/5eg/ Fifth Edition General: Cats edition

What was the luckiest moment you ever had while playing 5e?

>>54025988
My entire party are all Tabaxi right now and it was all by luck.

So we're effectively the Thunder Cats at this point.

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>>54016211
>he puts advanced technology in the game but doesn't make it indistinguishable from magic
My players had been fucking around with golems and metallic runes for months and not one of them realized it was pre-apocalypse technology from a civilization that wiped themselves out with nanobots and they're really on Earth until AFTER a particle accelerator AI from the "spooky wizard's tower that sank into the ground" downloaded itself into a gynoid to join the party and marry the Paladin.

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Alright, /tg/, my players just nearly got a TPK while facing the Orcs in Lost Mines of Phandelver. They got captured and we won't be able to play in 2 weeks. Droop, Sildar and a small contingent of local volunteers are coming to rescue them. What kind of consequences should I dish out on them without entirely ruining the experience? So far:

>a week passes by during their capture
>Harbin Wester has been wrongly accused of abusing power and has been executed, including Iarno Albrek to silence his allegiance to the Black Spider and Halia
>Halia Thornton successfully rises to power as the new Townmaster, forcing a PC's father(a descendent of Lord Tresendar) to act as a puppet leader
>Redbrand Ruffians who escaped capture now for Halia as her bodyguards, sending Zhentarim reinforcements to replace the current Town Guard
>Daran Edermath's orchard burns down due to an "accident"
>Sister Garele's Shrine of Tymora gets torn down due to "offending the public eye"
>Barthen's Provisions and Smithy closes down due to "Redbrand collusion"
>weapons are no longer sold, only pickaxes, hatchets and knives at Lionshield Coster
>Phandalin turns from mining community into a Zhentarim haven within a span of a week

If I have a CHA mod of -1 I can't use Divine Sense, right?

>>54026112
Without reading Divine Sense at all, I'm going to assume you are confused by it possibly saying "minimum 1".

That means that you can use it and it lasts like you've got a +1 Cha mod even if your Cha is lower, not that you must have at least +1 Cha to use it.

>>54026148
>You can use this feature a number of times equal to 1 + your Charisma modifier. When you finish a long rest, you regain all expended uses

Wrong

>>54026112
As far as I can tell, no you can't.

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How do I play an Otter Healer?

>>54026166
Perfect, that work well with the PC backstory

>>54026199
>Platypus not a Rogue

>>54026112
>Paladin with negative charisma

What the hell are you doing???

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>>54026219
Well there's a Gecko Thief at least.

>>54026231
Name one charismatic Paladin.
Pro tip: you can't, because they're all insufferable douchenozzles. Especially the modern "reeee i'm a crusader, i murder people for muh greater good, my entire class revolves around shooting holy fire lasers out of my sword, what the fuck is a shield" Paladin.

>>54026199
5e healer
What you want: nancy in robes
What you get: dwarf in chainmail

>>54026231
A redemption character, he is only a Paladin to complete his revenge, through the campaigns he will find his faith

>>54026287
Paladins don't need faith, they need conviction. Like looking for revenge.

>>54026280
What if I play a Life Theurge or Favored Soul?

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>>54026280
This is the only healer I'm interested in.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98HTgS85T0k#t=1m02

>>54026346
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFhs5LCNTFY

>>54026324
Well, my Paladin need faith, s-shut up

Are Tranquility Monks any good? It seems like their level 3 is basically +10HP per level.

>>54026530

I dunno if they're good, but I'm in love with the concept. I really hope it ends up in the PHB2 coming out later this year, it'll be the first character I play soon as I get the opportunity.

>>54026559
>PHB2
What? Last thing I heard confirmed was XGE

I'm trying to fuck over my friend doing a one shot.
What's the most overpowered build I can make at level 5?
All UA and broken combos are game.

So far I'm thinking Swashbuckler3/D.Sorcerer2 for booming blade + quicken bonfire.

>>54026602

Yes, that would be the one.

Make a contract for a wish with a Dao
Yay or Nay?

>>54026668
Go for it
At least it's not a Fiend

>>54026668
Dao are pretty sensible.
Only Djinn and Efreet would fuck you, and only the latter on purpose.

>>54026761

Uh oh.

My party made a deal with an efreet some time ago. How fucked are we?

Is letting Sun Soul bonus action attack with their sun bolts gonna disrupt the game?

>>54026819
Hope you enjoy being enslaved in the fire mines beneath the City of Brass.

>>54026846
It's not like Monk is going to break anything ever.

>>54026947

He's gonna have to find us first! He already went back to the plane of fire and we're still in the material world!

>>54026967
Well, they're good at cheesing legendary resistances away, gotta give them credit

>>54026967
Once you get to around 14+ Monks are pretty OP, just because they become near unkillable and can decimate Legendary Resistance.

>>54026983
>archmage casts timestop
>does a bunch of shit with simulacrums unseen and prepares to roast the party
>zip 70 feet through two decks of a boat and find him chilling in his bedroom
>punch him into a corner and Stunning Strike him every turn
>completely dismantle this poor old cripplewizard and break every bone in his body while he is unable to do anything for three turns straight
>zero damage taken
Granted, this was SKT so it's the first and last time that Stun was ever going to land on anything, but it was fun.

>>54026026
3 crit death saves preventing the party from TPKing

So my DM gave us the full 22 card Deck of Many Things last session. Our party got really drunk and started passing it around, pulling cards and we got about 12 deep until we finally pulled Donjon. Everything went better than expected. Now we have a 10 card deck of some of the best effects left in the deck (Fates, Jester) sans Moon, and some of the worst (Flames, Skull, Void). Our Paladin took it and hid it from us though.

>>54026846
i also thought it was curious that they weren't allowed to. Considering that the only other way to get a bonus action ranged attack is crossbow expert, i would consider allowing it as long as they take a somewhat relevant feat. The only way i can imagine abusing it is if the monk also grabs hex/hunters mark, which would give them an extra 1d6 ranged damage (which isn't much).

What do you guys think of letting a character switch weapons mid round? i'd like to play a kensai monk (street fighter in plot) who alternates between a dagger and longsword, but doesn't wield them simultaneously. something like versatile sword att > bonus act fist att OR flurry > dagger stab
would you make them get dual wielder? what if they don't take advantage of defensive duelist?
i'm not sure you can make a bonus action mid-attack, but if you can move between attacks then i don't see why not.

>>54026280
isn't there a armorless cleric variant in the DMG?

>>54027102
I forgot my question:

What do we do with it now?

I've played through Lost Mines of Phandelver before, but I'm the sort who will very much avoid metagaming and my DM knows so me and some new players are going through it.

I'm a Wizard and we're at Wyvern Tor with the 8 Orcs and the Ogre.

The game ended with the Orcs sitting in their cave throwing javelins at anyone who gets too close. We decided our plan will be for me to Disguise Self as one of the Orc Scouts and convince them to leave the cave.

I have 12 CHA and 20HP.

How likely am I to die and should I make a new character just in case I need it?

>>54027127
? I'm not aware of this.

>>54027185
>>54027127
Yeah they lose most weapon proficiency and armour, in exchange for Monk Unarmoured Defence.

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>>54027127
i read "armless"

What's the worst thing in 4e/3.5e that was fixed in 5e?

>>54027216
Dependence on magic items for number progression. Above all else, I feel that that's the biggest and best change thematically from those two systems, without needing innate bonuses as a band-aid for it.

Why am I such a shit roller, and why does everything in DnD have to be related to how good of a roller you are? I haven't been able to do anything in the campaign I'm currently in because of my inability to roll higher than a 2.

>>54027259
>my inability to roll higher than a 2.
Get new dice.

>>54026846
Like giving them a bonus action attack they would have with martial arts? Nah, that would be fine, though it's easy to see why they don't have that by default (tradeoff of range for damage).

>>54027259
My DM reserves dice rolling for chance, while "being good" means playing smart or strategically (which is not to say that it's not possible to play like a dumb fighter or anything).

>>54027241
Yeah, but on the flip-side, magic items are now a bit too rare. In 3.5 at least, you had all these cool flavour magic items, but they never got used because they'd compete for slots with your belt of giant's strength or your cloak of resistance.

Now there's just a good chance you'll never get much that's good or useful unless your DM is liberal with magic items.

>>54027259
Play a vhuman champion fighter with lucky and GWF. Don't be subject to RNG's trickery ever again

>>54027271
We're playing on roll20 because we all live far away now.

>>54027289
This sounds more appropriate. For me it's just frustrating right now since I'm playing a bard and I want to perform and play music for fun and whatever, but every time I do he makes me do a performance check. Even with my bonus I haven't gotten above 10 yet.

>>54027306
Magic items are now only rare if DMs make them that way, just like you said. At least now characters aren't fucked if the DM isn't running things Monty Hall style. It's a change for a better all around. The only real thing I would change in regards to magic items is having some sort of system for how much you should adjust encounter difficulty based on the magic item bonuses they have.

>>54027320
Or a lucky halfling swashbuckler rogue, then you can also do your thing while relying on RNG even less

>>54026250
How about Michael Carpenter from Dresden Files?

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So when is the mega trove ever going to be updated?

>>54025988
Question about 5e's Mind Blank spell for you all.

Back in 3rd or in PF, mind blank is a must-have because it's such a blanket immunity. Is it still worth having that much in 5e?

It still seems to be divination-proofing, but I'm not sure how much stuff does psychic damage offhand, and on top of that you only get a single 8th level spell slot, so even though Mind Blank is up for 24h with no concentration, there could well be better options available (Dominate Monster, Feeblemind, Clone, etc.) to spend that slot on.

>>54027509
good for divination and mindrape proofing and little else
if you need to not be found then use it

>>54027485
never ever

>>54027485
What kind of update is needed?

>>54027630
It's missing Season 5 and 6 modules.

need beholder lairs

>>54026947
>"Wait, why are we mining fire when the city is litterally surounded with pure elemental fire?"
>"Quite slave"*wip crack*

Is it actually stated anywhere whether or not dropping something from your hand is considered an object interaction?
Every DM I've ever played with made it free, because doing X action while dropping something out of your hand takes the exact same amount of time as just doing X action on it's own

You don't really need to take extra time to drop something, you just drop it as you're doing whatever the other thing is you're trying to do

>>54026090
You are a massive faggot.

>>54027795
Dropping an item is a free action.
Picking one up is an object interaction.

>>54027895
That's what I thought, thanks.

If I use my action to make a melee attack, can I use my bonus action to make an offhand attack AFTER I move?i.e.
>attack a target as a swashbuckler, move 15ft, attack different target

>>54028049
Yes.

>>54028049
I think so

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>Have PAM
>Use a quarterstaff, works fine
>tie a sharp rock to the end, its a spear
>Can no longer use PAM

>Have PAM
>Use a halberd, works fine
>Remove the side blades, its a spear
>Can no longer use PAM

justify this

>>54028080
The balance of the weapon change

>>54028080
thats called refluffing a weapon, you can do that as long as you dont search for a mechanical benefit

>>54028080
Spear is a thrusting motion, makes it hard to do a butt attack. It would be too complex for some parts to apply and not others.

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>dming my homebrew setting for two groups
>objective is to kill a vampire mayor of a trading hub city.
>it's know that he will take part in a night parade and expose himself
>one group goes full operator with backup plans, like blowing up the dam/bag of holding bomb/force wall and fire trap/crashing some building on him
>other group just goes "ugh, maybe we could attack him during that?"

>>54028080
>Remove the side blades, its a spear
It's a pike.

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>>54028252
That's adorable.

>>54025763
Things like that are usually minimum 1.

>>54028264
Here's a thought
>remove side blades. Add meat and veggies
>is kebab
>remove kebab

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>Player has had one character death in a year of playing
>Tells me if they have one more they're quitting the game

>>54022778
You do know you have to load the damn things, right? Making an attack isn't just pulling the trigger. It's all the stuff involved in firing the crossbow.

Just throw a javelin. You do have javelins, right?

>>54028296
>>>/k/

>>54028346
If the crossbow is already loaded there's no reason why I shouldn't be able to attempt to fire it one handed, inefficient though it may be.

>first time dming
>kill the rogue
>feel bad

I think it was his fault though. The natural 1 on his death saving throw didn't help.

>>54028426
Sure, disadv on the roll.

>>54028464
Exactly

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>>54028110
>rogue: "I want to refluff my dagger into a halberd"

>>54028426
An argument could be made that the crossbow has to be wound, and that's what part of having it in two hands requires. You probably aren't running around with a loaded crossbow strapped to your back or wherever have you.

Light crossbows are a loading weapon so you can only fire them once a turn regardless. It has a 80/320 range and a 1d8 dice. Hand crossbows are 30/120 and 1d6 hit dice, and are also loading. If it's not being treated as a pure 'rule of cool' event, it would likely become mathematically superior to start just carrying around some loaded light crossbows and take a disadvantage hit on them versus actually using the weapons meant for the task.

I understand the argument, but it does kind of end up feeling vaguely like a 'have your cake and eat it too' argument. You have the benefit of your shield (bonus AC) and its downsides (cant remove quick), but aren't using the tools that compliment your shield use, and instead want to use a two handed weapon that is naturally precluded by using your shield.

Disadvantage isn't that hard to get around. I've been playing an [axe] and shield barbarian lately, and I would be quite happy to use two handed weapons at disadvantage alongside my shield.

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>>54027630
Think it's missing DDAL05-13 through DDAL05-18 and the TYP modules that came out recently. Also, the epic adventures. They seem to be releasing a bunch of them for this season.

If anyone could find and or give them to the megaanon, that'd be pretty neato.

>>54028526
I've just got A Thousand Tiny Deaths

>>54028492
That's true. I forget sometimes that the math is just as important as the "you can do ANYTHING"

>>54028426
I don't know. what are the circumstances of it already being loaded? If it's constantly loaded outside of combat and I were your DM, I would be rolling secret percentiles every time you moved to see if it accidentally went off with negative consequences.

>>54028426
Who the fuck carried around a loaded crossbow? Seriously that's a huge fucking risk. You'd probably walk 100 meters with a loaded crossbow on your back before being shot in the ass.

How do I play a Lawful Good Monk who can try to steer the party towards more good actions without being a pacifist dick? Any other advice for playing friendly Lawful Good characters is appreciated.

I'm probably Sun Soul or Tranquility if anyone has ideas for my Monk Order.

>>54028526
Meganon is dead. The one in the OP is just a mirror someone made and hasn't updated at all.

>>54028338
Today I killed a player's character for the second time in three sessions. Never maliciously, always just how the dice fall.

Them's the breaks. At least he's a good sport about it.

>>54028718
lg is gay because you end up being a wet blanket on every non lawfully aligned person in the party

cg is best because at least then there's some wiggle room

>>54028898
>Doesn't use capital letters
Don't listen to this CE fool, LG is the only way the world works.

>>54028932
>LG
>ever
Nah

>>54028932
Chaotic and Neutral anything are the reason there is even freedom or cool shit in the world.
>>54028898
CG is not good because you would break laws and betray your friends if they did something evil for any reason.
>>54028952
Only if you're a paladin, a bureaucrat, or you suck an LG's dick for a living.

>>54028718
You Don't. It's extremely difficult to get most Murderhobos to follow the righteous path. They'll hate you, you'll hate them. It won't work.

If I have 3 attacks in a turn, could I throw 3 javelins within one turn? Or would drawing another javelin be using my alloted object interaction, limiting me to 2 javelin throws regardless of the attacks I can make in a turn?

>>54028188
Pike already doesn't benefit from one of the PAM features, the butt end attack. But it's still reasonable for spears to not be included.

>>54029021
Most DMs (and all good DMs) handwave hand action economy when it comes to that sort of thing, so sure. But RAW, no, you'd have to use your object interaction to take one out.

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>>54028426
You sound like one of my players

>I want to strap two crossbows together and have some kind of shotgun
>What do you mean I can't do that?
>Ok how about I find a gnome to weld a bracer to my arm so I can gain a bonus 2 AC and still use 2 handed weapons?
>What do you mean the rules prohibit that
>"In my head it works"

Why do people forget this is an actual game with rules based around balance?

>>54029021
I'd just rule it as plucking 3 javelins out, then tossing them one at a time.

>>54029083
What if I have a shield in one hand

>>54029112
Stow your javelins in it anyway, like how by sage advice and in any reasonable game you'd be allowed to stow your weapon in that hand to get some components for a spell or such, as long as it's only during your turn.

>>54029140
Coolio

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>>54028080
>Have a halberd
>For some reason you have time to hit someone with the butt end to get in one more attack than you normally would in the time frame of a round, but not enough time to hit someone with the sharp end of your weapon again even though it would be a lot faster to do that because it's already near your enemy

There's no defending PAM from a realism standpoint...and really it's not an awesome idea mechanically either.

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How good's Favored Soul if I want to be nearly 100% devoted to supporting allies? The other option's a Valour Bard who shoves and disarms a lot but I really love the holy aspects of Favored Soul.

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>New party includes two gnomes

>>54029414
whats wrong with gnomes. you can toss them around as improvised ammo or something

>>54029414
Force them to rhyme at all times

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Making a level 8 Immortal Mystic.

Is there anything I'm missing for covering all my bases for party support?

>Mind Thrust for ranged cantrip
>Mind Meld for utility

>Brute Force for melee beef
>Adaptive Body for character flavor/utility

>Mastery of Light and Darkness for edginessflavor
>Telepathic Contact for utility via Dominate/Hold spells and 6 man telepathy hub
>Bestial Form for flight mainly (Flavor fits better than air mastery)
>Psionic Restoration for obvious support reasons

>>54029211
A halberd is a slashing weapon. What happens is you slash at your opponent, and you use the momentum from the weapon to make the second attack - it slashes through the enemy, and the combination of your weight and the weapon's momentum puts the butt end of the weapon closer to the opponent.

With a quarterstaff it's similar, you attack with the front end, but since the weapon is sort of elastic there's recoil, making your weapon move in the opposite direction. You make use of that momentum to make a second attack.

>>54029211
I just fluffed it as hitting with the spike on the back instead, and make it more like a Lucerne.

I'm gonna be running Death House pretty soon, which will be transitioning into Curse of Strahd proper.

What do I do if the House kills my PCs? I heard that this is pretty likely, and particularly the last encounter seems like it has a high probability of killing one or more of the characters. I was thinking of having them wake up in Strahd's castle, with Strahd planning on manipulating them into becoming his thralls. He doesn't believe they're much of a threat since they failed his 'challenge', but they're still interesting new travelers that do possess some skill. Possibly they'd also get some new flaws out of it, like some kind of mark or some scars.

Alternatively, I could have them wake up in Madam Eva's camp. It was all a dream caused by the gypsies to test their mettle.

Of course I'd ask them as well if they'd prefer to make new characters. I also wouldn't allow any more bullshit revives after this.

>>54028481
>I also want to refluff my damage dice into a d10
>It still has the 'thrown' property

>>54027153
You're dead unless you can get away,
I'd prepare a different character

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>>54029071
I'd let him use the bracers(without the ac buff) but require thar he take 2 full turns reloading one crossbow give him -7 on attack rolls and have him roll strength check each part of a load since he has a cross bow attached to his loading arm.

Make it impossible to weld other weapons and make it take another player to remove the bracers.

If he wants to get bitchy about it being possible, let him see all the awful down sides of doing something stupid.

If he wants really small crossbows, give him normal reload without checks, but have the cross bow do is 1d4-1p with 10 feet range -3 on attack rolls since it would be essentially a dart launcher and require help to remove and the inability to weld other weapons

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>player's have been consistent at killing their targets or adversaries
>almost a running joke between us that once a fight breaks out, nobody opposing them ends up living, ever
>introduce them to a vampire villain last session, ended on a cliffhanger right before combat
>this is the first vampire they've fought
>they don't even know he is a vampire yet, they just think he is some fucked up looking dude

cant wait for the shock on their face when they think they killed him and he just goobers away.

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>>54028338
>have had three character deaths this month because our healer is on holiday
>never bitch or whine, just use one of the 8000 character concepts i've got sitting around in my files.
sometimes I see character death as a blessing, it lets me try out new stories if the old one didn't mesh well with the party

Should I get the Lucky Feat or raise my Dex to twenty? Ranged Battlemaster here.

>>54029793
lucky, always.

>>54029800
Thanks. Any other ways to raise accuracy? Level 5 going on level 6.

>>54029851
Well, with Lucky you can close your eyes to raise your accuracy. Closing your eyes grants disadvantage, Lucky adds a third and lets you choose which of the three to use.

>>54029870
... Fuck really? Even if that's the case, my party may never talk to me again.

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>play non-human
>literally all NPCs call me derogatory names
>monsters always mistakenly refer to me as man or human

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>>54029892
Yup, it was confirmed in Sage Advice.

>>54029969
>Take Elven Accuracy and Lucky
>Pick from 4 rolls when attacking

>>54030011
That doesn't work, since although you're rolling three dice, you still count as having Disadvantage.

But if you do get Advantage and then choose to use a luck point you can reroll one of the three dice, but you have to do so after you roll your initial three dice, so you can't pick from 4 rolls but from 3 since one die is rerolled.

>>54030068
I think he just meant when you have advantage since that's the only time elven accuracy applies. You'd roll 3 of them, reroll one, and pick the highest, functionally the same as rolling 4 and taking the highest.

>>54029870
>>54029892
Sounds dumb at first, but that's literally you being lucky as hell and succeeding when you shouldn't.

>Start a game with a new group. Getting comfortable as a GM, so I didn't mind that role.
>Set in a large city with PCs being a kind of special task force for shit that requires actual levels to take on, as well as a lot of politics shit going on.
>First mission is basic "Kill some cultists" to grt started.
>second was intended to set up an ally they could draw on later, a Rogue who is super good at sneaking around.
>I planned on throwing in a ton of these kinds of NPCs they can draw on for expertise that they lack, since the entire campaigns will stay inside or near the city.
>Just a thief, stolen a bunch of shit, but it never shows up again, not even on the black market, and everything belongs to some jerk noble.
>They finally catch a glimpse of the thief
>Instantly nuke it with long range spells and crossbows
>They just killed the thief without even seeing who it was, or having found the place where the spoils was kept.
>It was the Nobles daughter looking for attention.
I am not sure how I go forward from here. Do I tell them to not murderhobo like assholes OOC, or do I just slap them with a ton of penalties for just murdering the thief without even finding all the stolen treasures?

Should I just abandon my plans and go for a more murderish campaign? That kinda ruins the setup of the campaign though.

I kinda don't want to bother making more NPCs that can be used as allies, if the party is just going for the "Kill and bury, ask questions never" approach.

What is the best PDF viewer for my android tablet to be able to easily flick through rulebooks? I tried out perfect viewer but it's really clunky, and I can't swipe through pages downwards

>>54030226
Throw in some plot hook on the thief's corpse that leads them to the treasure, when they enter the Noble's daughter is there.

She and the Thief were working together, but she was going to rat him in anyway when she got bored so she doesn't mind. Then she offers to help them out when they need it as long as they don't tell on her/

>>54025988
Dat character art

>>54030226
>players smite evil

sounds pretty LG to.me

>>54030226
Do not punish the players, let the world punish their characters. They killed the thief, no clue how to proceed, let them realize the error of their ways.
Throw an other quest at them, then at a later point reveal the conseqences of their failed quest. Not every story need the players to unfold.

>be low level paladin
>want to communicate with my god

What do?

>>54030441
sit your ass down and pray.
You may not matter now, but you will

>>54028759
Bad dice rolls don't kill characters unless you're playing a high lethality campaign. Nothing wrong with that, but you should stop being a pussy and admit it.

>>54030246
That's actually a good idea.

They have the body but haven't identified it. Would be easy to make a switch. Might make it a rival or something, who started stealing from her father as well, so there technically were 2 culprits all along. And she is NOT brave enough to continue her petty theft, when a group of psychotic murdermachines will annihilate a simple thief, without skipping a beat.

Still, the point was to introduce 10+ allies, contacts and similar NPCs, and now I am kind of afraid of doing that, when I risk them just murdering them at the first idea of them being "not on their side."

>>54030336
They are a mix between Neutral Good and Lawful Neutral.

None of them are LG. Also the original person is Chaotic Neutral, not evil. Bored noble who just wants attention, and doesn't really care if it is okay or not, but still just steals from her father, because "it isn't technically stealing when I only take from my family, right?"

>>54027259
Half-Elf Barbarian with Elven Accuracy. Roll 3 dice for attacks, you're bound to get something good. Add in 3 levels of champion fighter and you're looking at 40% crit chance.

>>54027127
Nature cleric gets the barkskin spell but thats really inefficiant

>>54028460
>first time dming
>LMoP for 6 people
>don't scale anything up
>Klarg downs everyone
>feel bad about tpking right away
>bullshit it saying the monk fell on top of some crates, which contained a few bootleg health potions

Is Aid a good spell at level 3?

Is there any justification for giving fighters additional ASIs, but keeping actual MAD classes at the base level of ASIs?

Even looking in the PHB, Paladins and monks are specifically MAD with 2 stats as their primary, yet they have thr base amount of increases. Fighters, which uses at least 1 stat less than a Paladin, has several ASIs more.

What is the purpose of that? It feels like it needlessly gimps MAD classes.

Mostly started being really irked by it after my Battle master Archer hit a point where I was actually thinking "uhh, what can I even use anymore?" After maxing both Dex and Con and getting sharpshooter. I felt overloaded with ASIs, while the Monk was hating how strapped he was for points.

>>54030937
Notice how the Fighter gets pretty much no class features compared to Monk and Paladin? That's why.

The extra ASI's are the Fighters combat, utility and social class features all in one. Take shit like Actor, Ritual Caster, Dungeon Delver, Magic Initiate, Skilled or a boost to a stat like Wisdom for skills and saves.

>>54030957

Well, if the GM is using the optional rules for feats.

>>54030965
If not then up INT, WIS or CHA. Those increase other Saves and let you be better at skills that other party members might not have like Arcana, Insight or Intimidation.

Also if your DM's not allowing any feats then Monk has no reason to complain, they're much better when there's no feats to when there's GWM and SS in the mix.

>>54030932
well you're a cleric so the question is more like "when is it a good spell"

>>54030957
Hmm...

I don't know. As a battle master I dont feel like I am lacking features. But honestly, it feels like an EK is the best fighter just because of how many points you have to throw around.

>>54031042
I'm actually a support focused Favored Soul, just not sure if the 5 extra HP on the frontliners is worth the second level slot.

>>54031045
Really, the secret is all Fighters are kinda shitty. The only thing they have going for them is being able to grab combat feats quickly and dominate levels 4-8. After that they're pretty much just plain worse then Paladins, Barbarians and even Rangers.

Doesn't mean they can't be fun. It's just people in /5eg/ often have an undying love for Fighters because so many of them only play at really low levels on Roll20 and care about maximising damage even though it'll overkill so many times it isn't even funny.

I also reckon EK is the best especially past level 7 where they have a huge power spike and can now cast stuff like Enlarge. Battlemaster can also be fun, but really I'd rather play a spell-less Ranger for at least some utility.

>>54030469
It doesn't sound like you can rely on players caring about people's lives much, so killing the thief for example sounds reasonable if it wasn't for the fact that it was so stupid (I assume their mission was to get the goods, not just the thief). Don't make them feel like what they did was reasonable or that they could repeat it, maybe make the town guard search around for whomever killed the innocent barmaid, make sure they know such actions have consequences and that they are not the most powerful people in the city.

>>54029558
Bump for this dude.

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>>54030937
>Give a class two stats
>Give it twice the ASIs to negate the whole point of MADness

>>54028545
Willing to drop a link?

>>54031095
What I don't understand is, why so many people focus on the hard facts behind the classes, not the fluff. Fortunately, I mainly DM for friends and colleagues. They usually chose a class because they like the concept, not because they know the class to be especially powerfull.

I think it is my duty as DM to make sure, that every player's character is useful within the adventures. Usually, my Fighters and other Meatshields end up have more or mightier magic weapons in higher levels to compensate for the lack of raw power.

And by encounter design you can have so much fun. A rakshasa, an antimagic zone, or an ambush of weak creatures when your casters have used all your spell slots is more than enough to remind them, that they are mortal after all. On the plus side you'll give your meat shields the satisfaction of acutally being the front line that defended the squishies from imminent death.

Fighers are only shitty if you build shitty encounters for them. Include things within the fights that need raw muscle power and stuff like that.

>>54030965
>feats
>optional

This meme needs to die. Feats are and should be considered default. There's literally no reason for them not to be. They're accepted in AL and almost all groups use them.

Is haste a bad spell? It seems like a bad spell

>>54030236
I use adobe for my ipad

>>54031259
>Advantage on DEX-Save
>Doubled movement
>Second Action
Yeah, it is obviously bad. Whenevery our sorcerer casts it as twinned spell on our Barbarian and Fighter, we wish that he would have case another fire ball instead,

>>54028188
>he does literally anything that isn't a thrust with any weapon ever
>laughingitalianfencingmasters.tiff

So I'm playing a Tabaxi Favoured Soul and I'm wondering, at low levels am I alright to cast the Virtue cantrip rather then attack? It really fits the character better to do that but it seems a tad silly and suicidal.

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>>54029507
>A halberd is a slashing weapon

>hey guards, we made you a reach weapon that's meant to be swung in wide arcs
>against unruly mobs
>in crowded cities
>with stonework everywhere
>while you're shoulder-to-shoulder with your other guards
>retreating through a gate
>also the axe blades are really tiny
And this is before we even get into
>slashing

>>54031381
Just seems like a reason to make everyone stop what they are doing and hit the sorcerer as hard as they can
>lose concentration
>both the fighter and barbarian are now stuck doing nothing for a turn

>>54031468
Is there unironically anyone who doesn't let you choose damage type for certain weapons?

>>54030441
>he plays the class that is now empowered by swearing oaths to nebulous concepts instead of concrete divine figures as in past editions
>wants to talk to the divine
You're no different from a Fighter or Barbarian as far as the Gods are concerned now.

>>54030957
A whopping one extra ASI across the levels that everyone actually plays their games, and relatively late in that area to boot.
Amazing.

>>54031459
>Virtue
Nigger, what are you doing? At least do a help action.

I just actually read the Tabaxi racial entry. What the fuck is with those names?

Can someone give me some bullshit prophecy names because I want to throw more NPCs call things like "Cloud on the Mountaintop" and "Left-Handed Hummingbird" at my players.

>>54031518
Not in Forgotten Realms, he isn't.

>>54031546
I just thought giving the Paladin an extra 5.5 temp HP each turn could be more helpful then that.

Are there any other non-attacking cantrips that would be good?

>>54031469
Yeah, that might work with a highly intelligent foe. A regular monster would obviously not come to this conclusion. Even a bandit or thug might have problems to figure this out, depending on his knowledge of the arcane art.

Fighting against Drow or other creatures that are well aware of the various spells that exist, this might be a reasonable reaction.

>>54031127
Not negating it, faggotposter, just alleviating the pain of being forced to focus on 2 stats, as well as con, because both are melee characters.

I Would not have been puzzled by this if all had classes had the same ASIs, but they dont. Fighters, the least MAD of all classes, has a ton more ASIs for no discernable reason.

If the lack of features is the issue, then that is just lazy as shit. And I can name several monk features I would LOVE to trade for ASIs.

>>54031180
That's fine and all, but none of that makes fighters more interesting than a paladin, barbarian, ranger or monk fluff wise, the only thing they sometimes have going for them is the damage.

>>54031180
>Usually, my Fighters and other Meatshields end up have more or mightier magic weapons in higher levels to compensate for the lack of raw power.
What?

Fighters will literally outdamage all other classes in the game at high levels WITHOUT magic items.

>>54031530
This meme needs to die. Unless you are playing roll20 games, I have never had a campaign stop pre-15.

>>54031648
The only meme here is you.

>>54031614
Fighters depend quite a lot on feats and the ASIs give them room to get more feats.

If you're asking 'Why are feats optional?' then that would be sensible, but the answer is that fighters get feats and that being MAD is a class disadvantage because this isn't 4e and classes can vary from 'I can just at-will attack I guess' to 'I mostly just use once a day shit and then I'm mostly utility' and being MAD is one of those class quirks.

Rogue also gets an extra ASI despite only really needing the one stat.

However, fighter kinda needs the ASIs to boost their main stat anyway, and will only reach 20 in that stat a minimum of level 10 if they don't detour for any unnecessary feats, assuming they're going for a typical damage fighter set-up. A wizard or a sorcerer will reach that by level 8 because they don't really need feats. A paladin? He has to choose whether to support more or damage more. Giving him more ASIs starts to take away that choice and replace it with 'WHY NOT BOTH'.

>>54031648
Why does everybody assume roll20 games fall apart after the early levels? Is it playing with rando's that's the problem? I'm playing with some friends and they're all on board for the long haul, it seems.

>>54031632
>>Fighters will literally outdamage all other classes in the game at high levels WITHOUT magic items.
What is Paladin? 3 attacks mean pretty much nothing when the Paladin gets the +3d8 every turn and then has 29d8 worth of smites to throw around all day.

If you want to argue "ma long adventuring days" then Oathbreakers are still just plain better then Fighters.

>>54031630
Well, that really depends. You have to love the concept of a paladin to play this class. There is no other class limiting yourself as much as the paladin when it comes to roleplay. However, I've always had a paladin in the groups I DM'ed for.

A lot of players want to play the mighty knight in heavy plate mail. Therefore, there was always a fighter as well.

Personally, I don't like the monk. But maybe that is because I've never had a player using this class as of yet.

>>54031725
Paladins aren't really limited as of 5e anymore.
The handbook offers 3 very different oath options and if you add the UA and DMG oaths as well, there are very few armored guy concepts you can't make with a paladin.

>>54031725
Got a player in my group playing drunken fist dwarf monk with a severe drinking problem and a mile-wide chip on his shoulder. It's been fun so far.

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>>54031632
>Oathbreaker paladin does more at-will damage than the fighter, and that's not even considering they have a whole load of smites to chuck around
How does this make you feel?

>>54030932
It's great on warlocks.

>>54031773
But anon, oathbreaker is also not meant for players.

>>54031794
The fuck is it meant for then?

It's not like you build antagonists using PC stuff.

Is Curse of Strahd actually winnable?

>>54031794
it is. NPCs don't have class levels.

>>54031824
It depends strongly on what do you mean by winnable.

>>54031794
It's meant for players, but it's put in the DMG to discourage use of it unless the DM wants evil PCs.

If you made a BBEG by player rules, they'd suck. Hard. You don't compensate for that by making an archetype that's overpowered, you make them by NPC rules.
The intention of the archetype was not to be overpowered 'because it's an NPC we can write whatever dumb shit we want!', but instead offer an alternative paladin path.

But ultimately it's not wrong to say that oathbreaker isn't really a standard option your DM should feel inclined to give you access to, though I still believe the main reason is it's to avoid evil murderhobo PCs.

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>>54031829
>>54031821
Really makes you think

>>54031837

Different Anon here, I've had a recurring NPC meeting my players that I wanted them to eventually fight, and I was going to use PC rules to make him, but now I'm reconsidering. Where can I read up on how to stat using NPC rules?

>>54031850
It does. Sounds like the designers have no fucking idea about their game.

Or that half way they forgot that level-by-level class-based NPC building is fucking retarded.

>>54031850
>A player can choose one of these options with the your approval

So basically 'This is also intended for player use'?

While it says 'you can make an NPC with class levels' it doesn't say you should. And even if it said you should, it'd be wrong.

>>54031829
DMG pages 282 and 283 literally tell you how to build an NPC OR a monster with class levels.

>>54031850
the retarded thing here is that the death cleric, which doesn't focus on creating undead, is considered an evil option. but the necromancer wizard, which does focus on undead, is not. the PHB says that necromancy isn't evil but creating undead is. so the option that focuses on the evil part of necromancy is not evil and the option that focuses on the non-evil part is.

>>54031874
I don't know how obtuse do you need to be to read that this way.

>>54031884
I mean yeah, I guess, but WoTC created a Grave domain to fix this mistake.

>>54031850
Mearls confirmed different parts of 5e were written by different people, who often didn't compare notes.

For example, look at the quickling from Volo's Guide. Then tell me how it deserves the that CR.

>>54031904
Look at Shade instead. It's my DM's favourite monster, because he can throw nigh-unkillable motherfuckers with Strength drain at us, and justifty it with "but it's less than 1 CR!".

>>54031833
Free the land from Strahd's curse.

>>54025988

>No Japanese Bobtail Samurai or Ninja

>>54031927
No, you can't free the land. You can free the people, you can save the trapped souls, you can even kill the Dark Powers themselves, but as module is written, you can't free Barovia itself, or kill Strahd permamently.

>>54031850
Honestly I would never actually allow these classes.
Oathbreaker for a temporary spin during some character development maybe, but I would not allow it as a permanent start-to-finish archetype in an ordinary campaign.

>>54031927
Temporarily is the best you can get.
Unless you make the most of the temporary reprieve... I never played in CoS but I pondered about having the player characters upon the story's conclusion just.... send courriers out and summon as many fucking paladins, clerics and spellcasters as possible to just all conglomerate there while the fogs are listed and study and try to consecrate the evil vestiges and maybe even turn Castle Ravenloft into a base of operations and just have the whole place be so crawling with good characters that any return of Strahd would be like a five-minute return.
But that'd take a DM really willing to work with that.

>>54031904
Every spellcasting class/subclass has a flavor text for spellcasting ability, except warlock. Warlock is also the class with more errata stuff.

>>54031952
>>54031975
Damn, that's depressing and majorly sucks but still is something I suppose.

The best bet would be to try to get a work around the barrier barring divine access and gate in the avatars of sun gods or paladin gods.

Alright, I need help guys, and it's with something I'm bad with.

I'm making a gnome artificer, and I want to make him in the "traditional" gnome manner, with 12 names. I've got his first name figures out, it's Fompkin. I need help from here because names are my weak point.

>>54032025
>Damn, that's depressing and majorly sucks
That's Ravenloft as designed, sadly.

If I ever run it I'll probably just ignore everything related to the "demiplane of dread" and just have it be an adventure in a gloomy campaign-world-equivalent-of-Transylvania...

>>54031975
Yeah we tried that. Had a party of a nature cleric, a Forest Druid, a Bard and 2 Paladins (didn't even know it was CoS) where we tried to just do a complete takeover of the castle.

The Druid and Nature cleric basically turned the castle useless with plant growth, and the Bard ran around making tearing down as much of the castle construction as he could, while the Paladins attempted to properly convert and inspire thr people.

The GM just shut us down and said it was impossible to do any lasting damage, and said that everything would be back to normal in no time at all, evem if we stayed and tries to make progress.

>>54032034
http://www.fantasynamegenerators.com/gnome-names.php

Make sure he's "the Third"

>>54032064
Hence why I said it'd take a DM really willing to work WITH you on that.

>>54031975
That requires you to know in advance that Strahd is going to come back. There is little foreshadowing of that, if any.

>>54032078
Yeah.

Most GMs would probably just shut it down, either because they don't want to deal with it, or because they have a hard on for ravenloft, and don't want to see their players change it.

>>54032101
You know something? There's absolutely nothing published to use as a follow-up to COS. COS already has all the region mapped and statted out. If my players want to hang around there and build adventures out of their own agency, hell yes I'm going to keep that going.

>>54032066
He was going to probably be the third anyway, but thanks for the name generator link

>>54032134
There's no reason playing to stop playing, you can still use the information provided; the people are still downtrodden, there are still monsters out and about.

DnD would be better off if the next edition abandoned the d20 for a superior system, such as ORE, narrative dice, or dice pools. Discuss.

>>54031975
No, that's stupid. People of Barovia need to learn to defend themselves. It's not like there's nobody to fight Strahd - you just need to unite and inspire them.
Ezmerelda d'Avenir, Victor Vallakovich, Zuleika, Ismark, Parriwimple and Godfrey all have potential to fight and win against Strahd, especially after the party decimated his power base.

>>54031904
That's pretty damn obvious when you compare eg Death House to Phandelver, both of which are supposed to be introductory adventures.

I'm playing through Phandelver with some friends and we're having a pretty easy time so far, only having some trouble at the start against Klarg (I think that was his name). The encounters are challenging on occasion but it never really feels like you're out of your league.

I'm also preparing Death House and holy shit do some of these encounters look hard. 2 CR2 ghasts against a level 2 party of 4 that's likely already significantly weakened? Five shadows? Not to mention the specter on the level above, doing 10 damage per hit against level 1 characters and reducing their max HP by the same amount for the remainder of the dungeon (as you probably can't or shouldn't long rest in the house). One failed con save against a specter is enough to instantly kill a good amount of lv1 characters, after all.

>>54032279
I think I've asked the question of why don't the Barovians just fight back?
The answer was they've been oppressed and depressed for some long that they accept things as they are, under the heel of Strahd and won't ever change their lot in life.

>>54032294
One is supposed to be an adventure romp but the other is supposed to be horror.

>>54031614
Having a class ability that depends on an ability score isn't a penalty. It's still more effect than the ability score gives other PCs. It makes an ASI more valuable, not more mandatory. Paladins at least have nothing to complain about when they can deal damage without strength, have high AC without dex, get a lot of HP without con, use spell slots without checking save DCs, and boost saving throws by improving only one ability score. Paladins don't actually need any ASI, but you still get five.

Monks are kinda screwed, but you still sound like a whiny faggot.

>>54032294
LMoP is actually considered pretty damn tough for new players.

The 3 Bugbears against level 2's, 8 Orcs and an Ogre against level 3's, a Dragon the party might be fighting at level 3 and etc.

Also the goblin ambush can outright TPK in the first 5 minutes of the game.

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>>54032279
Also, Kasimir, the Keepers, van Richten, and whoever you raise from the dead with your dark gift, likely Argynvost or Sergei. You didn't waste it on Patrina Velikovna, did you, anon? You know, this bitch?

>>54032325
Yeah, obviously, but it's still supposed to be 'winnable'. The goal of DnD isn't usually to kill as many of your PCs as possible, after all.

>>54032360
Well, it is winnable. It's just that it's not easy.

>>54032354
honestly had to fudge some rolls on that goblin fight and outright remove one of them as I had all new players and only had 3 of them. They avoided those bugbears due to some clever sneaking, but I think they could've taken them.

>>54032360
Curse of Strahd is meant to teach the players that some fights aren't winnable and it's a better idea to run or flee.

>>54032354
My party actually had a super easy time against the orcs, despite failing the plan to ambush them, since the party was able to immobilize both the orc leader and the ogre pretty early on.

That said, none of the monsters here deal all that much damage, and they don't have any weird 'tricks' like HP or stat reduction, status ailments, damage resistance etc.

The Dragon also isn't really 'supposed' to be fought, is it? It has stats and it can be killed, but that doesn't mean that you ought to throw yourself at it unless you have a good plan and the right spells to avoid getting TPK'd by its breath weapon on turn 1.

>>54032382
When they get to the Orcs and Dragons be careful. Especially the Dragon. Make sure he talks to the party rather then just attack because unless they're highly optimised or really lucky his breath can kill them straight away.

>>54031837
>It's meant for players, but it's put in the DMG to discourage use of it unless the DM wants evil PCs.
It's not meant for players. It's not made for players. It probably wasn't made for any good reason at all, to be honest. My first guess is that they were made to shut people up about homebrewing those options if they were left out, like the aasimar in the DMG.
>Here's something we were working on but isn't really ready so we didn't put it in the PHB.
>I guess you can do stuff with it if you want.

Conquest and Treachery are attempts at making non-good evil oaths meant for player use.

>>54032262
You're incorrect. Discussion over.

>>54032417
Not an argument.

>>54032409
Psshhhh, quiet about conquest. You'll trigger those autists, who screech "CONQUEST IS LAWFUL GOOD" when literally everything is saying that it's anything but.

>>54032404
>The Dragon also isn't really 'supposed' to be fought, is it?
Just because it isn't meant to be, doesn't mean players will. Remember this is an adventure put out with the starter set, for complete beginner DMs and Players.

They really should've at least stuck some big ass warning saying "Most parties will die if they fight the dragon".

>>54032408
I was thinking about that, as far as new players go, they've got pretty good instincts. Must be all them vidya games. I think they understand the danger of dragons, but I think I'll probably have to fudge that fight a touch, too. I don't want to scare them away, and they put a lot of effort into their characters for their first time. They're so excited I don't wanna murder them all just yet. And that Orc encounter does sound rather dicey, I might leave off the hook for that until they've gained another level.

>>54032436
Reminder that in another adventure, a low level party is somehow supposed to fight multiple assassins and win.

>>54031995
Isn't that because warlock's spellcasting ability was changed late in development though?

>>54032385
Yeah, but are players supposed to just flee the house before reaching the cult? Many of the encounters in the dungeon chase the players down, and have 30-40' movement. If the party has any dwarves, gnomes or halflings, they're kinda fucked, and if they disturb the shadows they're fucked as well.

I'm not saying it shouldn't be hard, of course. Either way, I'm gonna play it as is and maybe scale down some of the encounters or plant some healing potions here and there if it's necessary.

>>54032338
>>54031660

One class has all his abilities depend on one score.

Another class has his abilities split between two scores or three scores.

Explain how not taking as much advantage of some of your abilities doesn't put you at a disadvantage compared to the guy who takes full advantage of all.

Yes, compared to an NPC with no abilities, only scores having an ability keyong off of a score is good. But we are comparing PC classes to PC classes, not fucking NPC peasants.

>>54032436
The adventure does say that the party isn't likely to slay the dragon, and any DM should see that a breath weapon with an average AoE damage of 42 is extremely likely to wipe most level 3 parties, unless they consist entirely out of Bear totem Barbarians in rage.

>>54032475
We're comparing fighters and paladins. Your argument is invalid on the face of it.

>>54032514
And hill dwarves.

Question: is it that weird/bad to use PC generation for recurring, important NPC's or bad guys?

>>54032462
You could downplay the encounters but I mean it's called Death House for a reason, not Mildly Inconvenienced House. Expect some PC deaths.
You could always chalk their experiences in the house to dreaming or hallucinations.

>>54032475
Well it's the choice between choosing to be good at one thing or being above average at multiple things, right? Fighters are good at multiple ability scores and/or have some utility feats, but since they lack proficiency they probably still aren't going to outperform, say, bards or rogues at performing skill checks. They'll have decent overall saves, which fits the profile of an experienced fighter. It's not like the handful of extra stat points are gonna be more useful than the ability to cast spells/smite is for a Paladin, though, who don't even really need amazingly high Charisma to perform well.

>>54032563
No, that's a good idea. Just be sure to take into account the circumstances of the fight that will inevitably happen. If they're expected to solo your players, (solo encounters are a bad idea usually), giving them player stats won't help much. They'll need something more.

>>54032573
I was planning on that, yeah. I just don't want to turn my players off of the game right from the start.

>>54032563
Kinda. The DMG example's a good one though, take a creature or NPC stat block, and then add PC levels.

A Werewolf + Barbarian for example is going to do a much better job of being awesome and powerful then just making a Barbarian.

>>54032563
It's somewhat appropriate for NPC allies. You avoid it there to not overshadow the main PCs but they still function in the game like PCs so all the abilities makes sense.

You can do it for bad guys if you want, but it's still important to know their CR and it helps to drop unimportant class abilities and be flexible with their exact HP and abilities to make something fun.

I kicked a player from my group yesterday. Safe to say I've had smoother break ups.

>>54032599
Yeah, makes sense. Good luck and have fun.
They should also expect a change in their play style, less blunders and suicidal tactics.

5e also places a greater emphasis on collective story progression and roleplay than in previous editions.

>>54032626
You won't overshadow your players if you make NPC characters with player stats. It's safe to say that if your players feel overshadowed purely because you made an antagonist or friendly NPC with similar capabilities as the players, you're playing with some hyper insecure players.

>>54032652
Storytime mothafucka

>>54031180
/tg is generally fond of stats and DPR, but a comptetent DM can easily boost or nerf any of the classes and combos.
For my group story, narrative and fluff always comes first. If stats were that important for us, we'd be playing some MMO, not tabletop.

>>54032749
There are simpler systems, with more character building fluff options and more robust conflict resolution mechanics, if the combat engine that is 90% of DnD 5e is not something that interests you.

Do you let players roll persuade and Intimidate against other PCs?

>>54032262
I quite like the idea of dice pools and dice manipulation, where the player can control resources. I'd be glad to see something like that, although I doubt it will happen.

The thing is, what is good and optimized depends a lot on your table's meta and what your DM throws at you.

>>54032790
No. Also, if somebody even tries to request that, it's a big red flag for me.

>>54032790
If they're both in on it, sure. Not for anything important, but just for fun

>>54032790
No. That's the kind of thing they can just roleplay. If a player is good, they can act intimidated or persuaded without being forced to via a check. Even if your players are bad/incapable of doing this, you shouldn't force them to via check.

>>54032780
That is entirely true, we are currently planning to try some Fate and Dungeon World, but
I think 5e is still a light system when it comes to number crunching, so any narrative and roleplay idea can be implemented with little effort.

>>54032790
In my games NPCs never roll charisma checks against players, so why would I let them roll it against each other? (Except if both of them agrees for fun.)

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>>54032851
Try Shadow of the Demon Lord if you want something like 5e but with tighter math and no policing of the spell list required, and more freeform in terms of character building.

>>54032910
I will give it a spin, thanks.

I'm also eyeing ICRPG as well, so I will probably throw in all these systems and let the players decide.

>>54032780
It's a shitty combat engine. More and more, I find myself avoiding combat as I DM.

>>54032910
Stop shilling this piece of garbage in every thread.

>>54032724
I basically dropped the guy a text saying that he won't be playing with us anymore after not changing his behaviour after being asked to. He spammed me with texts for nearly an hour begging for another chance and shit like that.

>>54032963
It's fiddly in places it shouldn't be.

Save or lose spells also make it extremely swingy.

The biggest problem I see is that they took 3.5e and tried to simplify it, while also being afraid of diverging too much from DnD. So you've got your Sacred Cows like the 6 stats and staple spells (with effects that sidestep the game system entirely) and classes that had already been enshrined by previous editions but without providing a good fluff framework either.

>>54033029
>breaking up with a player over text
Dude...

>>54033029
shit is it summer already?

>>54032409
So you're claiming it's essentially early UA that isn't really proper playtest material but an example, but I think that applies more to the aasimar. Sure, it applies a bit to oathbreaker, but in the PHB there are no distinctly 'evil' classes/archetypes save for fiendlock (which isn't necessarily evil anyway unlike oathbreaker that powers fiends and undead).

Yes, they probably didn't do proper playtesting for it but the reason it's not in the PHB is to discourage murderhobos.

>>54033048
>>54033039
To be honest, 10 percent of all questions within the 5e-generals are somewhat like "My DM/player does this thing I don't like, what should I do?". For some reason there seems to be a not so small group of Pen and Paper players who are not able to solve even the smallest problem via a dialogue.

Should a stone sorcerer be played like a valor bard, where you have attacks, but casting spells is generally better, or should you only really play stone sorcerer if you want to stick to melee and smite/melee cantrip?

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>>54032475
>Explain how classes aren't perfectly balanced and some are good at some things and others are good at other things

Magnets?

>>54033039
My problem is that it's so damn boring. 90% of the time, the best course of action is just to cantrip/attack, which make for a lot of repetitive turns.

More narrative based combat systems do it better, but also more mechanical systems can work too. Burning Wheel for instance has a nice paper/rock/scissors feel to it that makes things seem more interesting.

>>54033167
as a grown up (even if you aren't, act like one) you should always solve conflicts with dialogue

>>54033029
What was his behavior previous to the kick?

Do paladin's auras stacks with multiple paladins?

Hey guys, just want an opinion on something. We started a 5e converted "way of the wicked" campaign and I didn't want to look at the books because where's the fun in that.

What I wanted to know is what level do you think it ends at. I'm seeing stuff like level 20 for pathfinder but I'm not sure how that will translate to 5e.

Also with my evil paladin magic lay on hands I was able to cure the half-ogres poison and he has been thrashing the guards so far through the prison so that's good.

>>54033368
You cannot benefit from the exact same feature twice.

>>54032749
>>54032963
>>54033192
The key focus with 5e is to make diverse combat set-ups where the answer isn't always to just attack.
'I just attack' is the 'I don't know what I'm doing' solution or the 'My DM is boring' solution.

Combat should incorporate enemies that know they might not win against these decked out heroes, traps and environmental hazards, cover, doors and so forth.
People mistake traps as a 'you must roll 15 perception to see this or get hurt' hurdle but they should instead be revealed and be integrated into part of the battle.

>>54033470
That's good general advice for any system anon, and I totally agree with you, but it doesn't really redeem 5e. Other systems can make "I just attack" fun, or help to encourage the truly heroic exploits that players want. 5e is built from the ground up for "I just attack", but it isn't built from the ground up to make that fun.

From a player's perspective, They can try to do all sorts of kooky shit, but if it fails, they get nothing out of their turn. Or they can attack 4 times, get optimal damage out of their turn, and be bored. So even if you're putting extra options in your combat, the players aren't incentivized to take them, unless you also communicate in a really meta way: hey you should do this.

It also doesn't help that the playtest community ruined everything fun in favor of "I just attack" class design.

>>54033288
He was lying and cheating about his rolls and what his characters could do, he would start sulking if things went badly for him, he would meta game, he had a copy of the monster manual and would try and correct me on things despite never having dm'd

>>54033580
>would try and correct me on things despite never having dm'd

This one always bothers me. If you're correcting me on the application of a rule, that's fine. But if a player tries to correct me on a monster's stats, or how an NPC would behave, that really grinds my gears.

If the NPC or monster behaves in a way that is contrary to your expectations, maybe they know something you do not. Yet the people who do this never consider that, and constantly second guess me.

>>54033616
He would always call bullshit when I told him how much damage he took and try and tell me that the monster used a different damage die even though I had the book open in front of me. I asked him on numerous occasions that he needed to stop doing things like that which would be met with him sulking like a toddler. I'm surprised I had the patience to tolerate him so long.

>>54033537
I mean, I sort of agree, but then I'm also sort of unsure.

The design is so that improvised actions can easily be done and the DM can easily make up reliable on the spot rulings, damage effects or whatever on anything but I might've found some other systems a bit worse at that.
To be honest, I don't have experience DMing other systems to really know that.

All I know is that 5e can work if you make things meaningful, such as weapon choices, damage types, a player saying 'Oh, can I try to go for the eye?' and that sort of thing. I'd have to admit there's some missing stuff on called shots and the manual doesn't really encourage physical damage types properly, but it's easy to work around.

And then the classes just help enable you to do more things, unless you're a fighter in which case I suppose you can grapple more times in a round?

It honestly might just be that I know 5e so well now, but it works as a baseline to start improvising off of for me.

Can I get some advice on this Warlock Archetype I'm working on? It's for a campaign tomorrow so I'm trying to finish it quickly, but I need to make sure it isn't overpowered. It's not complete, and I'm basing it off the Improved Artificer Mechanist and Beast Master Ranger.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1yorZK3NMzdDoPgrOti-cGLEUlxNM1pQ1inlk7Dub5CY/edit?usp=sharing

>>54033795
Also I know the wording isn't correct for most of this, I'll get to that after the framework is set.

>>54033755
I've found players improvise more if they don't "feel" like they're in a turn based combat. In the words of one of my players, as soon as they roll for inititiave, they feel like they're in a damage race (even in combats with objectives), so they won't take sub-optimal options. I run a lot of combat like a skill challenge from 4e now, with damage as an option.

>>54033616
>know DM is doing something wrong
>decide not to correct him
>die
that was a mistake

What do you guys think of the UA Downtime rules?

>>54034049
Once I pointed out that fire elementals can't just set the whole party on fire by walking through their spaces. Because of this and other circumstances (a few cruicial party members being absent from this fight, that would otherwise make it much easier) we actually retconned a character death.

>>54034049
If you think I've gotten a rule wrong, by all means, correct me. But if you think I've gotten a statblock wrong, or that I'm not playing an NPC right, consider that 1. I might not be using the exact stat block and 2. the NPC might know something you don't.

A perfect example is what my player tried to do a few sessions ago. He was sneaking through palace in disguise. A guard sees him, and notes that he's disguised. The guard goes to confront him. The player tried to argue that because the guard didn't know who he was under the disguise, he shouldn't have reacted.

As if a guard wouldn't try to stop someone clearly wearing a mask or in any sort of disguise from sneaking through the palace.

>>54027047
Earlier in SKT our party had managed to Steal the Vonindod's Sword from Duke Zalto.

And we had the airship, and a few people who could cast fly and feather fall.

So we dropped The Vonindod Sword On the castle of that boat what was carting around King Hekaton bound to the deck guided by a flight enhanced Barbarian while the rest of us followed on a tactical military H.A.L.F (High Altitude Low Feather Fall) Jump.

No one on that boat's crew had a good time.

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>can't speak english
>just sit here making characters that I will never use

>>54025988
>Turkish Angora
>no fluffy tail
>no blue eyes
triggered

>>54029558
Not so much waking up in Madam Eva's camp with it all having been a dream...perhaps instead what you could do is if everyone is in bleed out against the thing in the basement, the last person to drop into making their death saves sees some people, Vistani, storm into the room before he blacks out.

If no one has outright died yet, then they can simply wake up in the Vistani camp. If it was a clear total party wipe, you can instead use madam Eva as a "My my, you've met with an unfortunate fate," figure if you so desire.

>>54034286
Come play in my roll20 game, you Asian nutbuster

>>54034286
You could always play by text

>>54033795
It is overpowered.
It's a full-caster getting all the mechanical benefits of a partial caster's companion (which usually comes at the cost of extra attacks).

Just play a fiendchainlock or a feychainlock and give your imp familiar a weeaboo flavor.

>>54026819

Efreet are evil, yeah, but they're still not fiends. If the Efreeti gets what he wants out of the deal, he may not fuck you. He's not like, compelled by his very essence to screw you over. Note that in 3e, they were one of the few evil Outsiders not to have the Evil subtype.

He may just consider you totally unimportant, so going out of his way to screw with you would just be a waste of his time. Or not, but you'll have to see.

Revised Ranger has a part under natural explorer stating they ignore difficult terrain
Does this include magically difficult terrain such as through the web spell?

>>54034580
Isn't the genie that IS compelled to fuck you over with your wish, at least in this edition, the Marid?

>>54033862
The way I've been planning it is if there's only one or two enemies there's no initiative. The monsters either go first or the players go first depending on who took the first action, and then it goes back and forth like that. Initiative is for the big 'Okay, you've fucked up and now there's a ton of monsters trying to gut you' moments.

>>54034521
Even though the Warlock loses all the normal archetype boosts? The archetype only boosts the companion.

>>54034759
>>54034759
>>54034759

New thread

Shit, okay >>54029793 here. Was thumbing through feats and found something. So my new choice is now between Lucky, Dex or Dual Wielder because the latter would allow me to throw an extra dart per turn in combat and have a bonus to AC when enemies close in. Thoughts? It's either accuracy, Luck or becoming a machine gun.

>>54034977
Just for the official answer, you cannot TWF with darts. They are not melee weapons. You'd be using daggers.

And my advice is to never take DW before you reach 20 Dex. I can't imagine drawing one more weapon could ever be that important.

>>54031975

I would play the shit out of a nobledark post-CoS campaign, but at that point it isn't really a Ravenloft game anymore.

>>54032262

I'd like to see WotC move into some different game styles, but I don't think altering DnD is the way to go. If there was more contrast in their offerings it would be more clear that DnD is a refluffable dungeon crawler with a rule set that is tolerable to a wide variety of player types and that there are other systems out there for people looking for something different than that.

>>54032294

Phandelver is meant to introduce you the style of DnD in the PhB/DMG/MM. Death House is meant to introduce you to Ravenloft.

>>54032262
D&D is a game that runs on a tradition. It would be a huge critical and long-term financial failure if they did so. Even 4e's departures are not as extreme as something like changing the base dice system.

>>54032430

Conquest is mechanically stupid. Why build a class for a play style that the base game doesn't support?

If they'd rolled it out as part of some Kingmaker/Birthright/Reign setting that would make more sense, but on its own it's the opposite of what an average troupe needs.