/5eg/ D&D 5th Edition General

penis

/tg/ what would be your advice for a first time DM?

Any and all advice would be helpful

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I need a good way of giving a party of 6 level 6's a really crazy challenge. These guys will pretty much roll anything down in single combat, so I'm looking for ideas to sorta wear them down over the course of a long battle.
Any trap ideas are likewise welcome!

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>>44892523

>>44892523
lets run a practice game via vocaroo, you start. ill play a human fighter who wields a long bow, his name is Thomas

>>44892560
oh, im also an immortal man from the depths of time

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Is there any good way to craft a half-orc with an orc mother in his backstory? Been struggling with this for awhile now, and I can't get anything that doesn't sound fanfic-tier.

Maybe that's because i've been trying to make it 'happy', but fuck quitting at it now.

>>44892598
Fury and resentment lie always just
below the surface of your gleaming
armor. For each wrong done you, you
have sworn vengeance against those who
would bring misery to the helpless.
You are used to traveling on your own,
meting out punishment on your terms
wherever you find injustice. But recently
you discovered others much like yourself,
wanderers who fight monsters and defeat
evildoers. True, they seem to be in it
mostly for the money, but you welcome
the companionship—for however
long it lasts.
Background (Outlander)
You are an exile, unwelcome in both
civilized society and the savage tribes of
your parentage. Born after an orc raid,
you were abandoned at a nearby temple
and raised by the acolytes within. Despite
the peaceful nature of their worship, your
innate anger and resentment led you to
the path of the war god.

Pretty happy 5th ed Ravenloft is on its way guys

>>44892626
wanna come over some time, maybe run a solo game, perhaps, then fuck afterwards? we can talk about ravenloft. i have some books you can have. cheers

>>44892626
>$49.99 US
>with conversion and other markups that'll be over $100 AUD
>for a 1-10 campaign that will probably not be much more than a port or something I could whip up myself using the old Gazetteers

Eh.

>>44892504
Jesus H. Fuck, no. We don't need a half caster with the wizard spell list AND 4 attacks.

Best gish would be a half caster with extra attack and access to the wizards spell list, like an arcane paladin.

>>44892536
A gauntlet will do nicely. Have them investigate something in an abandoned castle or a crypt of something, then drop them into a trap door that drops them 100 feet and then reseals itself after that fall in. From there they have to fight past large waves of undead controlled by a necromancer who also has a pet beholder zombie. This should be basically a maze of natural caves and built in catacombs and hidden rooms that the necromancer build secretly under the location for his dark research. You could throw in random monstrosities that live underground as well if you wish.

>>44892695
You do realize that the only difference between a 1/3 caster and a 1/2 caster are 5th level spells, right?

For the most part it would just give them an easier time leveling.

That said I think the only real issue with both classes is the school limitations.

>>44892616
so the femorc popped him out after a raid and dropped his ass?

>>44892616
Damn you're pretty good mate
Do you take requests? I'm pretty retarded when it comes to fluffing out a character

>>44892744
uh, no bro. i think the implication is that a human woman was raped during an orc raid, and she couldnt bear to look at it so she left it at a temple

>>44892616
Better than anything i've done.

Thanks anon.

>>44892598
>half-orc with an orc mother
good luck with that.

>>44892750
thats from an official pregen, but i can help u

>>44892757
Ah, thought so. I was trying to wrap my head around it. Was looking for an orc mother.

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>>44892767
>>44892598
That isn't even a little hard. Father is a bulky barbarian bear of a man with a thing for green women. Meets or captures orc mama, they marry.

Mountain man ensues. Fucking orcs consensually is easy, you just have to be alpha as shit.

An orc woman from the kingdom of Many-Arrows fell in love with a human slave, he was the only male who was ever nice to her. She helped him escape, and they fled south, and fucked, and had a child. But her two brothers eventually hunted them down. Her human husband tried to fight back, but was killed, so out of rage, she took up her weapon in defense of her child and slew her own brothers, forever banishing her from her ancestral homeland and the faith of Grumush. The fled and the child grew up in the moors south of Loudwater because everyone was always trying to kill them. When the child came of age, they became an adventurer.

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>>44892842
>>44892847
Oh damn, I like this.

Thanks anons.

>>44892773
Awesome
So there is this human female spear user who becomes a guard.Thats who I'm playing
A Wood elf village near by needed help she and some other guards went. She saved this druid and he lives with her now cause his house burned down.
Time passed they grew closer bing bang boom half elf babby. Pretty happy for about 4 years but babs gets babby napped because of something.
So she and her husband split up and search the world for there missing child. Babby has some uncommon birth mark or something that's not too weeb oc.
That's all I got.

>>44892883
"I am Thrak, son of Thrak. My father was of the Forest Men! My Mother was daughter to the Red Axe Clan. I am grandson of Kord and Grumush, a Man and an Orc. My axe is Kinslayer, and Lifebringer, for in my mother's hands it was both! Bring out your best, you dogs, and I will judge their worth!"

>>44892885
that's terrible. just be a spear using former guard who got some wanderlust and left town to adventure, wtf baby with birthmark, thats some deviant-art level shit right there

Trying to build a Drow Sorclock, is this a good array: (12, 16, 14, 8, 8, 16) if I want to go Pact of the Tome?

>>44892938
I have a birth mark under my armpit so I must be DA trash

>>44892931
A boulder falls on Thrak and he dies like a bitch. This aint the fucking Oscars, no speeches.

>>44892961
It would be a lot better with 12 wisdom and 8 strength. Helps your wis saves, makes you not totally deaf.

Any reason you want 12 strength in particular? What about 10 strength 10 wisdom?

>>44892970
>A boulder falls on Thrak and he dies like a bitch. This aint the fucking Oscars, no speeches.
>muh dirtfarming realisms lal
Speaking is a free action, go away.

>>44892885
>>44892938
ehh, the plot points arn't bad. It has a couple hooks for the GM. The delivery could use some work. Maybe a bit more fleshing out, like why they split up and such, among other things. I rate 6.0/10.0!!

>>44892961
10 16 14 10 10 16

>>44892967
nigga you cliche as fuck

>>44892847
>>44892931
It was well worth staying up for this late night thread. Starting a game in a few weeks and this is going to be my fucking backstory.

I don't know if you're the same anon or not, but whatever the case is, thanks bru.

>>44892970
>Not giving speeches before you kill a man.

There's evil, and then there's just poor showmanship. You're banned from all my campaigns till the end of time, till you learn acceptable levels of grandstanding.

Preferably at least to Doctor Doom levels.

>>44892999
>he reads comic books

>>44893008
>I hate having fun and ruin every game I am a part of

>>44892995
I knew a guy that had one the looked like a snake head biting his nipple ... he was made fun of.

>>44893008
>he plays Dungeons and Dragons

Complaining about comics on an RPG image board is like complaining about faggots while sucking dick.

>>44893008
>Nerd elitism on the "games of pretend and little army men" board of a chinese portrait forum.

>>44893021
>faggots while sucking dick.
>he shoe-horns gay shit into every conversation

>>44893040
>he shoehorns being a little bitch into every conversation.

>>44892984
>It would be a lot better with 12 wisdom and 8 strength. Helps your wis saves, makes you not totally deaf.
Well, the character is whatever the fuck counts as highschool senior in elf years so dumping WIS seemed sound fluff-wise to represent a green-as-fuck late teen who didn't really have any business adventuring if not for natural talent.
>Any reason you want 12 strength in particular? What about 10 strength 10 wisdom?
Criminal background, gotta need decent STR to break open things.
>>44892995

>10 16 14 10 10 16
Interesting. What would it be for pure 'lock, say UDL?
Sorry if I'm annoying.

>>44893046
>you are a bitch mother fucker

>>44893062
>No you

Any lock should be: 10 14 14 10 10 16
Arcana+2, Perception+2, Deception/Persuasion/Intimidation+5
easy as pie i dont know what UDL is

Based Mods, deliver us from this plague of shitposting.

>>44893080
>easy as pie i dont know what UDL is
Undying light, aka FIRE DAMAGE CHEESE FOR DAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYSSS-

>>44893081
>Based Mods, deliver us from this plague of shitposting.
Your gods are DEAD.

>>44893093
trash, dont play in real games with UA trash except the Scout then its ok

>>44893064
>no

>>44893104
>trash, dont play in real games with UA trash except the Scout then its ok
What.

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>>44892988
Every time I post unrelated shitposting immediately follows I must be cursed

Any good DM software?

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>>44893159

>>44892740
WIZARD NEEDS FOOD.
A gauntlet run sounds just the thing they need.
Now in your experience, how often do players actually run away when faced with something they really should run away from?
Was thinking giant slime cube wall slowly advancing the whole time to add some terror factor. But I feel like they'd try to stop it, and probably end up getting consumed.

>>44893209
my group is trying to figure out roll20 right now.
its fine and easy as long as you dont expect much

You think when an enemy gets sneak attacked the whole damn party be like: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlpBO3L6UJo

>>44893261
>the whole damn party be like
Sup Reddit!

>>44893279
i dont post in reddit

this girl is so hawt, i think she looks like what maybe a half-elf would look like irl
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PoU_b0A5jwQ

>>44893288
You'd fit in nicely.

OH DEAR MOD DELIVER US FROM THIS EVIL

>>44893333
Quads summons mods.

>>44893324
http://vocaroo.com/i/s0R4DsYr85xL

>>44893233
My group of close friends are extremely cautious when they play dnd but the group i currently play with (still friends but not as close) are usually willing to fight anything that seems fightable. We played LMoP and fought the green dragon, which is CR 8 while we were lvl 3. It was almost a TPK but we pulled through. If you think your friends may fight it and it will kill them no matter what, it may be better to just leave it out.

tbqh the zombie and skeleton hoards coupled with the fact that no sane party would try to camp down there overnight should make it challenging enough, especially when beholder zombie starts directing the whole undead army to the party. (if you want you could give the beholder zombie and necromancer mage lair actions on par with an undead tyrant, just don't use the actual undead tyrant and maybe lower some DC's as appropriate.)

>>44892695
It's not like they can really combine the two.

http://vocaroo.com/i/s001u9KcMOsf

>>44893410
Fuck off drunk vocaroo guy.

i got thrown out of a walmart for putting a quarter in the riding horse out front and standing in front of it so it looked like i was getting brain, and i also put a turkey in a onesie
had to buy both the turkey and onesie

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>Almost done with Rise of Tiamat
>Last chapter
>Only level 10
Send help

>>44893470
How big is your party? How lenient is your DM that you've survived so far?

>>44893480
I sucked his cock and drank his cum and he let my asian loli magical girl warlock live.

>>44893495
Sounds like a reasonable guy. Give up the ass this time and maybe you'll survive the Tiamat fight.

>>44892931
make him/her chaotic good too.

kill em' with a smile.

>>44893480
We are normally 5-6, but he normally scales up the amount of enemies. We have died, we just started at the start of the same chapter as a new group

>>44892504
AT EK and monks should be half casters yes.
They already went in the right direction with sun monks.

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My party found a magical lamp and got three wishes from a Djinni. Dragon Sorceress wished for a fully grown red dragon under her command.
Any tips on what to do? I was thinking of the dragon just pissing off into the mountains at first chance so that she can't really give him commands. How would the mightiest of creatures act in this situation? Would a wish spell even be enough to enslave a dragon? I know it's all pretty up to me as a DM, but I could really use some ideas.

>>44893661
>fucking your players over with wishes
So.
Creative.
Seriously though, the obvious solution is having it cause issues WAY later.

>>44893661
>Dragon Sorceress wished for a fully grown red dragon under her command.

It's deaf. And possibly senile.

>>44893681
rolled for loot, they got lucky
>>44893686
now that's actually usable

>>44893661
Tell her she doesn't have enough badges to train the dragon.

>>44893661
Dragon is a horndog and tries to sex her.

>>44893661
Add a few catches to wishes.
Wish would be granted though said dragon would be bound to the sorceress but what the sorceress doesn't know that it retained its own will and kill her given a chance.
Or
Djinni polymorphs one of the PCs or anyone she cares about.

>>44893566
Well, you better stop that fucking summoning or your party is gonna go down fast
>tfw ~22d6 breath attack
>tfw 5 times in a round

Any other good settings that are just generic fantasy land like Points of Light?

>>44893661
>fully grown
And yet, is a midget. An angry little asshole of a dragon.

>>44893661
Give it to them. Then have it plot a way to undo the wish somehow. Then make it a BBEG intent on destroying the party.

Then smugly smile at them and tell them not to abuse wishes and magic etc.

>>44893930
THIS

>>44893661
The dragon takes commands and twists them like you would a wish.
>Oh, you want me to burn that bad guy but I'm not going to be very careful with my aim and 'accidentally' catch a PC in the attack.
>I'll answer any questions you have, but whether I'm truthful or not remains to be seen.

Also good fucking luck just walking around with an adult dragon in tow. Villagers would be scared shitless and somehow I doubt that a town or city would just let you stroll in without a lot of explanation. Try to hide it? They try to hide it then maybe you use what you were saying to leave, though it wouldn't be hard to follow after it. Would probably sidetrack whatever you had going though, and badly. Hell would probably become a quest in itself.

You could also just make it very difficult to take advantage of it.
>Your party needs to travel to the Underdark.
>Caves, Dungeons, all the tight spaces adventurers regularly go to that a dragon won't be able to squeeze into the entrance.
>Dragon cultists chase after the party seeking to free the dragon
>Nations probably don't like the idea of a handful of people controlling an incredible threat who also may not have their best interests in mind; if they aren't openly acting against them they might be pulling strings in secret.
>Another dragon is pissed that one of their own kind is enslaved; proceeds to fuck with party or kill the dragon out of mercy.
>Knights everywhere come to test their mettle and slay the dragon, as well as the dragon sympathizers who let it live. Usually with an army behind them.

But honestly speaking; I want to say that in terms of wish that it should be considered more like this: Is a Dijinni more powerful than a dragon? If not then they can't enslave a dragon, they say the wish is beyond the scope of their power and they must wish for something else.

I posted yesterday asking for some advice running my first D&D game (a ghost ship adventure). I want to thank the anons who gave me advice because it turned out really well!

It took maybe thirty minutes for everyone to understand what was going on and to feel comfortable interacting with characters, but after that we had a great time. Combat seemed to go really quickly compared to other DnD editions I've played.

I'm just so excited that everyone had fun and I can't wait to continue with it next week.

>>44893930
smol little angry wyrm that can barely light a campfire to cook eggs on.

>>44892703
I want an official hexblade so bad.

>>44894070
Might have been part of some makes experiments, trying to extract the dragons power or something from the egg.

>>44894091
chubby stumpy legs with a deep commanding voice

>>44894112

Yeah everything I wrote out and then there is >>44893930 Like damn, why didn't I think of that? That's both giving them their wish and hilarious.

>>44894012
the party decided to fly into the mountanious regions and enslave orks and goblins to start forge their own empire. So far I had the fighting going on underground or in enclosed locations, using the dragon more as a vehicle/strategic asset than a real statblock of a creature. But I can't keep the PCs inside forever.
>>44893965
The church and the imperial forces are already marching against the growing menaces of the dragoncult in the mountains.

>>44893930
this is great. sadly I didn't think about that before I let it appear.

>>44894079
Never seen a hexblade played. What sets it apart from EK?

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Bringing a level 10 character into Princes of the Apocalypse. We've already killed the water prophet, and the wind prophet. Just earth and fire left to go.

What should I make to fuck over the rest of the campaign, /tg/?

>>44894148
Well if they already have it and the army is already on the way... Well at this point the dragon is already center stage problem. We're talking about a whole other party coming; the good party (I'm assuming at this point your PCs are evil at this point). They are people of legend, songs are sung of them, they command the respect of the leaders of the countries, that sort of shit - and they've done their research.

By now (again, making assumptions) these guys have to be well known and so this party of heroes has done their research because who just walks into a fight with a dragon unprepared? People who don't live to be heroes that's who. So they know what they're up against and have prepared countermeasures against the PCs. Depending on their past actions some might even be people wronged by the PCs that have specifically trained to fight them.

If that doesn't work well... I don't know, it's probably a bullshit way but maybe a very powerful priest could sacrifice their life in order to trap the dragon is some sort of crazy holy relic, banish it to another plane or otherwise call upon some serious divine intervention to smite it.

Or I guess you could just decide that the dragon doesn't like being their bitch and it somehow kills itself.

>>44894193
It exists differently across several editions, but basically I want an arcane 1/2 caster with 2 attacks and some kind of arcane smite. Hexblade itself would prolly be vest served as an archetype of said chasis.

>>44894563
Have you considered reflavoring a(n Ancients) Paladin, or else multiclassing Paladin with a caster class?

>>44894575
Yeah yeah. Worked through all sorts of options. I think ek(5-6)/wizard (the rest) best serves my purposes. I think a proper gish class would nicely round out the roster mechanically, if not thematically.

>>44893209
Tabletop Simulator is fantastic if you all have reliable internet and teamspeak.

>>44892536
We just finished something exactly like this.

We investigated an abandoned castle that was rumoured to be haunted (so up for grabs really).

We got there and after barging our way in we found ourselves transported to a prison realm. We had to fight our way to the top of it to access the portal back. So it was a cross between continuous combat and puzzles.

Then when we got to the portal and came back, we were confronted with the sorcerer who had taken up living their and his entourage.

After all that he was actually abit of a chump and surrendered once we destroyed his animated armours and his bodyguard.

Was awesome though cause now we have a castle, and an appreciation for not just kidding down doors.

>>44893583
>monks should be half casters
Huh?

>>44894717
He's probably thinking a half caster evoker monk would replace elements monk. Which I suppose it kinda could, but it would shit on EK a bit.

>>44894743
It would also fuck up Monk. If you had half spell progression, why would you bother with Ki?

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OK /5eg/ I need some of your always helpful advice.

Soon my players will be attending a costumed ball to try to steal a powerful artifact on display at the host's mansion.

(Sidenote: my group plays at a medium size house owned by a few of the players.)

How fun/interesting/terrible would it be to have the session be in psuedo-real time with the players/PCs actually going to different rooms when they inevitably split up? I plan on keeping my notes on my phone so I can run around and tell them what rooms they are in and what they see.

Ideas/advice on how to implement this?

>>44892691
>buying campaign books
I honestly don't know what to tell you.

>>44894062
Did anyone turn into a shark?

>>44894062
Best thing for me personally is how much faster combat is in 5e.

I personally like more than just combat in my games but likewise im not a full investigation or riddle player. I find this edition is great just because its streamlined enough but not totally restrictive.

I'm doing something to promote roleplaying for the next session, and everyone in the party seems pretty down with it, wanted to pick /5eg/ brains a bit.


So, after the last session, I talked to every player one on one and got their opinions on who they felt did the best, or who their favorite roleplayer was. On the next session, instead of using the Inspiration system (which I personally don't really like) I plan on giving the player with the most votes a "DM token" that they can cash in (like the playing without a DM rules) to alter the game in some minor fashion.

There will be some limitations, (no instant items / no killings) but for the most part, they get to alter the world in some for or fashion.

Ideas? Yay? Nay?

>>44892598
Rape. your father was a Sorcer captured on a huge raid on whateever it's name is your mother wanted to havea a powefull child so she raped the fuck out of him, after an whole year of abuse the sorcer managed to break free and frozzed everything to the freaking ground he didn't managed to kill you, you had no fault, he raised you the best he could but you where a troblematic child your father loved you but society did not.

Now you can go several ways here.
1st so he went to the druidic florest hopping you would be better accept there you learned magic ways either from him or the druids ragenrs whaetever the fuck you wanted.
2nd your father was killed by a mob of "civilezed" people while defending you (become rogue or anything with a more shaddy caracter).
3rd you had no talent for the magic arts so you eventually learned the skill sets of more formal martial training.

>>44895224
We only played for about 2 hours last night. So they got the quest from the harbormaster to take care of the ghost ship blocking the harbor, learned about the history of the Flying Plume from a ferryman, and cleared the top deck of zombies/skeletons. I think next week we'll be able to finish the ship and I'll give them the plot hook about the temple of Umberlee.

The ring is in the captains quarters, in which the captain is a ghast/ghoul (they're level 2 now so I think I might do a slightly powered down ghast). I'm also thinking about putting a Pipe of Haunting in the store room with some gold.

>>44895523
From my experience the ones who are enthusiastic enough about the game to bring that kind of energy to the table could be trusted, if they even cared about the idea of having that sort of OOC influence.

>>44895284
I was a big fan of 4e's combat because it was easy to grasp how abilities worked and I love those SRPG type games. But it took a while and it felt like you were being tricked into using at will abilities, even though your base attack might do more damage.

5e combat was simple enough where I had two new players at my game last night and they both were able to do well and have things explained so it all made sense.

>>44895635
When was base attack more damaging? Essentials?

>>44895635
I really do think 5e has the perfect level of simplicity, especially for newer players who have an preconceived notion about or reservations about playing due to D&D's social status.

>>44894236
be That Guy.

>>44895680
I might be misremembering, but when I ran 4e with my friends, I remember that a lot of melee classes (spellblade, Paladin, and ranger IIRC) had higher damage output from their base weapons than any at-will powers. Like the powers had more utility, but if you want damage just do a regular attack.

It makes sense though, if at-wills always outperformed basic attacks, then there would be no point in having basic attacks. But its kind of a feel bad that you've got these abilities that you don't necessarily want to use. It feels boring to basic attack when you've got powers.

>>44895761
As I remember (I never got to actually play, note) basic attacks usually came up as extra attacks. You'd make one as a reaction or because of a warlords power. Also sometimes your other abilities might not be appropriate if they weren't made for melee. Other than that at-will weapon attacks were basic attacks + something else.

>>44894879
Are there any premade adventures like this?

So do we have any speculation as to what hooks the players will have for going to barovia in Curse of Strahd? Im looking forward to the adventure because its classic monsters. I was thinking of having the party be from a league of monster hunters who have sent the pcs to gather information on barovia.

Also how do you guys implement adventure sites and places into a homebrew campaign? Do you pretty much follow the advice given in the dmg?

>>44894879
D&D murder mystery style? mite b cool

>>44895804
I just checked, you're right. Sometimes it matters if its a Wisdom modifier to damage instead of a Strength modifier. So depending on your stats the damage could be different. But in general at-will powers were just better basic attacks.

Since playing 5e I feel like I might have had rose colored glasses for 4e. I enjoyed it at the time because of who I was playing with. But now it seems clunky and too "you have to have fun OUR way"-y.

>>44895928
Yeah all the builds were spelled out and boxed up nicely. They were good builds and pretty well balanced but it doesn't feel the same as the more a la carte systems.

>>44895846
>Also how do you guys implement adventure sites and places into a homebrew campaign?

What do you mean?
>An NPC gives them a job to go to X and do Y thing.
>An NPC important to the party was captured and taken to Z
>The undead horde attacking the city and terrorizing the nearby countryside seem to be coming from Tower of ABC

>Do you pretty much follow the advice given in the dmg?

Which is what?

You have a small castle / city taken over and covered in freezing snow and ice by NotElsa. What minions are roaming the city terrorizing the people and keeping them subjugated (besides minor Ice elementals with carrot noses and tophats, Ice Golem, and a Yeti)

Also, what legendary actions do you give NotElsa (Aka the White Witch, Ice Queen, etc. etc.)

>>44896118
>Yeah all the builds were spelled out and boxed up nicely.

There were many, many non-conventional builds, especially with hybrids, multiclassing, half-elves, and race-specific feats in general.

And they also worked. Which is more than you can say about many systems with free multiclassing.

>>44896165
i guess what I mean is how do you incorporate the lore and background of the adventure to make sense within the world you've created. For instance my groups homebrewed world is kind of in an era of highmagic and knowledge, a sort of Golden age. For the curse of Strahd I was thinking of advancing the game world 500 years and creating a background where the world has moved into an age of darkness. Most of the knowledge collected during the golden age is gone or missing, Empires have fallen, kingdoms no longer united etc. I feel like this establishes a world that more readily accepts an adventure with the aesthetic that Ravenloft has.

The mechanics are easy to translate. I guess I just meant how do you translate the fluff or flavor to a homebrew world.

>>44893661
l got a simmilar problem.
My PCs are on a quest for a legendary lamp that can grant them one (and only one) wish. How will the players fuck it up? Will they kill other PCs for the wish? Should l fuck up their wish in case they don't specify it enough? What do players usually ask for?

>>44896220
Fair enough. You need to work for that though, and it didn't all come with the first core rules. What it hands you first thing is "choose from these builds and boost these two stats." The free multiclassing seems more open despite the effective builds being much the same scenario.

Don't get me wrong, I'm a 4e defender normally. But I admit the soul of it was a bit different.

>>44896220
I agree that multiclassing was really balanced in 4e. But I think it came at the cost of having each class feel same-y. The powers, at their core, were able to be reskinned and interchangeable. It was difficult to find some specific power that only one class had which made them really unique.

It's both good and bad. I don't think that 4th was a bad system (I definitely had fun with it), but it suffered from being too different from 3.5 while at the same time being tied down to expected D&D conventions. If it was unrelated to D&D it might have fared better (or worse, try finding people to play non-D&D RPGs, shits rough).

>>44896253
Off the top of my head, without advancing the game world and possibly disrupting whatever impact your players already have with the factions and NPCs of the current campaign:

>Different continent
>Different geographical regions IE: "Beyond those mountains is a dark place, where no one travels due to dark forces"
>Unexplored areas
>Teleporting via plot device into the Ravenloft world, and ending that adventure by teleporting back to your regularly scheduled world.

>GM gives you awful advices
>Awful advices that don't work
>Awful advices that don't work and he doesn't want them to work
>Then calls you a that guy for not following them
So not only he wants me to spend 2 feats on weapon master, he wants me to do it with a 8 str monk, for non monk weapons that he isn't going to make them monk weapons, then he calls me that guy for kindly reject his advice. The fuck is this bullshit?

>Making great progress on my new archetypes
>Struggling with flavor text
For fucks sake, brain.

>>44896274
How creative are they? How in-character are they? Do they want to use the wish to stop something bad from happening or do they just want to find the wish for their own benefit?

There's a million variables for a spell as powerful and broad as wish. If you're worried about them wishing for something which would end up making he campaign less fun, then talk with them. Let them know what kind of boundaries you're comfortable with. Ask them what they want to wish for ahead of time.

>>44896253
If it's on the demiplane of dread then you won't even need to have it in your game world.

>>44894159
>>44893661
Wish I saw this earlier, thought of some:

>A fully grown red dragon is under her command, but is nowhere near her as it appeared on the other side of the world
>It appears nearby, and flies to her. Unfortunately, an elite group of Dragon Hunters / Monster Hunters is also nearby, and has spotted it from a few miles away. Up to you to see how long it takes for hilarity to ensue
>Basically, everyone else in the world wants to kill said dragon.
>Said dragon is IMMENSELY jealous and tries to kill the rest of the party.
>Red dragon is IMMENSELY pissed and will try to kill said Dragon Sorceress indirectly.

>>44896358
He called you That Guy because you're a minmaxer faggot

>>44896253
>>44896396
Seconding this. Having your players teleported to the new setting helps keep your old setting intact.

Maybe they are kidnapped. Maybe they accidentally stumble into portal in a lich's ruined tower. Maybe things from the plane of dread are starting to appear in your setting and you need to go to the plane to stop it before your world becomes a nightmare.

>>44896338
>If it was unrelated to D&D it might have fared better (or worse, try finding people to play non-D&D RPGs, shits rough).
Less people playing it, but better PR.

So say I wanted to create an order of monster slayers in my campaign world. One of the perks of being in the order is that you get a manual of monster slaying to help with identifying weaknesses in certain monsters. As a player would you appreciate a homemade journal ala supernatural given to you by the dm or would you think thats stupid?

>>44896358
I remember you bitching, I'm not surprised it got worse. Tell him the internet says fuck you.

>>44896444
Well if WOTC had billed it as D&D Essentials or D&D Lite from the get-go people would have gone "oh, this is a new thing for me to try" rather than "oh, wotc is fucking up my charished memories and shitting on my hopes and dreams, everything is lost forever."

>>44896475
D&D Tactics, market it as a wargame complete with a miniatures market.

>>44896458
I would think it's sweet. You got a goddamn pokedex.

>>44895846
People don't usually go to Ravenloft on purpose, because once you're in it's very hard to get out. Maybe the Dark Powers wanted to inflict some kind of elaborate ironic punishment on one or more PCs, but it's more likely that they were exploring some planar anomaly or got pulled in the wake of a nearby NPC becoming a dark lord.

>>44896431
>>44896460
Not him, but lets imagine he does that, and picks for example, greatsword, he nows attacks with str (8) and deals damage with str (8) and can't martial arts, and his FoB deal 1+Str (8), so 0.

Ignore your GM and do whatever you want, if he keeps bitching leave.

>>44893661
>An Elder Red Dragon has been on a rampage searching for its mate, which mysteriously disappeared!

Or if you're feeling like being a bit of a shit:
>A red dragon appears, affected by the command spell. You may give it one command.

I'm trying to come up with an interesting necromancer build that isn't just Cleric 20. Partly because most of the capstone abilities are garbage compared to the benefits of multiclassing, but also because I'm looking for something a little more unique.

I'm thinking either a Bard/Cleric for a voodoo feel, or Rogue/Cleric for something like a papal assassin. How well would either of those work, and what sort of level split should I be going for? Any alternatives would be appreciated, too.

>>44896458
It would inevitably be too small, unless you want to take the time to write out a book-length reference work on monsters that isn't just a copy of the Monster Manual. It might also lead to some situations where he's spending time during his turn flipping through the book and you have to decide whether to say his turn is over because he spent 6 seconds reading. But if you still want to make them, props and feelies are usually appreciated.

>>44896928
The essence of the necromancer is in having your minions do the adventuring for you. So multiclassing into any class that is not the class you use to cast Animate Dead is so much dead weight. Make your character interesting through background and roleplaying rather than theorycruft.

>>44896274
I guess I got quite lucky with my party as the first guy wished for a battledonkey, the second one for the resurrection of the fourth partymember and only the third one wished for something big
I'd say just see where your players are going and make sure that they get the wish at the end of the session so that you can think about how to go on afterwards before you say anything you might regret

>>44896338
>It was difficult to find some specific power that only one class had which made them really unique.

I disagree (getting powers from two lists is a very big benefit of hybrids and one of the only reasons to even bother paragon multiclassing), but even if we accept it as true, features were often the soul of your class anyway.

>>44896338
Eh, I think Core to Core classes, and even class builds, are still more different in 4e than other (modern, didn't play Advanced) D&D. Just compare a Core ranger and a Core fighter in 4e and 3.5 and 5e.

Core 4e was still really limiting (especially for poor paladins), but it's still pretty versatile when compared to the rest imo.

>>44896964
Well, yes, I'm planning on making them interesting regardless of their class. I was looking for some help on how to build a class which fit with one of the character ideas I already had.

For the sake of discussion, though, what are some interesting Bard multiclasses? And would Cleric/Bard synergise particularly well?

>>44896941
Yeah thats the thing id be worried about. Though I envisioned it being used like if they rolled up into town and a monster was killing shit. The book could be used to cross reference the bites or the types of attacks and would help the slayers narrow down the kind of Monster it probably is. Then they use whatever info they have to kill it. Its literally just aping the hunters journals from the tv show supernatural but I thought the concept was hella cool

>>44896274
The actual spell description of Wish helps a lot. If they're wishing for something outside the usual bounds of duplicating a spell, and you're afraid that some kind of ironic twist on the wording of the wish would ruin the campaign, you can just have the wish fizzle and do nothing. That's always an option.

>>44893661
Dragons never stop growing, so a "fully grown" dragon is one that is right about to die of old age. Maybe an old-ass great wyrm that is actually cooperative for exactly one adventure and then drops dead.

>>44897049
A couple paladin levels are good for smitin'. Combining with other casters seem pretty silly since a bard can steal their spells, and the meleers don't add much that they don't already get. They're pretty self sufficient.

>>44897064
Best thing I've heard.
I'll let them fly to that orc fortress in the mountains and then the dragon just kicks the bucket.
Thanks man!

>>44897094
Or even let them have their fun just once and fight hundreds of orcs from dragonback. It's not a permanent power upgrade, since the dragon is going to die beyond hope of resurrection after this anyway, and the dragon could take the majority of the XP for doing most of the work.

>>44894879
I was hoping for more input on this

>>44897262
Honestly, your idea is solid. Just practice the layout and plot points for yourself, because this is going to be as much acting as it is DMing.

>>44897262
You're likely going to have problems depending on how they split up. You can only be in one place at once, unless you get other people to help you with the NPCs as well. But at that point, it's practically become a LARP.

>>44897086
So Bard/Paladin, then? That sounds like a lot of fun.

>>44892695
>4 attacks

I want this misconception to end - fighters get the 4th attack at 20. I have never played a game that got to level 20. I'd wager most games never do. Fighters, for the vast majority of every game, will have 3 attacks at best; one more than other martials, but without the bonus abilities like smite/rage.

>>44892703

What's wrong with bards? They can get extra attack and they're even full casters.

>>44897457
>>44897477
Thanks for the input. I figured that practicing would play a huge part

>>44897477
>You're likely going to have problems depending on how they split up. You can only be in one place at once

I've run an adventure like this before; essentially I run a few minutes for one group, move to the next group and run the same amount of time, etc. It has worked pretty well in the past. The only problem arises if group A goes somewhere then group B goes somewhere and they would have bumped into each other on the way there. To solve this I will usually move to the next group once one decides to move.

>>44892598
In one of my games, a Half-orc PC's with noble background backstory went something like this:
His father head of a noble house was fond of the pleasures of the flesh and enjoyed having "exotic" concubines, one of those which was an orc, and she was the only of her concubines to give him a son, so he took him and home schooled him in all kinds and matters of the noble caste, the father treated him almost as his son, however the servants and the legitimate children of the noble weren't so kind. Finally the noble dies and he is allowed to keep a title of pedigree and a family signet ring per the fathers will, but he is kicked out of the house and starts wandering the world.
His main reason for questing was to gain renown and followers to fund his own noble house & family.

It was a fun campaign until some body introduced a bag of holding into a portal into another and everyone died.

>>44896888

The first ideals a better campaign solution.

The second is the best "twisted Wish" solution.

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About to run an adventure where the only detail is a rogue has to infiltrate pic related, and will possibly run into another thief.

Can you guys help me flesh it out, but keep it as "generic fantasy" as possible?

>What kind of rooms?
>What kind of staff?
>How many guards?
etc. etc.

>>44898242
What level is he?

In terms of being a generic mansion, you have to have a minority race as servants where all of them have generic names for their race except for one who goes by Jim or Kyle

>>44893661
An adult red dragon has fallen for her love potion style. It attempts to woo her adventurer-style aka murderhobo with a chaotic evil bent. She can tell it what to do as general goals, but it's a contest to get it to do anything in a specific manner. It may get itself killed, or if it's rejected it will take it badly. Like, dragon has kidnapped the princess badly. Basically the dragon is Bowser. And she's peach. And for God's sake don't make it magical realm.

>>44898336
Level 6, Halfling Thief. Has a Dagger of Venom.

>>44898242
I ran a small mansion heist where the mansion was almost exactly like this. I'm breaking it down right now.

>>44898242

I wish there was a generic book for RPGs just about factions and locations - here's this mercenary company, here's how many members it has, here's how it recruits new members, here's the ranks and the pay and here's the duties that each member will do each day in times of campaigning and during downtime

Here's a castle, here's its guards, here's where they have patrols and how often they change shifts and here's where they go to the bathroom, etc

>>44898539
That'd be nice. I've been looking for DM advice that deals with minutiae like that. Especially for a fantasy setting, since all I have to go off of is books and tv as far as how to populate things like that.

Also, stuff like descriptive text would be nice. How the heck do you describe things like necrotic or poison damage?

>>44892743
You do realize that 1/3 casters also gain spells at different levels, have fewer fourth level spell slots and utility cantrips to make up fot the relieance on a resource, right?

>>44898592
>necrotic

This is negative energy damage, so it simply causes the flesh to die. There's some ways to describe that; the flesh could blacken, it could crack and bleed, it could shrink and shrivel.

>poison
Same way as always; it just does HP damage now. Shooting, shocking pain, spasms, burning sensation, feeling of weakness.

>>44892536
I think I've just learned how to do this myself. The trick is to not make only one challenge, make several smaller challenges to wear on them over the course of the session. Once they've taxed themselves on their resources, hit them with the boss or mini-boss. After that, they'll start holding back on the smaller encounters, which in turn makes the smaller encounters a little more difficult.

>>44898669
>for the most part it would just give them an easier time leveling

I think that's what he meant. Having the cap at 5 would imply access to 2-4 sooner than they do now, plus a few extra slots.

>>44896981
Those specific wishes just reminded me of Gantz. For some reason. Anyway, you can wish for a better arsenal, to bring someone back to life, or to get the fuck out of this shit show. That is, retire. So battle donkey might be level 2 arsenal, and personal dragon would be level 6 or something.

/Tangent

>>44892536

Put a time limit on the adventure.

>this temple houses an ancient magical trap that is set to go off in 8 hours. If you don't deactivate it, hundreds of years of history will be lost

>the cultists are performing a summoning ritual! They will be finished at dusk! You must stop them!

Gives them plenty of time to crawl the dungeon, but they can't take a long rest. Then every fight will take a little chip off them.

>>44898242
>>44898529
Outsidesince the map never designates the outside area with a code: 4 solid, but not too difficult for your 1 rogue, guard-and-watchdog pairs roaming at all times. They move at half-speed. One armed guard stationed outside all entrances pointed toward the street, other secondary entrances have their guard inside. No guards are stationed at M18 or M19.

cont.
M1: Stairs leading into the mansion. Duh. Two weak guards are stationed at the door, probably new guys.
M2: Foyer, leading left into a coat room and right into a washroom. One non-combat attendant in the washroom, one of the outside guards comes inside every once in a while to check things out. Maybe he's chatting up the cute attendant girl?
M3: Main entertainment room, the master of the house is hosting a party of some kind. The room is also heavily guarded, but in a quiet fashion. They think that if you go into or out of the home, you have to go through this room, and they're sorta right. 4 direct entrances means 8 armed guards, 2 at each entrance, probably 4 disguised guards walking around, and 2 more always with the master.
The stairs here lead up either onto a wide balcony of some kind, an observatory, a chapel, something which is enclosed yet also has access to the open air in some way. It's lightly guarded unless there's something valuable up there. Your thief may want to cat burglar his way up there, let him at it.
M11-M17: You come up with the minute details for the purposes of the infiltration, as this looks to be most like the "master's" side of the home. It would be as heavily guarded as the ball room is now, but they halved the staff to tighten up security elsewhere. Highest security is in the master's bedroom, the kitchen, and the supply room (M17), which is probably 1 to a room and a couple milling around the whole area. A couple millers are lazy and stop to shoot the shit and play cards in M17 or M15 if the player is lucky.

>>44892536
I just did this with last week's session; I textbook Tucker's Kobold'd them. Literally a cave they were already on their way to, tracking down someone who knew they were coming.

When they got there, they easily took down a handful of kobolds, while the rest retreated deeper and deeper into the cave. As they reached the back of it, cave ins on certain areas started, entire corridors filled with fire or the ground gave way to holes filled with Gelatinous Cubes. One player got dropped into a pit with three rust monsters, and got wrecked.

To escape, they basically dove into a pool of running water underneath a waterfall, and a few rounds of constitution saving throws and dexterity saving throws, got spat out of the mountain.

Basically, get creative, and give them problems you can kill with a sword or a fireball.

>>44892504
Have you played the DMG adventures?
Would you like to see new weapons?
What material would you like to see?

>>44898972
Every time someone asks about the DMs Guild, no one answers because /tg/ is full of shitters.

I have a small homebrew of weird weapons I'm thinking of fixing up and throwing on there. I also want to try my hand at making a small side adventure, but coming up with stuff is hard.

>>44899022
>but coming up with stuff is hard.

Coming up with shit is the easiest part. Cleaning it up (proper formatting), making it look good (attractive), and balancing it, are the hard parts.

>>44899071
Nah man, I've got a Word template I made that has all the formatting set up for me ahead of time. The problem for me is finding a starting point and running with it until it's done without getting bored and giving up.

>>44892970
>No fun allowed.
You sound like a boring guy to hang around with.

>>44899022
>shitters
in which way?
I remember this one anon being extra shitty to some author at the DMG without even reading his stuff. That way of shitter?

For ideas you can get whatever you come up with and add plot twists, cool places. etc.
Like.... a group ok kobolds started doing some mercenary work for a stone giant whos looking for an ancient tomb with an magical item made by his kin.
The giant likes to collect stuff.
Sorry, that was not a good example, I made that up right now.

Paladin helping the party is a bad guy.... but not really, the group is tricked by some evil cleric to think that the paladin is evil.

>>44898881
M4-M10: Two guards are roaming this area slowly, probably slacking off due to inactivity and a perception that they're wasting their own time doing this. However, they're two of his most trusted guards, and they rather like the master.
M4 and M5: Dining area. M4 is a veranda where extra tables and chairs can be set up for a summer feast. If this adventure takes place during the day, the area is being prepared for just such one, so there are many active servants, but no stationed guards.
M6: Servant leisure area. You may find some off-duty servants here who could be coerced into giving away information about the mansion.
M7: Big dry supplies closet. There wall is thin enough that the sounds of the main hall could be heard through it, though obviously muffled and difficult to comprehend (Perception check).
M8: Staff washroom. Not a lot going on here.
M9 and M10: Other staff leisure areas. M10 might be something akin to a training area and M9 might be cooking and cleaning staff.
M19: Staff quarters, mainly the kitchen staff.
M18: Guard quarters. They hired on temporary reinforcements to beef up security here, hence the mismatch in size.

>>44899122
>word template
the same that wizard gives or a better one?

>>44899350
The one that I put in the Mega but with the fonts switched out for similar ones that can be openly embedded and used for commercial use.

>>44899450
Wait, the fonts from the one in the mega cant be used?

>>44899450
>the in the mega
care to be more specific?

>>44899522
You can use them I guess, I just switched them out for my DMs Guild stuff to avoid any potential legal fuckery.

>hit enemy (it dies)
>sheathe sword

Next turn
>sheathe shield (using that turn's action)
>draw bow

Next turn
>draw arrow
>attack with bow
>repeat

Is this really correct?

>>44899537
Extras -> Homebrew Formatting.zip

>>44899022
>Every time someone asks about the DMs Guild, no one answers because /tg/ is full of shitters.

The DMSG is literally worthless. Oh boy, a website that hosts shitty homebrew, some of which is paywalled. Woo.

>>44898881
>>44899224
Thanks a ton. Saving me a LOT of work for tonight.

>>44899582
Yes. If you want you can drop an item for free instead of sheathing it, which can speed things up a bit. But this is one of the two reasons why fighters prefer javelins as their backup ranged weapon.

>>44899582
>sheathe shield
Kek

>>44899618
this

>>44897608
They also get more feats/ability boosts than anyone else, and Action Surge alone would make it worth dipping into and only gets better once you can make 6 attacks with it.

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>>44892523

keep changing

seriously. always watch what you do and try to always improve. Listen to podcast and people who give advice (a good place is the Mad Adventurer's Society, they have practically everything). read the rules and dmg (not all of it, just a little bit at a time, while you run your games). play with players who understand you're only human and you just got into this schtick. have some imagination. the encounters are MORE than what's on the statblock. make them come alive. that means messing with the rules. in fact, fuck the rules, throw them out the window. entertainment ala what your players like is the key. if they love lots and lots of combat give it to them. but it's probably more likely they want something with more substance. think about your players and what they want to see. or what will thrill them.

oh and never give up. also again, always change. never stay static.

you're also going to look and feel like pic related in the coming months

>>44900092
>more feats/ability boosts

There are only a few relevant ones, basically hard-capping the usefulness of that.

Yeah, you'll have GWM and 20 in your main stat 2-4 levels before anyone else. It's really not that big of a deal.

Action surge IS very dippable tho.

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>>44892598

>orc mother

dude I'd rather play as the Orc Mother. Why is she on an adventure? where are her children? are they great warriors now off fighting some war? does she wish to see them in their glory without their notice? does she wish for glory and adventure? does she wish to die on the battlefield?

>playing EK where DM will let me get all of my Extra Attacks and just trade one out for a spell once per turn
>grabbed Green-Flame Blade, Great Weapon style and Polearm Master

dis gonna be good

>>44900931
I'd make you trade two, but let you keep the bonus attack.

Anyway, keep in mind that you need spell sniper to use your reach with the polearm when you GFB.

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>>44893540
I just see a Half-Orc Minsc. It would be glorious.
>Less words, more axes!
>Come and smach you skull yourself evildoer, because I wont be so kind!

So bards get up to 8 spells (6 if you're college of Valor) from any class list they want. Are there any stand out options/synergies that wouldn't be able to be pulled off otherwise? Obviously one of them is going to be Wish when you hit 18, but I'm looking for something creative that I may have missed.

>>44892504
Hi guys, how long do you have your sessions? I just picked 5e and browsing through the books and official adventures I was surprised to see that the recommended session length is 2-4 hours. I played a lot of ADnD clones and we usually played for 6-8 hours, sometimes even longer. Shorter sessions are better for player concentration, but when you have one session every few weeks or months, you try to play as much as possible in one run.
So how about you?

By the way, I really like the 5e rules so far, will start visiting these threads regularly.

>>44901256
Not creative, but poaching smites and quiver from paladin/ranger makes your bard a better version of those classes.

>>44901383
When I had my original group we played d&d Next for around 4-6 hours per session, once a week. We did the same thing with Pathfinder, and we realized that the vast majority of the time was spent debating rules and talking OOC about a combat situation in both systems so..take that as you will.

>>44899618
This is my reaction when people post about it.

>>44901383
My old group we used to play 8+ hours a day, but this was irl and we were all friends so it was half wasted on bantering. Online in 5e I find you get a 4 hour session in, after that people get burnt out or have to go to bed or some shit.

>>44901540
Yeah, it's the same with us, out of the 6-8 hours maybe 1 or 2 hours were OOC. But I fear with the recommended 2-4 hours, the amount would be nearly the same, so I wanted to hear if someone is able to get it right. Maybe if you play with random people it's easier because everyone is more concentrated on the game?

>>44901008

I don't give a shit about the Reach, I'm taking it for the bonus attack.

>>44901632
Adding in a shot clock does help when doing combat turns, which are the main cause of slowdown in my groups. 30-60 seconds, DM decides what happens if you do something weird. This puts a bit more stress on the DM if you have players who like to improvise stuff (we had a ninja who would pull stuff like kicking sand into goblins' eyes and that kind of thing) but overall it works pretty nicely.

My conundrum:

Is it better to:

A) Railroad the players in between segments with heavy roleplay, and give them the illusion of choice which might effect dialogue, rewards, or or even their goal in general, even though they're going to end up in the same locations because that's what i've prepared

B) Full on railroad, where the NPCs are really the interesting characters, and my PCs are just there for the spectacle I've designed

C) Let the players do what they want, even though every session is drinking and whoring for luls.

What do you think about removing darkvision as a racial bonus (except from races that take a significant penalty from being in daylight)?

If I do remove it I'm not sure how I'd compensate, but I think most of the races that have darkvision (which is like every other standard player race) have enough bonuses that it makes up for it.

I want the darkness to be scary again

>>44901829
A mixture of A and C, with more of an emphasis on C. Let them know (via NPC) that something is up in the world like a lich or an invading goblin horde, and then let them do what they want to do. If they want to drink and fuck then they're going to be unprepared when the hordes show up. B should never be done under any circumstance.

How do my mates and I get started with no prior D&D experience without using Roll20 and the like or hiring some random to teach us?

>>44901829
Honestly (A) would be best. This isn't alwaysthe case but most times it feels as if players without any hint of where to go will always end up lost and confused as to what to do. You never want to full railroad but an open plot with a driven narrative is a good thing. For example, OotA is like this, where the story will progress in a certain way no matter what but your actions and decisions will affect the world around you and will affect what challenges you will face.

>>44901967
Don't take this the wrong way, but just have you and your friends meet up one day and read the PHB and whoever is going to DM should check out the DMG as well. It truly is the best way to learn. Also, 5e is alot simpler than any previous edition so picking up the basics should be pretty simple. Good luck and have fun.

>>44901967
Just get the starter set skim through the rules and learn as you go. You don't need to know everything all at once.

>>44901829
Why is it a conundrum? Play the game and see what approach your party favors.

>>44901383
We try to aim for 4~5, most last to about 7~8. My wife recently played with us on our last session, said she had a ton of fun, but also said:
>Holy crap now I see why it takes 8 hours for you guys to play. Everyone wants to do it THEIR way and everyone ends up getting in each other's way or arguing about what to do.

>>44901696
If a player begins to stall, I chime in with a slow, "FIVE....FOUR....THREE...." that usually helps make them finalize their decision. Also I've started each combat turn with:

>Dude A, now it's your turn
>Dude B, your up next

>>44902036
Is it better to start with house rules and then work our way into the more complex stuff? Or start trying to adhere to the rules as much as possible

>>44902093
The game rules wouldn't be any more or less complicated, just a different set of rules.

The concept isn't hard.

DM: This is the scenario
Player: I do this
DM: Roll dice
Player: *rolls dice*
DM: You succeed / You fail, and this is what happens next.
DM: The scenario is now this

>>44902093
Check the starter set out, it should be in the OP mega. Otherwise do your best to stick to the rules, and if you're unsure make a ruling and a note of what the question was and look it up later.

>>44902067
>Dude A, now it's your turn
>Dude B, your up next

This has made such a big difference in my games. My players can be pretty bad about making up their damn mind when it comes to combat. If you give them the time to start thinking about what they want to do early on you don't have to feel bad about having them default if they take more than 30 sec to decide.

When to keep the order of initiative?

>party falls out of combat, and given a chance to make a decision on where to go or something

>Wizard wants to ritual cast something for 10 minutes.

>Rogue starts poking around the dungeon and pulls a random lever that might flood the passage

>barbarian screams and runs down the hall

>the bard is picking the dead bodies of loot

>everyone says this at about the same time
>do i resolve in order, or all at once?

>>44902093
Honestly, don't stress about doing things exactly right the first time. Everyone is new and learning, so if the DM makes a mistake everyone should understand.

My biggest mistake when I started DMing was stressing about following the rules perfectly. Really it just made me nervous and slowed down the game every time I had to look something up. If you learn some of the basics you can usually make gut calls on most of the checks or other things for the players and they'll likely never know.

Just always remember rule 0

>>44901696
Actually the combat isn't that much of a problem, I can handle this well enough and as >>44902067
said, if you ask everyone in turn and demand a clear answer, it shouldn't take long.

I thing in our case the thing that takes the most time is decision making in trivial or non-essential things. And sometimes the players are afraid to make a decision and then discuss it over and over.

>>44902252
You only need to get initiative rolls when combat starts and you need to micromanage what happens in what order. All of those things can be handled without needing to take it down to the minute level. If the rogue does flood the passage and people start drowning or something like that, then you would take initiative to see when people start drowning and how they handle the situation.

The rule of thumb is, if you don't need to have everything done step by step in short intervals to manage time, don't roll initiative. Just go around the table and ask what each person is doing before resolving what happens.

>>44902307
What's rule 0?

>>44902252
Maybe have you players get ambushed by monsters for being idiots and splitting the party into 3 groups for no reason.

Why is the Battlerager from SCAG so shit?

>>44902381
The word of the DM is final.

>>44902405
Because the SCAG is pretty shitty.

>>44902381
That all the other rules aren't written in stone and the DM can change them.

>>44902332
This happens in every group I've been in and DMed for.

It might not work every time, but sometimes introducing changing circumstances or having some in-game time-sensitive challenge present will force the players to be decisive.

Sometimes they'll argue for an hour about which inn they're going to stay at when they're virtually identical, and that's just something you have to deal with. You can always just say "Guys, the sun is setting and your characters are standing around arguing in the street and causing a scene, what are you doing"?

Often times someone will back down and say "fine, whatever - we'll go to YOUR inn" and from there you can move on.

>>44902252

>Mage-face begins casting Comprehend Languages
>McStrings crouches down and begins thumbing through the orcs purse
>Stabby hits a three-point crouch, and begins slinking off down the passageway
>As he does this, Rage-Face runs past him screaming.
>McStrings finds about three-fiddy gold
>Stabby grasps a lever and pulls it.
>Grinding noises are heard, and water slowly begins to pour in from the cracks of the walls.
>Splashing is heard as Rage-Face comes running back towards the group, mouth wide-open, screaming.

>>44902449
Purple Dragon Knight is shitty too, my god. Were they afraid they'd release something overpowered?

>>44902472
this is beautiful

>>44902381
What >>44902429 and >>44902456 said.

As the DM your word is final - if a player doesn't like it they are welcome to discuss it after the game, or they can leave.

Rule 0 only applies if you're being consistent and trying to be fair. Arbitrarily deciding mid-game that something should be different from the rules can lead to backlash, so if you're thinking about deviating from the book, bring it up with your group first.

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Okay guys, since most capstones are SHIT, I want ideas for better capstones. Give me your best for each class.

>>44902627
Ranger can summon the Megazord once per long rest

>>44902627
>implying you'll ever even make 20

>>44902627
The Bard capstone makes me cry. If they wanted it to be super inspiring I'd say it should be something like your Inspiration die becomes 1d20 and can be given out at will.

>>44902687
>Complaining about bard
>Ever
Hyuck hyuck

>>44902685
Pretty much this.

>>44902740
I know it's ridiculous, since Bards are already good at everything..but I can't help but feel salty that your reward for getting to level 20 is that you get a use of Inspiration whenever you roll initiative if you're already out. Let's face it, that's never going to be the case.

Running a game in a week from now.

What should I run? Space fantasy, pirate swashbuckling, or just run OotA? I already have most of the first two settings built up, but I want to know which sounds like it will keep my players invested in the world long enough.

>>44902880
What do your players want to play?

>>44902880
It would be space fantasy for me, you can add some piratey stuff if they want that as well. But I think space fantasy is both easier to pull off and has more potential.

>>44902915
>>44902923
Anything really

They have no real preference as long as its not pure combat or pure social

>>44902616

>Mage-Face finishes spell and still doesn't understand what the fuck is going on.

>>44902963
>They have no real preference
Ask them again. If they give you the same answer, pick your favorite.

You haven't said much about your settings, so I really can't help you there.

>>44901383
For us: 4-6 hours twice per week is the dream, 2-4 hours once every two weeks a frequent reality.

I don't think this is system dependant, because it hasn't changed over years of playing wargames, vidya, and RPGs.

>>44903101
Sure, it's not dependent on the system, it's just that I found the range of 2-4 hours in the official materials, so I was wondering if it's something widespread among 5e players or something.

Anyone got any of the older basic rules for 5e? Something that isn't 100+ pages would be nice.

>>44903606
The rulebook from the Starter Set is in with the adventure in the Mega.

>>44903633
I've got it, I just kinda wanted something that's just text. PDFs run really slow on my PC.

>>44903736
Outside of that, the basic rules have always been the 100+-page PDF. There's an HTML SRD run by the d20pfsrd guy (http://www.5esrd.com/) but it doesn't contain everything (since the SRD doesn't contain everything).

>>44903026
Honestly the pirate one is just generic pirate shit. The space fantasy setting is basically Star Wars level of civilization, minus the core worlds, and then D&D magic is purposefully left mostly unexplained besides "radiation side effect" and "what inside a black hole". Warp space type travel that's equivalent to 1 day to travel 1 light year, and then centring the "World" around our sun, with around a 40-ish light year radius for planets and shit. Most science is either tech from before humanity fucked itself over that somehow works, or alien. Idea is that there was some big event where humanity literally almost killed itself. Earth's population somewhere around 30 million because of it. Other planets have more-or-less. Once highly populated ones like Venus or Mars are a few million, most colony planets have less than 500 000 people. There's no central government anywhere, mostly city states. Most people don't even know shit about anything off-world, besides, and the only people who really travel outside of systems are adventurers, or the rare traders.

TL;DR humanity nukes itself and "almost" goes extinct, and humans and alien friends explore the solar system and beyond (that's less than 40 light years), and do shit.

>>44903900
>alien friends

What kind of friends?

>>44903765
Huh, I guess I was thinking of the starter set after all. Thanks.

>>44903969
You know, humans go out in the universe and... dance with everybody.

>>44903969
Reptilian Chitinous Space elves, colonies of comprised only of humans with dwarfism isolated for a few hundred/thousand years, cockroaches, warforged, space orcs with victorian-era mannerisms, Giff, thri-kreen/gnome/kobold things.

>>44903736
The SRD was released as a plain text pdf and has everything you need.

Why would anyone say no to green flame blade + sneak attack with an arcane trickster when in the same group there's a worcerer/warlock abusing twinned eldritch blast and a GWM berserker?

>>44904244
Do 5 minutes of math and prove it won't break anything, then show your DM.

>>44904244
I don't know. Why did he?

>>44904244
>GWM berserker?
This is not OP.

>>44905232
No, is not OP but it deals more damage than GFB+SA 24/7

>>44901390
>Takes a bonus action to smite.
>Takes concentration to smite.
>Can only smite once per turn.
>Can only smite with one spell level.
You ain't a paladin.

Swift Quiver is just overrated.

How many NPCs should I flesh out for an intrigue Eberron campaign? So far I've got three antagonists, a potential ally and a neutral individual.

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>>44901383
I would go longer than we normally do, but normally we meet up at 6 or 7, somewhere in there, eat a bit of food and chit chat, then get playing until around 10. So probably 2-4 hours. We play every wednesday or thursday, so once a week.

>>44905512

Make players come up with NPCs

>>44905505
Swift Quiver definitely isn't overrated. As a Valor Bard you have 4 attacks and range. All can be Sharpshooter'd. And you can continue making 2 of those even if you cast a spell. Like Fireball that you also stole with Magical Secrets.

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I wanna run a City Watch-esque campaign, but I'm not sure what to do with the PCs. Should I just make them Fighters, but cap them at level one? Or is there a "Town Guard" class? Just to be clear, I want minor threats like a pack of goblins or a large bandit gang to be a big deal.

I also wouldn't mind a "Hedge Mage" type class, but that's probably too much to ask for.

>>44905376
Just saying that there'd be better examples.

The sorclock was sufficient.

>>44905627
4 attacks at range*

>>44905667
>Just saying that there'd be better examples.
This is not an example, is what is happening right now in my table, we have a sorlock with EB shenanigans and a berserker with GWM (and PM and god awesome rolls) who deal way more damage than me, yet I can't use GFB and Sneak Attack at the same time becuase reasons, and no, the GM didn't give me more reason that "No, because I say no".

The question was rhetoric though, the result was going to be me leaving the game nomatter the answer.

>>44905576
How would that work exactly? I think they would start to feel that the game was completely arbitrary.

>>44905641
Have them be a city guard for the city of brass, or Sigil

Just finished the starter set with a bunch of new players and a new DM. She's running HotDQ next. So far our party consists of
>Half-Orc Assassin (Rogue)
>Human Assassin (Shadow Monk)
>Gnome Lore Bard
>Tiefling Beastmaster Ranger
>Human Crossbow Fighter/Warlock
How fucked are we?
>tfw no real melee

>>44905821
Your DM's a dick, we get it, but if you're gonna leave, leave. You aren't proving anything to anyone by storming off after making a scene.

>>44905821
>>god awesome rolls
>blaming the dice
I was on your side until this. Git gud.

>>44905627
Haste is better for its level. Animate Dead is absolutely better. If you hit a decent group, conjure volley is a better use of the slot and time, even when you're a shitty gimmick character with poor Cha. You're a full caster spending your time, concentraion, and highest spell slots on dealing worse single target ranged damage than a fighter.

>>44905505
I think poaching one smite spell (banishing probably) is a good idea for some paladins. maybe whatever the one that causes blind is called (is it just blinding?). they're powerful, scale, and 1 up the action economy by giving you a powerful attack and a spell all in one.

though if you don't you're also totally fine.

side question which i'm sure has been asked already: what do you guys think of the UA bard college of blades? any good?

>>44902685
Implying I haven't. Multiple times. With your wife.

>>44905992
>assassin rogue
Atleast somewhat viable
>shadow monk
Absolutely useless. The rogue is going to make him feel completely useless.
>lore bard
It's a bard. Unless he's retarded you actually have something decent
>beastmaster ranger
Worst option you can choose in the entire PHB, besides maybe Wot4E. Useless
>fighter warlock
>not being a GWF, fiend bladelock, abusing hex and armor of argathys

3/10

>>44893661
A fully grown red pseudodragon

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>>44900759
Old Orc woman roaming the countryside after her Human husband of many years died. She's going to roam the land and see all of her children before she returns to her homeland to kill as many of her (former) kin as possible in retaliation for banishing her all those years ago.

After she says goodbye to all of her kids, she fully intends to go to her husband's side again.

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>>44892842
This basically describes my first serious 3.5 character. He was a barbarian that lived up in the mountains when orcs kidnapped his wife. He then enlisted the aid of a group of adventurers to save his wife.
their faces when it turned out the wife was an Orc and the orcs that abducted her disapproved of her marriage to a human and we're bringing her back to the tribe

>all these half-orcs with orc mothers
>tfw my half-orc was raised by emotionally-scarred rape-victim orc dad

It was made to insult a tumblrina in our party. She left after the first session, and playing a "wouldn't hurt a fly" kind of character who was a barbarian was pretty fun.

>>44907013
>half-orc by rape
every time.

it gets old after awhile man. trying to mix it up in here.

>>44907158
Half-orc by an orc tripping and falling on a woman?

>>44906559

that works

her former kin? you mean her orc family?

My party member is a ranger who just took beastmaster and chose a boar. I don't want to have to talk him into changing his mind because it looks fun for him, but he already feels useless due to his luck with dice rolls. What can I bring to our DM to make his choice not useless?

>>44907269
Yeah, I like to think that she ran off with the Human because she loved him and her old clan came looking for her for a long time, made their lives a living hell for many years.

They had four or five half-orc brats and raised them all well and sent them on their way. She-Orc and her husband spent the rest of their days living a relatively nomadic lifestyle (because they'd gotten used to it and kind of liked the traveling) and the husband finally dies. She decides that she's lived many years by his side, and doesn't see any reason to live without him (not necessarily a mopey, angsty, suicide bullshit angle, more of a 'well the person who I spent all my life with and never wanted to be without it gone, I guess it's time to go too' sort of pragmatic-oh-well-it-is-what-it-is sort of angle.

So she chooses to go down swinging.

>>44907210
The explanation I gave was that it was some crazy sadistic female wizard.

Either way it caused the landwhale to blow "her" top and she left 10 minutes into the session because she couldn't handle the sexism.

>>44907418
find a druid to awaken his beast and convince your dm to let it start taking wizard levels

So I know I'm really behind on this, but I just read the Sword Coast stuff and had a quick question about Green Flame Blade. You could choose to be a High Elf Rogue and take GFB as your racial cantrip and it would be completely compatible with Sneak Attack and Assassinate, right?

Has anyone ever had experience with a player taking an aquatic creature as a familiar? How would that even work? Would you just keep it in a jar all the time?

>>44907683
I think we just had a poster ask this a day or two ago. As I recall, the answer is yes.

Need Noblemen guests to populate a party with, go:

>Iordric Redwill
>Gaunt Middle-aged Half-Elf
>Obsessed with olives

>>44908175
Are you thief mansion anon? Might as well post this next thread.

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>>44892598
My half Orc druid had an Orc mom.
We think dad was half elf...
Not sure.
Mom was a Druid too.
They were both in Bear form when my character was conceived.
He doesn't know more, the thought of his mom fucking in Bear form sorts squicks him out and he doesn't like to dwell on it.

>>44907683
Anything that you can activate on an attack, you can do with it. Smites, Great Weapon Master, Battlemaster things, etc.

New thread

>>44908464
>>44908464