explore with some interesting hooks is actually what your players will be playing in the session.

What a bunch of level 10 NPC's, they don't know about and have no reason to care about, are doing won't matter to them much. Players are weird, players latch onto weird things , players ignore your plots and NPC's in favour of staring at shrubberies and brewing potions. You'll learn this.

This isn't to shit on your content, it's fine and in theory having a bunch of big factions the players can choose between to do jobs for works but in practice I've found it doesn't work that well. I'm trying to save you a lot of prep time.

I think to this effect it's much easier to design an episodic 'What are the adventurers/scooby gang going to defeat this week' game than a game with a long campaign overarching plot.

>>53738547
From which you protect the nearby towns, investing heavily in them instead of your own coffers, slowly turning your little region of the country into an economic powerhouse which brings you great prestige and political influence.

>>53738365
Illusion is fucking amazing. The level 6 feature lets you conserve spell slots like no other feature. Say for example that you have a programmed illusion, set to go off when you clap your hands, and manifest the image of a lion, to scare off the riff raff. What happens if you go to a place where lions are considered peaceful animals to be embraced (this is a nonsensical example, but I'm tired). You manifest it, then change the illusion to manifest something else with your level 6 feature.

At early levels, you can constantly change up silent image in the middle of a battle, hiding different allies, messing around with it, while never casting another spell. You can change your disguise in the blink of an eye with disguise self, over and over again, without having to recast it.

You can take the invisibility spell, cast it on your barbarian while your fighter attacks, then before the barbarian attacks, change it to cover your fighter, and then repeat.

You can have your silence bubble follow people.

When you get project image, you get an illusionary scout that can teleport 500 miles at will thanks to malleable illusions

It's so fucking good.

The illusionary reality feature is probably the best feature in the entire game.

>>53738559
>lol buy whores and a castle

That's basically all that you said. But I don't want to do that. I want to buy a magic sword.

>>53738582
you can pay people to make you one

>>53738561
I appreciate the advice, thank you. I'm gonna definitely work on world building now, and if they stumble upon my story, great. If not, they'll have fun exploring the lands and making their own story.

>>53738559
>hire adventurers
>bask in comfort as some other mook does the work for you
>play as hireling
>give no shits about your wellbeing because you're really in a castle halfway across the land sipping Long Islands

>>53738454
>he doesn't have a 7000x4000px map of his world
Apply thineself.
>http://orig10.deviantart.net/0cda/f/2015/249/0/c/tariel___world_map_by_levodoom-d8tuvvp.png

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>>53738582
I could have sworn I also mentioned hats?

Well, talk to your DM? Maybe the nature of your setting allows it?
Or try a different system?

I mean, I like ice cream, but I don't throw a shit fit when the local pizza place doesn't serve ice cream. I went there for pizza. What exactly are you trying to acomplish?

>>53738522
leveling up

>>53738365
Enchanter. The level 2 is situational yes, but when it comes up it's just as good as a Hold Monster.

Level 6 is also at-will change their attack to someone else.

Plus everyone knows Enchanters get all the bitches, even if they're not willing

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>>53738522
So buy a magic item.

>>53738602
>playing SKT
>tens of thousands of gold from looting all this giant shit
>decide we don't want to tussle with fire giants
>hire a shiload of mercenaries and assault the place
>only have to pay the 20% or so that survived
>tell the regional powers they're bitches for not just sending their armies after the giants
>take over giant city
>exploit their mines for obscene material wealth

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>>53738632

>>53738559
>fancy hats
Any Wizard player who didn't spend 200gp+ on a hat is a disgrace.

>>53738365

Abjuration if you wanna be tanky. Arcane Ward is super useful and stacks with temp HP.

>>53738719
>Fighter
>spent pretty much all of my starting gold and even sold some of my starting equipment to afford a sweet silk cape

>>53738579
>other uses for malleable terrain, that will annoy your DM.

Mirage Arcane: create a narrow hole just below your enemies, that drops 20 feet. This still follows the general contour of the land, and fits within the examples listed in the spell. Malleable illusions to remove the hole. You've just buried someone alive, no save required! Repeat!

Simulacrum is an illusion spell! Malleable illusions allows you to change who it's duplicating! Does the BBEG have 9th level spells? well good on you, because now your simulacrum that was copying you is copying him and has those same 9th level spells!

Creation! Create something and make it made of vegetable matter for the longest duration. Then, when you need it made out of metal for five minutes, switch it to metal with malleable illusions. Smuggle gunpowder into the king's castle by giving him a fine created robe of the finest hemp or whatever.

Create your very own doctor who psychic paper with illusory script, changing the nature of the illusion and the real script without having to do a whole new ritual.

Illusionary reality:
Create an illusion of an archway leading through a thin wall, then make it real! Walk through it. Then make it fake again, and your enemies crash into the wall. You are the carton magus!

>>53738719
We prefer hoods here

>>53738783
Who the fuck is we?

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>>53738719
pls no bully

>>53738559
Sauce on that comic?
Searching by image is giving me nothing.

>>53738778
Players do get that if they do this the enemies will start doing it back at them right?

>>53738579
Illusion magic's effectiveness varies greatly from DM to DM though

>>53738823
looks like Paranormal

>>53738719
Why would an illusion wizard waste money on clothes when they can just set up an infinite loop of illusion clothes?

Bonus points: when they dispel magic you, roll to intimidate with your now revealed large cock. Or cast an illusion quickly to "grow" into a large cock, and roll to intimidate.

>>53738719
There's no find hat spell. If you lose a hat that expensive you're screwed.

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>>53738868
>>53738823
Mostly correct. http://paranatural.net/

>>53738926
Locate object has you covered

>>53738842
As a DM, I have a special rule about this: If the player thinks of a nifty way to use a spell, I'll let them have it, unless they left witnesses. Then it spreads.

>>53738857
The minimum level of effectiveness guaranteed by the rules is already pretty high. Your DM generally has to be breaking the rules to keep you from doing well.

>>53738546
Yeah of course, my point is it's generally a better idea to start small and work up with the players than start big and try to scale down.

Greyhawk started out as a village and the first layer of nearby castle greyhawk.

Forgotten Realms started out with Ed Greenwoods group just I'm Waterdeep working out what jobs they did for a living.

The entirety of middle earth started with Tolkein fleshing out 'In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit'.

And so on.

Just curious, what's the most Magical Realm-like official D&D scenario?

>>53739177
Akchskckshually, if I recall correctly, the first and second age stuff significantly predates The Hobbit and LotR, but I agree otherwise

>>53739177
this, this so much. if you can build a city, you can soon figure out where it gets it's water, who runs it, what it trades in, etc. also having a focus on locations that the players are actually going to be interacting with makes for a much more interesting experience.

>>53739221
Eberron has a brothel in Sharn run by a doppelganger and staffed entirely by changelings who change shape to fit their customer's needs.

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>>53739222

>>53738473
Why doesn't it just regain HP equal to the damage it deals, that's how it worked in the game if i remember right.
Also if it just regains health through damage the undead resilience would probably be overkill.

>>53738199
>It's the fact that the vampire doesn't have the humanoid tag.
That's what I meant. Hm, now I really want to use some kind of shapechanging non-humanoid monster, looking like a humanoid, until it is targeted by a spell such as hold person. See if the party figures out they're fighting a fey or undead or whatever.

>>53739221

IIRC, SKT has a section that suggests a giant couple is into BDSM.

>>53739285
I never understood the humanoid type as most non-humanoid stills have humanoid shape, really, what is a Erynies/Succubus?

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>>53738365
Depends on how you see yourself playing the wizard. Diviner is solid for controlling rolls and spying, Abjuration is good for playing defensive, evocation is great for blowing up all the enemies, and the other schools have their perks as well. My personal favorite is necromancer, because I love being a minion master / army commander. As for illusion magic, I can't really say for sure since I never use it the minor image / major image / etc illusion spells, but I personally feel that it would be better to focus on control spells like hypnotic pattern (which I have been learning is a stupidly strong spell at early levels) and wall of "Blank" that have more direct results, as well as invisibility spells, support spells, and AoE blast spells.

>>53739355
They are fiends. I believe the humanoid tag does not label appearance or shape, but stuff like physiology, biological differences. A vampire or succubus body and mind doesn't work like a humanoid body and mind at all, even if they look similar.

Let's pretend for a moment that Eldritch Blast didn't exist. Does Warlock have good melee options?

>>53739720
they have ADEQUATE melee options.

>>53739720
>non-ua
their melee options are multiclass paladin ASAP.
>UA
their melee options are pretty solid and makes them a more gish-like paladin.

>>53739720
hexblade bladelock does acceptable damage, up to good against their curse target, but is far more fragile than other melee classes and is limited in utility compared to other melee casters because they have to sink so many invocations into not being awful at melee combat.

I am willing to say that does not constitute good.

In a game where I was not aware that there would be no character development involved because nobody has any memories of their past life (DM cop out). Also, enemies are random as shit, DM just picks a number for their hp and decides their damage on the fly. I didn't know this ahead of time and now I am going to remake my character. What are some of the most fun character builds to play? Shadow monk seems fun what with the at will teleporting and lots of utilities.

>>53739824
Play the Gun class and shoot your DM.

>>53739824
Also literally all UA is available, because fuck it, and half of all rolls are made with a flat d20 with no modifiers and the DM makes a call. Heavy usage of "chaos dice" which is just a D6 with pluses and minuses.

>>53739855
>Heavy usage of "chaos dice" which is just a D6 with pluses and minuses.
So... FUDGE dice?

>>53739824
It's too late for me to parse through all the fucking negatives in your sentence, but I believe you're saying:

>There is no character development because nobody remembers their past life

And my question is: "wut"

Since when has that been an obstacle to character development.

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>>53739824
Nuclear Druid, because why care about anything at this point?

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>>53738561
>>53738594
>>53738454
>>53738415
Having a world that has shit that goes on without the players is a good one. not every group are murderhobos who just want to start in a town and go to a dungeon.

this is to say that, you need to tailor the experience to the group in question, do they like having a complex plot, politics, lots of role playing, picking sides, seeping plots that take many sessions to resolve?

or do they like what other anon said? monster of the week stuff that takes one maybe two sessions each, with kill stuff get stuff mentalities? if so do that. remember it isn't just YOUR game it's theirs too.

so unless you already know that they don't like that kind of deep world keep building it.

>>53739873
There's also like 7 people at the table and it's basically all self inserts. Nearly no roleplaying beyond "My character is a vengeance paladin, so I have to kill this guy since he badmouthed me"

To be fair, I'm the only one who seemed to show up expecting a serious roleplaying game, so I'm just trying to figure out how to have fun with this game since I kinda like getting out of the house and talking to real people in a non work related function once a week

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Hey, back again hoping for more feedback with the class I'm homebrewing. It's basically Gish, the class. There are a lot of options already for gishes in 5e, but people keep asking for more, or at least something different. This is my attempt to provide what I believe to be what people want from a gish. A solid melee fighter, with magic to provide combat options and enhancements.

I changed it a bit from the feedback I got to bring it more in line with other gishes, while also making it more distinct. It's Intelligence based now instead of Charisma, as there were enough Charisma gishes already. I also reworked the archetypes in hopes of making them more focused.

Any feedback would be appreciated, or even just a reply saying that you would play it, or if it achieves the goal of being a gish class.

>>53739989
I still don't understand why character development is impossible. I don't remember any past lives I've had in real life, but I've certainly changed as a person, sort of. I mean, I'm sure people change in the real world despite not remembering past lives they probably didn't have.

Fuck it though. Pick Chainlock, and take up twice the turns. Pick Chainlock Raven Queen, and take up thrice the turns.

How do I abuse mounted combat? I've been thinking of actually using a Valor Bard for it just so I can pick up Find Steed down the line.

>>53738926
You're an adventurer, buy a new one.

Repostan
So is Dev pal 4 / BMfighter 6 / Lore bard 10 too stupid of a multiclass other than a level 20 build?
Any feats to look for if i want to sword and board? I was looking at HAM as my vhuman feat but was wondering about shieldmaster or magic intiate

Backstory for the char is that he was a cliche storybook char that was accidently brought to life.
Plan on really hamming it up with the rp.

Which Warlock patron is best?

Do you need a healbot in this edition?

Does it break anything to have higher level Witch Bolt damage also increase on later rounds and not just the initial one?

How is Curse of Strahd overall?

>>53740007

>Dilettante
Still probably better than valor bard, but at least they don't overlap as much as they used to.

Typo: Magical Secrets says it is gained at level 7 instead of level 10.

My last suggestion: consider swapping dual cast and magical secrets. Dual Cast is fun and is naturally limited by available spell points. Magical Secrets is much stronger the earlier it is gained because the earlier you get it, because casters have fewer options at lower levels, and the right low and mid-level spells can be very efficient (doubly so on a caster using spell points).

>Silencer
Spellstrike could probably afford to be a tad stronger, given it only triggers off a subset of spells that also require a limited resource to cast. Starting at 1d6 and going up a die at each class feature level would make it a 2d6 damage incentive (the next turn) to cast nukes by level 14 (clerics get 2d8 every turn, by comparison, without having to spend spell slots).

>>53740333
Fiend
No
>>53740370
Yes
>>53740374
It's alright

I'm running Curse of Strahd as my first premade campaign, starting next week and I have questions about playing Strahd Himself.

I was intending on having the first time the players meet Strahd be when they first meet Ireena, either in her house or after burying her father, but in the section with Strahds goals, it has two contradictory sentences:
>"He intends to kill Ireena during their next meeting and turn her into his vampire spawn consort."
>"Strahd and his minions never attack Ireena."
Does this mean he will attempt to take everyone out before going for her? I guess that makes sense she has like 14 HP

Basically, he knocks on the door to her house/the cathedral. If an NPC goes to the door, he charms them to let him in. If a PC does, he either tries to persuade them to let him in, or tries to charm them, ending it immediately as he steps in. From there, he will introduce himself to the party, scaring the shit out of the NPCs, and possibly goad the PCs into combat to see if any are worthy as a successor before leaving, possibly accompanied by wolves attacking from outside.

But like, should his original goal in this meeting be the party or Ireena? Seems like killing her is a pretty easy goal for him whenever the party isnt around.

>>53740333
You've never needed a healbot. Kill them before they kill you!

Fiend is overall quite good, but Great Old One can get pretty silly with it's thralls at later levels.

>>53740370
Yeah, you might make Witch Bolt an actually good spell.

>>53740631
In what way is CoS alright?

>>53740631
>Yes
What does it break?
>>53740693
That's what I thought.

>>53740662
Isn't that the problem with Curse of Strahd, Strahd should just win if he actually tried.

>>53740687
>thralls
Thrall. Singular. Which you have no control over besides "sees you as a friendly acquaintance".

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>we've... cut the least popular ones

So the invocations from previous UA are out? Only the ones from this one are in?

>>53740893
Right, but that UA list isn't final, otherwise they wouldn't be taking more feedback on it. Here's hoping they restore Eldritch Smite's previous power to make bladelock worth playing.

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>grasp of hadar is once per turn
>repelling blast isn't

>>53738678
your DM clearly doesn't employ a morale system. The reason they didn't want to fight giants is because the soldiers would mutiny after having 20% of their forces literally squashed. There's a reason most of the initial giant encounters only have you fighting or needing to defeat 2 or 3 giants at a time and typically from range. They FUCK shit up.

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>>53740662
the problem is that you should play Strahd like his ego always gets the best of him, and throw in some vampire tropes.

Make him act like he SHOULD kill her at any moment and have him KNOW he can do it. It's like a big cat playing with its food. He toys with her and her closest friends simply because he knows the entire realm is under his thumb and boot.

Secondly, throw in some vampire tropes that make him entirely powerless to kill her. such as, a vampire must be invited into a home. Take that to the umpteenth level when Strahd visits her home. Make it so he literally cannot harm her until he is invited in. That would be why Strahd has been assaulting the home with undead.

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I need ideas for "ancient evil creatures" that would be "awakened by and drawn to large concentrations of [pic related]".

so far I have kythons out of the old Book of Vile Darkness

but what else might be attracted to it?
NO ORDINARY DEMONS

3 man party low and medium character levels...

>>53741027
Was considering having him enter the house via charm, then toying with the party themselves, the basis of the party being there is that he is looking for a successor right?

>>53741055
I'd play him like he doesn't really want to use his powers. it's too easy.

I'm playing a Tabaxi in an upcoming game. Should I be a DEX Knight, a Swashbuckler or an Inquisitive?

I want to add some challenge to my players' fight against a young white dragon, so I'm thinking of giving him some innate spellcasting... Unfortunately young white dragons aren't terribly charismatic... So what's a good 2nd level spell it can cast once per day to make things a good deal harder? I'm thinking maybe Enlarge or maybe Spiritual Weapon, but I'm open to other ideas...

>>53741064
Enter Ireenas house through charm/persuading a PC, introducing himself.
Like a few rounds, no spells, focusing on probably knocking 1-2 people down (they're level 3, they dont stand a chance.) before leaving with an ominous threat directed at the party+Ireena. He knows he can have what he wants, so he's just playing with them at the moment.

Does that sound okay?

>>53740628
Thanks for the feedback. Your right in that the Dilettante is too close to bard, I'm trying to find a way to give it the feeling a dabbler by replacing magical secrets, I guess moving dual cast and coming up with a suitable 14th might work. As for silencer I might up the damage, I was just worried about lingering damage but I'll just make it the first instance of damage from a spell.

has anyone ever compiled a list of the unearthed arcanas they consider essential additions to the game and aren't broken? I don't feel like sorting through them all to get to the good ones.

>>53741055
also, don't let the book dictate why strahd is doing what he does. He is well aware that someone like ireena comes along every few centuries, and he is not necessarily in "need" of a successor.

You can also just play it off like he turns the attention to the party instead of ireena for a time. I wouldn't overthink as to 'why' he is there. He is only there to be introduced to the players. It's up to you as to why he is there in the first place.

I personally played him nonchalantly, He knocked on the front door with a bouquet of wilted roses and asked to come in.

Using a warhorse mount in combat as a barbarian, worth it or not?

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Relevant repost from last thread.

>>53740893
>>53740909
>be warlock
>wield two swords in battle
>get pact of the blade
>can't have both weapons be a pact weapon
>still have to carry one sword around so I can summon the other
>also can't do it with a bow
>or a shield
>okay, I'll just only have one pact weapon as a dual wielder, don't need anything else
>takes an action to bring your pact weapon out
>can't summon your weapons and attack like normal
>also because you're a straight warlock you only gain proficiency with your pact weapon
>meaning even though you have two identical swords you only have proficiency with one
>you embarrassingly twirl the other sword around like an amateur
>there is literally no difference between the pact sword and the normal sword
>oh well
>at least you can attack twice
>by spending an invocation at level 5
>can't get a fighting style without multiclassing
>bladelocks are MAD so it's unlikely that you'll be able to get a feat
>no medium armor or heavy armor proficiency even as an invocation
>vanilla pact of blade with no magic weapons has no +1 enhancements
>to get a +1 pact weapon you have to use UA
>you have to spend 2 invocations to max out as a +2 pact weapon
>only effects one weapon
>doesn't apply to any form of magical weapon even if its only enhancement was to cast light at will
>if you happen to already have a +3 sword you gain no benefits and waste 2 invocations for +2 pact weapon that got overrided anyway
I don't think I've ever seen a worse pact boon.

>>53741123
I'd recommend not even fighting unless the party makes the first move. If you use his full power, you're likely to knock most of them down in 1 or 2 rounds.

Have him show his power by casting spells that don't target the party or NPCs, but add dramatic effect, and lend to how much power he may actually have. Make the party know immediately that he has control over the entire realm with only his thoughts. I'm basically saying, fluff up the encounter, make him sound all egotistical and evil, and have him fuck off to fight later, when the player's can rough him up a little in a fight.

>>53741172
Only if you use a lance n shield combo while raging.

>>53740278
Yes it's an awful multiclass.

Do Pal 6 / Bard 14 if you want the Bard multiclass. Devotion even has good synergy with the Shillelagh combo.

>>53738349
Are there guidelines to creating custom magic items and estimating rarity/power level/price?

>>53741119
This was meant for that
>>53741181

>>53741175
I liked the imagery of Curse Bringer at least. Medium Armor + Giant Ass sword with magic powers and 10d8 smite, it's like dark Cloud Strife (Not Sephiroth if you go full Sephiroth you've gone full grim derp).

Still doesn't mean Pact of the Blade is any good when shillelagh only costs a bonus action.

And to be fair is there any class that makes two weapon fighting usable?

>>53741349
>And to be fair is there any class that makes two weapon fighting usable?
Barbarian.

>>53741349
>And to be fair is there any class that makes two weapon fighting usable?
TWF Ranger + Dual Wield + Hunter's Mark is really effective at dealing damage, I'm finding.

>>53738365
Divination is the best school folllowed by Abjuration and Illusion.

>>53741392
It's worse than using ranged weapons on a ranger, though.

+2 to hit from archery fighting style is better and then crossbow expert gives you a bonus attack if you want that which already adds your dexterity or you can go for a 1d10 weapon and also you can fight at range as well as within 5ft and also, finally, hunter's mark clashes with bonus actions anyway. Also volley is much better than whirlwind attack. Also sharpshooter for +10 damage on each attack.

TWF on a ranger is just gimping yourself on purpose.

>>53741398
Well, play as you please, but my players have a melee ranger and a ranged ranger and the swordsman always outdamages the archer.

>>53741412
Then chances are the ranged ranger doesn't know what they're doing.

Not to mention it's not just about damage, but also the fact that fighting at range is almost always better for everybody in the 'not dying' compartment. Exceptions are usually dedicated tanks with sentinel and such / clerics with sacred guardians / etc.

>>53741349
Depends. If you play with people from 4chan obsessed with making sure they're playing their character the most optimal way possible, no it's never usable.

In any game where no one has bothered making average damage charts, it's perfectly usable.

>>53741398
>then crossbow expert gives you a bonus attack if you want that
That's only with a hand crossbow. So you're dishing out 3x1d6, instead of 3x1d8.

>>53741423
As far as optimization goes, barbarian can optimally use two-weapon-fighting at all levels provided they multiclass out into rogue after level 5. So TWF does have times it's usable even when it comes to maximizing damage charts.

>>53741430
3x1d6+3xDEX instead of 2x1d10+2xDEX.
Or, once you get sharpshooter:
[3x1d6+3xDEX+30]*Inaccuracy modifier instead of [2x1d10+2xDEX+20]*Inaccuracymodifier.
Where inaccuracy modifier is a value greater than 0 to 1.

>>53741432
One again, you can play a pure Fighter perfectly well with dual-wielding. As long as you're more focused on having fun in a way other then dealing the most damage.

I've seen plenty of people play a dual-wielder or sword and boarder and be perfectly happy with their choices, hell I've seen a two-handed fighter who began with 14 STR and never picked up GWM. Most people just don't really care about it.

>>53741444
Sorry, my players are level 5 so I'm counting Extra Attack.

So, archer ranger deals 2 attacks at 1d8+3 per attack, swordsman ranger deals 3 attacks at 1d8+3 per attack.

Also I'm seeing now the way it's said, Crossbow Expert's bonus attack is essentially using a melee weapon attack (or chucking a spear, dagger or whatnot) and then following it up with a shot from a hand crossbow already loaded.
So... That's not helpful for a dedicated ranged attacker.

>>53741462
It kinda depends on the campaign, but especially on a fighter two-weapon-fighting really isn't worth it. The fighter's role is dishing out damage and two weapon fighting in that case could do as little as only half the damage of a properly built fighter.

So in a rougher game that focuses more on getting through dungeons and the like, you're really just not pulling your weight and letting everybody else do your role better than you. And that's fine, I guess, but it's not the best case scenario, and you did it all 'because it looked cool' or whatever.

Fortunately most games, true, it won't be a problem because most games don't run like I mentioned above. But you can use 5e in that sort of way.

>>53741471
Crossbow expert allows you to make an attack with a hand crossbow and follow up with a hand crossbow attack.

What you've got there is a ranger who hasn't taken any feats or ASIs to boost their damage while the swordsman seems to have done that (dual wielder). Not that dual wielder's really any good.

It's more that the ranger has had the chance to do more damage but has chosen not to by not taking the feats.
And that's fair enough, but if they built in the 'optimal for dishing out damage' way they'd be better.

Need tip on high flying adventure.

>>53741349
>>53741175
>takes an action to bring your pact weapon out
Or you can leave it summoned all the time and draw it as a free action. You can even sleep with it next to you or give it to a friend as long as they stop next to you once a minute.

>you have to spend 2 invocations to max out as a +2 pact weapon
deleted, but the +1 invocation lets you use it as a spell focus, which is actually useful for dual wielding.

>>53741471
It evens out when you factor in hunter's mark. a longbow ranger is using their bonus action to lay hunter's mark, adding 1d6 to their attacks, making it 2d8 + 2d6 + 2*Dex for their attack, compared to dual wielder using their bonus action to make another attack, which is 3d8 + 3*Dex. Longbow comes out a point of damage behind on average, but is ranged.

Dual Wielder also can't take advantage of Conjure Barrage and Lightning Arrow with its main weapon when those get put on the table and out do Hunter's Mark for your use of Bonus Action.

And Sharpshooter just adds +10 to every damage roll. With Archery fighting style that's -3 to hit, but with advantage or Deep Stalker's Stalker's Flurry you can more easily maximize your damage.

>And to be fair is there any class that makes two weapon fighting usable?
Swashbucklers, and Spellsingers

>>53741583
Well the bonus action for hunter's mark is only burnt on the first round, so for subsequent turns the dual wielder is dishing out 3x 1d8 + mod + 1d6.

>>53741602
Swashbucklers are probably better off getting magic initiate and using booming blade most of the time and using their bonus action for other things.
They could also just use a hand crossbow like any decent rogue.
But I guess it's still viable since that's not entirely necessary.

Bladesingers aren't really proper two weapon fighters. Sometimes they're better off using melee cantrips, sometimes they're better off not being in melee at all and just being a bladesinger for 'I have higher AC'.


But I guess they qualify as 'viable'.

>>53741605
And also every single time the target of your hunter's mark dies you need a bonus action.

I'm looking for another player on EU timezone for Tuesday.

We're a Level 1 party, we haven't started the campaign yet. No significant homerules. The setting is a standard homebrew which should probably have what you want.

So far we are Frontliner - Divine Magic User - Mystic.

>>53741211
Why is it so bad?
I figured it was a different take on nova abilities as i could throw out smites and superiority dice and have more slots/spells

>>53741640
Don't suppose it's a text game?

>>53741649
It is a text game actually.

>>53741656
I'm incredibly interested. Discord?

>>53741663
https://discord.gg/avH76

>>53741605
Right I wasn't thinking about using hunter's mark on the first turn and then dual wielding on the second.

I still want to say bow ranger has higher damage potential, because while normally longbow ranger has an average damage output of 22 and dual wielder has an average damage output of 30, Sharpshooter longbow ranger has an average damage output of 42, but only if both shots hit.

And that's not even factoring in Deep Stalker's extra attack on turn one. For Dual Wielder that means they get their average damage output of 30 on turn one. For Longbow that means the ranger gets an average of 63 damage on turn one.

And strangely Dueling outdoes Dual Wielding for that first Deep Stalker turn, with an average damage of 39.

>>53741619
>Swashbucklers are probably better off getting magic initiate and using booming blade most of the time and using their bonus action for other things.
>They could also just use a hand crossbow like any decent rogue.
The melee cantrips have their own situational quirks and if you don't have advantage then it might be better to dual wield for the extra chance to recover a sneak attack.

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>Fireball 20ft RADIUS
>Storm Sphere 20ft RADIUS
>Stinking Cloud 20ft RADIUS

Why the fuck do spells do this? Why don't they just list the diameter or say something like >a 40foot sphere centered on a point.

Why is it important to know half the width of a spell?

>>53741690
math correction: dual weilding's output is 33 damage. forgot the extra dex modifier.

>>53741694
Yeah, kinda depends on monster AC but depending on level you'd-
I'd honestly have to formulate a graph, and even then it depends on monster movement probability, but considering you can move away from the monster afterwards it's quite possible that booming blade's secondary effect could be relevant. At least GFB's secondary is relevant when you use it if the conditions are met.

>>53738397
Because 5e is retarded and the Wizard is just as good, if not better, at swinging a sword as the Fighter.
You just use buff spells instead of taking a shitty nonscaling style bonus.

>>53741699
Mathematically, especially for stuff like polar coordinates it's better to define things by radius.

Radius is pretty much 'any creature within 20ft of the point you choose' rather than 'I guess you need to draw a circle that spans 40ft worth of squares'

>>53741093
I'd say probably some buff that doesn't involve a save. Blur, Mirror Image, Warding Wind. I feel like the latter would be specially useful for a dragon that stays in the air, protecting him from ranged attacks.

>>53741645
Opportunity costs and disjointed progression.

For the superiority dice and action surge you're trading out Paladin's Aura of Protection, which is one of the best defensive abilities in the game and synergizes excellently with Devotion/Bard, and spell slots for utility/more smites.

As for disjointed progression, plan out your levels and tell me, at which point is this three way multiclass better than single fighter, single paladin, or paladin/bard?

>>53741714
There are other factors too, such as Booming Blade presumably making a loud noise like all the other Thunder spells, there may also be situations where you don't want a monster to stay in the same spot, and encourage it away from a squishy or to provoke a higher damage opportunity SA. Also Fire Resistance for GFB.

>>53741750
I'd really say rapier+shortsword with melee cantrips is best, and if you really need the extra accuracy you can drop the rapier and use an extra shortsword.

>>53741690
You really need to factor in hit vs ac in your napkin math.

You'll find that Hunter's Mark is a trap option and Crossbow Expert the way to go for ranged.

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So the Spike Growth meme argument actually had some validity in a game I'm in, though not as retarded.

How do you rule abilities with an X radius aura, such as the Shepard Druid's Totems?

Is it a cylinder with an arbitrary height? A sphere? A flat plane?

With Spike Growth it mentions "the ground", as such I'd say it's a flat plane, however the Shepard Druid's Radius seems to imply a circle or cylinder.

In addition- let's say you have an area of uneven ground such as pic related. Would Spike Growth work as pictured?

How do you make a stationary boss interesting? I gave him a bunch of magical abilities, mostly defensive ones, crowd control, and forced movement.

>>53741769
Check out the Elder Brain in Volo's, might give you some ideas.

>>53741769
Have him beat your players

>>53741756
This is Deepstalker's first turn:

with 3 hand crossbow attacks and 1 bonus hand crossbow attack
>output 4d6 + 12
>min:16
>med:26
>max:36

With 3 hand crossbow attacks and hunter's mark
>output 3d6 + 3d6 + 9
>min:15
>med:30
>max:45

with Longbow and hunter's mark
>output 3d8 + 3d6 + 9
>min:15
>med:33
>max:51

>>53741764
For any area of effect that says it has a radius centered on a point, this point is an intersection in the grid. Since it doesn't say it has to be on the ground, this point can be anywhere, and since it doesn't specify a shape, I'd rule it as a sphere.

As for your last question about Spike Growth, I'd say that's correct.

>>53741806
The problem there is, again, Sharpshooter. When you consider the feat, this is how it looks:

with 3 hand crossbow attacks and 1 bonus hand crossbow attack
>output 4d6 + 52
>min:56
>med:66
>max:76

With 3 hand crossbow attacks and hunter's mark
>output 3d6 + 3d6 + 39
>min:45
>med:60
>max:75

with Longbow and hunter's mark
>output 3d8 + 3d6 + 39
>min:45
>med:63
>max:81

>>53741831
Okay yeah I see what you mean. For me I'm concerned more about getting my ASI's up so I don't think about taking both Crossbow Expert AND Sharpshooter, just one or the other.

>>53741846
Generally taking those feats is a lot stornger than ASIs, though.

However, if you intend to go for focusing on volley it's pretty valid to go horde breaker + sharpshooter + up dex as high as possible and use longbow + get crossbow expert and use heavy crossbow once you hit 20 dex.


Thing is though considering you have a load of levels before 11 to go through you might as well get crossbow expert preemptively and use a hand crossbow until level 11.

How do you handle Geas at your games? Quick rundown on what it does.
>Charm for 30 days - target can't harm the caster, caster has advantage on social checks
>Also designate an order or a course of action short of directly suicidal, every time target strays from it, get 5d10 damage, once per day.
Let's imagine one of your players geased a defeated baddie, ordering him to serve him. Would that work? How would the baddie behave while under the spell? What about when the spell ends? What if he spent a really long time under geas, like a couple of years?

>>53741884
Depends. If they treated the baddie poorly they'll easily be able to essentially act as the player's maid or butler or something, but would probably fuck everything up what-you-wish-but-corrupted style.
All the way to 'doesn't need geas at all' if the baddie was so inclined and actually decided they like the person.
Once the spell ends, again, it depends on how they were treated.

>>53741903
>act as the player's maid
Please no

Considering this for a game. Thoughts?

>Elf Long Death Monk
>Elven Accuracy at 4
>Sharpshooter at 8
>Use Sharpshooter to supplement Monk's otherwise slim damage options at point blank range with Sharpshooter Darts*
Seem like a good plan?

*Houserules- Monk gets a Fighting Style (taking Close Quarters Shooter) and ignores drawing one weapon per turn

>>53741935
The point is that you can't order them to do suicidal things, so they're not going to fight for you like a mercenary knight, but rather do the job of a squire.

>>53741942
Darts don't need the 'ignores drawing one weapon per turn' rule.
I'd ignore elven accuracy unless you have a clear source of advantage and focus on getting your ASIs because hot damn your AC is going to be jack shit 16 AC right until level 12 with a 1d8 hitdie class that's in melee all the time. Seems kinda fine if you get a bonus attack from attacking with darts.

>>53741967
That's... That's not what the word "suicidal" means at all.

>>53741969
>Gee, can you help us fight ELDRITCH BEINGS OF DEATH FROM ANOTHER DIMENSION?
>I'm only a level 3 bandit, but sure! This isn't suicidal at all!

>>53741975
>>53741969
Well, okay, I exaggerated a bit, but do you disagree that that particular clause is intended to keep geas from giving you free combat minions?

Adventuring is pretty suicidal unless you're on a softcore campaign where balance doesn't matter anyway.

What's a fun character I could try in a game coming up? So far I know the party's a Mystic, a Paladin or Cleric and a Fighter or Monk.

>>53741748
Actually looking at it, would it go better taking pal 6 / fight 4 so im trading the aura for a feat and a levels worth of casting

We usually start at level 3 or level 5 so id start i was planning this character as a higher level probably tier 2ish start but id start
F 1 / P 1 / B 1 cause thats how we rule multiclassing and i start with dueling defense and some spells and BA
F1 / P2 /B1 for smites and more spells
F1 / P3 /B1 gets me my paladin archtype
F1 / P4 / B1 gets me an asi
F1 / P5 / B1 gets me extra attack
F1 / P6 / B1 gets me an aura
F2 / P6 / B1 gets me action surge
F3/P6/B1 gets me superiority dice
F4/P6/B1 gets another asi
F4/P6/B2 for song of rest&JoAT
F4/P6/B3 for lore and expertise
F4/P6/B4 for asi
B5 for 3rd level spells (i had the slots) and BA back on a short rest plus better ba
B6 is countercharm and magical secrets
B7 is 4th level spells
B8 is asi
B9 is 5th level spells and better SoR
B10 is expertise more magical secrets and better ba

I dont think its better at any of the individual classes own 'jobs' but i think the something good at almost every level would/could be fun and no one in my group powergames/even tries to optimize ill be fine
ive played with ran for 3 pure champion fighters, a wot4e monk with martial adept, a dex based halforc lore bard that uses a light crossbow he isnt prof with or thunderclap exclusivily, a beserker barb, and a dual-wielding str fighter in light armor

>>53742002
Geas spell refers to it as "You can issue any command you choose, short of an activity that would result in certain death. Should you issue a suicidal command, the spell ends".
If combat would result in certain death for everyone involved, no one would ever fight, ever.

I'm thinking less of combat minions, and more of generals, that will keep peace while me and the group are actually adventuring.

>>53742002
Dude, it isn't.
It's the same thing as using Suggestion and asking someone to fight for you, it's a reasonable request.

If it isn't directly suicidal, like running over a cliff, it is doable.

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>>53738559
Is this a comic, where can I read it?

>>53742029
What about a gnoll of the opposite sex and with incredibly good looks?

Totally not the other gnoll of the party, by the way, and not trying at all to get her someone to smooch.

(t. Not-the-Mystic)

>>53742099
>>>/trash/

>>53742035
Well, that sort of thing could work. As long as it's not adventuring, as adventuring would have times where fighting would appear to result in certain death even if the heroes conveniently seem to survive all the time somehow.
Such as fighting a giant. Or two giants. It's not quite 'certain death' but it's worth treating it like that.

The point is that they're not a party member, but one of the 'background forces' such as a maid, retainer, squire, lookout, wagon driver, that NPC you sometimes call upon to identify things, guardsman, whatever. As long as they're not a super-aggressive 'PILLAGE AND DESTROY EVERYTHING' which will likely result in death, ultimately. Being a normal armyman (Not an orc pillage the capital armyman) is safe enough that it should come under Geas.

The main thing is, though, the DM would likely have you only choose one service. If you did 'do whatever I say' the DM would likely punish you for a lack of creativity and have them not do things you don't mention but clearly want. If you specify a service as per the spell such as 'Work as a troop in my army' then they'll do that but once you no longer need that army then they're through with your quest and they're done.

>>53742051
It's not even like suggestion. Suggestion doesn't allow you do make them do 'anything harmful'. That pretty much includes most combat, whereas Geas is 'it can be harmful, but as long as it doesn't get them killed it's fine'.

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>>53742099

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Why does Rise of Tiamat have so many shit bits?

Why are they still allowed to sell this? How did this get approved as the first official 5e adventure?

>Visit the Metallic Dragons...er they agree to help you nothing changes
>Visit Thay, hey Thay's cool right...erm its only two pages long go home now
>Random attacks in chapter 5 that you're meant to have been running since chapter 1, basically a page of ideas but they gain a level each time

>>53742099
Temping honestly, could be some interesting roleplay.

>>53742108
>>53742128
Well... I was expecting that, somehow.

>>53742111
>>53742035
Oh, so, yes, I think I have a more definite answer -

Since it says 'service', I believe they should be doing everything related to their service. If you ask them to serve as a nun, they should do everything that's expected of a nun. They won't do other things if they don't want to.

So 'become a foot soldier who fights in an army in a non-suicidal way' works and they won't screw you over until the geas ends, at which point I imagine they'd probably just go home unless they REALLY hate you. Just don't go 'serve me' as your geas.

>>53742133
You have... No idea... Therefore, if I were you I'd not take my words for expectations.

If you don't feel like picking a hyena, anyway, we do need a party shorty.

>>53741942
Switch to Kenasai Sharpshooter and dip a fighter level for Archery style.

>>53742130
I've speculated that this is largely because it was going to be a D&D Next adventure or something before 5e got greenlit and they had to make due with the D&D department's very low staff and deadlines.
None of the other adventures, while still having bad points, are nearly as sloppy.

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>>53742091
Webcomic called Paranatural that updates very slowly, but makes up for it with characters having gloriously hilarious expressions all the time and for pretty much constantly making fun of shonen anime stuff.

Why whenever I see some houserules for Multiclass they're shit like 1e's "you have to find a NPC I'll create and spend time, gold, and XP to level up, or level up as your current class?"
Do DMs have no spine to say Multiclass is an optional rule they're not using?

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>>53742202
That sounds like 'If I don't like your multiclass I'll screw you over and also I'll make it harder to get your right class split'

I just think that DMs that think multiclassing in normal ways are generally imbalanced don't know the system. And that's fine, if you're a newbie DM.

If a player does a multiclass and doesn't justify it, how would banning multiclassing make them justify playing a pure class? Banning multiclassing doesn't make shit players any less shit, it just means people aren't going to fall into trap options that clearly say 'DON'T MULTICLASS IF YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU'RE DOING'

>>53742226
My newbie DM pulled this on me, he probably doesn't know MC fucks characters early more than makes them stronger.
I was finding Warlock boring, wanted to go Bard to support my team as we had no support class. Even had the roleplay figured, still getting the powers from my pact, except I'd channel I'd like voodoo instead.
I just said "Yeah... I'll continue as Warlock." Next thing I know is that he doesn't wants feats but he let a VHuman pass, lvl4 is coming soon, I'm in for a ride.
Now I'm a turret that has no way to help my allies besides killing things fast.

>>53742202
Multiclassed characters are nearly always stronger than their single class counterparts. Any decent DM isn't going to make it easy for you to gain such an advantage, especially since your Barbarian multiclassing into Wizard doesn't make a lot of sense without some RP to back it up. I dunno about the houserules you're seeing, but when I run a game I don't want to eradicate my player's choices by removing the option of multiclassing entirely, but at the same time I don't want to make it too effortless.

>>53742340
Barbarian MCing into wizard is a terrible idea though. Your features from both classes actively work against eachother.

>Multiclassed characters are nearly always stronger than their single class counterparts.
This is just flat-out wrong unless you're playing one of the few campaigns that actually gets to very high levels.

Why do people who have a problem with multiclassing always seem to not even understand it on a basic level?

>>53738559
Nah, I'd rather upgrade my +1 to a +2 and just sleep in my cloak.

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>>53742340
>Multiclassed characters are nearly always stronger than their single class counterparts.

You probably think X is broken because it's good at the thing X is built to be good at even if it's shit at other things.

There are some combinations which are just too good (Cleric1/WizardX, warlock(2/3/4/5)/SorcererX), but most really are just sidegrades.

>>53742340
I said Bard, not Barb! Now that I agree wouldn't make sense at all lol
At 1st MC level I think it's fairly weak. I can see Warlock 2/Bard 11 being strong, but not Warlock 2/Bard 1 compared to Warlock 3.
Also, we're in HotDQ, so I wouldn't reach some high level stuff anyway.

How do I slut it up if I can only afford 10 CHA at chargen? Am I totally hopeless?

>>53742407
I really hate the mindset that 3e brought onto this game.
I know that without it these threads would move very slowly, but if I had to choose between eating a giant pile of human feces marinated in cow urine and eating nothing, I'd choose nothing and leave the table for a better one.

>>53742438
You're implying people pay whores for their charisma.

>>53742448
Hmm, fair point. Can I use WIS to simulate shrewdness and good sense to achieve sexy results?

>>53742438
Do what all initerant traveling folk living lives of extreme violence who are unable to settle down do; go buy a hooker.
Hell, if it's an FR campaign then they're fucking everywhere.

>>53742459
No, but you can use gp to achieve one-sided satisfaction.

>>53742459
Mate, you ever met a smart nerdy girl? Not the fatasses from fandoms and shit but, boy, smart people love to fuck. Just, not the same mindset as other people.

Yeah, you totally can. She wants to fuck, not have a fucking picnic. Maybe she's a bit awkward but smart people can be much less prude than the rest.

Sometimes.

Just, not gonna start a debate about it, but you can play her like that.

(Out of the blue)
"You wanna fuck?"
"..."
"...I've got a bucket of chicken."
"...Is that a TF2 joke?"
"Yes."
"..."
"But seriously, you wanna fuck?"
"...Yeah, okay."

And then they fucked and had chicken at the same time.

>>53742492
Smart people love to fuck because people in general love to fuck and smart people are often ostracized (deliberately or otherwise) for being smart, and so often get less chances to fuck in addition to frequently seeing through a lot of the social bullshit a lot faster then the average person and thus getting turned off a lot faster then most people because it's usually less easy for them to tell themselves lies about the other person.

>>53741806
>>53741831

Did you even read what I wrote?

Why are you weighting Deep Stalker's 1 additional attack per combat in a 1 turn vacuum instead of across the typical 3-4 rounds a combat has?

>>53742446
I'm not seeing any problematic mindsets here. Where? With wanting more character build options and sidegrades? Or the cleric1/wizardX stuff?

>>53742532
Well, yeah.

>>53742532
>>53742492
Actually, I'd say smart people prefer not to fuck because generally more of the smart people tend to get more anxious about people and such and that anxiety devalues sex.

>>53742438
Charisma isn't just physical appearance - it's also how forceful your personality is. You can say your character is drop-dead gorgeous but has the personality of a bag of flayed kittens. In which case, just slut it up with people who only care about physical appearances.

>>53742551
It's not an objective opinion, it's a subjective one.
The contest numerical contests and trying to come up with "winning" class combinations has genuinely ruined more games I've been involved in across the years then any number of That Guys has.

Some people like to play D&D like Magic the Gathering, and that's fine.
I just find them extremely distateful on a personal level and would suggest that if it's at my table they keep it to an absolute minimum or leave and find a table more suited to their style of play.
>>53742562
Just felt the need to spell it out for some of the slower folks. A lot of people think that being smart means you have different wants and needs, when really all it tends to mean in my experience is that it's harder for them to get satisfaction from the cheaper varieties of need fulfillment and they need more stimulating or substantial amounts of it.

>>53742568
As a smart person who has dated a lot of smart people I would agree with your statement only to add that I wasn't implying promiscuity, simply that they enjoy sex as much as anyone else and their intelligence just makes it harder to get it and enjoy it.

Like learning to cook excellent restaurant-quality homemade food and finding fast food unsatisfying and gross afterwords, I suppose; quality mode important to them then quantity, and unfortunately where human relationship are concerned quantity is far easier to come by.

>>53742609
Well, building a character is part of the game, whether that be mechanically or in personality.

And players should get rewarded for building well.

But in an ideal world what should happen is no matter how you build you simply have a different spread of what you're good at. Perhaps somebody builds a really powerful 'destroy everything' character. And, great, they get what they want. But they're penalized because they had to lose other things elsewhere and thus suck at other things and other characters have to make up for that.

5e does a pretty okay job of that. It could be better, but multiclassing simply broadens the range of builds rather than pigeonholes these people who want to be the best at X into one of few builds.. Provided you disallow certain UA multiclasses and one or two non-UA multiclasses.

>>53742627
Pretty much, I guess.

And with knowledge comes the knowledge of what is shit and not being able to accept what is shit whereas a pig will eat fucking everything you throw at them and be delighted.

>>53742609
>The contest numerical contests and trying to come up with "winning" class combinations has genuinely ruined more games I've been involved in across the years then any number of That Guys has.

This is the one and only reason I play 5e over the editions with actual options in chargen.

>>53742033
Being forced to take all your multiclass initial levels at the start makes it even worse, as you further delay your key abilities.

>i think the something good at almost every level would/could be fun

This is what normal class progression literally is already. 6 levels of paladin? Something every level. Rest of levels in Bard? Something every level too.

>no one in my group powergames/even tries to optimize ill be fine

If you're already assuming it's fine despite criticism then why are you even asking for opinions? Did you just want people to give positive confirmation to your crappy choices?

>>53742628
>And players should get rewarded for building well.
That's just blaming them for trying to make a concept the system isn't supporting.

Some guy who only ever fights by bashing people with his big shield? Why not! It's a hobby.

>>53741764
While the spell says "ground", I'd imagine the best way to adjudicate it is "spikes cover any traversable solid, fixed surfaces within a sphere".

So if you cast it on a corner of a room, it would cover the wall as well. Climb speeds exist. If you threw it up at the ceiling of a tavern, it'd cover all sides of rafters and the actual ceiling. If you threw it on the floor of the tavern, it would cover the floor, but not tables and chairs, since they can be moved.

>>53742581
What if she's pretty enough, but just a stuck up bitch? Can you bitch your way to low CHA?

>>53742669
But you can do that with refluff.

Shield master shield+longsword except longsword is refluffed as a second shield or their shield is two-handed. And then what's the problem?

>>53738522
Buy a house/castle/city/country.

>>53742628
5e feels like 2e for me; any "inferior" classes are inferior by such a marginal amount that in actual play it only matters if one of the players is a min-maxing douchecanoe who is more concerned with "winning" before the game is played.
>>53742639
Smart people tend to be irritable for this and a number of other reasons.
It's rather ironic that very smart people are good at meeting their basic hierarchies of needs but have a much harder time advancing up that hierarchy just due to the sheer speed with which their brain tends to run at.
>>53742640
It's definitely refreshing to me, as someone who began during 2e.

>>53742674
In real life, yes.
Met at least a few people who can get temporary-laid because they are great looking but can't hold an actual relationship or even fuck the same person twice because they have some of the shittiest personalities ever.

>>53742675
Yeah but I'm talking about the mentality.

>>53742695
As long as they don't lose sight of the rest of the game, it's fine. Like I said, building those characters is part of the game and it's nice to build around a concept and succeed at that concept.

You can have fun making a character that's powerful at something without ruining everybody else's fun.

>>53742692
Perfect. Character is going to be an LN cleric from a noble house, so Maximum Bitch is probably ideal. Just really smug and cruel, you know?

>>53742709
Be careful to be NOT too much of a bitch. There's a difference between playing a unlikable character, and a character so unlikable, the party would rather not have her.

>>53742686
Well, take it from me, who's legally a 'genius'...

Being smart is not something you want.
Especially as high as genius level.

You got brain problems due to the needed neurobiology, and everybody hates you. When they're not too insecure, they just think you're the stupid-crazy one.

I just quit caring about society altogether, and what people think of me. I'm not polite and I hate everyone equally.

Dumb emotional people are super happy. I'm not. I wish every day I was dumb. But being smarter than everyone I know also disgusts me from that thought too. So the only alternative is to suffer, haha.

Especially on 4chan, when you run into complete cretins and massive autists at every corner.

>>53742709
Make sure you make him or her an awful lay too. Most really attractive people are fucking awful at fucking for some reason.
Must have something to do with a false mental correlation between "I get lots of sex because I'm good looking ergo I must also be good at sex too".

>>53742715
Certainly, certainly. Her ideal is responsibility, after all. Just need to be bitchy enough to justify 10 CHA despite being a totally ripe noble girl just begging for some adventurer lovin'.

>>53742724
6/10. Super obvious, but someone will fall for it. Bonus point for calling them out in advance.

>>53738607
>that little place in the far top left called Aasir

I don't know why, but I find myself intrigued.

>>53742707
If I were to design a system it would have separate parts each with a separate amount of options.

For example.

Each character gets to choose three "points" worth of "combat usefulness"
They also get to choose three points worth of social usefulness, and three points worth of support usefulness.

You can't exchange points between those areas.

So it's more based around your style of playing and helping out than anything.

And yeah, the fighter will choose combat stuff based on hitting faces, and the cleric will choose combat stuff based on helping the fighter hitting faces too. Fighter is still the most important in a fight, but he also gets to have some social skills, mainly, due to be a jacked fighter who's seen some wars.

>>53742724
I'm aware, trust me.
By the by, I've always felt "genius" was an utterly loaded term, as it uses a test that wasn't even designed to measure intelligence and heavily relies on an education some geniuses might not have access too and ultimately everyone judges the condition of being a "genius" based in shit you can just go to school for.
Hell, it's not even actually that rare if you do the basic math for it, people just have zero realistic measures of what actual intelligence looks like.

...which I guess is just one more reason they fray at my nerves and leave me doing mental exercises to calm me down.

Thinking about penalties for going down in combat. I know exhaustion levels are suggested a lot, but is this even a decent system to begin with, nevermind as a penalty for playing pop-up in a fight?
>disadvantage on ability checks
No one cares, you're in combat, and out of combat it just makes you as good at a skill as the rest of the party, on average.
>speed halved
Not a problem if you're standing in the back row and have teleportation shit.
>disadvantage on attack rolls and saves
Wew, good thing I'm a Wizard and never roll attack, and since I fucking went down I don't have any Concentration spells running, and even if I did I'm going to go down to the next attack anyway so what does it matter if I fail my Con save?

It's also pretty pointless when you consider it's most likely to come up in boss fights, after which the party is pretty much assured to fuck off and rest. Welp, dungeon's done, we killed the boss and everythign in here, we're exhausted, time to take a nap. Nothing will attack us now because the session is over.

>>53742732
Nope, he's not kidding.
Being really smart is actually kind of shitty because it's not even remotely necessary to be successful or wealthy or popular or well-fed or well-laid or literally anything any rational human being ever actually wants from life.

You can get all of these things without being smart and people do every single day, and they are definitely happier for it.

>>53742760
A spell attack is still an attack roll senpai.

>>53742771
>i'm a genius ergo i am necessarily a social misfit and total weirdo who is automatically disliked by all people and can't experience joy
You'd think a genius would be smart enough to know about confirmation bias and the perils of concentrating too hard on examples of intelligent dorks with no social skills and ignoring every intelligent, affable guys.

You don't need to be a genius to have shit social skills, and being a genius doesn't mean you must have shit social skills. Feynman could walk into a bar of 20-somethings who don't even know who the fuck he is and get his dick wet twice before the night was through.

>>53742752
It's quite complicated but of course you can't tell it in any other way than mundane terms. I mean, explaining genius to a non-genius, first of all, it's explaining something the functionning of someone smart out of the charts to someone that is quite average, and it's also trying to make them see things from the point of view of a different brain structure. Impossible.

I just don't mention my intelligence altogether, people just seem to notice I'm blowing the shit out of every literary exam without even coming to class and I leave it at that. Anything else is asking for trouble with the normies. I'm just quite disabused with average people and I resent them for all the shit they've always given me and always will.

They have trouble grasping the concept that, due to being dependent on brain structure, you can be a genius and still be completely useless in today's society, because your proficiency applies to something either obsolete, either not existing yet; or maybe just completely pointless. Also yes, IQ tests, the best that we get and it's still not very good at all, but at least it points out when you're way outta the norm.

>>53742783
>Wizard
>making spell attacks
??????????????????????????????
Unless that same exhaustion level gives every enemy advantage on their saves against my magic, it's meaningless. Oh, no, Searing Ray is less accurate.. I guess I'll just have to spam Fireball or Slow or Banish or whatever the fuck else, none of which require any rolling on my part and are unaffected by exhaustion.

>>53742802
This post needs a little fedora sitting above where the images normally go, like when we have 4chan's anniversary and party hats are attached.

>>53742771
Additionally, I've been mentionning it, but "genius" and intelligence in general is basically a reworking of the brain's neural infrastructure to make it more efficient. Which does not necessarily means it makes it more stable. Factory-design average brains are stable enough on their own, if bridled, but genius is more like a disorder, and has a long list of co-morbid diseases, not all of which being due to the reaction of the environment to a person with 140+IQ Weschler scale.

For example, depressive tendencies, ADHD, that sort of shit.

Smart brains are like overclocked PCs. Don't expect them to last too long.

>>53742800
>You'd think a genius would be smart enough
And here's your mistake. Genius doesn't mean "I know everything and I'm good at everything and my mind is meant for everything".

Especially when said geniuses are trying to give a quick idea instead of writing three paragraphs of "of course, with reason, and not counting exceptions, and statistically, and in X little case, and Y mindset, blah blah blah".

Do you not know that if I were to make a fucking dissertation on how smart people are linked to sex, then I'd be better off getting paid for it? You're getting a resume shorter than a press article because reasons.

>>53742826
Don't worry, I'm used to these reactions.

>>53742802
>When you're trying to sound smart, but end up sounding stupid

>>53742832
Does genius mean "words that end with 'n' get '-ning' instead of '-ing'"?
>>53742832
>mentionning
>>53742802
>functionning
inb4 ooh you're correcting spelling and grammar, you don't have an argument and have automatically lost

>>53742800
>You'd think a genius would be smart enough to know about confirmation bias and the perils of concentrating too hard on examples of intelligent dorks with no social skills and ignoring every intelligent, affable guys.

I have social skills.
They aren't even that difficult to learn once you apply yourself, seeing as a lot of it is fundamentally mechanically the same as lying; you say what people expect to hear and want to hear, regardless of the actual truth of the thing, and you only tell the real truth to people who actually matter in appropriate social situations.
This doesn't make me happy though, and it actually just further illustrates the differences; I'm not a social outcast or a nerdy shut-in or chronically unemployed NEET or a guy who jacks off to anime body pillow thing or any other weird-ass stereotypical nerd thing, but I still feel this unpleasant disassociation with the average person and see that they manage to achieve the same level of happiness and worries that I do without needing to be particularly bright, and have the added benefit of not feeling neatly as disconnected from everyone around them on top of the regular shit.
>>53742802
There's a trick to explaining stuff to people who might not be as fast on the uptake I've gotten very good at over time.
It's heavily reliant on overly simplistic metaphors though, which sometimes bugs me because it's simplifying something that is often very complex.

>>53742760
Remove the 'going down' completely.

Use vitality / fighting spirit / max HP as secondary health pool.

>>53742871
I've seen that before. You have a link?

>>53742862
>but I still feel this unpleasant disassociation with the average person and see that they manage to achieve the same level of happiness and worries that I do without needing to be particularly bright

Not one of the guys who was being dickish, but have you considered medication or therapy perhaps?
This sounds at least as much a psychological or even medical problem with your brain as it does anything to do with intelligence.

>>53742854
I mean, you're obviously just attacking my form here, while I'm also not a native English speaker. So yeah, you don't actually have an argument. You're just pissy someone mentionned their 'gift' you don't have, although I'm also mostly saying I wish I wasn't born with it because if reactions from people like you.

In fact I'd never want to consider myself a genius if it wasn't for the psychiatrists trying to understand me. 'Genius' is just a handy term to describe something, no need to feel targeted retroactively.

>>53742880
Vitality was one of the UA alternate rules, not sure where it is but you can probably google it.
Fighting spirit was some thing theangrydm posted.
Max HP is literally 'When you hit 0 HP, you don't go down but take damage to your max HP instead and you only recover max HP by, say, having a long-long rest'.

>>53742854
Look at it this way; you some people have a fully functioning regular car which gets solid mileage and uses regular gas and gets you basically anywhere you realistically need to go, and some people have some absurd flashy high-end sports car that goes well above and speed limit on earth, is prone to breaking down due to special maintence requirements, requires a very expensive form of gas to run it's high-performance engine, and is only really useful for impressing the easily impressed who aren't nearly as high in number as you might think.

I'd take the regular car any day; it does the exact same thing with more efficiency and less annoying extras tagged on that do nothing at all except show off how big your Vehicular Penis is.

>>53742862
I've been catering to people to great effect too, but given how I absolutely abhorr catering, and people themselves, well, I just don't do it anymore. They can go die with their delusions for all I care. I like to piss them off now, instead, and mentionning their insecurity complexes is always a good revenge.

I am not happy pretending to be someone I'm not. But I've found I'm only really myself, and I'm happy, when I reject others and their little games. Very liberating. Also from a moral point of view.

>>53742882
> even medical problem with your brain
The thing is: people think intelligence = competence. Or something more. Like, your arm muscles are strong, but mine are stronger. It doesn't work like that.

It's more of a different way to have a brain, that's more efficient for certain skills such as objective thinking. Due to this, you just don't see the same things as other people, and so you exist alongside them, but not 'with' them. You care and worry about other things, often, more things, and longer. It's easy to panic at the state of the world because you have to rationalize everything and it's way harder to just say "I'll just have to think positively, and everything will magically turn out okay!". There are plenty of smart people that believe in God, but when they do, they don't tend to see him as a magic fixer of problems. And so they worry more than the "Jesus take the wheel" kinds, so to speak.

>>53742648
I didnt phrase that well but i meant to say that suboptimal choices might not be the worse thing in the end. But i do appreciate the feedback mate

I'm going to create characters for an upcoming Curse of Strahd game

I'll be the DM and I will have 4 players. I am thinking of creating 8 characters, and having them roll to see who gets to pick first.

Any ideas?

So I haven't really looked at any of the subclass UA's. Are they all worth looking at or are there only a few that stick out as being worthwhile and interesting?

>>53742962
There are a lot of UA subclasses that do a lot of different things. You'd probably just have to look at them yourself to decide.

>>53742945
>I like to piss them off now, instead, and mentionning their insecurity complexes is always a good revenge.
You sound a little more bitter then I am, but I understand.
Needling people IS pretty fun though. I've been told that I have a hard time reigning in my sarcasm muscles and I work at doing so but sometimes the urge is just too great to resist, like having a really itchy rash on the back of your knees that you just HAVE to scratch, just a little bit.
>There are plenty of smart people that believe in God, but when they do, they don't tend to see him as a magic fixer of problems.
What I find hilariously ironic about this belief is that the Bible actually flat-out says that God doesn't do this in plain (albeit old-fashioned) text.
Then again, a lot of the really religious people I've met tend to not read the Bible all that much and don't remember what of it they do read and frequently selectively choose to emphasize the passages that supporting their pre-existing beliefs and emotional states.

>>53742945
>You care and worry about other things, often, more things, and longer. It's easy to panic at the state of the world because you have to rationalize everything and it's way harder to just say "I'll just have to think positively, and everything will magically turn out okay!". There are plenty of smart people that believe in God, but when they do, they don't tend to see him as a magic fixer of problems. And so they worry more than the "Jesus take the wheel" kinds, so to speak.

The King Solomon problem, huh?

>>53742959
Ex-pupil to van Richten.
Dusk elf with a vengeance quest for Rahadin.
Vistani anything
A warlock seeking the dark powers/one specific.
A descendant of an Argynvost knight.
A good ol' "vampires killed my family" haunted one background user.

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>>53742883
>>53742918
Friends, I hate most people, I'm smart, and I do well on tests, but I don't believe any of those are related. It sounds like the two of you are just a couple of twats trying to lay the blame for your social inadequacies on the "misfortune" of your birth, rather than anything you've (not) done.

You have some kind of attachment to the notion of the brilliant outcast that's been romanticized in so much fiction, but that's just what it is. There is a very obvious veneer of false humility in both of your posts.
>oh, I'm SOOO smart and troubled, it's SUUUCH a hassle, trust me guys, you really DON'T want to be such a MAAAASSIVE genius like me, ugh, getting vagina from a female would be MUCH more preferable to having everyone literally shrink before my gargantuan intellect and offer me six-figure jobs, UGH, truly I am a tortured soul, my heart is as black as my brain is huge
Apply whatever "genius talent" you supposedly have to getting the fuck over it. Calculate the perfect materials and design to engineer yourself a fucking bridge or write a dissertation that proves you live in a solipsist reality and can cross the chasm to normalcy by autohypnosis.

In fact, in all likelihood, I am even smarter than both of you. Maybe I'm just some kind of mutant freak whose genius brain is, by some quirk of my genetics (which I wouldn't really call superior, but let's face it, demonstrably are), "overclocked" to the point of blowing past 99.999% of the humans on this sphere without having sacrificed the functionality of areas critical to social development. Perchance that makes me a pariah among other geniuses who are not so fortunate, but I shall willingly suffer the slings and arrows if my brilliance can help the world. Perhaps they will even be inspired by my tragic selflessness and better themselves. I beg your forgiveness and understanding, even though I know it's silly to care too much about the feelings of less-evolved beings; I'm just that magnanimous.

>>53743014
You can't be this edgey.

>>53742407
>Cleric1/WizardX
What's good about this?

>>53742802
Geniuses aren't esl

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>>53743023
Anon, really? Are you the guy who posts Onion articles on Facebook and screams about how the abortion megaplex is another sign of the downfall of America?

>>53743014
> I beg your forgiveness and understanding, even though I know it's silly to care too much about the feelings of less-evolved beings; I'm just that magnanimous.

You're reading into it too much, anon.
If I didn't care about other people's feelings and opinions and didn't like them then this unwilling disconnection with them I sometimes feel wouldn't hurt so much.

Your joke is pretty funny though.
I bet you actually DO fall somewhere on the above average intelligence chart; it's not really as uncommon as people think and people tend to look for the exact wrong indicatiors of "intelligence".

>>53743024
Heavy armor on Wizard. Access to healing word for zombierush. Still full caster progression.

>>53743002
The what now?

>>53743034
Actually genius are more likely to be ESL than not. Fatburger are stupid as hell.

>>53742997
Well humans need company even if neurobiologically speaking. I suffer from isolation if anything, but I got rid of all my friends a year ago.

I think we all believe in God. Not necessarily God, but we all have faith, unless we're psychopaths, who lack empathy, therefore the ability to have faith. Faith itself being a delusion needed to remain healthy.

Nobody 100% sane and rational would ever trust. If you trust, you have faith, so you believe in "God". But anyway I've taken this thread way off course already. Those are just my thoughts.

>>53743002
No easy way out, not even in your dreams.

>>53743014
Actually I'm just here to play D&D.

>>53743034
Bitch I play Terran.

>>53743051
Found the ESL.

>>53743050
>"Then I applied myself to the understanding of wisdom, and also of madness and folly, but I learned that this, too, is a chasing after the wind."
>"For with much wisdom comes much sorrow; the more knowledge, the more grief.".

Ecclesiasties 1:17 and 1:18.
King Sol basically says that knowing more doesn't mean you're happier; all it does is mean you know more about how shitty stuff can get.

>>53743066
>geniuses quoting the bible
aren't you supposed to be too smart for ancient fairytales about invisible supergenies lmao

>>53743065
Found the fat EoP

>>53743066
Did you seriously know that shit off of the top of your head?

>>53742962
They're all worth reading.
Most are worth playing

>>53743084
You know people can remember the jist of something they read (about) a long time ago and then Google the exact text when it's brought up, right?

>>53743079
Went to Sunday school as kid. I retained much of it just due to repetition. I annoyed my teachers when they said something and I quoted the Bible at them to show them how they were wrong about something they just claimed, which admittedly was probably the first inclination that I wasn't going to be very religious in the long run.

Besides, it's ridiculously quotable.
>>53743084
It's a really catchy quote.
Not sure I got the verse right though.

>>53743014
>Apply whatever "genius talent" you supposedly have to getting the fuck over it. Calculate the perfect materials and design to engineer yourself a fucking bridge or write a dissertation that proves you live in a solipsist reality and can cross the chasm to normalcy by autohypnosis.
Best thing I've read all day

>>53743079
>le religious people are dumbasses meme
You mean those clerics and priests who were both the educated and educator demographic of the human population up until the secularization of education?

That's also judging religion as if you could abstract it to one single, morally concrete concept. Religion is closer to a 7 billion points of view sort of deal.

>>53743102
I actually DID know that one off the top of my head at least, if only because it's sort of the only quote in the Bible involving Solomon talking about intelligence.
It's sort of like calling something the "Cain and Able" problem; there's really only one part of the Bible they could be taking about and if you know it then you get the reference right away.

>>53743084
We're using our genius powers. Tremble, mundane.

>>53743108
I'm going to genius an engineering degree out of my ass, I suppose.

I can do this, after all being a genius is like being a PF psion in real life. It's a DC15 or something.

>>53743112
nice try grandpa shuckleberry but dinosaurs are real and the earth is more than 6,000 years old
read a fuckin book

>>53743132
...But we're not talking about the age of the Earth, we're talking about religion as a thing

YOU read a fucking book, maybe you'll find out there's those things called capital letters and punctuation

>>53743128
You know, the shitty thing about being able to quote Bible in the US?
The only people who are likely to care if you can are likely to not even get the references when you DO quote it back at them.
I mean something like seventy percent of all religious people I've spoken to genuinely think "the Lord helps those who help themselves" is from the Bible.

>>53743132
>read a book
I do. It's called the Bible

>>53743145
yeah okay lecture me about punctuation when you're missing your periods the same way eve was before the all-loving god cursed her entire gender forever because she ate an apple he knew she was gonna eat
here's some capitals for you: LOL RETARD

>>53743166
High five.

>>53743112
I actually tend to gravitate towards playing religious characters, funnily enough.
>>53743169
You know, God could have just built a fucking fence around the thing and solved the problem entirely.
He's the laziest omnipotent ever, I swear. Even Zeus could be bothered to turn into swans and shit and fly down Olympus to fuck bitches once in awhile.

>>53743178
Hello, INS? I'd like to report some weirdos practicing a strange religion and performing terrorist palm slaps.

People think that real geniuses think every day like
>the hypotenuse of Einstein's metaphysical triangle is in fact a metaphor of our relative importance in the cosmos blah blah big words I'm making up to imply smart shit

But they're more like
>haha hypotenuse sounds like anus
>holy shit a new episode of Rick and Morty
>oh and metaphorical relativity I guess.
>I wonder what I'm eating tonight
>but yeah Einstein's right I guess

>>53743187
yeah i also play clerics a lot
haven't had the chance in 5E yet because another regular member of my table has done one every fucking game
god is gay, fictional god is cool

>>53743188
Careful, the INS might bomb the 1980's.
Everyone was high-fiving everywhere back then.

>>53743199
Everyone was bombing everyone in the 80s.
>oh no there's so much terrorism everywhere i'm so scared
>what do you mean there's 90% less terrorism now compared to when i was born / just 20yo and no one had the internet or 24/7 news channels and i didn't read the newspaper

>>53743191
>holy shit a new episode of Rick and
Morty
I also got excited at that new BioWare game announced, which is deeply shameful considering how badly they've treated their fans over the last decade or so and how it sounds suspiciously like a knockoff Destiny clone.
>>53743198
Meh, I have no strong opinions on religion either way.
I have stronger opinions on religious people because their attitudes usually have nothing to do with their religious affiliation.

>>53743212
I laugh when people say the world is more dangerous when it's just that we're less staggeringly ignorant of how dangerous it really is and we actually get information as it happens instead of four years later.

>>53743231
>brown people bomb manchester
GLASS THE MIDDLE EAST
>hey remember when redheads bombed manchester monthly
SINK IRELAND TO THE BOTTOM OF THE OCE- wait nevermind whatever meh
honestly we should destroy ireland, death to the protestants

>>53743187
I play psionics a lot because that way I can justify them sort of having my view on the whole existence deal and being weird.

"Good. Bad. Gods are people too, no? So you're just doing what people are telling you to do, and they're telling you it's good, or it's bad, and you trust them. Me I just don't care, I'm here because I'm bored."
"..."
"... I also like you, you're one of the only ones to understand me."

>>53743218
Here's how shit hits the fan.

>group Discord
>"Haha blah blah blah oh yeah we're important in the cosmos blah blah"
>Actually Einstein's theorem and triangle and what not blah blah blah
>GM: "Hey I've had players complain tbhtbh, you have to be nicer to them, stop being mean ok nbdnbdnbd right"
>What

Legit can't help it.

>>53743254
Ireland's okay.
Giant's causeway was rad. Loved the food too.

Should I play Death House as an introduction to Curse of Strahd or is it shitty?

I glanced through it briefly, and it feels like a dungeon crawl, the exact opposite of what this adventure is supposed to be about?

>>53741175
>When you gain certain warlock levels, you gain additional invocations of your choice, as shown in the Invocations Known column of the Warlock table.
>Additionally, when you gain a level in this class you can choose one of the invocations you know and replace it with another invocation that you could learn at that level
So are you just not aware that you can drop the +1 invocation as soon as you pick up the +2 and replace it with some other invocation?

You never need to have more than one invocation going towards your weapons bonus. And if you actually have a +3 weapon you can just swap out that invocation when you level up. Bladelock has a lot of problems but that isn't one of them.

>>53743274
It's...KIND of a Dungeon crawl.
The dungeon part as right at the very end, but it's largely empty of actual "traps" and monster encounters.
Instead it's more of a haunted house story.

I did it for my group and they loved it.
I did a lot of playing up on the haunted angle and it just kept building tension as they kept expecting something to happen and it never did.

>>53743274
Death House is the best part of Curse of Strahd.
However, it is highly lethal.
I suggest you run it, but if the players die, play it off as a dream sequence. Maybe the game starts straight off from Madam Eva's tent, and she suggests it could be a potential future.

>>53743293
That fucking fight at the end is WAY too high a level for 1rst to 3rd level characters....

>>53743261
I kind of wish 5e's psionics weren't so annoying. They tickle my 2e fancy and I'd love to use them.

>>53738349
>What are tips and tricks you wish you had been told when you first started DMing?
That the best plan is to not have one.

Seriously, I try my best to come up with something special and my players don't even make it to session four. Slap some shit together and just wing it? I get people saying they're sad we only play once a week.

>>53743328
This is disgustingly true.

>>53743289
Should I play it like the haunted house in Rise of Runelords?

That was a story that started with a guy who turned the basement into a laboratory to become a lich, but when his wife found out she interrupted the ritual and they all perished violently.
Then his son and wife moved in, and he became mad, murdered her and lit himself on fire & jumped through the windows to the cliffs below when he realized.
Then the third generation (that guy's son who was just a kid when the parents died) moved in with his wife, then strangled her out of jealousy and murdered the servant who he thought was cucking him.

The whole house was filled with "hauntings" that let a player experience visions of the past (from a first person point of view) in every room and sometimes they got the desire to harm themselves or others (like thinking they're lit up in flames and the only salvation is jumping through the window to the sea 1000ft below)
The house itself was "alive" and would give them nightmares and visions and react badly if someone tried to harm it. Also if they tried to leave, thousands upon thousands of ravens stood still watching them. No one tried to go for it.

>>53743302
I ruled that the suits of armor could be used a plate armor (but it'll decay when exited), and it becomes a lot more survivable. I've run two groups through death house.
One party of five managed to escape without casualties, the plate armored paladin and the life cleric saved lives, lay on hands for 1 hp multiple times to exit the rest of the house.
The other party's monk was the last man standing after killing the creature, but was cut down by the house when trying to escape.

Never had a wizard in my party before, going to have one soon. If they find another wizards spellbook, do they have to copy spells down? why not just use both books?

>>53743353
I read a suggestion on the web to give the party a cute little puppy when they enter the house, which acts totally normally all the way through, and then in the end when they have to sacrifice something to appease the house, the puppy starts barking at the chanting to remind the players of its existence

There will be two women amongst the players so I'll probably do it

>>53743375
The rules suggest that each wizard uses their own notation, and copying is partially trying to figure out another wizard's notation.

>>53743352
I know the adventure you're talking about and the actual Death House adventure isn't too far off; it's more about piecing together how the house is haunted then it is fighting and looting shit.
I actually took some hints from that adventure in particular when I ran it myself last.
>>53743353
Yeah, sounds about right.
>>53743383
That is fucking awful and brilliant all at once.

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Are any other DMs really bored of running combats?

>Ok roll initiative
>Let me choose from my list of attacks
>I roll and hit your AC
>Ok 3d10 take 25 damage
>Oh I do this, you die
>Ok your turn to try and kill me
>Rinse and repeat

I used to avoid minitatures like the plague but I've given in because it makes combat smoother, but I'm just getting Descent flashbacks.

Sure I could run a game with very minimal combat and lots of talking, but that negates at least 3/4 of the character sheet and people like rolling dice.

>>53738778
These are great examples because I don't think you could get a single one by a DM or rules lawyer. Here's a handful of neat and powerful things you can't actually do because they don't make sense or just don't follow the rules. Wizard players gonna wiz though.

>>53743511
Halve the monster's HP, double their damage.

>>53743511
Read this and apply it to your games
http://theangrygm.com/manage-combat-like-a-dolphin/

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In a ever so slightly hostile about to break out into a fight situation, when do you roll initiative?
After first attack? Or before?

>>53743663
As soon as anyone reveals an intent to attack.

>>53743663
If it's an argument and a player says "I punch him", let him do the punch and then roll initiative, otherwise it makes no sense
Imagine the alternative scenario, initiative is rolled before the punch, and he gets to play late, then everybody else moves about 30ft and casts a spell or shoots two arrows and then the guy with the punch gets to play and there's no one even next to him anymore

It's stupid

Do Halflings wear shoes?

>>53743729
In which campaign setting?
Sometimes that's a yes and sometimes that's a no.

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>>53743729
That depends

>>53740849
>Which you have no control over besides advantage on social checks
It doesn't even make them friendly. It's more like having an Igor than turning someone into your slave.

>>53741027
>a vampire must be invited into a home
Strahd officially doesn't need an invitation though because he's the ruler and thus rightful owner of most of the homes you'll ever encounter in Barovia. I think the gypsy caravans are safe. Of course, he can pretend to need permission to make it more fun.

>>53743729
I once played halfling and the DM kept giving me magic shoes as a joke.

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Of the following, which is the least ridiculous, most civilized, and most sensible language to learn:

Giant, Goblin, Orc, Halfling, Gnomish

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Are there any official races or classes that would let me play as a cool ass Jaguar man?

Think of an Aztec jaguar warrior, but literal.

>>53743687
Punch maybe, but in any normal circumstance a wizard starts chanting or a warrior draws their sword.
That's when initiative happens.

>>53743910
Racewise you want a Tabaxi.

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>>53743910
Tabaxi. In Faerun they're literally New World jaguar people from Fantasy Mesoamerica.
Though they're less like bloodthirsty Aztecs and more like KHAJIT HAS WARES IF YOU HAVE COIN.

>>53743956

What are those from? Sounds cool. Should I make them a Barbarian, Fighter, Ranger or Monk? Or maybe some kind of nature Paladin?

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>Sir Vladimir and Sir Godfrey are gay lovers in Curse of Strahd

Should I fix that? I could make them Sir Vladimir and Lady Gwendoline or something
I mean they used to be lawful good Paladins serving the order of a Silver Dragon, and now they are restless revenants.
Not exactly the kind of cute twink boys in love I had in mind, it's the bad kind of gay.

>>53744124
They're old D&D, just recently brought back that's all.
Their stats are Dex and Charisma based, so they make good Bards and Rogues.

>>53744149
Do whatever you want, it's your game and nobody really gives a shit what you do with it except you, so why ask permission for something stupid like that?

>>53744124
We had a tabaxi monk in the party this season, he had the shadow spec with invisibility and shadowstep and shit, pretty cool
He had almost impossibly high stealth skills but wasn't that good in combat

>>53744124
They are from Volo's guide.
Rogue and Dex fighter would be best
Barbarian can work, you will just start with a +2 in str
Monk can work, you'll just start with a +2 in wisdom

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>>53744124
Racially they're in Volo's guide.
Class, it depends on how you want to do it. Paladin of Ancients could work well though.

>>53744118
Those are just the Tabaxi who are filled with curiosity, which are normally those who venture outside. The vast majority of Tabaxi consider things like trade demeaning. And as a warrior, he's more likely to represent a different part of the race's psyche.