/5eg/ Dungeons & Dragons Fifth Edition General

>Rangers, who are your favoured enemies and why?
Undead, because fuck undead in particular.

>>54994124
From Last thread

>magic items need to tell a story.

>I'm level 17, and I don't have a damned thing past rare, (my other party members have even legendary items) and nor do I want, nor would I get some if they were just offered to me, and they are. (my dm is just a bit of a wanker about it)

>I don't know much about how to do what in order to get where, but frankly, don't overthink it. Shit needs to tell a story and tell it hard, or else no one is going to care and you might as well wipe your ass on it.

>Worry about making it important, then about making it legendary.
Who made this item? Why? How does it affect the world around it?
If it grants someone immunity to poison, why isn't a king that is a little assassin averse wearing it right now?

>>54994262
You're quite uh... I don't want to use the word "autistic" but why are you playing 5e specifically rather than a system that might be geared more towards roleplaying, I dunno, I've never played WoD but from what I've heard at least it might be of interest to you.

>>54994262
Protection from poison is a 2nd level spell, I don't think kings need to worry about that so much. An item of immunity is worth more to someone fighting poison-bitey types and probably rather put their spells elsewhere.

What stat array for Paladin 2 / Lore Bard?

15 8 13 12 10 14 for standard array?
What about point-buy?

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Has anyone had a chance to use UMD for something more interesting than just wands? Not many items have class/race/level restrictions.

>>54994454
There are out there in the world 2nd level kings

>>54994425
>he only knows what it is like to play a game where dm doesn't use magic devices as story devices
I'm so sorry for your loss anon.

how should I make a paladin/warlock when UA is allowed? In particular I'm not sure about chain/blade/tome

>>54994605
Tomelock 3 for Shillelagh meme

>>54994605
Hexblade Warlock with blade pact, double up on SMITES

>cutting through a desert to save some time
>sandstorm kicks up, searching for shelter
>takes an hour but we come across a Mexican-style ranch home
>little girl in a poofy dress crying outside in the storm
>says her parents locked her out
>kick the door down and take shelter inside, bring little girl
>go to have a chat with the parents
>hacienda is oddly dangerous and full of traps
>realize we're in FUCKING DEATH HOUSE but it's Mexico now
>the cult in the basement is throwing a death-day party
>beating up festively dressed zombies and ghosts
>shambling mound replaced by a giant goat tangled in paper and rope
>sacrifice it on the altar
>CANDY SPILLS OUT
>storm dies down, house returns to fucked up status
>walk outside
>there's a whole Mexican-style town over outside the ranch
>talk to some townsfolk and try to find the way out
>oh, senor, no one leaves the lands of SANCHO DE LAZARO
THIS FUCKING DM
HE JUST ROPED US INTO MEXICAN CURSE OF STRAHD

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>>54994776

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>>54994776

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>>54994776
Hope you brought a bugbear.

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>>54994776
I want to play this.

>>54994776
I am dming curse of strahd right now, and Rictavio is now canonnically a Mariachi

So, somebody bet me 5 bucks I couldn't find a way to make 3e's Half-X Templates a PC option in 5e without breaking the game in half.

Anons? For the sake of my wallet, how viable does this look as a mechanical basis for being half-dragon, half-succubus, half-marilith, whatever? If it's overpowered, how can I fix that?

Feat Category: Racial Hybrid
Effect: When you choose a Racial Hybrid feat, you gain additional racial traits determined by that feat.

Special: When you gain an Ability Score Increase, if you have a Racial Hybrid feat, you can forsake the ability score increase and instead gain one new racial trait from that feat's Advanced Mutations list.

Special: The blood of the most potent races does not mix readily, if at all. If you have a Racial Hybrid feat, you cannot select another Racial Hybrid feat.

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Anyone play using tabletop simulator? I'm the DM and since some of my group lives out of state we're deciding on using this. Used it a couple of times and I'm wondering what do you DMs that use it use for battle maps? I've been making some with props but shit it's time consuming

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Redpill me on Barbarogues and their dual shortswords. Are they just a meme?

>>54994776
My sides are south of the border

seriously your discord needs more saggy old dude penis

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>>54994776
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2Bf-jOEJZQ

>Rangers, who are your favoured enemies and why?

Communists, the filthiest enemies of all.

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>skip a weekend's worth of sessions so the GM can go to GenCon

>immediately upon returning he asks us if we want to give up another weekend's worth of sessions to learn the 120 fucking dollar dark souls board game he bought

>>54994605
go tome for all the rituals, that shit is OP

>>54994743
if UA is allowed you dont need meme quaterstaff because of hexblade

>>54994746
this is a very manly build but you may end up having everyone at the table hate you for rolling all of your dice in one attack and then being largely spent

>>54995158
if you want to be worst servant why wouldn't you go ranger?

Will my players be able to pursue their own personal objectives if I run Curse of Strahd?

>>54994138
>Rangers, who are your favoured enemies and why?
Humans because bounty hunter from human city and elves because elf racism

>>54995340

it depends on what their personal objectives are, really

if they're looking for someone who's gone missing, barovia is a good place for them to turn up (dead or alive)

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>>54995271

I needed a picture and dual shortswords are a relatively rare weapon choice. This is better.

>>54995340
At the very least, they kind of need to get out of there if they want to pursue their objective.

>>54995271
>worst servant
>not slutRider or Saber.

>>54994529
I might assume he has a 5th level caster somewhere. If he doesn't, he probably deserves to die by poison.

>>54995187
Hey i remember you! Sucks man

>>54994471
What race?

Would a "Gun Paladin" be possible in 5e?

>>54996015
yes and it comes in two steps.
>be paladin
>have gun
and you are done.

>>54995187
>Buying the game for the game and not for those sweet, sweet miniatures

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/5eg/, what do you do when you have DM fatigue and you can't come up with good ideas for a story? I have to come up with ideas for our first session of 5e (we tried Starfinder today, it didn't work) and I basically have to scrap all my notes I made for Starfinder and start again.

>>54996053
Run something from Tales From the Yawning Portal

>>54996053
Why not adapt a bunch of the stuff you wrote into the game? Port your NPCs over and change the setting-required parts of their backstories, do the same with quests, etc. You don't need to throw out all that work, just refluff it!

>>54996053
Take a break or space out the sessions. It's not a job

>>54994138
>Favoured enemies and why?
Humans because I took the Bounty Hunter background and humans are the dominant race in my DMs homebrew setting. I felt kind of bad about taking such a widely applicable category as "Humanoids", so we just made it "Humans" specifically, which we were both happy with.

Not that i'm planning on doing this in my campain, but if you were DMing, would you allow a Ranger to study a new favoured enemy as a downtime activity?

>>54996252
>I felt kind of bad about taking such a widely applicable category as "Humanoids",

Why?

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>generally play clerics in 3.x/pfinder
>in 5e completely fallen in love with bards
Who /inspirational/ here?

>>54996269
Yeah sorry, that makes less sense outside the context of our campaign. The campaign is going to be taking place within the confines of the capital city, for the foreseeable future at least. So basically every living thing we're going to come into contact with is going to be either a Humanoid or Beast. It just felt a bit powergame-y to go "I get extra damage and advantage on wisdom checks against EVERYTHING!"

>>54996269
I think maybe because it applies to so many different things, but then why wouldn't they feel that way about beasts/undead.

>>54996307
I generally played bards in 3.5 and I feel ashamed to have such power.

So we got Dracoliches, and we got Shadow Dragons, and even some Demon dragons, but how come there's no Vampire Dragons?

I mean, just think of that bite attack

What spells would you put on a magical staff that only attunes to dwarves?

>>54996537
Because vampires aren't real, anon

>>54996539
Enlarge/Reduce

>>54996539
Erupting Earth, Meld into Stone, Earthbind, Stone Shape, Stoneskin, Passwall, Wall of Stone... There's a pattern here, I'm sure of it.

How do I do a "speedrun" of storm king's thunder? I only have 2 hours a week to run it and I want to get as much done as I can in the short time we have

>>54996539
Beard growth
Summon ale elemental
Smooth stone

What features could a magical katana for a high level samurai have?

>>54996865
just make it a vorpal sword.

>>54996865
Advantage on seppuku checks

>>54996865
bonus attack on the first round it's drawn.

>>54996895
>>54996903
>>54996907
Fuck all of these are great. I need maximum YOOOOO

>>54996933
Let's the user teleport 10ft. between attacks.

>>54996865
Have it trap the souls of its victims.

>>54994138
Giants and monstrosities. I'm a Gnome giant slayer

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>>54996865
Slowly turn its wielder into a badass lawful evil skeleton samurai.

>>54996252
My fix for humanoids favored enemy is just to let the choose two types (like orcs and goblins or dwarves and elves)

>>54996314
Because beasts are weak and undead are more rare and are already countered by clerics

>>54996539
It can magically turn into a non faggy wizard weapon like an axe

Wanted to make a fighter that "cannot be hit" as a replacement for my dear wizard that recently died (may the gods save his heathen soul). Was thinking human variant for magic initiate feat and take shield of faith, then eldritch knight with the +1 ac fighting style and shield as one of my spells. With a shield should be rocking a flat 20-21 ac, 22-23 in a tough battle with shield of faith and shield for those nasty hits.

Thoughts? Is there a better way of doing this? (Except for bladesinger as I play one of those in a different game)

>>54996679
You'll need to make it more set piecey and skip out the travel entirely

>>54997091
Baddies ignore cant be hit char or use saves

>>54997111
Nice triples but that cuts out like the whole of chapter 3

>>54997149
It's not gonna be shorter without cutting things out, anon

>>54997149
What I mean is just tell your players where they have travelled and run the encounter. 2 hours is really not enough time to do much so you'll need to be strict with starting and turns also

>>54997131
see DM rolls in front of us, plus it's more for flavour. Want to call him "Ivan the Invincible" his former ring name.

>>54997185
So i can still do the random encounters but just don't make a bug deal about the getting between them parts

I am going to enforce a no OOC talking in my next session as a trial because I am frustrated with constant talking over, memeing and ignoring tone.

Any tips or experience with this?

>>54997214
Let the players have fun anon, just tell them to do it a bit less

>>54997208
I wouldn't advise doing random encounters. Decide what if anything they meet and keep it entirely to story. So they run into fire giants digging for mecha pieces or hill giants eating all the food at a halfling wedding but NOT 3d6 elk or 20 generic orcs

>>54997227
What about my fun

>>54997244
Yah I had already decided to do small numbers of creatures and bigger events like the dig site, and I rolled the ranger twice on my prerolling so he will be escorting them and preventing major fuck ups
>>54997244
DMs don't get to have fun

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>>54997261
>Prioritizing one person's fun over multiple peoples' fun
Alignment: Evil

I assume you're doing this because you've politely and respectfully asked your players to maintain the mood in the past and they've ignored you? In that instance it's fine I think.

>>54996539
I'd put a beard on it, anon

a big ol bushy staff beard

>>54997203
It's not a matter of whether he rolls in front of you or not. If they can't hit you they'll just attack other people, or they'll use saves which don't require AC.

>>54996539
Some sort of fermentation spell

What build should I do if i want to roll as many dice as possible in one turn?

>>54997412
Control Water (Alcoholic)

>>54997431
Hexblade Warlock 2 for smite invocation + Paladin for smites + Rogue for sneak attack + Fighter 3 for superiority die + Barbarian for brutal critical

Then hope you crit

>>54997468
you need warlock 5 for the smite

also this is missing hunter 3 for that 1d8 per round against people that have taken damage

>>54997518
>two concentration spells

>>54997091
be a paladin. Good ac great saves also you get shield of faith I think

>>54997564
>not concentrating on Bless
why even live anon

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>>54997091
Recently made a warforged immortal mystic.

Currently sitting at level 5 with 21 AC and disadvantage on all attacks made against me. Can pop the AC up to 26 until start of next turn as a reaction.

>>54995180
I agree with you whole heartily, however Commies are not a race onto themselves. You would need to be able to pick lawful evil creatures and I don't think Rangers can do that. No, you need to be a Paladin to give commies the righteous smiting they deserve.

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Am I missing something here or is this not an amazing dip for martials

>>54998213
>The first time the damage is applied
Never mind I'm a retard

>>54998213
>multiclassing ua

>>54996053
invaders, from SPACE! Nioghi slavers capture your PC's and you have a big of a Spelljamer adventure. Should take up a few weeks of time.

>>54998143
Haven't paid attention to them, is mystic not broken?

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I'm gonna be trying to wrangle a group on Roll20 soon and I'm trying to put effort into the screening process. I need your thoughts:

>PH & non-monstrous Volo's races only
>UA allowed on a case-by-case basis, no multiclassing
>Absolutely no homebrew races or classes, don't even try it
>No single-handedly splitting the party; if your character ventures off on their own don't expect the whole game to stop for everyone else just for their private narrative. Your fellow players are your teammates, not your audience
>No combat, agency-removing actions (i.e. charm spells or Persuasion checks), or theft against your fellow players, unless the targeted player agrees to the action

That last one's a big one. I've heard way too many horror stories of kleptomaniac Rogues and horrendously creepy uses of hypnosis to let that shit slide.

I also have an unwritten soft ban against evil and CN characters unless I'm confident that the applying player won't be awful about it. I've got the following questionnaire planned:

>A/S/L
>How much experience do you have playing D&D?
>What's your favorite part of/what makes you the most excited about playing?
>What kinds of media do you most enjoy (favorite books. tv shows. movies, games, etc.)
>If you arrived at a typical doctor's office waiting room with nothing in your pockets or hands, what would you do to occupy your time?***
>Provide a brief description of yourself with any other information you think is relevant.
>From your vantage point on the balcony, you can see in the castle treasury the massive red dragon sitting idly atop its treasure. You know this dragon to be ruthless but narcissistic and cocky. It guards the artifact you seek. What do you do?
>Provide at least one, and at most three, ideas for characters you'd like to play, in the form of one-sentence descriptions

*** This is to see how potential players may act during time that's not necessarily interesting to them, such as other players' turns in combat.

>>54998094
they just seemed to want SoF, but yeah that also helps in the saving throw department

What would be the minimum level for a spell that cures autism?

What about one that cures homosexuality?

>>54998352
ask them what sort of things/themes/ideas they enjoy that others may not. This is how you get rid of the creepy rape people and edgy kids who think child murder makes them mature.

>>54998382
Greater Restoration is a 5th level spell.

>>54994138
"humanoids" is technically the best one to take, assuming an average campaign.

>>54998382
>>54998438

I now know what my Cleric's life mission is.

in b4 autists insisting that their snowflake disease is part of their soul and can't be cured.

>>54998464
>spoiler
that's what bestow curse is for. Either way you got them covered.

>>54998433

Thanks anon. I was hoping favorite media might glean me some of that, too.

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I want a class and build (I hate using that word, but you know what I mean) that can cause as much destruction as possible. What should I pick?

Picture unrelated, she's just a good starting point for the level of havoc I want to wreak across the Forgotten Realms.

>>54998584
Ha, nah, you really just want a straight up question that'll get a response like 'I'm not overly sensitive like some people' from them, no fucking around, a clear declaration of being ok with being creepy cunts

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Prospective dm here,

Hoping to run for a group of friends and found a decently nice premade adventure to use for it. I have a couple of months of playing 5e as a PC and no other experience.

Should I read all of the DMG anyways, or should I be okay with just reading the adventure and running it?

There any other supplementary material I should look into as a first timer?

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Is Rage Beyond Death completely fucking nutso or am I just looking at it wrong? Would a half-orc zealot barb be unkillable?

>>54998655
if you're doing a premade, read through it all, and skim the future stuff to refresh yourself. You don't need to know the adventure, or the DMG back to front, but know how to go about looking up the information you may need.

No plan survives contact. I'm sure you know shit can and will go off the rails, and your group will understand it's your first time as DM.

>>54998673
Once per long rest, but yes.

Better make sure you have healing after your rage ends after that, though. Or else you're fucked.

>>54998655
Prep enough to make yourself comfortable speaking the tone and themes of the setting and module off the top of your head. The worst thing you can do for yourself and your players is sit there reading out of the book, though obviously sometimes you'll need to look shit up if you are unsure or if a player asks something you don't remember.

>>54998673
>you don't die until your rage ends
do you not know what "until" means

>>54998655
Just ran my first ever one shot as DM after a few months of playing as a PC. It went very well.

Learn the basic rules and wing the rest. Important shit can be looked up on the fly and less important shit can be solved after the game.

The goal is to have fun and make sure your players are having fun, you need very few rules to do that.

>>54998695
True, a dedicated healer is pretty necessary
>>54998705
Yeah I suppose you're right but my combats always seem to be super bursty so I've never had issues with rage running out mid-battle

>>54998719
>Yeah I suppose you're right but my combats always seem to be super bursty so I've never had issues with rage running out mid-battle
once combat ends, your rage is going to end, better hope you have some healing ready before that happens

>>54998751
Oh shit, yeah. Otherwise the barb is dropping dead a few seconds after combat stops.

I heard some Cleric Domains are AWESOME and some are TRAPS, which ones should I avoid?

>>54998798
As far as I know they are all at least viable, their relative effectiveness depends on how you want to play your cleric

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Say there's a one-way portal to the Feywild, and a PC just stepped through. A la Discworld's Lords and Ladies, there was something on the other side that managed to go through to the material plane. What would be a neat invisible evil creature that escaped the Feywild?

>>54998798
Trickery is pretty shit

>>54996053
>Evil Druid creating mutant monsters in an attempt to return the world back to "the Wild" essentially boosting evolution to obscene levels.
>Players can be good or evil. Maybe they want that sweet sweet hyper evolution-juice for the themselves
>Towns slowly start being overrun by the wilds. Forests are stupidly overgrown, deserts are becoming invaded by giant fucking ants creating impossibly tall ant hills, oceans are filled to the brim with mega-megalodons, etc.
>Both good and bad factions really don't wanna deal with this faggotry. Vampires and Elves form alliance to maintain the status quo. Aboleths really don't like fucking around with ancient dinosaurs in the water. Necromancers and even some Liches are not happy about this, literal battles between the undead and the mutant lifeforms fight since only necromancers can keep up with army sizes. Up to players to determine who they want their allies to be
>Evil Druid is ultimately trying to awaken the dreaded Tarrasque and hyper evolve it and ultimately consume the universe Tyranid style.

Theres a fucking idea. Go with that. This is my next campaign when I get to DM again.

>>54994138
What do i do if, as a DM, i always feel like i'm underperforming, but when i ask for input, criticism, or questions, the only things ever brought up are specific points they didn't explore, and they wonder what they missed there?

>>54996539
>Magical Staff
>Not a magical Battleaxe

>>54998984
Sounds like you're players have no real issues with your game anon, what parts do you feel like you're underperforming in??

>>54998956
>I would pay good money to see aboleths and pleiosaurs duking it out

>>54998984
Keep in mind you know all the notes, all the moving parts of the world, all the secrets, so it may seem like you're not doing enough because you KNOW it all. If your player's feedback is them being interested in the choices they didn't make, I think you're doing ok.

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>>54994776
Nice

>>54999022
>Sounds like you're players have no real issues with your game anon
If it wasn't for the fact they also refused to ever confront our That Guy when he DMed, but constantly bad mouth him and his game when is absent i'd probably feel better about it.

I'm worried that while my environments and locations are interesting, i've never been good at handling good or consistent NPCs, and that i tend to lowball my encounter strengths because i want interesting things instead of strong ones.

>>54999032
That may be more on the nose though, guess i'll just have to get used to that
>But i can do BETTER
feeling i keep having.

Hey, can anyone tell me the ways this is overpowered?

Githyanki
Ability Score Modifiers: +2 Dexterity, +1 Intelligence
Size: Medium
Speed: 30 feet
Vision: Normal
Blades of Gith: You have Proficiency in the Greatsword. When making melee attacks with a Greatsword, you can use your Intelligence modifier to determine your damage modifier.
Mind over Matter: You can cast the Mage Hand cantrip, although your version is invisible. Additionally, you always count as having a running start when making Jump checks.
Hate Breaks All Shackles: You have Advantage on saving throws against the Charmed and Stunned effects, and on saving throws to end those effects.

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>>54998910
I'm actually about to start a game where this is a plot point. I've got a couple of monsters that have escaped to a notoriously nasty forest, my favorite so far are the dire myconids.

>>54999095
Anything tricky and invisible?

>>54998342
It's busted, don't use it until they release it properly in November.

>>54999084
im betting That Guy wasn't interested in the feedback of the players in an open and constructive manner

you're probably fine man, just overthinking things

>>54999163
Good to hear it's coming out properly, not terribly long from now.

Cheers

>>54999121
It's not necessarily tricky but I was considering my PCs to run into a barghest, they're fairly intelligent

>>54999085
Blades of Gith is really really specifically a "i want to be an Int-based Gish" skill, usually not great to have racial skills that are that niche

Mind over Matter is prolly fair

Hate Breaks might be a bit too strong as it is? Compare it to the Gnome version that gives advantage on the mental stats against magic. Maybe just advantage against Stuns.

"Level: 6
Casting time: 1 Action
Range: 120 feet
Components: V, S
Duration: Instantaneous

You cause up to six pillars of stone to burst from places on the ground that you can see within range. Each pillar is a cylinder that has a diameter of 5 feet and a height of up to 30 feet. The ground where a pillar appears must be wide enough for its diameter, and you can target ground under a creature if that creature is Medium or smaller. Each pillar has AC 5 and 30 hit points. When reduced to 0 hit points, a pillar crumbles into rubble, which creates an area of difficult terrain with a 10-foot radius. The rubble lasts until cleared.
If a pillar is created under a creature, that creature must succeed on a Dexterity saving throw or be lifted by the pillar. A creature can choose to fail the save.
If a pillar is prevented from reaching its full height because of a ceiling or other obstacle, a creature on the pillar takes 6d6 bludgeoning damage and is restrained, pinched between the pillar and the obstacle. The restrained creature can use an action to make a Strength or Dexterity check (the creature’s choice) against the spell’s saving throw DC. On a success, the creature is no longer restrained and must either move off the pillar or fall off it.
At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 7th level or higher, you can create two additional pillars for each slot level above 6th."

At what level would you place a version of this spell that created only one of these pillars?

>>54999084
>can do better

That feeling will never go away anon, and that's not a bad thing if you can work with it. Just gotta keep on playing, keep you mind open. There's always room for improvement, you said in the same post you want to improve on your NPCs and encounters. You got this!

yo UA Mystic has some real garbage design

Avatar subclass has a level 6 feature that boosts psionic healing but the only psionic healing discipline is Psionic Restoration and it's under Immortal.

And Psionic Restoration is just amazingly strong, heal + all the restorations + revivify? Hell yeah

How is Mearls and Co so bad at game design

>>54994510
Spell scrolls! Had a lot of fun with that in my first 5e campaign.

>>54999225
not like there's ever been a good psion anyway, being shittily balanced is practically required

What house rules can I use to make DEX a little less important, and INT more important? Finesse just seems like the obvious choice for martials (especially early on), and I've practically never seen a non-wizard with more than 8 INT.

By extension, how can I make CON more of a real choice and less of "your third highest stat"?

>>54999095
>dire myconids
Go on

>>54999225
While i agree entirely on the design issues, Psionic Restoration is almost always less efficient than a cleric doing the same, let alone a specialized cleric.

>>54999191
>Blades of Gith
Well, let's be honest; do you really see githyanki as physical powerhouses? No, you don't. In fact, Dex and Int are their traditional ability score bonuses. At the same time, every githyanki is running around wielding a greatsword. And they invented the concept of the gish. So, if it's not overpowered, I'd argue it's at least a flavorful ribbon - it's no worse than dwarves and their free axe & hammer bonuses, is it?

>Hate Breaks All Shackles
Hmm... you may have a point? It's supposed to be the trait that makes githyanki really, really good at fighting mind-flayers, with their Dominate SLA and their stunning Mind Blast ability.

Also... technically, gnomish magic resistance is a lot more useful, because there's a lot of creatures with spells, spell-like abilities and magical attacks, whilst creatures that Charm or Stun are far less common - I can only think of the Mind Flayer and the Dryad off the top of my head for Charming.

So, is it really that overpowered?

>>54998751
>>54998705
>>54998673
I think you still die if you reach negative HP = to your Con

>>54999260
I could see greatsword proficiency, but note that dwarf stats and proficiencies tend to overlap with the classes that benefit from their stats. Instead of overlapping, your racial is a straight buff, and lets a dex/int Fighter be straight better in everything, except athletics.

>>54999084
>worried they're hating it and just don't wanna tell you
Maybe talk to them 1on1? Just in casual, be like
>hey anon, I felt the last few sessions could have had more epic moments or more drive! What do ya think could have made it even better!?
Don't force them to say what's bad, just give them a chance to say what they'd enjoy more. They might be more willing to talk about it that way?

It's also worth considering like >>54999212 said, that feeling never goes away. You know the twists and turns, it's going to feel less epic for you than the PCs

>>54999085
doesn't really sound that op

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>>54999260
>And they invented the concept of the gish.

>>54999259
this is true but the cost-of-entry for it is WAY lower, just gotta take a single discipline

>>54999299
Only if you want to use a Greatsword, though. And at least it makes them functional as their thematically preferred class & weapon combo; back in 3.5, they had Fighter as their favored class, but their positive modifiers were +2 Dex and +2 Con, whilst back in AD&D it was +1 Dex and +1 Int. And all the while, they're supposed to favor greatswords, which used to require a fairly high Strength to use.

>>54999321
Gish is literally the githyanki name for a multiclassed fighter/wizard, which they've had since they were added to D&D back in the days of AD&D 1st edition.

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>>54994776
This is the BEST thing.

>>54998798
City is amazing if your DM lets you be creative with it (manipulate "utilities" in dungeons like water pumps and ventilation systems). Otherwise it's kinda bad.

>>54999321
Yes, that is what originated the term.

>>54999343
Which means that something like
>When you wield a Greatsword, you may treat it as if it had the finesse property.
makes more sense, but such a thing would be a racial FEAT, not just a racial trait. Look at Svirfneblin magic, those are traditionally racial abilities, but they are a feat in 5e.

>>54999398
>Yes, that is what originated the term.
The term gish and the "concept of a gish" are two incredibly different things

>>54999211
6d6 and restrain + utility from having a small wall?
Though, you gain 2 pillars per level, you could possibly scale it down similarly.
Level 6 is 6, 5 is 4, 4 is 2.Could see it as a 3rd level spell.

>>54999398
What else do githyanki really have in terms of viable racial ability options, though? You can check out every PC statblock they've had from AD&D to 4e on 1d4chan - I know, I put them there - and there's not that much crunch to translate.

Also, there's something of a power level difference between gaining the effects of a permanized 3rd level spell and the power to cast two 2nd level and one 1st level spells 1/day each, and the ability to use a greatsword well despite not having a positive Strength modifier.

Heck, my current version is actually weaker than your "You treat Greatswords as if they had the Finesse trait" version, because githyanki are getting only +1 Int, compared to their +2 Dex.

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>>54998910
A disembodied trickster spirit, like a poltergeist on steroids, whose lingering essence keeps causing some of those sillier old D&D monsters to come to be: rugs of smothering, that one old creature that's just a pile of haunted laundry that'll choke you if you put it on. Or just mimics. Or, weird shit like pic related.

>>54994776
That actually sounds like a great way to spin it into your own thing.

>>54999465
Yah, I was thinking something like so. Less damage than a fireball but with some added stuff.

Since folks are feeling like helping me rip up and refine my githyanki, maybe you can help me bring my githzerai down to a balanced level too?

Githzerai
Ability Score Modifiers: +2 Wisdom, +1 Dexterity
Size: Medium
Speed: 30 feet
Vision: Normal
Graceful As Thought: When you Dash, you can ignore the effects of non-magical difficult terrain. You also have Advantage on Acrobatics checks.
Inertia Armor: When not wearing armor, your AC is 13 + your Wisdom modifier. You can use your natural armor to determine your AC if the armor you wear would leave you with a lower AC. A shield's benefits apply as normal while you use your natural armor.
The Knowing of Self: You have Advantage on saving throws against the Charmed and Stunned effects, and on saving throws to end those effects.

>>54999471
Ignore PC statblocks, look at their monster stats. in 5e, all of the Gith have an invisible Mage Hand to replicate telekinesis, which is a fine racial to share between them, while Githyanki Knights get to deal psychic damage on their attack. Giving them a once per long rest Psychic smite isn't unreasonable, nor would something like
>As a bonus action, for one minute whenever you hit with an creature with melee weapon for the first time on a turn, you may deal psychic damage equal to your Intelligence modifier to that creature.

Racial Jump and Non-detection also seems reasonable, as long as it was level gated.

Why is Wizard still the most powerful class?

>>54999544
It's Wizards of the Coast, not Martials who can Boast

>>54999544
Because they're wizards.

>>54999521
>Inertia Armor: When not wearing armor, your AC is 13 + your Wisdom modifier. You can use your natural armor to determine your AC if the armor you wear would leave you with a lower AC. A shield's benefits apply as normal while you use your natural armor.
Again, by looking at the MM for 5e, i take issue with this. Psychic Defense is clearly modeled to be identical to Unarmored Defense, and frankly, it seems to reflect their monkhood more than their race.
Similarly to Githyanki, adding mage hand, jump, and See Invisibility as gated spells seems like a no brainer.
Also, given that both Githzerai have it, racial proficiency in Insight seems a good choice.

>>54999544
Because not all of a game is combat. In a straight dungeon crawl there is very little power gap. Also consider that they go down easy if targeted, my partys wizard has 17 hp at level 5.

>>54999543
I actually tried giving them a "Psychic Smite" 1/day type effect once before, simply because I thought it was a nice way to reference the power of their Silver Swords. Didn't work out so good:

Mind Slicer: While you wield a weapon that inflicts Slashing damage, you can spend an action to “charge” that weapon with psionic energy. Whilst charged, that weapon inflicts an additional +1d6 Psychic damage on a successful strike. Maintaining this psionic charge is a Concentration effect. Once you have used this trait, you cannot use it again until you complete a long rest.

>>54999584
I literally just took the lizardfolk's Natural Armor trait and swapped "+Con" for "+Wis" to make Intertia Armor. I figured why fiddle around with a trait that is, as you said, an MM reference to a class trait when I could take a racial trait that's already based on that idea.

That said... a free racial proficiency in Insight might be a good trait for Giths of all stripes to have. That's definitely helpful. Thanks.

>>54994776
This is FUCKING AMAZING.

>>54999474
Now I'm thinking I might use an Invisible Stalker. Really it just has to be invisible since the rest of the party was there when the PC crossed and they didn't notice the creature.

>>54999612
>That said... a free racial proficiency in Insight might be a good trait for Giths of all stripes to have. That's definitely helpful. Thanks.
Actually, neither the Githyanki warrior or knight have it. Not that it's an issue though, a single skill proficiency racial is a fine thing to throw in.

As for your smite attempt, i think part of the issue is that you clearly aren't used to 5e. Look at the Bugbears Surprise Attack or Goblins Fury of the Small for inspiration, wasting your action in a turn to maybe deal a small amount of damage on your next hit is terrible.

>>54999599
My party's wizard has 45 HP at level 5, I'm a Fighter and my HP is 52

>>54999599
You probably should have told him starting with 6 con was a bad idea

>>54999691
Either they have 20 con, or cheat on HP rolls.

http://anydice.com/program/ca0b

>>54999716
Assuming he took the "average", that would be a -1 modifier, not a -2.

>>54999599
>my partys wizard has 17 hp at level 5
Literally how. Did he roll for HP and dump Con? Jeez, and I was thinking my party's wizard had it bad with 50 HP at level 10.

>>54999736
http://anydice.com/program/ca0c

Assuming he has a -1, its above average. I've noticed people tend to assume that PC hp is much higher than it mathematically should be in these threads.

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>>54999251
I'm debating on whether I want them to look uniformly like humanoid cremini or toadstools or if I should give them unique mushroom bodies

I'm considering having a cave with numerous warren-like tunnels with varying "species" of shroom people

>>54994776

I must make a Luchadore Paladin for this setting and hope everyone else in the group joins in on the fun

>>54999718
We rolled stats and he got 18. And then he got fucking crazy rolls for his HP. He didn't cheat, I was right beside him and watched him roll. He created the character at level 5 and he went "fuck it I'm rolling HP" so he rolled 4d6 and got crazy high numbers
10HP level 1 (6+CON(4))
+16 HP for CON at level 5
26
6,5,5,3=19
45HP

>>54994138
just ran a campaign
a level 3 warlock, cleric, and barbarian tried fighting an ogre and a guy with a crossbow in the background
they fumbled their way into death

>>54996933
if it's a monk: whenever they make a weapon attack with the sword, the next unarmed attack critical hits if it lands and if it kills the target, the monk gains 10 temp HP
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZSebTQfSDE
if it's just a fighter: give it the assassin ability but also giving him adv on initiative.

>>54999544
They aren't.

>>54998352
Drop the questionnaire. Normal players will see it as odd and / or creepy and drop your game, while weirdos will see it as an interesting 'challenge'.

Instead, just ask them what kind of campaign they want to play.

>>54997214
Generally, if a group is too bad to do this on their own, such a rule will not help at all.

Give it a try but if they continue immediately stop the campaign.

>>54998673
if you're in a position where you're at 0 hp, a single hit accompanied by a single bad CON save can kill you after combat. your party would have to resurrect you after.

>>54996053
If I can't come up with an adventure myself, I take a break.

That said, this has only happened when I played Witch Hunter: The invisible world, because it felt really odd to make a traditional campaign in it. (I'd suggest doing one-shots with it, each week dealing with a different threat to the local communities.)

My general process of story building goes like this:
>whenever I'm bored (on the bus, while in the bath, while jogging) I try to think of the current campaign and what cool things I could do with the next few sessions.

Every other day I sit down and write down these ideas and organise my notes a bit.

This generally gives me a wealth of hooks, places and people to use. And the players rarely get through them all, so I usually have a few ideas to recycle every week.

>>54999859
People do it on roll20 all the time, I've only had good games come out of doing a quick questionnaire like that. Lets you see what kind of people you could end up with so you can decide whether to bother or not too.

>>54995077
It doesn't make a lot of sense for it to be a feat. Why would you just suddenly become a half-nekovampiredemon?

>>54999943
Can you think of a better way to handle restricting access to all those bonus features? We can't just give PCs access to one or more extra racial features right off of the bat, 3.5 and PF proved that makes it too easy to break the game, even if that bonus feature is just something like "You have Advantage on Persuasion checks".

>>54999943
Well the player and gm would have to work together to make it fit into the story. Also humans can take it at level one. It reminds me of another system called FantasyCraft were subraces are selected as optional feats you can only take at first level.

So I'm in need of some good tactics that weaker but more numerous enemies could use against a group of PCs.

The party has to defend a number of small villages and settlements on the borderlands, the largest which has a defensive wall. They got 20 town militia (commoners with some armor and weapons) and 10 soldiers (guards with better equipment) to help them. The town has an acolyte as its priest and theres 2 military veterans in the town as well.

The enemy is a band of brigands that have taken over a nearby keep after defeating the small garisson. They are secretly led by a group of cultists.

They have 60 men, guard stats but with better equipment (10 horsemen, 20 pikemen, 20 crossbowmen, 10 swordmen), the captain uses gladiator stats, a veteran is his right hand man. Theres also a thug who fights together with an armored owlbear, a scout and a spy. Everyone has been given better armor and equipment.They also some have warhorses.

The cultists are 3 cultists, 1 cult fanatic and one GOO warlock, all with revamped spells, that secretly lead the group in search of holy relics. They can summon a Fomorian (played as a titan from a distant world) but he only lasts for 1 night, and sacrifices need to be made.

>>55000183
A background feature that let your take a "racial" feat later on?

>>55000200
The party consists of a Storm Cleric, Revised Hunter Ranger, Hexblade Warlock and a Phoenix Sorcerer.

The lands around the settlements and keep consist of hills, plains and thick woods.

The keep would be easy to defend for the warband, but I want them to be a threat to the walled settlement where everyone is now holed up. I want there to be constant pressure on the town instead of the PCs just waiting until they feel ready to storm the keep and that being the sole battle. Could the warband still be on the attacking side?

>>55000200
flanking is an obvious tactic. besides that, how strong are the walls? if they're just wood walls, i could totally see them easily breaking through, especially with the fomorian. realistically, they could starve the area out and then when the villages are tired and weak from lack of resources+harassment, the fomorian is summoned and shit goes down and people can scatter.

>>55000285


>>55000285
The walls consist of a wooden palisade with a stone foundation and a stone gatehouse. Directly besieging the town would be an option, perhaps with a siege weapon? Staying far enough away so that the spellcasters cant hit them from the walls so they'd have to leave the town? 2 Fireballs might break up the warbands formation and break the morale of the footsoldiers.

>>55000221
Hmm... sounds like an interesting possibility. How would that actually work, though? I've had some difficulties wrapping my head around how Backgrounds function, not sure how I'd write up something like that.

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>>54994776

>>54999276
Negative HP isn't a thing. The only thing that kills you outright at 0hp is damage equal to your max hp.

>>55000369
Backgrounds are pretty basic
>What were you before you trained to do your class?
Since they are already highly customizable, you would want to start with one that plays up the spectacle. It can be fairly specific, the important part is that the background features are mostly ribbons, but with minor mechanical uses, typically out of combat.

>Halfbreed Spectacle
>Much of your life has revolved around the circumstances of your birth. Born of a strange tryst, your heritage has placed a strain on your relationships, although you have found acceptance among performers and entertainers.
>Performance and one of the following
>Animal Handling, Acrobatics, Deception
>One language, typically related to your heritage
>One set of artisan tools, or an instrument of your choice
>A costume, 15 gold, a trinket from your estranged parent, a hooded cloak
>You are an object of curiosity in many places due to your unlikely heritage. You can leverage this to get audiences with minor nobles and academics seeking to satisfy their curiosity.
>Variant: You have embraced the stranger aspects of your heritage. Whenever you would get an ability score increase, you may instead take a racial feat tied to your heritage.

Doing it that way has 3 benefits. It lets anyone take the background for flavor/fluff, and gaining a fairly standard background feature, it lets people take any of UA racial feats they may want for any race if they'd rather be a half-gnome or something strange, and, lastly, since Backgrounds are malleable anyway, it lets people easily take the Variant and replace ANY background feature with it, so they aren't tied to this specific flavor.

>>55000516
Oh, and you'd have to come up with a bond/personality/flaw table for it, but thats all fluff anyway, just think of things that those who suffer from racial prejudice tend to look at things, and fit the alignments in.

Someone in an earlier thread said:

>Hexblade is almost necessary, considering it gets the best expanded spell list (the paladin smites and some other stand outs). Also, use the old Warlocks and Wizards UA invocations and try to pretend like the Revised UA doesn't exist so you can get Curse Bringer.

What did this mean? I can't find anything about Hexblades not being able to get Cursebringer in a revised UA.

>>55000765
The Revised Class options UA includes a revised set of all UA invocations, which no longer includes Curse Bringer and instead has a generic smite

>>55000772
I understood that to simply be a revision of those specific invocations rather than "the others don't exist". Otherwise the Pact Weapon improvement invocations stop at +1, which seems fucking worthless.

Plus it doesn't say that others are scrapped. Just that those are additions.

>>55000936
I have no idea if that's the intent or not, but mixing the two lists lets you do silly shit like double smite

What are people's most fun class to play?

>>54994262

>magic items need to tell a story

Yeah your +1 leather armour was super important to the history of the world

Maybe in a world with wizards and magical beasts only the highest quality magical items are central to a quest

>>55001003
Paladin, Cleric, Bard, Rogue

>Tfw I have to put a game on hiatus until December because of classes
College is as much of a game killer as it is a game enabler.

What is a good class for a duelist/master swordsman character like Syrio Forel from game of thrones or all the puffed up fencers like zorro or that guy from the princess bride

>>55000996
You mean with Cursebringer and Eldritch Smite? I mean, you could, but it's 3d8 in total for two spell slots, and considering how few slots Warlocks get to start with, I wouldn't consider it worth it.

>>55001045
>His DM doesn't let you in on the sad story of a a leather armor made by a worrying mother, that got enchanted through the power of her will to keep her wanderlusting son into her craft
>You'll never get the feeling of discovery of this big and dangerous world as you find the remains of her son which you were bound to find from this haunted house that has lured so many wide eyed level 1'ers to their death, that not even a Power of Love (tm) could prevent

I'm sorry for your loss Anon, but that's no reason to miss interpret what I said. Focus on making a story, then see whether or not that story has to he legendary

>>55001507
Swashbuckler Rogue with a Fighter dip for the dueling fighting style.

>>55001507
Swashbuckler Rogue

What does the body of a character with 6 dexterity and 15 strength look like?

>>55001523
I forget the wording exactly, but I believe it ends up being that if you minmax it by then going Paladin after level 3, you can also get Paladin smites and by level 5 being able to do something like an extra 5d8 damage to nova something, and still have the option of retreating and firing off Eldritch Blasts if the fight goes south.

I know someone did the math, but I think at level 11 or so, it ended up being that this sort of Hexblade Paladin could deal up to an extra 3d8 + 8d10 damage if they nova'ed as hard as they could.

But again, my numbers might be wrong because the last I remember this discussion, the UA had just come out.

>>55001619
This is why you don't allow multiclass UAs, I guess.

I'm not too worried about that. I think most classes can be abused for large damage once or twice, but if it's not nuclear druid levels it's not a massive issue.

How's multiclassing into paladin with a melee warlock like? A necessary evil or something that you could live without?

>>55001692
Unless you are hexblade (or dwarf, I guess) you have to multiclass into a fighty class for armor. It's non negotiable.

>>55001692
Depends on whether or not you can negotiate with your DM to course correct your build as to "have started with a level in Paladin", but still keep it a "new thing" for the sake of Role-play and story telling

>>55001710
There is an option for a DEX based Paladin/Warlock, but it is MAD as fuck and requires help from the DM to not get turned into paste the moment you go into melee.

The reason why Warlock/Paladin, Warlock/Fighter, and Sorc/Paladin are so strong is it covers up the caster weakness by having the ability to wear heavy armor and get more damage via Fighting Style and either Smite or Action Surge.

Sure, they might be slow as fuck because of DEX dump stat, but they can probably take a hit if they get into melee because they put their highest stats into CHA, STR, and CON, probably in that order.

>>54996307
Literally me.

I was told to do something other than Cleric, so I picked a Bard.

I never looked back. Whether I am making an Archer, Fighter, blaster or utility caster, I always pick Bard.

Best class in the game, 11/10

>>54997054
My GM wont even allow favoured enemy Humans. Says it is too cheesy.

M8, my Elf Pirate has been hunting humans forever, what do you want me to choose? Fish?

>>54999521
>advantage on acrobatics checks period
Fuck off

>>55001607
Enemies regularly taunt you "Who ate all the pies?"

>>55001794

Ships

>>54996307
My DM banned me from making any more bards :(

>>55001794
I swear to God I read this as "my flavored enemies are too cheesy and I was so confused, and yet, excited

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>>55001905
Well what are you going to try out next instead then? Another spellcaster class will have many of his spell, and a rouge will have many of his skills, and there is even a non-thief rogue in some of the UA that feels more like a bard.

>>55001782
I thought I would never look back, but one of my ongoing games I'm a cleric and it feels good to go with the old habits again.

>>55001954
Well, I have this southern cowboy like grave digger devotion Paladin x/ Undying Warlock 1 concept laying around.
The idea is that he PAM's a halberd as a reskinned shovel and wacks'em foolish undead back to their proper rest (them not being buried being his major aggravation more than them yanks Shambling about. He feels like the gosh darned maid having just cleaned this up and hopes the kids can keep their shit together for five God damned minutes)

Thing I'm struggling with is that I really don't like the look of this guy with heavy armor, but if I start with Warlock instead, then I'm simply forced to grab Sentinel feat as well as PM for meme reach cheese

>>55002032
Why not just wear medium armor then? Paladins have proficiency in any kind of armor, don't they? Just because you can wear heavy don't mean you NEED to.

>>55001782
Do you MC or just go straight bard?

Help me with a concept here;

I was late with character creation, and know my (starting at 10th level)party consists of:
Noble Paladin who is the head of a house with a solid economy.
Noble Cleric who is the brother of the Paladin
Old grizzled Fighter (also with a Lord title) who was responsible for training the Paladin in his earlier days

I am considering making a retainer for the Paladin. Butler, maid, or some similar role beneath the Paladin, who is generally just an unassuming tag-a-long who keeps quiet and only shows off if nobody but the party will know about it afterwards.

It will take place in a frontier town, so low on social aspects with other lords. The idea is to sorta set it up as a ruse - it is a person the commonfolk can relate to, but is in fact still a 10th level something.

Now, class is still somewhat difficult for me. I really want magic shenanigans in there. AT seems obvious, but I am not sure if I should instead go for a more magic heavy character. Wizard seems over the top, but Sorcerer or Bard seems quite fitting. Druid and Warlock doesn't match, however.

Thoughts? How would you stat and build a concept like this?

I appreciate any criticism as well, and good advice on any missing details. I am not sure if I want to go for a pal or gal yet. Girl is more comfortable, but I feel like a guy might fit in better. A butlers traditionally stoic attitude just doesn't mesh well with Rogue, though.

>>55001556
>>55001577
I had the exact same idea as that anon, would it make sense to take more levels or fighter for extra attack an BM maneuvers?

>>55002121
Straight Bard.

I did make a Bard/Cleric once, but it was a Dragon Heavy campaign, and Hlal was present... so it kinda felt natural.

>>55002136
So when you say you played the fighter role, did you go valor bard?

>>55002111
With a big ol' 10 in my Dex and no Shield, I shudder to think what will happen to my poor Armor Class

What is a magic item and/or artifact an archfey would desire?

>>55002184
A silver Shield Guardian

>>55002184
Any of them if you give them the right motive

>>55002184
Literally anything, even useless baubles. Archfey judge each other by how many treasures are in their barrows.

Does any1 has scanned Lost Tales of Myth Drannor?
I'm interested on getting it

>>54999599
But Wizards completely dominate combat, social encounters, and puzzles. They aren't bad at anything.

Why does the doomvault look so tedious to run?

>>55002156
That, or the UA variant.

>>55002296
How does that compare to other gishes? I've thought about taking a couple levels of fighter or paladin as a lore bard. Kinda get the best of both worlds

>>55002280
Because you're lame.

>>55001938
5eg, we can make this happen. We have the technology.

>>55002330
Subpar, honestly.

I mean, it is okay, but shit hd, lack of heavy armour, MAD and no good eays to up your damage, you will lack behind both Paladins, Fighters and Barbarians, likely Rogues as well.

For a gish, you are not that good. But you are still a Bard, with magical secrets, so you are automatically useful to your party.

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need halp
situation: Pcs are in Vallaki. this is their second visit. in the mean time the mayor and family were executed and replaced by Lady Watchter as ruler. City is Strahd loyal right now.
Problem: PCs are need to keep heads low for a while and plan next move. i want to give them a place to stay and make it their own. The twist ? i want to place them all in separate spots in the city so they can make there their own thing and follow their own agenda away from the eyes of other party member. Where to do this ?

One can crash with the Martikovs at the Inn. One can get the attic in the old mayor house (the sorcerer as this room was used by Victor for magics so could be interesting)... more ideas ? cool ideas ? thank you

>>55002352
One could be entirely welcome by Lady Wachter, whose master aims to seduce into darkness.

Another one could stay with Blinsky, and yet another one could put his ear down to the ground next to the Elves or the Vistani.

How would you make the Game of Thrones characters in 5e?

>>54999691
This is why rolling for hp is dumb.

>>55002133
Battlemaster would round off the class nicely I think, without straying from the theme. But don't forget that Swashbuckler is the one with all the theatrics.

Depends if you want more Syrio or more Zorro.

>>55002507
Pick a different system. D&D doesn't do deadly or low-magic.

>>55002559
It could, the bounded accuracy helps, the fact that magic items are optional helps and even magic can be optional or downgraded.

>>55002521
>had a few unfortunate cases like this
>party liked rolling so I kept it
>one player hated it, so I gave him a flask of super vitality, which maximized his die every time, instead of rolling.
>He played a Barbarian
I made a mistake. With 16 con at level 1, he had more than 150 health at level 10.

It was madness.

>>55002601
You should've gotten him to take just average hp, you fucking retard.

>>55002601
>forcing your autism onto others
>somehow think it's their fault

>>54994776
>Mariachi Bard
>Don Quixote Paladin
>Dia de los Muertos Cleric
>Taco Wizard

Am I missing anyone else?

>>55002650
>reading comprehension level: ultrashit

>>55002628
Yeah... I should. I thought he felt squishy at level 1 and 2, so I thought it was fine. I had no idea how tanky barbarians would get. Not just HP, that damage reduction as well...

It was the second campaign I ever ran, so it was just a massive rookie mistake. I felt bad for the guy, and gave him something that made him completely overpowered.

>>55002700
Did you not realize what hit dice barbarians get? Were you that much of a tard?

Opinions on this? Should it be very rare of legendary?

>Rod of Fey Command

While attuned to this rod, you have advantage on attack rolls against fey creatures, and they have disadvantage on attack rolls against you.
The rod has 5 charges. It regains 1d4 + 1 expended charges daily at dawn. Spells cast from the ring have a save DC of 17 and ignore a fey's immunity to charm and magic resistance.

You can expend 2 of the rod's charges to cast dominate monster on a fey, or 1 to cast hypnotic pattern. You can also speak and understand Sylvan.

If the rod is stuck into the ground it can create an empowered magic circle effect. This magic circle only affects fey, creates a cylinder of up to 250-foot-radius and 50-foot-tall, can only operate in the standard direction, and cannot be dispelled. This property does not require a creature attuned to the rod, once it is set in place it only ends if the rod is removed from the ground.

>>55002753
Didnt occur to me. Never played back then, only GMed once, and no one picked Barbarian in that campaign. I didn't read up on them properly.

>>55002759
Very Rare

>>55002809
You didn't read up on them at all.

>>55002759
Very Rare, the abilities are tied to a specific creature making it a little less usable for all situations. Unless your game has a lot of Fey creatures. Pretty cool Rod anon.

>>55002128
Anyone?

The background right now ia a bit floating, mostly due to not knowing the class, but the idea is that the character participated in the war that happened 5 years prior, on a special task force kind of thing, whose job depends on what class I settle on. Sole survivor (GM ruling, didn't want me to know other higher level NPCs I could draw on), and now just wants some more peaceful days.

Magic is used to super clean and manage everything that needs it, in a 10th of the time it would normally take to do it, and generally make everything more convenient.

>>55002823
Nop. Didn't think I had to. Thought it was fine, since I assumed it was balanced around the possibility of rolling high every time.

Would it be out if line to ban GWM, SS, and PAM as first-level feats for Variant Humans?

I have no problem with the feats generally but at level 1, it's overkill. I'd rather players take more flavorful feats.

>>55002853
Then you're a fucking retard. Hopefully you learned to be less of a fucking retard.

>>55002853
Get better at running games. Your games sound like a shit fest.

>>55002855
I have ruled that Vhumans get a feat at 4th level, and not at level 1.

Works just fine. It makes humans scale super hard at level 4, but that's not really a problem in my experience. Only 1 guy has sperged out over it, but he would also have hated you proposal, so he is just that kind of faggot.

I do like the idea, but I feel that the restriction could hurt certain builds. Maybe a merge of the two would be better - so you can take a feat at level 1, unless it is a combat feat (GWM, AS, whatever), in which case you get it at level 4.

It allows people to pick VHuman to get that additional feat, but still allows people who want ordinary feats to do that just fine.

>>55002906
>>55002883
Is this the same guy being super mad?

I already said it was a clear rookie mistake. Jesus Christ, you guys need to chill the fuck out.

Not everybody is autistic enough to learn the DMG and PHB before having any real experience with it.

>>55002927
How is skimming the barbarian entry autistic? You were autistic for running a shit game, git gud.
5e more than any other edition is the least rules heavy, unless you're a actual retard you really shouldn't have had a difficult time.

>>55002585
Nope. You've still got people constantly casting spells, lightning-fast healing, and PCs being all but impossible to kill.

>>55002927
>does stupid thing that could have been avoided if he read the books or even just had them on hand
>READING THE BOOKS IS AUTISTIC

are you a that gm aspirant or just a retard

>>55002999
No. Only if your GM is shit, and allows things the rules specifically says you shouldn't, like UA multiclassing.

Or if he is too much of a omegafag to make encounters that cant challenge them. You have 26 AC? Enjoy enemies thay only target your saves. Enjoy!

>>55002927
>thinks one piece of vital information is autistically reading the book cover to cover
>makes mistakes
>runs a shit game
I wasn't expected to read when dming!

Are you an actual retard?

>>55002999
>PCs being all but impossible to kill
That's only a real thing at high levels. I actively try not to kill my players and yet there's already been 4 deaths so far in my campaign (level 10). If I really made the enemies guarantee the kill, that number would be much higher.

>>55003052
I knew he had a d12. That wasn't the problem.

I originally ran Mines of Phandelver, and it went smooth and balanced. I assumed the game was just well balanced, and wouldn't be a problem.

I was wrong, clearly. The premise campaign lulled me into a false sense of security.

On my 12 campaign now, and everything runs smooth and problem free. It helps that my players aren't powergaming cunts.

It dod teach me the joy of just letting everybody hace their full HD. That's a lot of fun in a high power campaign.

Has anyone here done a bard/rogue spy master type character before? Also on an unrelated note, do Archfey adhere to good and evil or do they just kinda do whatever the fuck they want due to being capricious and whimsical? I guess I'm trying to ask are any of them always "good"

>>55003101
Did you or did you not know? >>55002853
Was reading really that difficult?

>>55003135
My setting they are neither evil nor good, but rather cold and savage, or smouldering and mercurial

>>55003101
Which is it? Did you know or not? You were saying you didn't have to understand that entry and that reading was autistic.

You realize the game is relatively balanced don't you? It only became unbalanced because you introduced shit into the mix. That's not the system's fault for unbalancing from your shit.

>>55003022
Encounters that challenge a fully-rested party in 5e, even if they're all core, even if they have no magic items, have to be pretty titanic, and even then nobody will die. It's just not a good fit for anything other than over-the-top sword-and-sorcery or superheroes.

>inb4 someone mentions the last episode and the unfreezable bastard. That was dumb.

>>55003135
None of them are always good. They can be beneficent and kindly for long stretches, but having one that's completely trustworthy and dependable completely goes against their flavor.

>>55003175
No, I thought I was quite clear in knowing he had a d12. But it wasn't until level 10 that I realised how little damage a proper CR actually did to him, and that it wouldnt get better.

It wasn't just 1 entry I didn't read.

>>55003228
Was it from? >>55002853
You were retarded from the beginning.

>>55003186
I have done a high lethality campaign in 5e no problem. Just make hitting 0 HP dangerous, and not just a "have a healing spell, you are fine now".

We made it so you roll as normal, and healing spells grant advantage on the next roll, nothing else. Revive spells doesn't work.

Super quick and easy, and makes it very dangerous to hit 0. Even with advantage, that is only for 1 roll. You will potentially spend 5 slots giving advantage to the death saves, and it might not even be enough.

>>55003207
Hmmm, is that because they are just naturally chaotic beings? Are there any good books about them? I wanted to play an Archfey patron warlock (or dip a few levels as one on my bard) and I'm interested in learning more about them and their lore

>>55003228
It sounded like you had no idea what the fuck you were doing and even so decided to introduce shit into it.
The game is balanced around there being no retarded shit getting caught up because you went full retard.

>>55003228
Yeah, sounded like you knew all about the d12! >>55002809 >>55002853
No wonder you run shit games.

>>55003283
Sure thing, if you don't have time to study Irish mythology, watch Labyrinth. David Bowie is maybe the best portrayal of an archfey in film.

Any tips for running death house?

>>55003470
God, so many.

How long have you got? A one shot? Multiple sessions?

>>55003412
Awesome, thanks man! I remember watching labyrinth when i was a kid but it's been years. Do you know anything about the Dresden files? I see them mentioned here occasionally, are they any good?

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/5eg/ I found this large compendium of Warlock Patrons, anyone has any experience with any of these?

>>55003283
Describing fey in terms of alignments is trying to explain and categorize a class of being that resists explanation and categorization. They are alien to us, just as we are alien to them. When they act like us, it's an act of imitation done out of curiosity or misguided admiration, and there's always something subtly but horribly wrong about it. In particular, fey don't recognize the difference between our successes and failures. For example, a human nobleman might make cruel and arbitrary judgments for a number of reasons - bad counsel given out of fear, temptation by personal vices, inexperience, or just a lifetime of never being challenged. He is trying and failing to be kind and wise, or at least he tells himself that he is kind and wise already. A fey nobleman makes cruel and arbitrary judgments on purpose because that is what noblemen do.

>>55003484
"Good" is subjective, but Lore wise they are pretty damned cool,and inspired in Gaelic culture

Basically the Feywild is a kingdom of the magic plane that exists paralel to the material plane. That bit is irrelevant.
The bit you care about is that they are split in 2 major factions, Mab queen of the Winter Court and Titania, queen of Summer rule each Faction, and each of these Archfey have about the power of Godzilla. However they exist locked in a permanent state of checks and balances, and neither can afford to fuck around too hard but for the response of the other one.
Winter Court are darwinisitic and pragmatic in nature, while summer are megalomanous and emotionally driven.

Fey are both incapable of telling direct lies, or being entirely honest, and this is a *physical* limitation to them, like, they can no sooner break their word as they can, I don't know grow an extra set of sphincters and spontaneously just die in an explosion of rombulous. It's just not a part of them, so they take deals, and debt making as a hard science rather than an art, though the obedience to the letter or spirit of the agreement is dangerously vague

Aditionally each court is composed of various members. The Queen, the lady (or the maiden), the Mother, and the Knight, who is basically their hatchet man for the wet works the court sometimes requires.
Lore about the king is still mostly unknown, though the Wildfey do have one who is a peer to both of them.

>>55003480
Multiple sessions. I don't really know what to expect. It's my first time DMing, and I really liked reading this adventure at least.
One thing that comes to mind is what to do if one of the players gets possessed by one of the child ghosts. If they never think of intimitating the ghosts out and never bury the bones, what do I do?

>>54999249

Make initiative either go off if dex or int.

Have more lore, more arcana checks. Make the party suffer when they have no one with positive intelligence because they cant figure a single thing about the world and advance the story at all.


make a CON based caster class that is somehow not broken. good luck.

>>55003484
No idea. The Sandman and The Books of Magic have some good fey stuff in there.

>>55003643
A painfully cringe worthy but ultimately apt enough form to illustrate the disparity is basically Winter fey are Fedoracore atheists, while Summer court are college SJW's
They have lots in common, but also clear divides that tear them apart

>>54996307
Bards are the new wizards, it's our time to shine

>>55003677
>they cant figure a single thing about the world and advance the story at all
Very bad idea that is bound to turn your campaign into a murderhobo firewalk and secure for you a tenured position in every "that DM" thread to come,

>>55003672
Okay so strap on son, here's comes my advice
1) If you're not Dm'ing Curse of Strahd you're going to have to revisit your plot hook.
First time I DM'ed death house, I was dm'ing for my frathouse and the plot I used was that they were themselves from a fantasy universe of themselves studying to be their class, and they got kicked from their property by the dean and so they had to find a new one off school grounds.
The rogue heard rumors of some gipsy guy telling people about a sick estate at a favorite bar of theirs, and arranged for a meeting, but after a few drinks and the guy Vistani guy shows up, a bar patron mad about the guy flirting with his girlfriend starts a Brawl, which the party steps up to protect.

This is important because the first stretch of death house is building up tension over yawn inducing boringness, so getting that combat encounter itch scratched early on is a valuable tool.

>>55003793
2)From then you can run the dungeon straight. I had Luvash as "thanks" for helping him taking the adventurers to the house quickly, and with no screwing around, and went on from there.

2) grand spectacle. The Durst House (which is what you always call the adventure, NEVER DEATH HOUSE) is a real estate angler fish that draws its prey in deeper rather than abruptly. So you need to play act that Dm'ing feeling as much as you would play out any villain. The house *is* the villain, and ambience is how it monologues.

IF you're running it off your printed copies of the adventure module I advise during prep getting two pens out, one blue, one red, and with the blue one you underline all the significant description details, like gossamer drapes, and ivory harpsycords.
With the red one, you underline all the mechanical bits, like perception check DC s, or awaiting monsters

>>54998988
Obviously it's a battle axe once it's completed and a staff while they only have the haft.

>>54999181
It actually isn't. With everything going into Xanathar's, I recall hearing there won't be another revision out this year. Is that right or is that something I just made up?

>>55003851
4) Foreshadowing. The players will easily become stuck in the house grinding to a halt with exploration paralysis. Prod them along every once in a while with bizarre events.
They cross through a door threshold and they can swear they heard a metallic swipe flash behind them. While standing around in a room, they feel the subtle scent of smoke.
When they argue meanderingly, a baby cries up in a room.
They play the harpsichord well, and so you reward them with the sound of countless little feet tapping on the wall.
A room they had made a mess of is mysteriously intact when they go back.
Remember, the house is the villain, and this is how it monologues.

>>54999438
But I'm so glad "elf" is not the term that stuck.

>>55003909
5) Combat
It's odd saying how you're upping the tension building as you go up the tense building, but there you have it
However, all that story telling getting interrupted by all of a sudden non stop combat is whiplashy as hell
So this advice goes out for *any* DM. Have the combat enemies out to tell a story.
The characters make a loud fucking mess? The wailing sound of death itself floods their hearts as they have but a moments notice to hide as the specter of the maid comes around to clean shit up.
But remember, she died of Stab wounds, so she never touches those and wails and howls at goes mad whenever someone tries to attack her with one.
How about that Armor? Well, let it talk, and have it be the house's well meaning but entirely cantankerous consierge, bangalling people whose dressing isn't up to his code of gala.

And remember to use the house to your advantage. My players were cocky with power overwhelming giving them a fake sense of immortality, so I killed one off the bat by having the armor grapple one and bodily hurl itself down the stairwell with him after a shirt one sided battle.

Considering removing needless encounters like the Grick or the shadows, and I recommend also the plot amend that I made, that thought built up the perfect climax, which was reskinning the Shambling Mound into the undead/unborn Shambling horror abomination that became of the still born fetus of Walter Durst

>>54999474
>that one old creature that's just a pile of haunted laundry that'll choke you if you put it on
Sounds like a rag-a-muffling, aka the ragamuffin.

>>55004044
Can't stress this bit of "story telling through battle" hard enough.

For example, the Durst love each other, in their own perverted way. They should protect each other work together, have each other's back. If one downs a player, and you think the party has the resources to save him, the other one should be going at the unconscious players throat and make it autofail 2 death saves.
Hell I gave them +1 to AC while within ten feet of each other and let the players know about it when they rolled just on the cusp.

>>55003603
>>55003643
Awesome, i appreciate all the knowledge gents!

>>55004133
That's great, anon. Thank you. I'm actually from Brazil so I will surely take my time writing notes, translating and adapting descriptions and names, so they fit my language.

What's the best place nowadays to look for inspiration as a DM?

I remember reading Dragon/Dungeon magazines back in the day, Dragon+ doesn't seem to have the same level of detail about monsters, dungeons, etc.

I'm in need of some help, 5eg.

Still a fairly fresh DM with a bit over 2 months under my belt. Though, my players have grown fond of their characters and would like to continue to follow their escapades through homebrew, which I have yet to touch outside of some custom NPC encounters.

I've decided that the BBEG will be a green dragon, and there will be a council held in Ironford to discuss how to deal with the threat, which the PCs will be invited to due to their renown. Several factions will be present and present different ideas on how to approach the issue and I'd like the players to have the choice of which faction to side with.

My issue is that I am unsure of how to properly convey and handle a green dragon. I've done extensive reading on their nature, but not quite sure how to implement it. All that has come to mind is that I felt having the dragon manipulate the factions to fight among each other would fit, and also have it masquerade as a black dragon via illusion or just muddy camouflage so that the good guys are unaware that they are dealing with the most manipulative type of dragon should anyone witness it.

Like how would he even have that level of influence? A dragon cult? I'm not sure how a dragon cult would even go about sowing discord among the likes of the Lord's Alliance and so on.

>>55004313
Great. I actually speak Portuguese, so let me know if you need help.

For example "Luvash" can be easily "mistranslated" to Luvas, to reflect the subtle nuance of his roguish nature, and then later have your players be intrigued as they discover the man's real name.

>>55004328
You look at your 10 GB folder of /tg/ and gaming related material which contains 43 thousand files, both pictures and text that spark your imagination.

>>55004334
The dragon is pretending to be something else. Maybe a magic user. It all depends on what kind of stuff he will be planning. A dragon cult is fine and can be good antagonists. The true nature of their leader (who is actually a fucking green dragon) will be the twist.
What kind of quests and adventures do you have in mind?

>>55004334
You could have the dragon pretend to be someone completely unassuming if you want to go on more of a subterfuge route.

>>55001523
Or battlemaster fighter. Or a mix of the two.

>>55004334
Have it be a green dragon pretending to be a black dragon so when they go all up in his face with them acid resisting bullshit, his color suddenly changes and you go "SURPRISE MOTHERFUCKERS"

>>55004487
Jokes on you Its a whole party of druids and monks who have their respective poison immune abilities

>>55004512
In.... which you then reveal the dragon can cast Planeshift?
Shit I don't know why you'd set up your villain to fail like that, it's like coming in to DM Curse of Strahd one day and the whole party rolled paladins

>>55004425
I've tied the events of Triboar Trilogy from DM's Guild, LMoP, and Banquet of the Damned across my playgroup to spin up the events and build up to this homebrew. The LMoP crew never went to Thundertree so I figured I'd use Venomfang as the BBEG but scale him up.

One faction I'm allowing them to join is the Orc Raiders who, influenced by a traveling diplomat they held captive, now desire to create a kingdom for themselves, raiding the dragon's lair in Thundertree to claim it as their own. So the quests tied to the Orc faction would be amassing an army for a classic raid.

If they don't side with either faction, I was considering have them encounter Hamun Kaust, the necromancer from the Old Owl Well sidequest. The quests with Kaust would be amassing an undead army and raising a dragon skeleton to contest Venomfang. So lots of monster hunts like hunting a Gnoll warband and raising them as footsoldiers.

Not too sure about the Lord's Alliance side of things yet. Though I do envision them in attacking the Orc faction, not believing them to ever be capable of being civil and the chance of an orc kingdom settling at Thundertree so near to Neverwinter would be reason for them to wipe them out.

Sort of thinking of having the BBEG be an egg snatcher, having stolen eggs from other types of chromatic dragons to raise as his own dragon council of sorts in time, and is laying low in Thundertree for the time being.

So I've got plot bits worked out, but having a hard time anchoring them down into actual quests and such.

>>55002759
Are you sure you mean 250 foot radius? That's going to be a very big circle.

>>55004567
OP here, that wasn't me who replied to you initially. Thankfully I just have a bear totem barb, fiend warlock, and eldritch knight. No one is really rocking resistances aside from the barb when in rage.

>>55003501
I asked about this a few threads back. The view that was shared is people liked the fact that it kept to the design principles, it didn't seem too crazy, but there was some concern over the combat familiars.

Not a lot of responses though.

>>55004747
5eg is more of a place to get brutally criticized and build upon that, than to expect positive feed back, as complimenting isn't as challenging

Not everyone thrives on cruelty though.

>>55003603
Reminds me of that TNG episode where Data is dating a woman, pretty much just as a favor to her, and he pretends to get mad at her and have a fight because he's observed from human culture (and from watching Miles and Keiko) that anger and fighting are part of the role of a romantic partner. Maybe the Seelie and Unseelie Courts go to war for similar reasons.

>>55000200

>>55000259

>>55000328

Anyone?

>>55005082
No

>>55005082
Google Tuckers Kobolds

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Here's a question.

If someone using the Tunnel Fighter fighting style, with the defensive stance active, were hit with something which denies reactions (like shocking grasp/arms of hadar), would they still be able to make opportunity attacks?

>>55005139
I know about those, but thats mostly limited to an enclosed area / dungeon right? And the PCs go in on their own accord, I want the weaker but more numerous force to take the initiative.

>>55005193
If thats all they're denied, sure.

>DM has always maintained a drop-in drop-out friendly sort of campaign.
>For the first time ever, every player might be there at once this week.
>He'll have to manage 7 players, one of which is brand new to the game, and 2 NPCs + most of us just hit level 3 so he'll have to explain to everyone who was too lazy to look shit up what their fun new abilities are.

How fucked is this session?

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My players need to go deep underground to find an ancient blacksmith to make them some special items. They have some NPC friends that are coming along with them so they were planning of making a full blown expedition out of this.
What reason would anyone have to go with them, other that getting paid a shitload of gold? Some scholars would probably be interested because of the history of the place but what about other people.
They were thinking of bringing some dwarven experts in case of cave-ins and for navigation, some kind of subterranean beast for hauling equipment and a trio of paladins who want to tag along to find a lost relic. The trip might take weeks so I doubt they could rope just anyone to come with them.

>>55004679
Yep, that's the idea. Warding a whole area against fey.

>>55005364
What about safety in numbers? The group helps one another with the various tasks because on their own it would be too dangerous.

>>55005278
Probably very, unless he has plans upon plans to deal with it.

I've seen people say that assassin rogues aren't that great because the assassinate feature is hard to use or something, why is that?

>>55005590
because surprise is fucking TERRIBLE in 5e.
if an enemy is aware of a single member of your party, they are not surprised.
so yes, the plate armored paladin can fuck everything up for the rogue.