/5eg/ D&D Fifth Edition General

>>46591050
No, never, though with how most of them are acting towards my character, I'm eagerly searching for situations where I can.

>>46591050
>How have you almost let your team mates or players die?
I went after the glass eyes of a statue and collapsed the ceiling on them.

In another case, I was a bard and tried to take care of the zombies instead of healing the downed fighter. Low levels are tough but exciting.

>>46591094
Lost Mines?
I eagerly anticipate the opportunity.

What does size effect in this game?

>>46591235
Carry weight

Ability to shove/grapple other things

Ability to use heavy weapons

The space you take up and how big of a space you can squeeze into.

Would you like to see more cantrips like Booming Blade/Greenflame Blade? If so, what should they do?

>>46591050
Is Sorclock cheese still properly cheesy or have they come out with something else?

xth for CR is shit

Had a party of 4 against a CR 8 Hezrou and the only thing that caused them any problems was the wild mage firebombing the party twice in a row.

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Added some new features, changed some old ones. Tried to reduce all the heavy handed roleplaying stuff and just provide functional rules that encourage roleplay but don't require it.

Thoughts?

Next step will be adding in some poisons, and more familiar options for the Pact of the Chain.

Also, I'd like to add one or two invocations for each of the pacts I just added.

>>46591285
You call cheese dealing slighly less damage than a paladin, fighter or ranger?

>>46591285
They didn't change a thing because it isn't a big deal.

>>46591300
Any encounter based on a party wailing on one creature is going to break the system unless said creature is based around being fought individually like a dragon or creatures with lair/legendary actions.
CR works great when you balance the encounter on multiple creatures of a lower CR harassing them not when it gets maybe two actions in while the party nukes it down.

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>>46591050
>How have you almost let your team mates or players die?
>players
OP, should we be concerned?

I've seen a handful of homebrew pdfs bouncing around that I keep forgetting to save, anyone mind dumping them? Also should we start putting them into the Mega Trove?

>>46591576
There's supposed to be a Dropbox for them in the homebrews section in the OP.

>>46591576
The mega trove should be kept pure.

>>46591050
There's my new pic for my totally edgelord looking tiefling who in reality is a swell, generous, optimistic and even naive paladin.

>>46591702
Better than GOOey bladelock

>>46591050
So I'm using the cleric character sheet in the OP and I am wondering where I list my spells.

>>46591954
Never mind, found the form.

I want to run a pre gen for my group, but a short one, one that would only be a few sessions long, any recommendations?

Anyone have any thoughts on how to make good use of Web in combat?

>>46592086
I would check out some of the adventurer's league stuff, some look alright but I haven't run any myself.

>>46592116
It's a lesser wall spell. Use it to divide an encounter in half.
>>46591576
Anything you're looking for in particular?

>>46592116
wut? just use it? it's a pretty straight-forward spell.
it restrains a ton of baddies either directly (casting on them), or you can use it as area denial to prevent them from charging squishies (or anybody else)

As a DM, what's the best way to handle the players (and myself) wanting to skip from level 4 to level 10?
I'm mainly concerned if wealth, gear etc is going to be a problem if they didn't go through those levels organically.

Glaive
>1d10 slashing
>Heavy, reach, two-handed
>6lb.

Halberd
>1d10 slashing
>Heavy, reach, two-handed
>6lb.

Pike
>1d10 piercing
>Heavy, reach, two-handed
>18lb.

Why the hell does a pike have triple the mass of a halberd? I may have a horrible misunderstanding of the actual properties of these weapons IRL because I'm basing my understanding off of their properties in Dark Souls. Any weapon experts able to clear this up for me?

>>46592116
First have a nice connection or wifi so you can browse while in combat, it's hard to search for stuff while it's your turn without making everybody wait for you.

>>46592377
Oh it's this guy again.
4 suits of plate armor in Death House amirite?

Am I reading Web correctly in that a creature makes a DEX save if it starts in the web, then gets to make a STR save on the same turn to break free? I feel like that really reduces effectiveness.

>>46592377
>Why the hell does a pike have triple the mass of a halberd?
Dude, it's DnD, they never got the weight and size of weapons right, listen, they think katanas weight 6lbs when in reality they didn't even reach 2lbs.

>>46592377
dnd is dumb

>>46592360
Skipping levels is always going to result in less equipment and wealth than if you did the levels.
But if you actually did the levels, those bundles of items you have are probably going to be fucking garbage nobody wants. Players usually get to pick what they want when starting with magic items, so the quality of items is much better.

>>46592297
>wut? just use it? it's a pretty straight-forward spell.

I guess I should clarify. I've been building a character that Webs and then auto-sneak attacks (given the web in fact restrained) with Green Flame Blade, dealing an extra 2d4 damage as the web burns.

Can you think of anything clever that takes advantage of the Web's effects?

>>46592400
dat reading comprehension

>>46592453
>Green Flame Blade
>The webs are flammable. Any 5-foot cube of webs exposed to fire burns away in 1 round, dealing 2d4 fire damage to any creature that starts its turn in the fire.
This tactic may not work in the way you think it works.

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>>46592377
I don't know why they decided to describe it as a pike instead of just a long spear, pikes are long as fuck to the point of unwieldiness out of formation

>>46592516
my turn, green flame blade melee attack
>melee weapon damage
>fire damage (web exposed to fire)

restrained creatures turn, strength check to end restraint
>starts turn in burning web, takes 2d4 fire damage
>strength checks, can leave if success, otherwise, can leave on next turn as the web will have burned away

Am I missing something?

I made a whole party of DMPCs and am introducing them one at a time

The first one to be introduced, yesterday was a half-elf mastermind rogue, they absolutely loved him

I don't know what all the DMPC hate is, as long as they work behind the scenes they work great

>>46592516
As DM, I think that's dumb. I'd rule the burning takes a turn (one full go-round until back at the GFB user's round). The round system is just an abstraction anyways. Everything is taking place in roughly the same 6 second period.

>>46592576
He's saying the fire might end before it gets to the restrained creature's turn. In fact, it will end, if the restrained creature isn't immediately after your turn.

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>>46592377
Pike is way longer than the other two. Think size of Uber-Ornstein lightning rod.

>>46592609
They almost never work behind the scenes. They almost always end up as an overpowered DM self-insert.

>>46592377
DnD is pretty retarded with weapons, as well as minutiae in general (how much you need to eat, weights etc)

>>46592609
>as long as they work behind the scenes they work great
A DMPC is a DM-controlled player character that is an integral part of the party. You just made an NPC with PC rules and are having them do shit off-screen.

>>46592621
>it's all taking place at the same time, in the same round
>but not here, when there's burning happening. that round happens immediately.

ok

>>46592609
If they're working behind the scenes they aren't DMPCs hombre.

A DMPC is by definition an NPC that tries to steal the spotlight from real PCs. What you're doing is using NPCs the way they're meant to be used.

>>46592623
Oh, shit. Pikes are pretty bad-ass. Are the pikemen in the back just there to replace casualties?

As a DM, how do I go about making a Patron NPC that joins the PCs on their adventure while not engaging in combat?

Right now my plan is that the PCs meet a Cartographer that needs their help finishing his map by exploring an unknown location (cursed island filled with undead pirates)

The Cartographer is not a fighter, but encounters will happen.

>>46592670
No, they're anti-air protection against gryphon cavalry.

>>46592657
No, that does happen immediately, as does the damage it causes. It's silly to say that something that was burned by a giant flash bonfire doesn't take any damage if it reacts slowly.

I guess a better way to reflect that would be to cause the fire damage to immediately hit it.

>>46592668
DMPCs are just characters the DM uses to play the game in addition to the other players. You don't necessarily steal the limelight with them, but most of the time you do. However, they can be done in a way that works.

>>46592657
There are plenty of effects that last until your next turn. That doesn't mean they don't fit within the 6 second time frame, just that their effect was extended to make sense for the ability.

>>46592747
Whenever a fight starts, have the cartographer run away and hide while the PCs take care of things.

>>46592769
That makes no sense, the DM is already playing by virtue of being the DM.

>>46592621
>>46592657

It says "burns away in 1 round", not "burns away in one turn", so the creature would be starting its turn in the flaming web no matter what if I understand correctly. Am I mistaken?

>>46592747

Stat him as a level 20 wizard in case the players get any cheeky ideas.

>>46592747
Do just what you said: the guy exists, but he doesn't fight.

Have him hide or panic or get distracted/frantic when the party is attacked. Stat him as a 0-level human with a modest mental stat spread and proficiency in perception, survival, and with Navigator's Tools.

>>46592876
He's not playing as a player though. Have you ever DM'd before? There's definitely a desire to just play the game rather than run it for a lot of people. If you haven't played as a DM, you can't really talk.

We aren't some sort of infinitely patient computers that exist solely to simulate a fantasy sandbox for you. Some of us do actually want to play the game.

>>46591050
Discord server is back? Eeew....

>>46592961
It's been back for a while, anon.
Just don't go there if you don't like it.

>>46592273
I'm the guy who asked for the neogi stuff then forgot to save it.

>>46592953
That doesn't make sense either. How can you play the game as a player while also being the DM? You already know everything that's going on behind the scenes. Where is the fun in that?

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>>46593048
Here you go. Neogi, tsochari, and unspeakables.
I'm also working on an elder brain, if you're interested in that.

>>46592401
It's confusing, but you are misinterpreting it I believe:
>Each creature that starts its turn in the webs or that enters them during its turn must make a Dexterity saving throw. On a failed save, the creature is restrained as long as it remains in the webs or until it breaks free.
>A creature restrained by the webs can use its action to make a Strength check against your spell save DC. If it succeeds, it is no longer restrained.

So it would go like this:

Creature A's turn
>Creature A casts web on an area that contains Creature B

Creature B's turn
>Dex saving throw

>>Success, Creature B begins its turn in the web but not restrained
>>>can make attacks and whatnot without disadvantage
>>>can move at half speed to exit the web

>>Fail, the creature starts its turn restrained in the web
>>>can make a strength check to unrestrain itself

>>>>Success, Creature B has expended its standard action and is no longer restrained
>>>>>can move at half speed to exit the web
>>>>>can use bonus action
>>>>>can't attack

>>>>Fail, Creature B has expended its standard action and is still restrained
>>>>>0 movement speed
>>>>>can use bonus actions
>>>>>can't attack

>>46593109
You don't know how the dice turn out anon. knowing the behind the scenes stuff is a problem for most DMs who try this, as they can't separate it from their character. But for good DMs, its fairly easy to keep things like that separated.

>>46593109
Yeah, it's not much but it's something

For me it's just a way to move the story forward since I have a party of idiots

>>46593215
That might be railroading, anon. Careful there.

>>46592413
Hey katana guy

Rolled 3, 6 = 9 (2d6)

>>46592400
Explain, pls

>>46593168
What's your process for making the pdfs look nice?

Rolled 3, 5 = 8 (2d6)

>>46592553
Just like that anons dick.

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>>46593270
I didn't make this one. I only found it.
My PDFs look much worse, like pic related.

>>46593270
It's almost assuredly done with http://naturalcrit.com/

>>46593302
Whoa, that's awesome. Totally using it.

>>46593232
It's a sandbox campaign so they don't have to do what the guy says. They just have a nasty habit of completely ignoring EVERY SINGLE GODDAMN CLUE that isn't directly related to their individual hook unless it's shoved in their faces

>>46593302
hot damn. thanks anon.

>>46593291
that doesn't look bad at all anon.

>>46591427
This is one of the most interesting homebrews I've seen since the release of 5e.

>>46593394
thanks! do you have any suggestions?

>>46593380
Aww, thanks! I used another template, but I'll definitely be using naturalcrit from now on.
If there's anything else you're looking for, I might have it.

>>46588983
Can you upload that?

>>46593168
Thanks very much, keep up the good work!

Is there any skill or feature that gives PCs advantage on combat initiative rolls?

>>46592273
>>46592297
>>46592516
>>46592621
>>46592657
>>46592769

I'm thinking of taking Magic Initiate (Wiz) or Ritual Caster (Wiz) so I can get a flying familiar, and use it in this strategy as follows (assuming that the creatures remain restrained and level 8 rogue):

My 1st turn:
>Cast Web on area containing creatures

My Familiar's 1st turn:
>Throw oil flask at creature
>fly away

My 2nd turn:
>run to square 10 ft from oiled enemy
>Green Flame Blade halberd (reach weapon) strike oiled creature
{
>1d10+dexmod piercing (halberd)
>4d6 sneak attack (rogue)
>1d8 fire damage (GFB)
>5 fire damage (oil)
>web aflame
}
>run away, cunning action to hide

Creature's turn:
>2d4 fire damage (web aflame)
>5 fire damage (oil)

For a total damage of:
1d10+dexmod+4d6+1d8+5+2d4+5

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>The main villain casts a spell on the party that sends them three hundred years into the past
>The ritual backfires and sends the villain back in time with them
>The party will never be able to return to the present day unless they work with the villain against a common enemy

Is this a terrible idea? How would your players handle this situation?

>>46593632
The spell Enhance Ability (Cat's Grace) gives the target advantage on Dexterity checks, which is what initiative rolls are.

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>>46593632

>>46593647
Sounds decent, but beware them killing the main villain anyway.

>>46593668
Initiative roll is not an ability check

>>46593632
Barbarians get Feral Instinct at 7th level, which gives them advantage on initiative rolls.

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>>46593729
Yes it is.
PHB 189.

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>>46593729
>When combat starts, every participant makes a Dexterity check to determine their place in the initiative order.
Read the book you dumb motherfucker.

>>46593729
it's literally a dexterity check.
see pg 177, or 189.

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>>46593747
>>46593632

>>46593784
>>46593786
>>46593789
HIVEMIND

>>46593784
>>46593786
>>46593789
My bad, my DM has expressedly informed us to the contrary and (against better judgement) trusted his understanding of the rules.

I'll go hang myself for this great shame.

>>46593852
>my DM has expressedly informed us to the contrary
How is your DM overall?

>>46593852
*I trusted his understanding*

>>46593885
He kinda sucks. Our Dwarf barbarian with 7 WIS asked if he can improve his wisdom without taking a feat or ability score improvement and the DM told him that reading books on wisdom-based skills could help.

>spends 8hr/day downtime reading "Tome of Perception" and "Survival Guide" every day for like 35 days
>"Okay, you now have expertise in Survival and Perception"

Now for the other player in our game, the game has turned into:
>"How many days has it been, I need to record hours reading the "Tome of Perception""
>"Has it been a day yet?"
>"Do I have expertise in perception yet?"

>>46593633
So Rogues don't get proficiency with martial weapons. So no halberd/glaive attacks. I figured "oh, well rogues can probably use whips", but whips are not included in the rogue's proficiencies and are categorized as martial weapons. Fuck.

>>46594199
this is why it only lists tools and languages as proficiencies you can learn via downtime.

I'm playing a level 10 oathbreaker in an evil campaign soon and I have the feat Mounted Combatant. Is it worth taking Great Weapon Master considering that often I use my bonus action for spells and to control my skeletons?

The -5 accuracy and +10 damage would be great combined with the advantage I get on my mount, but the other part of the feat wouldn't be so useful.

>>46594452
The bonus damage effect is the bread and butter of the ability. The second effect is just icing on the cake. I'd say go for it.

>>46592516
Agreed, fire produced by a spell doesn't ignite flammable material unless the spell specifically states that it does so. There are only a few fire spells that do.

>>46595011
Web
>The webs are flammable. Any 5-foot cube of webs exposed to fire burns away in 1 round, dealing 2d4 fire damage to any creature that starts its turn in the fire.

Green Flame Blade
>On a hit, the target suffers the attack's normal effects, and green fire leaps from the target to a different creature of your choice that you can see within 5 feet of it.

Web
>webs exposed to fire burns

Green Flame Blade
>green fire leaps from the target to a different creature
Web
>webs exposed to fire burns

Green Flame Blade
>green fire leaps from the target to a different creature

Web
>exposed to fire

Green Flame Blade
>green fire

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If I get to play a Bard, I want to use Vicious Mockery to hurt enemies with terrible puns on top of roasting them. Would you allow it? A pun spewing Bard hitting enemies with jokes so terrible that they feel pain?

>>46595178

so fire ball, fire bolt, burning hands etc all have the text

>A flammable object hit by this spell ignites if it isn’t being worn or carried.

Green flame blade doesn't. It's not that big a deal but there's a pretty good argument that it wouldn't by RAW.

>>46595178
>different creature

Web is not a different creature. If you catch two people next to each-other in web you could use GFB to burn the other target and the webs they are trapped in. Otherwise your stuck with using a different spell or tactic.

>>46595264
Literally all the spell requires is a verbal component, and it's ranged magic.
I can't see any DM not allowing that.

>>46592769
DMPCs never work

Is there anything like gauntlets of orge power for Dex?

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>>46595403

>doing horde of the dragon queen
>dm turns injured monk into heterochromic badass monk
>monk and his master and turn into dragons
>every enemy attack per encounter is directed toward the monk
>monk monologues every time something happens to him or he does something

i want to get off this ride

>>46595403
Not him, but talk for yourself. My players like DMPCs and even want me to play one sometimes.

>>46595488
ok

>>46593647
They'd kill him

>>46595520
sick comment bro +1

>>46595488
Cool

>>46595485
Attack, die and then peace out from campaign telling DM he is a hack

>>46595613
>>46595520
>>46595403
If you really think DMPCs are always bad you just are or have bad DMs. A good DMPC doesn't steal spotlight, but instead rounds up a party combat wise.

You could for example play a dumb babarian who rarely talks and tanks for the party in battles if they would otherwise have no meatshield. He could also be used for some fun character interactions.

>>46595735
Thats not a DMPC its an NPC companion. A DMPC is specifically played like a PC by the DM. It never works

>>46595776
He levels up and has his own personality given by the DM while he is always with the party. It's a DMPC.

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>>46591576
I made this a day or two ago

>>46595735
>>46595807

what is the distinction between a dmpc and an npc, if the dm is playing the npcs?

if the dmpc is there to help the party overcome a challenge, the dm could just not put the challenge there in the first place.

if the dmpc is someone the players want to talk to, then the dmpc doesn't actually need to participate in overcoming challenges.

If he's a hireling combatant you don't even have to actually roll attacks or anything, you can just remove the enemies or reduce their hp.

a dmpc can only be a negative thing, because a positive dmpc is an npc.

So like is 8 INT average intelligence? Or slightly below?

>>46595971
Below. 10 or 11 is average for a human in all stats.

>>46595971
Slightly below. Average is 10-11.

>>46595884
If you have more characters in a fight the stakes seem higher. You are able to fight stronger enemies which you otherwise couldn't do. Using a DMPC is better when you have less players.

You can argue all you want what a DMPC and what a NPC is, but the choice of words doesn't matter. The important thing is that there is one more party member that just doesn't get as much spotlight as the others should get.

Does anyone know, whether the magic items in the DM-Guide are determined randomly.

I mean why is the ring of warmth just uncommon giving resistance to cold damage and cold weather, whereas a ring of resistance is rare and gives just resistance to a damage type and no extra effects?
Doesn't make any sense in my opinion.

>>46596083
Bad conversions, probably.

>>46595312

For the flame to leap from one target to another, it must both exist within the volume that the first target stood in and within the volume the second target stands over the course of the leap. There being webs in both of those volumes yields the fire interacting with the webs in both of those volumes.

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>>46591050
>go to CoS release event
>do Death House adventure

>rogue gets knocked out by a animated broom
>later our group of six gets technically TPK'd by child ghosts, monk gets possessed, monk kills rogue, barbarian knocks out monk, ghosts kill druid and barbarian, sorcerer has wild magic go off, grease goes off around her, crit fails balance save TWICE and takes enough falling damage from that to put her down (she honestly rolled four 1's in 5 rolls, 3 consecutive, it was something magically horrible, I watched it with my own eyes, one of the 1's didn't even count cause she was rolling to cast magic missile when she didn't need to... then the next roll was a 1 anyways.)

>3 of us dead, 3 of us knocked out, DM kind of surprised, gives us some mercy, tells us we're not dead (except barb who left early, fuck him), other 2 that died take 1d4 con damage, but says this all happens some hours later when you all wake up, ghosts stop attacking when we drop, they just wanted us to stay.
>turns out the ghost's attack did 3D6 damage and lowered your max HP by that much, making your death that much easier
>this was level 1

>go to lower level, this is the jump to level 2, there is many more encounters down here
>touching anything leads to a encounter apparently, if you run this, don't touch anything, fuckin seriously, it's the god damn aladdin treasure cave down here.
>we did every possible encounter cause greed
>we get jump on shambling mound, rogue does 118 damage with 3 crits, legit
>DM crits rogue, 1 shots in revenge and kills her with doing her full hp in negative hp, 2nd death in the same adventure
>revenge kill shambling mound
>altar wants one of us dead as sacrifice
>show rogue died, no dice
>refuse, entire house trying to kill us, have to escape
>during escape, 2 others drop from hazards, have to carry them, druid wildshapes into bear, carries 2 while i carry 1.
>we fucking barely make it out, jump to 3

I never had to deal with a more bullshit adventure in my life

>>46596043

The stronger enemies themselves are raising the stakes. You can put your party up against slightly stronger enemies and demonstrate they are stronger than the party's normal cr in any number of ways. Theoretically they have personalities and goals. Are they also DMPC's because of this?

>Using a DMPC is better when you have less players.
>Using an NPC is better when you have less players

Saying that doesn't distinguish an npc from a dmpc.

>You can argue all you want what a DMPC and what a NPC is, but the choice of words doesn't matter.

There is no actual difference between a dmpc and an npc. The dm inserts characters all the time and plays them all. A dpmc can only add complexity and reduce the percentage of player contribution.

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>>46596216
Did you at least remember to get the 4 full suits of plate armor completely usable by PCs, each worth 1,500 gold and giving 18 AC?

How strictly do people typically follow the rule for Wild Shape where you must have seen the beast before?
I feel like in most campaigns you aren't going to be fighting a lot of wild animals, so the druid's options would be pretty limited.
Or do people just handwave it away by saying they totally happened to see a polar bear during their druid training in the past?

>There is no actual difference between a dmpc and an npc
That's pretty much what I'm talking about. Why even argue about a difference if you say yourself that there is none. A DMPC is a party member that levels, unlike "normal" NPCs.

>>46592377
>no heavy reach two-handed bludgeoning damage Lucerne hammer
Why?

>>46596296
as far as we know there was no full suits of plate armor except one that was animated. and the DM brings up things we missed out on, i'll have to ask him about this. He also brings up that plate armor needs to be customized.

>>46596216
>child ghosts force party to attack each other
Wat, no? The possessed people get character flaws until they're not possessed anymore. That DM was illiterate.

>>46596343
If it's a common animal for the environment the druid grew up in, I let them do it. Otherwise, I have them roll a nature check, difficulty determined by the rarity of the animal and how different it is from the environments the druid has been in before.

>>46596362

Then your players don't like DMPC's, they like NPC's.

DMPC doesn't mean anything if it isn't pejorative.

>>46596535
What are you even talking about now? First we establish that there is no difference between DMPCs and NPCs and now you differentiate them again.

>>46596421
Yeah, that makes sense and I was thinking along those lines.
My main concern was while it's simple to say they saw something like an elk growing up in a forest, I don't know how common the giant varieties of animals are. Are they likely to have also seen a giant elk?

>>46596590
Although looking again at the MM it specifically says giant elk are rare, so maybe that's not the best example. But something along those lines.

>>46596296
That's not specifically stated to be a thing in the adventure. Just "Suits of armor" and they could always just be decorative armor.

>>46596571

Why is dmpc an initialism that exists if they aren't different from npcs?

>>46596667
I only just arrived in the thread but isn't the distinction one of execution? As in, a DMPC is generally the moniker bestowed upon an NPC that is a DMs special snowflake mary sue self insert piece of bad fanfiction.

>>46596667
A DMPC is an NPC that travels with the party like a normal party member. That doesn't mean he is not an NPC anymore, it only means that he gets level like all the players do.

If you hire someone for a specific mission, he will come with you, but has a fixed statblock. Unlike a DMPC he will leave the party sooner or later

>>46596706
>As in, a DMPC is generally the moniker bestowed upon an NPC that is a DMs special snowflake mary sue self insert piece of bad fanfiction.
The problem is that this is just the stigma DMPCs have, but they don't always have to be like this.

>>46596706

> As in, a DMPC is generally the moniker bestowed upon an NPC that is a DMs special snowflake mary sue self insert piece of bad fanfiction.

Yes, because anything else would be an npc.

Why is all the adventuring gear so useless.

>chain breaks on a DC 20 strength check
>a commoner can break a chain in less than 6 seconds by just pulling on it

>mannacles have 15 HP
>have you been bound with mannacles? just hit the ground with them a maximum of 15 times

>holy water can be made using an hour-long ritual that expends a spell slot
>ritual
>expends a spell slot

Although the Lock is pretty good
>doesn't have HP so it can't be broken
>as long as thieves' tools aren't available, the key is the only way to open it
>not even a strength check DC to break it

>>46593632
guidance works too but you have to know your getting into a fight before the fact.

>>46593729
I wish it wasn't an ability check would of saved me a 10 minute argument.

>>46596727
To reiterate my point let me make an example: In OotA you have 10 NPCs in the beginning who could all potentially join the party. They all have statblocks like normal monsters do, don't get stronger, and their goals are for the most part different from the PC's. You can play them as the DM or let players take control of them. But at some point their goal will be fulfilled and they will leave the party.

A DMPC on the otherhand would always stay with the party, his goals would be the same as the party's (leaving the underdark in this case). He has a character sheet like all the PCs have and levels up when they do.

Now you come and say that a DMPC has to be some kind of special snowflake. But being a special snowflake has nothing to do with being a DMPC. One of the NPC from OotA could potentially be way more important than a DMPC, it just depends on how they are played. Personality has nothing to do with the fact that they are NPCs or DMPCs.

>>46593852
I have a player who is obsessed with going first in the order and has a mini tantrum if someone else or the baddies go first. Sorry dice man get over it.

but he keeps trying to cast guidance retroactively, or casts it every minute so he can get an extra d4 really annoying.

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Can you make the decision whether or not to convert your bonus action to a second attack after seeing whether or not the first one hit?

>>46597149
Yes. You don't have to plan out your turn all in one go before executing it.

>>46597039
Argument about what?

>>46596216
The shambling mound is supposed to activate the alter after you refuse to sacrifice someone to keep it at bay.

and yes death house is supposed to kill you.

>>46597115
>casts it every minute
>there's no rule against this
>guidance can literally be cast 60*18=1080 times per day with no penalty
Wtf, WotC?

>>46596659
good ole modules couldn't be anymore vague.

>>46597215
too the point where I am you have it now shut up. I guess I wouldn't be mad but hes a cleric/bard doesn't use his initiative order to do anything useful other than getting the first hit on the baddies. If he did something like bless the party or debuff the enemies, I wouldn't bitch about it.

>lvl4 party finds a bag of beans
>plants one and spawns a pyramid
>fleeing for their lives from a CR16 mummy lord ensues
Good times.

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>>46597354
>too the point where I am you have it now shut up

Do you guys typically make your own world-maps for campaigns or use something established, like Faerun?

>>46597582
Make my own.

>>46592670
Formations of pike men used layers of pikes to make it so you never really were past the pointy bits of a formation.

Also, classical melee was always a balance of discipline and attrition. Reserves were an important part of battle tactics.

(Yes, sort of)

If I wear gauntlets of orge strength and it raises my STR to 19 can I then spend one point at lvl 4 and make it an even 20?

Can the gauntlets be upgraded?

>>46591050
>How have you almost let your team mates or players die?
I let a party of two players go into a demons castle on their own since my character was going to signal the rest of the expedition. I may also have promised the demon to not interfere for a sweet reward if they actually went in there without me, but that is besides the point.

I also climbed a tree to escape a pack of wolves at level 1 leaving only the paladin and another party member on the ground, while the rest that didn't fail their climb checks got dragged down from the trees when they leaned down to take swings or climbed down to recover our mates. I got eaten once I left my tree to help the remaining pinned paladin after everybody had been wiped and was moaning and calling me a coward.

I told the party paladin out of character to poke a dragon flying out of a cave with his spear as a joke, resulting in a lot of characters with nasty burns.
Same player kicked me into a gold mine that the local city had lost contact with, apparently I was 2 greedy for his holiness. I fell into a large amount of agitated rats that our GM had planned for us to find.

>>46597830
No.

Ask your DM.

>>46597830
Your str will stay at 19 unless your actual str is higher
Upgrading will depend on your DM, but isn't an actual rule

>Adventurer's League is now unironically using X cards

Fuck me.

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>>46598012
Fuck off with your dumb bait.

>>46598058
It's not bait if it's true.

One of my players picked Terran as an additional language he can speak. What speaks Terran that I can throw at them?

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>>46598468

>>46597582
Use with modifications.

>>46598468
Creatures from the Elemental Plane of Earth.

Or did 5E not restore that with the rest of the cool shit when 4E stomped all over everyone's extraplanar fun?

So, you know. Earth elementals and mephits, some Azer. Xorns probably understand it though I doubt they speak. Scorpion men. Gargoyles. Delvers. Dao (earth genies) and some Jann. The occasional Dwarf / Duergar / Gnome, and perhaps very rarely a minotaur.

>>46598468
Pretty much any earth elemental-like thing.
But honestly, they should have grabbed Primordial. It encompasses all elemental dialects.

>>46598468
Terran is a dialect of primordial

>>46598562
>Or did 5E not restore that with the rest of the cool shit when 4E stomped all over everyone's extraplanar fun?
From the look of 5e's great wheel, the Elemental Chaos still exists but the traditional four elemental planes exist on top of it.

>>46598562
>4E stomped all over everyone's extraplanar fun?

When did that happen? The Elemental Chaos still had everything else that the Elemental Planes had contained. Heck, it also covered the paraelements and such too.

>>46598562
>>46598620
5e is a mix of 3.5 and 4.

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A Powerful Wizard with a god complex decided to make a sentient race out of objects with True Polymorph.

What did he use?

I'm gonna make them a custom race for my players in the next campaign I run.

>>46598684
Caltrops

>>46598684
ORIGAMI FIGURES

>>46598684
Stuffed animals.
I can see the reactions now.

>>46598655
It's Thanksgiving and you've just sat down at the table full of all your favorite foodstuffs. There's some turkey, some mashed potatoes, some greenbean casserole, pasta salad, cranberry sauce, and stuffing there, and a gravy boat, all nice and neat in their separate containers.

You put some mashed potatoes and gravy on your plate, then pass your plate around so that family members nearest to the various dishes can add them to your plate. 4E is all of the assholes who plop the cranberry sauce right on top of your fucking potatoes and let the gravy get into your pasta salad. Fuck that.

>>46596216
Don't attack children I guess

>>46598830

That analogy goes both ways.

4e's planar chaos is a delicious stew, rather than the ingredients just sitting alone.

>>46598562
>>46598620
All the elemental planes are back in 5e. Well, except for the negative/positive energy ones, I can't remember if they were called para-elemental or quasi-elemental planes. The positive and negative energy planes are no longer inner planes, they now exist outside and around the other planes.
But the other elemental planes are all there, they're just sort of arranged a bit differentially, a bit more akin to the 4e way. Instead of being completely separate planes they sort of border on each other, there's a map in the dmg. So in 5e you have the elemental borderlands, the pure elemental planes and beyond that you have the elemental chaos.

>>46598830
this isn't /v/
please don't shit up threads with retarded food analogies

>>46596964
Locks are tiny objects. Check out Objects in the DMG

>>46598829

Hah.

I like this.

>>46598857
Negative / Positive were just Energy Planes.
Para-Elemental Planes were between major Elemental Planes, while the Quasis were between the major Elementals and the Energies.

AND THAT'S THE WAY IT ALWAYS SHOULD BE.

>>46598893
>Teddy Bear Fighter
>Tigger Rogue

Can PCs with the hermit background pick an exotic language like Primordial or is that stuff solely for special characters? I have a hermit warlock and I figure it'd be good flavor rather than learning elvish or gnomish or some shit.

>>46598503
That's funny. I legitimately thought Earth was a place in D&D when I first saw that Terran was a language.

No one even uses the para elemental planes
No one at my FLGS had even fucking heard of the quasis and bitched I was introducing homebrew planes
Fuck everyone.

>>46598945
anybody can learn potentially exotic langs, as long as the DM allows it. (that's a rule under langs)
nobody has special access/restriction to em.

I'm going to be DMing a game of 5e for the first time in around a week. I have some experience as a player and I've DM'd a lot of 3.5/Pathfinder, but I'm worried that I'm not quite prepared enough with my knowledge of the mechanics. What should I look into to get ready for this?

>>46598945

It's up to the DM. My character is a Sage Wizard and the DM said it was perfectly fine if I had several exotic languages, because I mean he would obviously know some.

/tg/ my players didn't come today even though we scheduled a week in advance.
Can you show me the best homebrew you've found, or stuff you're still revising? I read that kind of stuff to cheer myself up.

>>46598906
Yeah, I know, the energy planes are just energy planes, I mean the elemental/energy crossover planes, the quasi-elemental planes, they don't exist in 5e. In the Great Wheel the energy planes were inner planes, which I why the quasi-elemental planes existed, but in 5e the energy planes are not inner planes, so there aren't any quasi-elemental planes.

>>46598857
>Instead of being completely separate planes they sort of border on each other
In 3.5X going backwards, the Inner Planes are separate, but they also share borders where you can physically move from one plane to another (assuming you can survive the energies and have a viable means of locomotion) without the need for more plane-hopping magic. The planes also reflect the combination of the bordering element the closer you get to them as well, despite all the planes being spatially infinite.

The Chaos was completely unnecessary unless you really fucking needed to have water and fire right next to each other, or some kind of Steam plane (which already existed between Water and Positive). And even then, elemental incursions were a thing, and you could find pockets of other (quasi/para) elements in planes nowhere near their element, they were just rarer and less long-lived; a water incursion that popped into the Fire plane would pretty much instantly poof into steam, but the super rare and particularly large ones could hang around for a bit.

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>>46599109

Sorry to hear that man.

I really liked this homebrew race, if for nothing else but the skeletons.

>>46599147
I was just explaining how it works in 5e, okay. there's no need to start ranting about why you hate 4e.

>>46599199
Man, that's gorgeous.
I'm currently trying to build an archivist subclass or full class. I've found a few good ones out there, but how do you think it should be done?

>>46598992
They're fags. All the Inner Planes are cool as shit. The official adventures that deal with them have to tone everything down in a way that really doesn't get across how fucking awe-inspiring and all-consuming their majesty is. In the fucking Fire Plane, you walk on solid, pressed fire, and the air is smoke and poisonous gasses that are so hot they'd set metal on fire in some places. There's pools of hyper-fire there that would burn the fuck out of even elementals, and dreadfully "cold" zones that are a MERE 200 degrees F. All the while, there's goddamn fire tornadoes spinning around and the ground at various places is slowly drifting along, irrespective from other chunks, on tiny islands of solid fire which float in rolling rivers and seas of the shit.

Then you get into a book where Drizzt and Pals go to the Fire Plane back and forth twelve times and it's like, "It is very hot and red. There is a metal spire to the east. Efreet are present. Let's move this story to the metal spire because it's a city and everything there works like a normal fucking city on Faerun except the people are red and on fire instead of peach and squishy."

Ask the average D&D player in 3.0 how strong they think any of the big four Elemental Gods are (Istishia, Kossuth, Akadi, Grumbar) or how big their worship is. They'd probably say "I dunno, pretty strong" and "tiny cults," with people familiar with Thay saying Kossuth is big there.

Except Kossuth, even discounting Thay, has something like the second or third largest church of all the fucking deities and could spank half of them to death at the same time if he felt like it. 4E and the Primordial stuff was actually a step DOWN in power for them, despite pretty much laying it out that they still make the other Gods look like little babies.

>>46599272
I like the mechanics of 4E but the cosmology and physical world changes were dumb.

>>46599278
First of all, calling people fags just makes you sound like you're twelve. Secondly, planes where everything is fire! The floor is fire! The sky is fire! Everything is fire! Is kind of stupid. That's just silly.

>>46599275
Not that guy, but I'd figure it's close to warlock in 5e. If you still want to make it it's own class or a different subclass, give them the ability to learn Wizard spells, but cast any written spell they find down through some sort of spell points.

>>46599297
Again, I was just explaining how it works in 5e. I wasn't talking about 4e. This a 5e thread.

>>46599394
I don't know why you keep viewing this as an attack on you or something. I'm not calling you a wrong idiot dumbass and arguing over something. Relax.

>>46599363
What if I told you the Plane of Water is a bunch of water?

Can anyone tell me why the heck the Curse of Strahd Digital Maps pdf is 923MB? Seems kinda excessive

>>46599518
>his game table isn't an 8K Ultra HD TV laying on its back with some plexiglass on top

>>46599518
It's Ravenloft. Famous for some of the most beautiful 3-d maps ever made.

>>46599518
They're hi-res images meant for print (at 300 DPI or higher) and there's a bunch of them.

>>46598945
I give many of my PCs Celestial. From the tiefling who learns it to appear like a devout follower of the gods to those who would persecute him, to my minotaur who knows it and Sylvan because he only really knows how to talk to higher powers and not to ordinary people

>>46598706
Personally, I think this one should win if only so I can imagine a bunch of caltrops humping one another.

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How many ball bearings do you need to use per 25 square feet area? A bag of 1,000 costs 1gp. I guess the assumption is that you use the whole bag each time?

>>46600219
Your assumptions look right
If they get sold in packs of 1000 and it describes covering a 10 square feet area, it would make sense that 1000 covers 10 feet. 2500 should cover 25 feet

>>46600317
Thanks for answering my question while also not understanding how to calculate area you fuckin dingus.

>>46600219
The correct answer is "ask your DM and it doesn't matter if he understands math because you ARE carrying 10+ bags of the things, aren't you?"

Quick, please, what's the name of a spell that grants some form of elemental damage resistance?

>>46600317
>>46600420
holy shit, no way /tg/ is this dumb. "10 feet square" as written in the book obviously refers to "a square of side length 10 feet" which is adequate to describe the shape's dimensions because of the property of squares of all sides having equal length.

25 square feet = the area of a 5 feet square

The area per gold piece is 100 square feet, so for 25 square feet, we're looking at 25 silver pieces and only a quarter of 1,000 ball bag.

>>46600219
10 feet square is 4 squares. 1000 balls cover 4 squares. 25 square feet is 1 square, because it's a square with a side of 5 feet, so 5 feet x 5 feet equals 25 square feet. So, you'll need 250 balls.

And if you're asking about 25 feet x 25 feet square, it'll be 25 squares. So, you'll need 25/10*1000=2500 balls.

>>46600570
absorb elements is one, I guess? in EE.

>>46600403
I might be drunk. whatever

>>46600636
Thanks. I think that'll do the trick!

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So I want to play a goolock that has either a beholder patron or an elder brain patron and works with a cult of warlocks that works to enact abberant plans among humanoid society. The patron's scheme is alien and passed down through some unknowable far realm entity.

Which would make a better warlock patron; and eye tyrant or an elder brain?

Is there any way RAW to get the mage hand to act on its own initiative?

>>46600792
Hire an NPC that can cast mage hand.

>>46600792
It's something you control. It would be flaming sphere moving on it's own initiative

>>46600788
I have always wanted to include beholders in my campaigns, but have never had the opportunity.

I've never included an elder brain, either, but the beholders are more iconic than the Illithid.

>>46600887
>>46600890
Yeah, I think I'm just going to need to take Find Familiar with Magic Initiate.

Do magic ability tomes exist in 5e yet? i know they did before.

>>46601190
Yep. They're in the DMG, in the list of magic items.

I actually included the Manual of Gainful Exercise in my campaign

It was written by the legendary strongman Marcus Torntoe

>>46601288
Thank babe. I love how helpful you are.

>>46601288
>legendary strongman Marcus Torntoe
ha

>>46601288
>>46601382

>moon druid t-rexes

Anything like the Spell Sorter in the OP for Feats?

>>46601620
no, but like all of the feats are just listed alphabetically in the PHB over the course of like 4 pages or whatever
What would you want in such a sorter? part of the spell thing is because it benefits greatly from a variety of filtering methods. Feats...less so.

>>46601645
Yeah, the spell sorter is so awesome, has made it so much easier to learn about/choose spells. I'm just being lazy, I hate scrolling through pdf. Would be cool to sort the entire PHB into a sorter like that in fact.

>>46600570
Absorb Elements
Investiture of Fire and Ice
Fire Shield
Feign Death
Hallow
Protection from Energy
Warding Bond
Primordial Ward

I think that's all of them...

Why. The fuck. Aren't whips versatile.

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>>46601813
>Wield a whip in both hands
>It hurts more
I think it's enough of a stretch that it hurts as much as a dagger or dedicated martial artist.

>he didn't do a dex run of dark souls II maining the old whip

Anyway, I actually mucked up the difference between "not two-handed" and "versatile". The whip being one-handable works for me.

>>46601876
>>46601813
>>46602018
I amend my complaint to "Why the fuck aren't whips light they could also stand to be versatile - two handing it allows you to put more strength into the strike?"

Is it weird that my Wizard is the tankiest member of our party?

We have a Moon Druid, a Monk (who is getting massive boosts to AC from magic items), and a Rogue, so it is not quite as bad as if we had fighters or paladins, but still...

>>46602110
I guess we found the guy who's never used a whip in real life.

>>46601813
Better question is this >>46602110
Gonna have to dual wield whips and silver daggers anyway when you get to Strahd, why not make us not have to homebrew it?

>>46602123
A little weird, considering you've got a Moon Druid on the team.

>>46602142
You could also just take the Dual Wielder feat. You do have reach with whips, don't forget.

>>46602123
Did you pump Con a lot?

Like it's possible, monk and rogue don't generally do well as tanks, it's easier to make them attack harder than defend harder. But stronger than a moon druid? Are you over level 6?

>>46602144
That's what I thought. Of course, he is about to get elemental forms, so that could be a big boost for his combat capabilities. I definitely think it will stop being so big when he gets forms tougher than the giant scorpion.

>>46602132
Are you fucking serious? I doubt that more than 1% of the population of this board has used any non-improvised weapon in real life.

Anyway, you average dude who, like your typical average dude, has used a whip many times in his life in real life, how do whip work? Why do whip no light weapon?

>>46602173
Speaking of that, is it possible to silver a whip? Either with a silvered tip or a thin silver wire going down it's length?

Screw it; I'm houseruling it in my game; from now on any finesse weapon can be mainhanded without the feat if the backup weapon is a dagger.

>>46602269
Honestly that should have been a default rule.

>>46602250
Why not? You're plating it with silver, and a good portion of the cost comes from the difficulty of plating a weapon with silver and having it perform as normal.

>>46602300
It's been how it worked since like 2E which is really weird to me. It still at most gives you the same as 2 short swords (or 2d4 and a reach attack).

I'm also considering giving proficiency in all finesse weapons to Rogue, Bard and Lock as a bone (because imo they should have whip in their class lists)

>>46602317
My GM's the sort who requires realism in his fantasy games whenever possible, and would most likely decline it since it sounds improbable without a real world example.

>>46602250
Absolutely. When whipping an animal, the goal is to hit the animal with the tip of it, which causes maximum pain.
>>46602228
Sorry for sounding like a dick. Let's assume that the whip you're using is about eight feet long (which given a reach in-game of ten feet isn't that unreasonable). The bullwhips that are used pretty commonly are about eight feet long, and are about six or seven pounds. While that may not be a lot of weight, that's three times the weight of a longsword. Another thing is a whip isn't a particularly agile device. It requires a large windup to effectively hit an animal with it and do more than just hit them with a rope. Trying to hurt someone with a whip in your off hand is a recipe for disaster.

>>46602178
Oh yes. My Con is fantastic (but so is the monk's; the bastard has like four abilities that are 16+ and the other two are 14). We just hit level 10 and haven't had a fight since that milestone (I took a level in cleric for medium armor and shield proficiency).

>>46602250
Yes. Heard of a cat-o'-nine-tails? Slightly different, but the concept applies. Silver studs on the end that would be silver and convert damage to slashing.

>>46602228
Not the samefag and not proficient in whips, but I am very familiar with them through friends and family (ranch life, ftw!). They don't work for wielding with two hands because the the whip is all about the finesse of getting the small strike area along the target at a high speed. The two-handed grip contributes nothing and actually would probably decrease the manual dexterity available.

Now dual-wielding whips? Difficult, but Awesome. No reason that shouldn't work, though I wouldn't call them a Light weapon...

>>46602373
>>46602317
>>46602250

Silvered tip and silvered studs along the length.

>>46602345
>Rogue
Hell yes. I'm playing my current Thief as a Belmontesque vampire hunter, and it turns out it's almost perfect.

>>46602373
Silver tipped and the whip has strands of silver thread in it.

Embroidery with metallic thread is a super old skill for upper class clothes.

>>46602385
>We just hit level 10
Oh yeah. Moon druid's tankiness takes a nosedive at high levels. Animal form is still very versatile, but it becomes more like 2E where nobody would think of fighting in animal shape.

>>46602373
Explain to him that its silver alchemical metal braided into an otherwise normal whip.

Then explain that probably all whips are braided with some sort of metal in them, unlike normal real world whips.

Proof: One stab from a dagger or knife kills people all the time, but I have never heard of a healthy man being hit by a whip one time and dying. They have identical damage stats in-game.

>>46602459
Will Elemental forms make that better? I took Artificer so the vast majority of my slots have been burnt healing the party (we were in a combat gauntlet, so it makes more sense).

>>46602478
>>46602417
>>46602410
>>46602385
>>46602374

Thanks for all the help!

>>46602374
>>46602385
Thanks guys (in reference to the whip knowledge).

You guys disagree about dual-wielding whips though. Is it possible and effective? I know that by asking this, people will just >videogames, but in DSII, the whip dualwield attacks were dang cool and looked plausible.

If not, is it arguable that a whip can be used for two-weapon fighting with a shortsword/dagger/handaxe/thrown light weapon/crossbow in the offhand?

What's the best race for a monk?

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Does this mean in 5e i gain a level? Or is it nerfed in 5e?

>>46602643
To put it in three words: Plausible, but Difficult. It is very much possible, but would require training to be able to wield such a difficult weapon successfully (hence why it needs the feat).

As for effective... That's beyond my ken. In real life? Probably not. In game? It could be good.

>>46602953
I'm going to be honest here anon, I don't think that having a 5% chance of instantly gaining a level is balanced for 5e.

>>46602917
Lightfoot Halfling, Wood Elf, Feral Tiefling.

Or, you know, whatever you want.

>>46602643
It's a bit like dual wielding guns in real life. Theoretically, it offers novel advantages over traditional styles, but requires so much training as to be absolutely impractical.

In a game? Well anything goes, so why the hell not?

>>46603037
I'm just in a bind because rogues don't get martial weapon proficiency except with shortsword, longswords, rapiers, and hand crossbows. Meaning I would need two feats to dual wield them. I guess my best bet is to just ask my DM for proficiency with whips and take the dual-wield feat.

>>46595834
Nice man

>>46595834
Bolting shit from other classes on doesn't count as a fix, Anon.

It's gone from being bad to boring.

>>46603124
Dip Fighter. It's generally not a bad choice.

>>46602953
That's... TOTALLY different dude. It looks like an AD&D item, nothing has been like that in almost 20 years.

>>46602917
>>46603105
Ghostwise Halfling (+1 Wis, telepathy), Aarakocra (if you can con the DM into allowing it!), Water Genasi (amphibious, swim speed, +1 Wis, +2 Con).

Wood Elf and Feral Tiefling, as an earlier posted said.

>>46597496
Glad I wasn't the only to catch that.

>>46593168
What about them GIFF buddy? Can't forget the giff!

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Can an elder brain be a warlock patron?

>>46603520
Sure, sounds fine for a Great Old One.

>>46596790
I'd like to throw in my 2c

A DMPC us different from a standard NPC because a DMPC is alloted a full share of XP not just partial/none

>>46603191
Was distracted with something, but it was meant to buff the Undying patron to be mechanically stronger and thematic in order to make it more appealing.

The fact that you find it boring while other people have approved this alternate version is just your opinion, which you're free to have.

>>46603621
Okay, let's say there's an NPC that for the purpose of determining experience is treated as a party member, but does not receive any experience themselves. Is that a DMPC? Does a DMPC necessarily have to level and gain experience to be considered a DMPC?

>>46591050
A friend of mine did a few times, playing a bard that does a lot of questionable stuff. First was a mold-covered piano (ported Death Frost Doom) which he played making the mold fly into the air and instantly kill one in the party, the rest taking heavy damage, or in my case no damage since I didn't step into the room yet.

Second time he sat on a throne in an underground cave with tons of dwarf statues bowing before it, which of course made them come alive and get angry since they king wasn't there and an elf was on the throne. He made his escape up the rope he came down (no one in the party followed him thank fuck), then another character had the great idea of slidding down the rope yelling "We are not your enemies!" staying 50 ft. away from them still. They shot him down and almost killed him, we found him again later paralyzed from the waist down from an axe in his spine and he never adventured again.

Oh, he also got a bloodmark which we barely removed in time with the help of those primordial serpents, which would cause him to turn into the second coming of Baal, god of murder.

>>46603671
> Look, everyone, look at me.
> Look how I'm taking the high road.

>>46603705
I would say no. I would even say you can have an NPC that makes some sort of advancement to keep up with the party without being a DMPC.

My personal opinion regarding what makes a DMPC is a matter of both intent AND implementation. The intent portion usually boils down to the DM being very attached to the game their running and wanting explicit leverage in terms of what the party can or cannot do.

The implementation component is where things get sticky, and generally involves one or both of the following:
1) The NPC is considerably stronger than the party, and potentially of a class or archetype the players were restricted from taking.
2) The NPC provides wall-of-text style exposition without which the party cannot advance.

A former player of mine asked me to play in a game he's running now, which was described to us as low-magic dying-earth sort of shenanigans. 5 minutes into the first session he introduces the World's Last Sorcerer, who single-handedly ends our first encounter before the first round is over, and then starts telling the party what they must do.

The upshot is that the DMPC cheats the players out of their experience, and no one precaution can account for all avenues to doing this.

>>46598565
>But honestly, they should have grabbed Primordial. It encompasses all elemental dialects.
That's not how dialects work. If they just know primordial they'll have no accent or a common accent or whatever. Learning Terran means you know Primordial and speak/write it using the terran dialect, anyone speaking a different dialect would have a slightly harder time understanding but not by too much. It's like british and american english.

>>46603756
Better than whatever the fuck you're doing.

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>>46603756
>tries to bait me into useless shit flinging
>lelhighground

m8

>>46591050
Tomorrow is going to be my first DM session and I am absolutely nervous.
It's for class (I can expound on this if interested) and I am sweating at the prospect of shepparding a team of novices (myself included) through the Hoard of Dragon Queen campaign.

I'm printing two pairs of character sheets so that I and my group will have their own.
I have dice, a notepad.

Is there anything else one can think will facilitate the process, or just any tips to keep in mind?

Really, any advice for a first timer would be appreciated.

>>46591050
In the first campaign I ran for my players (HoTDQ, so you know), one of my players ended up dying. It was in Greenest- I had the party escorting some villagers into the keep, but there were two players that for some reason just weren't willing to enter. All well and good but the story must continue. So I had the blue dragon that was flying around roar and flap its wings and prepare for a dive bomb maneuver. One of the players still outside freaks out and runs in. The other one (a blue dragonborn) is still stoically standing around. I give him about 4-5 warnings that the dragon's getting closer, the dragon is almost on you, are you SURE you really don't want to get inside?

He's still standing there. I closed the gates on him and he got one shot by the lightning breath, even after resistance. I ask him what he was thinking, and he said he was upholding the honor of his clan by making sure every last person got inside. It was heroic and dumb all at once. But everything turned out swell since he ended up making a new character that he enjoyed more than the first.

>>46603875
You are supposed to pack your bags and leave immediately if that happens

>>46604133
Yeah run LMoP instead

>>46604090
> Responding to bait to say he's not responding to bait
Just use the hide button, you fucking pillock.

>>46604180
I'm reading it now to get acquainted.

I'm going to read the OP links before I ask another question.

Thanks!

>>46604133
>It's for class (I can expound on this if interested)
mildly.

Opinions on characters starting out as a were-whatever, GO!

>>46604315
No.

>>46604315
No.

>>46604315
NO.

>>46604326
>>46604355
>>46604364
nice input

>>46604315
Absolutely no.

>>46604315
Depends. For the first time, we had one of our party members object to a PC being a lycanthrope. Of course, he had been whining and arguing about something or other all night. The kicker was the fact that his objection stemmed not from the fact that the lycanthrope's immunity to nonmagical weapon damage created an imbalance against the enemies (it hadn't mattered at all up to that point). Rather, it was because his go-to tactic of swarming with Conjure Animals wolves could not damage the lycanthrope.

Basically, by mid-levels the main complaint was that it made it more difficult to engage in TPK using a rather cheap tactic. Of course, this was with a wererat, so the immunity was the only big mechanical advantage.

>>46604315
Negative.

>>46604388
Not TPK, PVP. He wanted to try killing the other PC and found his wolves unable to damage the guy.

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>>46604275
...and it's in 9 hours. ugh.

It's a two parter. The meat of it is that they offered a Fantasy Literature course at the university that covered early fantasy (Don Rodriguez) through Tolkien, and now we're entering the phase of player interaction in the realm of fantasy and the growth of RPG's from both tabletop to other interactive mediums.

Anyways, we've finally gotten around to the D&D part of the class and I've never played, never DM'd, I know peripherally what it's like to run one of these but I figured if I didn't offer then I never would and so volunteered to be one of 5 DM's in the class.
I had wanted to run a very low-key novice campaign v. these heavily invested veteran groups and attracted basically who I was expecting, but not as I was expecting it, which is 3 girls with absolutely no experience or idea as to how to even begin, how to roll character stats, what a character sheet is, etc.

So I've just returned from a long weekend and feel myself utterly out of my depth here.

It's not for a grade, per se, but I don't want to just roll a dice and gawk at the campaign book for minutes at a time either.
So I'm cramming what all these dice throws and ability checks and equipment stats.
It's overwhelming.

that's the soft gist.

>>46598706
you absolute madman

>>46604315
Nope

>>46604434
Yeah you need to cram study. Bring the pre gen characters/pre roll some.

HotDQ is too lethal at low levels and requires a deft DM. Use LMoP

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>>46604484
I'm printing out the monster appendix for LMoP to have it next to me as I read.

Are there pre gen chars on the wizards site?

>>46604315
I've let a couple of my players do. Mechanically there's nothing wrong with it as far as I can see (I just made small changes to their shapeshifting and immunities to nonmagical damage), but it does leave a bit of a bad taste in my mouth. Not much reason behind their choices other than Rule of Cool.

Thoughts on starting out campaigns at level 3? Level 1 has a weird lethality to it that most other levels don't have, and lets players start out with a specialized feel as thats when everyones subclasses turn on.

>>46604326
>>46604355
>>46604364
>>46604376
>>46604392
>>46604441
I gotta be honest, I'm pretty happy there's a consensus on this kind of thing.

>>46604636
This is what I've been doing, and it honestly feels a lot better thematically than playing at level 1. The players may not feel like Bob the Innkeep, who picked up a sword and decided to go kill goblins, but they do feel like adventurers. I would just have them give a backstory and tell of a couple of adventures that they went on prior to joining up as an adventuring group.

>>46604636
it's recommended in the DMG somewhere as being a good way to emulate other systems, as L1+2 in 5e are basically Mook and Mook+.

>>46604530
http://dnd.wizards.com/articles/features/character_sheets

I got you anon

>>46604530
Check the mega in the OP

>>46604696
>>46604434 < This guy;
I'm playing with a group that has never once played D&D before.
Should I run pre-gens and boost them to three, or should it not matter as they won't know what to do with subclasses anyway?

>>46604712 Thanks!
>>46604728 I need to check that too but I'm reading the LMoP overview first.

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Clear out boys! The ship is sinkin'! Smell that fresh new thread smell.
>>46604740
>>46604740
>>46604740
>>46604740
>>46604740
>>46604740

>>46604636
I tend to have level 1-2 be a lot less lethal by making players run combat-light sessions.

My last game started them with a heist on the local necromancer (another mage paid a local archissuppot (my TGs are basically miracle courts) a tidy sum for his spellbook); the place had a few traps (one lethal), one guard skeleton and mainly a few tricks like the book on his reading desk being a fake.

>>46604754
Oh. I'm flipping through these sheets and it's taken care of. well I'll be.

>>46593633
you cant sneak attack with heavy weapons.

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>>46593168

>Tsochar
>Worm-like creatures that burrow into hosts
>Control minds
>Craving for power
>Travel through ancient gates

Do they fly around in pyramids?