/5eg/ D&D Fifth Edition General: Imp Edition

>>48409021
Proving quite useful to the party, actually.

The party wants to get this fucking Iron Dragon out of the province.

A particular Archdevil wants to take it in as a pet.

Is Paladin 2/Bladelock X a viable build?

>>48409122
Anything other than Ranger or Wot4E Monk is viable.

But yeah, a Bladelock with Smite and Heavy Armor works just fine.

>>48409021
Oi, does anyone have any homebrews for Epic Spellcasting for 5e? I want to add it into my game to use for some monsters and possibly players.

>>48409152
Nice, thanks.

>>48409122
Yes, very. Try Oathbreaker/Fiend archetypes.

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>>48409160
This has rules for casting 9th level spells with higher slots, but no higher level spells.

>>48409190
>oathbreaker
>paladin 2

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What is the standard build and playstyle for valor bards? Dex and stay at range for the most part, or does it work to go ham with a greatsword/polearm?

>>48409215
Is... is that Vulcan?

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>>48409084
>Iron Dragon
>Glorious flashbacks to the golden days of 2e

Truly you (or your DM) is mah nigga.

>>48409228
Oh, sorry. I was thinking Oathbreaker 7 / Fiendlock 13 for double CHA mod and strong spellcasting.

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What are the pros and cons of a Dex Fighter/Dex Paladin instead of a Strength-based one?

Where do I find the Winged Tiefling variant? Is it as fun as it sounds?

>>48409493
Dex Pros
>Good AC doesn't cost an arm and a leg
>Good Initiative
>Can into Ranged
>Less MAD

Dex Cons
>Less Damage
>Can't GWM
>Can't GWF
>Can't Polearm Master
>More easily fucked by monsters with ram attacks
>Bad Athletics checks

>>48409493
Strength: fuck-off-big damage. Able to grapple, climb, and swim really well.

Dexterity: range. Pretty big damage if you do Archery with Sharpshooter. Able to stealth and keep your balance really well, as well as going earlier in combat more often. Less dependent on gear for AC. Also let's you avoid damage more often from common Dex-based AoEs.

>>48409493
Light/medium armor and ranged weapons are the main ones. So it's better if you wanna be even remotely sneaky. And you have better unarmored AC if you get caught unawares.

Compared to a Strength-based fighter, you'll have a bit lower damage output (since ranged weapons are weaker than melee weapons).

The fact that your Dexterity saves will be better can be considered either a pro or a con, since you don't have proficiency with them. So you can choose between really good Strength saving throws and bad Dexterity saving throws or kinda so-so saves for both.

>>48409566
Dex can also stealth better. Could be a make or break thing if the rest of the party is prone to stealth.

>>48409526
scag im pretty sure

>>48409493
Basically what >>48409566 says, but also including the pro that you can be much stealthier and have a more common Saving Throw.

>>48409021
I've been wanting to include demons more in games, but it usually comes across as too edgy.

Oddly enough I think using Imps as the primary demons would help with that. Demonic ancestry is way less impressive when its some random imp

>>48409241

Valor bards benefit a great deal from taking a level in fighter. Start fighter 1, then go Bard the rest of the way.

>>48409122
If you do this, I'd still recommend boomingblade+greenflameblade alongside pact of the tome for shillelagh and only having about 15 strength instead. It's what my plans for my tempestcleric-warlock is. However, Pact of the blade works out if you intend to level warlock to at least 12 and you start with at least 16 strength as well as 16 charisma.


One lovely thing about a healing class + warlock is that you can use healing spells every short rest, so you can easily heal everybody if you take a long enough short rest.


>>48409152
I'd say there are a lot of potential multiclasses that aren't too viable, though.

>>48409800
I was thinking about this but I can't make up my mind for it
>Heavy armor
>Con saves

>slows down casting progression and extra attack
>less skills


I am seriously considering getting heavy armor prof as a feat instead (I want to do a PAM valor bard at some point)

>>48409761
I imagine that edgy is good for demons. Unless you're wanting to make them sympathetic, I suppose.

>>48409526
Been using a winged tiefling in one campaign. Haven't flown once yet.
Nobody even knows they can fly.

Saving it for a "holy fuck they can do that?" moment when flying would be really, really useful.

The 30ft flying isn't as ridiculous as the aarakocra's flying, but being able to fly at all might not always be useful (especially when your friends are all busy charging to their deaths rather than tacticalling things) but I'm sure it'll be really useful when it's needed.

>>48409897
To be honest, I think for a valor bard getting heavy armour as a feat sounds better if you can survive to level 4.
Valor bard already gives you proficiency in most of the things you'd go fighter for (martial weapons, shields and all the way to medium armour, leaving you open to feat up heavy armour).
You get 2 more HP by starting fighter and second wind.
.. But the loss in spellcasting and bardiness and all that probably isn't worth those minor things.
Starting with a heavy armour class sounds a lot more fun for someone who has no armour/has light armour and no shield proficiency instead.

>>48409761
Then go for devils.

Since devils are lawful evil, they come off as less 'I WANT TO MURDER EVERYTHING RAAAGH' and have a more tactical, sinister and tricking way to things. Instead of just threatening to burn everything, they come off as appearing rather nice.

You can always cut out a middleground. Foocubi, for example, appear 'in all of the lower planes' or something, and are neutral evil.

>>48409761
>>48410075
Imps and Devils are good options. Also don't forget comedy blunts edginess.

>>48409800
>>48409897
>>48410054
You also get fighting style, but yeah I'd rather do a full bard and see how it plays out. Slowing down the PM bullshit isn't too great but with a regular GWF build it should work fairly well I think.

>>48409881
Half-Elf, planning 16, 8, 16, 8 10 16

>>48409493
Dex Fighter excels at manuverability, versatility, accuracy, and defense, while also reducing MAD issues (A Str Fighter needs Dex, but a Dex Fighter doesn't necessarily need Str). Ideal for ranged and dual wielding characters, and good for sword and boarders.

Str Fighters excel in damage and battlefield control, especially with the associated feats such as Great Weapon Master and Polearm Master. Great for sword and board, awesome for any 2 handed weapon, and amazing with polearms (GWM + Polearm Master + Sentinel is my favorite build, and human fighters get that shit online by level 6)

Really NO Unearthed Arcana for this month?

>>48410438
Isn't it cut back to every two or three now?

>>48410438
Solomon Grundy, baby.

>>48410438
its monday
they just dont know what monday

>>48410448
That's some bullshit unless they're gonna actually start pushing out some serious splatbooks now

>>48410054
>>48410305
Playing AL so ill just do whatever til level 4 and then take advantage of the free rework before level 5.

>>48410438
Delayed again to next monday. Check in monday when we find out it's delayed again.

>>48409021
https://mega.nz/#!YVUlkYaI!7DL8CG4vXeQqAYjv3I4_4tWQFUOjS2Wtun-MzbV5EiQ

CoS, Here ya go peeps may want to add it to the Trove Mega

>>48410367
What a load of bull.

DEX fighters can use bows well and have finesse weapons to fall back to in melee, STR fighters can use two handed weapons well, and have throwing weapons to fall back on for ranged. That's all the fucking difference there is. Fuck, STR fighter will have higher baseline AC thanks to full plate.

You read like one of the designers so far up his ass he doesn't even know what the fuck he's talking about.

>>48410539
What's different from the pdf we already have in the trove, exactly?

>>48410551
Good luck getting the full plate anytime soon in a reasonable game

>>48409761
About to run a game, and a player is rolling up a tiefling battle princess. She wants her father to be a major focal point for her character, so I'm gonna have to find a way to introduce devils into my setting one way or another. Should be fun. Definitely setting him up as a calm, icy tactician type.

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>>48409566
>>48409568
>>48409586
>>48409651

Specifically I want to go Rapier and Shield and be a qt otterbody duelist instead of a typical brawny Paladin.

I will deliver beautiful justice in light armor that displays my fantastic form, so that all might behold me and despair of ever being as pretty as I am.

>>48410539
Anon, that scan was cropped, optimized, and added to the Mega shortly after CoS came out.

is there an official 5e writeup for a "urban barbarian", more of a berserker warrior without the nature-oriented powers? Only have the core books.

>>48410583
You should be getting it around level 5ish. Even in AL which is pretty throttled thats normal.

Considering that dex won't get to +4 til level 4 (and still not as good as splint with the light armor options) Heavy armor actually pulls ahead EARLIER than dex.

Unless of course you roll stats, but thats a story for another time.

>>48410583
Going by the random loot tables you should have enough gold for it by level 5, sooner if you're lucky/frugal

>>48410724
You could just do the actual berserker subclass that is in the core books.

It's really fucking bad though if your DM ever does anything that isn't combat.

>>48410724
>>48411001
Frenzy being so terrible also kills it, there's no reason it should give a level of exhaustion.

It's not like a bonus action attack while raging is even that broken given it's essentially all the archetype gets.

>>48410724
SCAG has battlerager that's not terrible and is based on dwarves trained to fight in spiked armor. I wish it did something to address abandoning unarmored defense.

Does rary's telepathic bond cause any message to be heard by everyone, or can you create "private messages"?

>>48411243
I think you can probably communicate with any number and any combination of the others you're telepathically bonded to.

Session report:

Session 2 of a goblin sidestory. We have a warlock (me), a ranger, and a druid.

The goblin tribe leader gave us a mission last session to go retrieve some item. The problem is that we had no idea what it was - just the name. We knew that it was probably in the elven forest city, so we set out.

We finally reached the city, and saw that in the center was a massive tree - about 100 yards in diameter. Through careful scouting, we found out that elves could enter the tree by touching a certain spot on the bark. We tried it ourselves, but the tree would not grant us entry. In fact, we managed to set off an alarm and got a bunch of elves chasing after us.

We managed to escape, but my familiar and the ranger's animal companion were killed. We decided that the tree must only grant entry to elves, so we hatched a plan to kidnap one: I would disguise myself as a crying baby and we would snatch whoever came to investigate.

It didn't go very smoothly. The elves managed to sound the alarms. But we *did* manage to kidnap one and flee.

We traveled deep into the forest and woke him up to try and interrogate him. It didn't go very well. Our plan of action for next session is to wait a month for the elves to stop looking for us, and then use our prisoner to make our way into the tree.

>>48411641
nobody cares

>>48411641
no1 curr

>>48411641
Suggestion: You'll want to condense your storytimes so you tell a whole arc at once, rather than one session a week. Nobody's going to follow your story, and as-is, it's..NOT a story.

>>48411733
>>48411804
I care

What is the average age a Wizard should be? Also any school I should use mainly?

>>48412856

60+

>>48412856
Age: whatever you want. Most wizards will be older, but not all.
Most of the schools are very strong. Transmutation is probably the weakest, but even it gets a full heal or free raise dead. Divination is probably the absolute best all-around just because Portent is so broken, but it's very close.

What kind of character do you want to play? Blaster (evocation)? Minionmancer (necromancy/conjuration)? Mindfuckery expert (illusion/enchantment)? Buffer (transmuter)? Plot obliterator (divination)? Controller (conjuration/illusion/enchantment/divination)?

>>48411641

Why are you taking a job from a goblin leader and that elf will fuck you over.

>>48412919
Hey hey, let's not forget Abjuration. Ever wanted to just say "No, I take less damage this turn" or at later levels "No, I'm shielding my ally this turn"? How about protecting your allies from being charmed or cursed? Or how about just flat out saying "No, fuck you, go back to your home plane"?

Abjuration is fucking great.

>>48412919
Probably try a minionmancer as that seems interesting.

>>48412965
Yeah, I completely forgot about Abjuration. It's a very strong school, definitely top tier. Unusually tanky for a wizard, and amazing at dispelling/counterspelling. Sorry for forgetting them.
>>48412994
If you want to be a minionmancer, there are two approaches. Casting Animate Dead in combat is a waste of magic, but casting Conjure Elemental/Conjure Minor Demons can win an encounter. Necromancy is better if you have lots of prep time, but Conjuration can pull more stuff out in emergencies. One of the coolest features conjurers get is 30 bonus HP to summons (drop an 8th level Conjure Minor Demons and enjoy your 1500 hp of uncontrolled minions), and necromancers can take control of other undead (death tyrants and demiliches are some of the best).

>>48413050
Thanks anon

>>48413062
No problem. I love wizard and love helping people. There are some "automatic" spells you should get. Detect magic obviously, alarm, find familiar, leomund's tiny hut, mage armor, shield, etc. But one you absolutely need is Wall of Force, 5th level. It's complete bullshit, and it's hilarious.

>>48412965
>Or how about just flat out saying "No, fuck you, go back to your home plane"?
Kind of a noob here. What exactly are you talking about?

>>48413175
Banishing stuff like demons or elementals.

>>48413191
You mean with the spell Banishment? Though it is an abjuration spell, I don't see why abjurers would be any better with it than other wizards.

>>48413267
They won't. Rather, they get a lot of tankiness spells. They can absorb damage with a ward they create for free (pump it up every morning with Alarm), give that ward to somebody else, add prof to Dispel Magic and Counterspell, and finally have resistance to all damage from spells. They're the best school vs. other casters, but only okay if you aren't fighting at least some casters. Hence why I love divination the most--you can literally never go wrong with free spells, seeing invisible people passively, and ignoring rolls altogether.

>>48412919
>Plot obliterator

We talking answers out of the ass as a fuck you to the DM?

>>48413363
>We talking answers out of the ass as a fuck you to the DM?
Three words.
Contact. Other. Plane.
http://ephe.github.io/grimoire/spells/contact-other-plane

It's a ritual so any school of magic can cast it repeatedly (as long as you make your check), but diviners also get to reuse spell slots.

If you're completely tapped out for the day except for 1 6th level slot, you can cast True Seeing, then Scrying, then Arcane Eye, then Clairvoyance, then Detect Thoughts, and finish it up with any 1st level. 6 spells for the price of 1.

>>48409897
If you're doing PAM, you're setting a feat on fire for nothing, when the one drop gers your build online faster (martial profs, Second Wind, Con Save prof, Great Weapon/Duelist style) and nothing Valor Bards get beside Extra Attack matters until Bard 10. Extra Attack is less meaningful to you since you're building for PAM, which gives you a bonus attack, and you should be building around one of the SCAG Swordmage cantrips, which don't let you get iteratives anyway.

If you're a humie, you could go Fighter 1 (PAM as your feat)/Bard 4 (Magical Lineage-Sorc or Lock for Greenflame or Booming Blade), because at that point, you use Valor for the self buff and don't really care about lacking an iterative because you're doing three shots worth of damage already (Cantrip with [W]+1d8, Rider with 1d8+Cha, Bonus haftbutt).

Also, martial bards suck at low levels. If you cared about casting and damage you would be a Lore Bard with a two-level stop in Warlock or a straight Bard who Magical Initiate stole Hex and Eldritch Blast so you can spend your Secrets on shit like Scorching Ray.

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I'm thinking about creating a monster similar to pic related for my players to fight. It won't ever make an attack on its own but whenever the PCs attack it, the creature will attack back and roll double damage that the PCs do. Think this could be a good challenge?

>>48409897
>>48413476
The hell is PAM?

>>48413583
What about ranged attacks? Spells? AoEs? And if it doesn't attack, why wouldn't they just walk away?

>>48413583
depends on how stupid your players on

>>48413583
This will fall one of two ways
>Players are dumb and kill themselves
or
>Players are smart and just ignore it.

Also wobuffet only works because it requires careful prediction for its setup to work. This doesnt work well when converted to dnd.

>>48413605
PoleArm Master

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>>48413627
Pic related

>>48413641
>>48413650
I'd make it to where there's some sickness or affliction going on and the creature's existence is the cause of it. So they'd have to kill it to end whatever it's doing. I'd throw in infinite spawning minor enemies that would stop once the creature was killed to put more pressure on the PCs to end the fight quickly

>>48413787
I legit would leave rest of the party to fight it and bitch out.

>>48413476
You can't use PAM with booming blade or GFB so that whole idea is shit. And with AL rewrites I can essentially start as a level 4 valor bard with PAM and Heavy armor prof (so 16 str/con/cha) so I don't have to deal with the early game struggle.

If the cantrips worked the way you thought they did that would be cool though.

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New DM here and I need advice/suggestions/critics on how I should go about running a quest where the players descend a long, treasure filled, dungeon. I figured it would be like Dungeon Meshi and the Etrian Odyssey games where it is broken up into different layers and challenges and there is a village on the surface to return to. What I am trying to figure out is how to design a labyrinth that is supposed to be explored without constantly going "there is a spooky path to the right and a different scary path to the left, choose a path". I guess I just start with a map and let the characters walk around and see the sights until they find the stairs down?

Also I'm not sure how to tell players when it is safe or not to take short/long rests when within a monster filled dungeon.

>>48413864
For short you can have look outs, long it depends on what is near them.

My DM is planning a "Medium difficulty" campaign, We only have a Druid and an Abjuration Wizard for team support. Paladin too I guess, but he's more of a tank build. Fresh First Level campaign, we want it to last a long time.

The DM is going to try to soften the blow on Death saving throws. Which sounds better?
>Only the first roll of a death saving throw can be a critical failure and count as 2 fails.
or
>Death saving throws cannot critical fail.

>>48413864
this is kinda a terrible suggestion, but you might want to look at (and in no way completely read) the worlds largest dungeon.
it was composed of 16 seperate minimaps, all connected to make its large map, and for the most part, each map was "unique" in its level difficulty and its theme
as in, different monsters, or different hazards, that kinda shit, quite like how etrain oddyssey does
not to say "ice" map is right next to "volcano" map, but you get the idea. im proud to say i own it, AND will literally never play it, but if you can find a pdf or some exerpts, it would be a good way to get ideas

since the players were trapped inside it the entire duration of the game, it obviously was designed with a large number of restoration/break/safe points in mind, and for the most part, all of the rooms were separate in their challenge, unless they were designed NOT to be

>>48413914
the latter, but realize critical failures arnt going to be common

>>48413914
The second option seems like a good, simple answer. With these things, it's best to keep it nice and clean.

>>48413849
The bonus action haft strike does not require you to make the Attack action. It requires a melee attack, which is what GFB/Booming Blade have you do to activate it.

I'm not telling you to use the OA on entry part (those shenanigans are Warcaster+BB)

>>48413925
I've lost two characters in 3 campaigns to crit failures on death saving throws. Shit feels bad.

>>48413452
>never bothered reading School of Divination before
Oh holy shit that's amazing

>>48413948
uncommon doesnt mean nonexistant, which is why i suggest the latter, that way you're guaranteed three saves

Playing a fighter right now, still low level, but want to make him into an archer, I know I know why not ranger, I don't rightly know. I rolled for a random character and I'm seeing where it takes me.

What I want to know is aside from the sharpshooter feat what can I do to build up a longbow fighter? Fancy arrowheads? Magic bows? Where should I drop skill points?

>>48408457
I rather like this ranger rework. What do you guys think about it? Is it balanced? Does it seem way more interesting and fun than the PHB one? Would you allow a player to use it?

>>48413961
>want to make him into an archer

You are going to have a bad time.

Dear /5eg/,

I get paid to DM for a bunch of 10-12 year olds. Most of them are pretty easy to please, but some of them have started asking me about multiclassing. There's one slightly autistic, for real Bard in particular who wants to be better at mundane stuff since he has hella spell list access. What should I tell him?

>>48413961
Crossbow expert

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>>48414020
>slightly autistic, for real Bard

Tell him the truth or slightly bend the rules for the kid.

>>48413864
Always give the group a sense of urgency, the quest or dungeon has some sort of time limit or the characters have shit to do outside of the dungeon. Let players decide if they rest and figure it out the hard way if they don't think & scout. If they take a long rest in hostile area, they will likely encounter something. If they flee or wait too long, the dungeon becomes tougher, alert and sets traps with patrols.

When designing a dungeon, do it in just dots and lines for the draft with inklings, put it on a grid if you think it'll be used. Keep dungeons short, sweet and meaningful mostly. Once in a while you can do a mega dungeon though, where the players will be there for multiple sessions or perhaps the entire campaign.

>>48414045

I would bend the rules, except that I'm not the only DM for these kids' characters. And to make matters more complicated, we're all part of a meta-setting that the LGS/summer camp/after school program sets up each "season" (i.e every year)

>>48414020
I think you should tell him to go fuck himself. Also, Frankie, you need to stop DMing for the scouts.

>>48414068
Then got to tell him the truth unless you can get the other DM's on to bend the rule. Though truth is the best way to deal with it.

>>48413787
This sounds so stupid. "Kill this thing or you die to infinite mooks, and then everyone else dies of a plague, but killing it kills you!"

It sounds like one of those things the DM pulls when he wants to force a TPK because he's too much of a wimp to just end the game.

>>48413961
Crossbow Expert and Battlemaster Fighter. Trip people with arrows, Precision Attack to force Sharpshooter to land, then Goading Attack/Parry/Menacing Attack because.

Archery is quite good and Rangers suck.

>>48413961

Crossbow expert battlemaster as others have said is a solid way to go. If you're going to high levels, you could mix in 3 levels of rogue for assassin crit alpha strikes.

>>48409215

Shit like this is why 5e will ALWAYS be inferior to 3.5 and 4e.

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>>48413961
Get crossbow expert, get tavern brawler and wear full plate, pray to the loot gods for gauntlets of ogre power and pendent of health for 19 on all physical stats.

Become a dungeoneer marine.

>>48414179
What, bad homebrew?

>>48414239

The lack of bad ass epic level shit.

/tg/ doesn't care because half of them don't even play DnD and the other half never make it past level 6. The level 20 cap is gay as fuck. It was gay in 4e as well but at least you got another 10 levels out of that.

I've gotten past level 20 on two separate campaigns. Jealous? It's because I got a good easy job and didn't squirt out three shitspawn by age 25 to eat my dreams and shit on my free time. If you don't play at least once a week you're not really a gamer.

>>48414188
>crossbow expert + tavern brawler
That actually sounds fun as hell minus the "le reference" crap.

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>>48414280
Oh, it's just you, not anyone with an actual point to make. Here's a (You), please adopt a trip.

>>48414179
>4e

Lel no

>>48414148
Hunter Rangers do mad AOE DPR and have a lot of utility, there's some really interesting interactions if you want to get into multi-classing. Too bad they don't have ritual casting by default or prep casting.

Ranger are very easy to build poorly and scar noobs for life. Picking the wrong spells, picking the wrong features, picking the wrong beast companions and picking the wrong favored enemies can really fuck up your character.

>>48414280
That's cool man, PF and 3.5e have tons of material to fit your preferred style.

So uh... why are you in /5eg/?

>>48414280
Thank you for not reproducing.

Are they pumping out a million splatbooks for 5th like they used to do with 3rd? Sorry, I haven't played D&D in over 10 years but want to get back into it.

>>48414399
If anything there is a shortage of books from a player perspective. Almost everything is adventures.

Ghostwise Halfling Moon Druid, should I multiclass? Since I'll kinda be the scout of the group. I was thinking of dipping rogue for skills, Cunning Action and expertise or Monk for more AC and kung-fu stuff.

>>48414399
There hasn't been a proper splat yet, and it's been two years. Most we've gotten is 15 pages of new stuff out of the back of a player's setting book.

>>48414399
The release schedule is the slowest it's ever been for any edition. They've currently got a schedule of three books a year (two adventures + one miscellaneous).

>>48413961
Hate how forced you are sometimes to be a multi class magic man, feels like if you aren't in a low magic game then playing anything purely martial is just suffering.

>>48414451
>>48414441
>>48414425
Okay, thank you. I wasn't trying to imply that it's good or bad. Was just curious.

So, I can get most of 5th's content by just getting the PH, MM, and DMG? Are there any other books that are considered must-have?

>>48414399
Only one diet splat book and a lot of unearthed arcana.

I'd rather them release a "Advanced Players' Handbook" filled with new classes, mundane items, spells and feats that expect you to use the optional rules like facing, flanking and even speed factor.

>>48414330
>So uh... why are you in /5eg/?

Because you people need to learn your favorite RPG is shit.

This bounded accuracy shit mixed with the swinginess of d20 means the bonuses barely fucking matter. Wizards of the Coast cannot balance for shit so they fell back on this "bounded accuracy" shit to make up for their inability to design.

As a result, years of training at first level, make a fucking 10 percent different in chance if success. Big. Fucking. Whoop.

>>48414491
>Because you people need to learn your favorite RPG is shit.
Thanks for being the subjective police hero that we've always needed but never knew we did. It's as if a dark void of ignorance within me has finally been quelled.

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>>48414491

>>48414491
wow I hate 5e now wtf

>>48414535

what did he mean by this?

>>48414491
Anon, it is said that "the journey of a thousand miles begins with but a single step."

I would like to be the one to set you on your path. Thanks for the shit advice, don't let the door hit you on the way
>>>/out/

Enjoy your (you)

>>48414465
>So, I can get most of 5th's content by just getting the PH, MM, and DMG? Are there any other books that are considered must-have?
Pretty much. They released a book specific to Forgotten Realms that lays out the setting but not getting super specific. Other than that, it's just adventure books.

>>48414602
What are adventure books? Pre-written campaigns or something?

Thank you for the info.

>>48414641
Yep! It's usually about six months to a year's worth of campaign, depending on your group and how much you pad it out yourself, and the intention is a character will be somewhere in the 16-20 range by the end of it.

>>48414687
Are they well-written? I'd rather make a campaign myself but wouldn't mind borrowing some ideas from the books if they're somewhat competent.

>>48414702
All of them except Hoard of the Dragon Queen and Rise of Tiamat are pretty good--ranging from okay to great. They're all in the Mega if you want to check them out.

>>48414702
They're better than a vast majority of homebrews.

>>48414728
Thank you, I will do just that.

Which one would you, personally, most recommend?

>>48414746

Not the Anon you're talking to, but I would recommend Princes of the Apocalypse or Curse of Strahd. Both are very classic adventures and both are quite fun, just depends on the theming you want. Elementals and cults for PotA, and Vampires and spooks for Strahd.

>>48414746
Princes of the Apocalypse is, not a remake, but a sort of.. reimagining, of the classic Temple of Elemental Evil adventure. ToEE is one of my favourite adventures of all time, so of course I'm gonna tell you to look at Princes.

>>48414746
Strahd. Out of the Abyss has a ton of cool ideas but the adventure itself doesn't have enough variety.

>>48414764
>>48414763
Does "spooks" include undead? I really like undead-heavy campaigns.

Thanks for your opinions. I'll check those two out when I go home later tonight.

Is it just me, or does CoS seem a little impossible in theory? Strahd is a smart guy with near absolute power over his realm. Even if he is bored and possibly lazy, I see no reason why he would allow the adventuring party to actually gain enough strength to legitimately threaten him.

>>48414430
multiclassing is just going to lower your animal form effectiveness, and tecnically ki and martial arts is arguable in animal form (noting says you cant, but some DMs might disallow it)
depending on what skills you already have, dont forget generally your stealth forms are going to have around a +6 in stealth, so unless you can get quite a bit higher, it might not be worth taking
i personally wouldn't, but unless you really like the idea of a sneak attacking kung fu mammoth being your character, then weight that against form/spell loss

>>48414798
It's Ravenloft, man. Gothic horror in spades. If you know Magic, Ravenloft was the inspiration for Innistrad.

Yeah, you'll like Curse.

>>48414810

I'm playing through it right now in the AL, and my read is that he just likes dicking around with you. Strahd is smart but also super arrogant and so it might be a classic case of underestimating the heroes until it's too late and they attack him I mean he offers you a fucking dinner invitation as you get strong.

>>48414810
>Even if he is bored and possibly lazy
and insane and prideful, dont forget that

>>48414810
It's completely hand-waved. It's kinda why I think it's a silly campaign, it feels like scooby doo but less logical.

>>48414810
>Is it just me, or does CoS seem a little impossible in theory?
Yeah. Ravenloft was to pretty much the go-to place for TPKs from what my older gaming pals tell me.

>>48414810
I'm DMing it currently, actually. The idea is that Strahd brings PCs into his realm on a regular basis for amusement, and if/when they inevitably die he just replaces them. I like to think that when they become suitably strong he delights in the taste of their blood most of all.

My party's really got the odds stacked in their favor though. They happened to get the Sunsword right outside of Barovia, which has made things rather challenging as far as finding ways to kill them goes.

I still have a few tricks up my sleeve though. I almost shattered the party by manipulating them into some inter-PC conflict, and they've only ever run into Strahd on an "Oh shit he's here too" basis outside of that. I've yet to stage an actual attack on them...

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>>48414491
Here's another reply.

>>48400388
>The blue dragon's horn looks stupid though.
It looks great, fuck you and your shit taste.

So I am playing Curse of Strahd at my local games shop running a lvl 7 Ranger 16,14,14,12,14,8 (Variant Human). The idea for him was a Witcher type character seeing as I knew we were going to be playing a Gothic Horror game. I gave him the Observant feat and based him around to fight in melee switching between Long Sword, Great Sword and Hand Crossbow when appropriate. Thing is his AC is only 17 wearing Scale Mail so he has been knocked out a few times in combat. So once I hit lvl 8, should I take the toughness feat or something combaty seeing as I just got the Sun Sword last session? Can post my character sheet if that helps.

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>>48415168
>I just got the Sun Sword last session
You wanted to be Witcher edge, but now you're pic related forever.

>>48413979
It's a perfectly fine ranger. I wouldn't say *way* more fun, but a beastmaster would definitely appreciate the differences more.

How do you deal with extreme level ranges in a group? I'm set up with randoms as part of a school club thing, and I've got a party with a level range of 1-9 (1, 3, 6, 9, to be specific)

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>>48415197
Pretty much.
>Make my character have a edgy back story cause Haunted One background plus self aware edgy characters are fun to me.
>Party immediately makes fun of him because he has the highest passive perception cause of Observant but I am the only human and everyone else has dark vision so my perception is useless whenever it's dark out.

The idea for him was to be brooding, PTSD, whoring alcoholic. But so far all he has been is the party drunk who banged a witch who stole some of his hair.

Also when I found out the Sun Sword could I immediately pictured it in pic related voice.

>>48415204
You.. really can't. A level range of more than one, maybe two levels is pretty much untenable. Either the high-levels trample the enemies because you scaled them to the lowbies, or the low-levels die instantly because you scaled it to the highfalutes.

Who set up this school club? Why are people different levels?

>>48415265
Your party sounds alright

>>48415279

Because characters die and they roll up new ones and the people who pair up DMs and kids do so on the basis of "who wants to play together" instead of "who can play together?" Worse, the club does session XP instead of encounter, so I can't even powerlevel the lowbies a it to equalize them a bit.

So far I've been getting by doing more non-combat encounters, but the party is getting ready to assault a goddamn castle in the Feywild defended by an evil Wizard and an army of Minotaurs and I think the lowbies are gonna get merked.

>>48415204
Jesus christ how horrifying. At the very least you need the lower leveled characters to catch up in experience, perhaps giving them a multiplier from surviving combat and extra rp experience. Maybe do some short side quests for only the weaker ones.

As far as running with this discrepancy, find excuses to concentrate the threats on the stronger party members. Give the weak ones lesser tasks: clearing out minions, protecting NPCs, sniping from the back, etc.

Personally though, I'd tell the weaker ones to reimagine their characters as stronger versions of themselves and set everyone equal. How'd this situation even come about?

>>48415305
>and they roll up new ones
Hold up right there. Starting new characters always at level one is an absolute cancer and you need to put a stop to it immediately.

>>48415280
They are.

>>48415325
>This to be honest.

I never understood that train of thought, my old DM used to make us start off at lvl 1 again even when were at a point in the campaign where most monsters would just one shot us.

>>48415310

I've got a relatively optimized Barbarian DMPC acting as equal parts meatshield and facesmasher. It helps that the low-level characters are ranged (casting Druid + Ranger) so they innately want to stand the fuck back.

>Personally though, I'd tell the weaker ones to reimagine their characters as stronger versions of themselves and set everyone equal. How'd this situation even come about?

I can't reliably do that because the kids have static characters that they progress through the school year/summer program until they die.

>>48415325

It's not my program, I just work there. I'm also not senior enough to have sufficient influence to get the heads of the program to change their shit.

>>48415305
>roll up new ones
>at level 1
Oh dear god why.

>can't even power level them
No, anon, you can't.. That's literally your only way to fix this. Their levels are too different. You CANNOT put these in combat together. You need to talk to whatever fucklechunk put this club together and explain that new characters DO NOT start over at 1st level.

>>48415349
>>48415347
>>48415325
>>48415310
>>48415305
>man, Brickfist Lancepants just died, who should we get to replace him
>lets get like, some adventurer from a guild or something, he'll be alright
>nah fuck it, lets just ask the town baker, he'll be fine

>>48415168

Granted I'm playing a Monk, but Mobility might be worth looking into. While it doesn't increase your raw toughness, you'd be surprised at how slippery it makes you. You can just dart in and out of combat with big things and there will be very little they can do without suffering AoOs from your allies.

>>48415347
You need to make the effort. Talk to those in charge and point out that every child starting out is going to be at a worse and worse situation and none of them are going to be having much fun regardless of what you do.

If you absolutely have no choice about it, then run the combats according to the weakest links and let the stronger players steamroll everything. The only buffing you do, if any, is more hp for a few of the significant enemies.

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>tfw neet
>stay at home
>watch anime
>read books about the world
>learn about other cultures but never go out into the world
>important things are comfort, food, and drink being far more concerned about taste and comfort than health or class.
>surprisingly hardy, never feel depressed even when steps from being homeless

Guys I'm literally a fucking halfling.

>>48415347
If they won't let you fix it, use the nuclear option. Wipe the party. Bam. Levels equalized.

So can someone refresh me of what alternative/beta classes have been released so far via UAs (and save me the 10-20 minutes of downloading the UAs and reading through them)?

If memory serves, there's Favored Soul variant for Sorcerers, Rune Priest PrC, Mystics for your psionics, and that's it?

I know there's alternate archetypes for Warlock and Monk, and Arcana domain Cleric, but I feel like I'm missing something else.

>>48415349

There are a couple of problems:

1) RPG isn't a "codified" part of the program. We do it as part of a 'freeplay' block, but it's popular enough that counselors end up setting up players and DMs during the end of lunch (during summer program) or game development class (during school year.)

2) There really isn't enough time during that setup period to sync up character level and player level. Freeplay is like two and a half hours.

3) DMs rotate as much as the kids. I myself am a "call-in" for when someone else can't or doesn't wanna come in, and I'm playing board games for probably two or three minutes per minute of D&D time. So even if I'm doing this, I can't reliably expect the DM to whom I'm handing the campaign off to reliably do the same.

>>48415376
>not concerned about class
What part of "Mister Frodo" don't you understand?

>>48415407
I was talking about class of food. Hobbits would eat any type of food that tasted good even if it was sketti.

>>48415376
are you short

>>48415385
This could work. But perhaps play it differently, where all the characters meet some other less depressing fate that takes them out of the game. Or pick off the stronger characters by similar means, maybe they go off to be royalty.

>>48415413
No... I'm 6 foot 240 lbs

I had a friend who is a chemical engineer offer to adpot me and let me live in his basement.

>>48415394
Suggest this: Scrap XP. It's not that useful a metric. Everyone gains a level at pre-scheduled times. If it's only 2.5 hours, you should be levelling every 3-5 sessions, so let's say the 1st of the month, or something. So everyone will always be at the right level.

>>48415366
Damn, I must have over looked that, that's a real decent option. So far I have nailed it down to;
>Tough
>Mage Slayer
>Lucky
>Moble

>>48415386
>>48401351

>>48415436

see >>48415305

>>48415394
Okay, let me impress this on you as clearly as possible. With a party with SO DISPARATE a level range, you have three options:

1) Let the 6 and 9 trivialize the encounters so you don't kill the 1 and 3.

2) Let the 1 and 3 risk death in every encounter so you can challenge the 6 and 9.

3) Avoid combat altogether.

You CANNOT fix this. Someone, somewhere, FUCKED. UP.

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Would running a max health build be fun, or too boring and gimmicky? As far as I can tell, the biggest meatwall possible is Hill Dwarf Barbearian, maxing Con and getting Tough by level 12.
However, doing this just because I can seems like it'd get dull. Barbarians are still very simple in combat, but without gaining any bonuses to offense besides class features...is it worth the hassle?

>>48415394
At this point man I would just set the min level for new characters based off the highest lvl in the party. So based on that lvl 9? I wouldn't go lower than 5.

>>48415443
Thanks.

I asked mainly cause I like homebrewing stuff and was looking to compile a full PHB 2 or races and classes, based off of stuff I like and stuff that I think could port over from 3.5 or 4th edition to be interesting.

So far I've narrowed it down to the following classes:

> Duskblade
> Mystic
> Swordsage
> Crusader
> Warblade
> Warlord
> Artificer
> Shaman
> Elementalist

No clue what races I'm looking to port over for playable characters though.

>>48415476
I dunno, could be fun if you make him implosive and just basically go tasmanian devil in combat.

To hell with caution, I'm fucking superman.

>>48415465

I generally let the kids know that if they have a huge level disparity, things are gonna be tough on the lower levels. The kids get it, they're mostly happy to be out and about with their characters.

>>48415488

Not an option. Sometimes the level ranges just suck in this program.

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>>48415496
On one hand, homebrewing stuff for yourself and your group is fine. It's your own business and all.
On the other, if you really get into 5e's supposed design philosophy, you need to ask what the goals are for those classes. What should they do, and how is that best represented mechanically? If you can already get close with existing material, use that, maybe with a bit of reskinning. Others can be done with just a subclass. There are probably very few concepts worth writing a whole new class over.

>>48415514
Wish you and your party luck then.

>>48415440

I'd say Lucky or Mobile. Lucky is really, really good it's strong on any character and can save your ass. Tough makes you straight up tough but Mobile will open up a lot of combat options for you (and it's a lot of fun). Mage Slayer is pretty situational, but would fit your theme well.

Also, my Monk can knock Colossal creatures around with her flurry of blows fuck yea.

>>48415514
Well it seems you have a comfortable, casual thing going on, so your best bet is playing it easymode.

Do you have an idea how the other dms have been running the show?

>>48415514
Basically, build every encounter as if it was a mediocre boss battle. A big bad guy for the 6+9 to bumrush, and a pile of weak minions for the 1+3 to chew through. Don't attack the weak ones with the strong ones if you can help it. Make sure to distribute the treasure evenly, and throw some cool flavourful trinkets to the lower ones to keep them at least a little engaged.

But really, there's not much advice we can give you beyond that. Your program has made some INCREDIBLY stupid choices, and the game will suffer from it, but if the kids have fun, who cares.

>>48415440
I'd go with mobile and sink the rest into stat boosts.

>>48415386
>Bard
Colleges of Blades and Satire (UA Kits of Old)

>Cleric
City Domain (UA Modern Magic)

>Fighter they're all variations on Bettlemaster
Cavalier and Scout (UA Kits of Old)
Monster Hunter (UA Gothic Heroes)

>Ranger
No-spells base class variant (UA Modifying Classes)
Deep Stalker (UA Underdark)

>Rogue
Inquisitive (UA Gothic Heroes)

>Socerer
Shadow Origin (UA Underdark)

>Warlock
Ghost in the Machine (UA Modern Magic)
Undying Light (UA Underdark)

>Wizard
Artificer (UA Eberron) Utter Garbage
Technomancer (UA Modern Magic)

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>>48415533
Well I already have 60HP at lvl 7 and we are increasing it each lvl based on die average+Con Mod, so maybe Tough can be tossed aside for now. We are going into Strahds Castle by next session hopefully so Mage Slayer would only really be good against him unless he had some spell casters in his place as well. Mobile would really fit the character as well but Lucky will only be good for me 3 times before taking that long rest (and hopefully my party will not be dumb enough to try and take a long rest in Strahds Castle.)

I might just go with mobile then, thanks for the advice. Haven't played a Monk yet but recently had the desire to make Pai Mei for a game.

>>48415567
Stats are 16,14,14,12,14,8 I think it's a good fit for where I want my character to be but there are so many feats I would like him to have. Though I am not gonna see lvl 12 in this campaign as the DM has just stated 10 is gonna be the max.

>>48415608

My experiences so far are that monks are glass cannons but otherwise fun. Mobile is, in my opinion, absolutely critical for anyone who isn't a sun soul and just makes the class feel so much better, they really do need a little tweaking (being able to at least disengage without spending ki would be really all I'd want).

Otherwise though? The class is fun as shit and once you hit level 8 you just start getting very interesting abilities that let you ignore/modify a lot of the game. Immune to posion/disease, run up walls and across liquids, speak every language in the universe etc. You do solid damage, can stun stuff, and generally do ridiculous shit whenever you want.

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>>48415509
There's certainly a ring to being able to say "I'm running the maximum possible HP". At level 1, you'd have 16. But it's a slippery slope when determining if it's worth running max HP, or a comparable but effective high HP.
For example, if you were hard maxing it, taking Tough at level 4 would give you more than points in Con. However, you would have lower Constitution saves, less HP from short rests, and lower Unarmored Defense. So, it seems far better to hold Tough for later in the build.
But then, it can be quite attractive to drop Hill Dwarf, because it doesn't offer anything really besides the +2 Con and unique +1 HP per level. Mountain Dwarf gives you a boost for your primary attack stat, which is important if you don't plan to boost it until level 16, so basically never. Goliaths are also very attractive, and have that nice Con scaling damage reduction, which in effect probably saves you more HP than Hill Dwarf's anyways.

>>48415635
I was running a 1-3 quick session (Fey Sisters of Fate) campaign just to introduce newbies to 5E. One of the players wanted to be a monk so I did him up a character sheet and he hated the entire campaign cause he was just so weak and by the time he got to choose all those neat arch types the campaign was over. I really didn't like it either as it felt nobody got to experience their class.

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>>48415649
>Level 1 Monk when optimized has 16 AC and can use their action and bonus action for a consistent 1d8+1d4+2Dex each turn
Monks soar at the bottom levels. How'd that even happen?

>>48415636
I had an idea for something similar in mind. Basically a Dwarf who was a pro wrestler. It was gonna be a Barbarian Dwarf with a high as fuck Con and Tavern Brawler. Obviously he would have a 16 to Dex and Con just to get that 16 AC but still the idea was he just had a fuck ton of HP and he ran around grappling, punching and drop kicking people. I would have requested that my DM however allowed me to put chairs and ladders as his only proficient weapons.

>>48415674
Would have to look at his sheet again but from what I can remember he was just not having fun.

>>48415515
Well, I can explain my thoughts behind some of them.

>Duskblade
Wanted to expand more on the idea started with EK and Bladesinger. The 3.5 class is probably the closest thing to a true gish class, and I wanted to focus it into being basically a melee magic dps class.

>Artificer
A class that focuses on crafting special items for thrown/launched AoE buffs/debuffs/damage, with archetypes of going into either a type of fantasy Iron Man suit or crafting lots of one-time use items to mimic magical effects.

> Book of 9 Swords classes
Expanding more on the idea of superiority die by porting over the schools from that 3.5 book as archetypes for the classes to focus on (Swordsage is melee nova dps, Crusader for tanking and self-heals, Warblade for tanking and aoe damage).

> Elementalist
A sportscaster who focuses on one type of elemental damage, crafting new spells with that element and augment other spells with their chosen element (cold, fire, lightning, acid, poison, and thunder are the main elements).

>>48415720
>Sportscaster

Spellcaster. Stupid autocorrect.

>>48415476
It's good. Very good. The party can rely on throwing the Barbian first at everything. Danger Sense and Feral Instinct synergizes with it, then just get into absorbing as much of the enemy action economy as you can in a fight. You can get creative with the martial actions- grappling, shoving, dodging, etc. to support that. Then when you have a vulnerable target, reckless attack with a big increased chance at scoring a brutal critical. I'd pick up Durable, too- bringing the HD healing range to 10-17.

>>48415697
I'm thinking class choice had little to nothing to do with that.

>>48415720
>poison
That'd have to be some creative class features, given all the poison immunity out there. And it's a lot harder to justify poisoning a golem than burning a fire elemental.

>>48415773
I'm not really sure about poison specifically because of all those immunities. I just know I don't want a PC to be able to focus on force, psychic, neurotic, or radiant damage because those tend to fall under pure arcane energy, mental damage, or divine realms respectively.

>>48415752
Yeah, I'll agree with that. I think it's just me really hating that campaign. I really just hate 1-3 progression and am considering making it a house rule that all my players start off at 2 just so they have more substance.

>>48415833
A better option might be to step away from the damage types as a base, and look at the classical elements for inspiration on both mechanics and theme. Fire is straightforward enough, but wind earth and water can provide interesting options. Wind of course focuses on lightning and thunder damage, earth can be acid, water can give cold and poison. Also a focus not just on dealing the damage, but multiple optional rider effects to go along with them. Some thoughts on that:

Fire - Unhealable burns, convert damage to radiant, melt items and environment

Cold - Slowing, grease like effects, immobility

Poison - Disadvantage on different saves, nausea

Acid - Penalties to attacks and AC, destruction of environment and items, spash damage

Lightning - Stunning, paralysis, hitting additional targets

Thunder - Deafness, forced movement

Everyone would have access to continous damage effects as well.

>>48415905
Might as well make it three so everyone gets their subclass fun going on right off the bat.

I have a lot of experience in 3.5 and I'm finally going to start DMing 5e for the first time soon. I figured I'd use one of the adventure books, but I'm not sure which one is best. I was thinking Hoard of the Dargon Queen or Curse of Strahd. Which one is better? Are there even better adventures books out there?

>>48416005
HotDQ is ass, CoS is fantastic.

>>48416019
that being said, strahd is obviously more unique, and depending on your players may not be as enjoyed. clearly if you have a murderhobo or two, they're gunna have a shit time with spoopy forest wolves and vampire dicks

>>48416005
In my opinion, CoS > PotA > OotA > RoT > HotDQ

>>48416034
My party has only been surviving because we have 2 Bards, a Cleric and a Paladin so we have healing out the ass. We have also gotten pretty lucky now and then. Our DM has done Strahd fantastically though and every time we have encountered him it's been a lot of fun. Last time we say him we murdered all his Druid Worshiper before his eyes and he just stood back laughing and thanked us after for bringing some entertainment to an otherwise boring evening.

He then said we had 3 days to return the woman he wants to be his bride that we have been hiding from him or he is gonna start being pissed.

>>48416019
>>48416034
>>48416047

Thanks so much for the answers. I already own HoTDQ and never played it, but I'm willing to buy CoS if it's that much better of an experience for us. Some party members are big fan of Stoker's Dracula and Lovecraftian horror in general, so I think they will enjoy it.

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>>48412919

Is there literally any reason not to be a High Elf Diviner with the Lucky feat in every game, just to be the smuggest motherfucker in the party at all times?

>>48416125

halfling diviner multiclassed into lore bard with the lucky feat

>>48416142
A bard would know when not to be smug though.

Who here even plays an evil character and betrays the party? Seems like your friends would get butthurt at you and not want to play.

>>48415732

>It's a beautiful day for a football game, ladies and gentlemen, or it would be if I hadn't just summoned a rain of fire!

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>>48416184

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>>48415674
Balsa is mai waifu

>>48416120
Yeah, it's a shame about HotDQ, it has a weird start, a boring middle (caravaaaaaan), and is badly balanced because it was so early. It can be saved, but it's a bunch of work compared to buying some of the other modules.

>>48416177
It's usually cancer performed by foolish selfish people, but there's sone situations where it's acceptable. When everyone is actually a good roleplayer and it's done for drama, followed either by reconciliation or the retiring of the traitor as a PC. Also nice is a party of evil PCs where all of them are on the precipice of stabbing each other in the back and the inevitable shitstorm is the entire point of the game.

>>48416177
>Playing Out of the Abyss with this 12 year old in the party playing a Dwarf Cleric.
>We don't really expect much from him.
>Find a Red Dragon Egg important to these Duergar priests who need it.
>The keep a live Red Dragon and once it reaches a certain age they kill it and replace it with a hatchling before it grows to powerful.
>Party decides we want to help kill this Dragon (and perhaps steal some of its hoard when none is looking.)
>Kid suddenly asks to talk to our DM in private and they do so and our DM starts to grin widely as they talk out of hearing distance.
>We go into the dragons layer for the fight without our Cleric cause he was missing.
>"Fools, you come seeking to destroy me? Allow me to show you the errors of your plan!"
>Dragon gets the drop on us and instantly takes out half our party with his breath.
>We only survive cause the Duergar sent in some guards to aid us in killing the Dragon.
>We find our Dwarf Cleric at the other end of the den, lying down and covered in blood.
>We help him up, don't asks any questions cause we are too busy trying to steal as much gold as we can.
>Find out after playing that the kid told our GM that he was gonna have the Cleric strike a bargain with the Dragon, informing him that we were coming to kill him and that in exchange for his loyalty he would be gifted with a small fortune.
>The Dragon allowed this but when the fight broke out one of the guards fled and spotted our Cleric.
>The Cleric quickly killed him and covered himself in the guards blood to make it look like he was mauled by the Dragon.
>At that moment we all decided that Evil Party back Stabbing kid was based as fuck.

>>48416262
Me here >>48416259
Simply getting away with it in a classy manner hadn't occurred to me,thanks for that. I could definitely see some groups getting butthurt over even that much though, so it's risky unless you all are very understanding.

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>>48416262

I think Drizzt was actually a cool guy in retrospect.

>>48416289
No one got upset about it cause
1: We didn't die
2: It was fun and surprised the fuck out of us

I feel bad cause we undermined this kid almost the entire game cause of his age but then he pulls off this stunt to create one of the most memorable moments in that game.
But you are right to some degree, if the player themselves are a cool person and you know they play for characterization and story then it should be no problem. If they are the type of player though that just plays for personal gain and to see their own character succeed then yes, it would piss off many. Recently I had to roll off for the Sun Sword in Curse of Strahd vs a player who has either ran away in every fight we have been in or stood back far enough just to use his short bow. He only ever went into melee against Twig Blights while my character has always been in the thick of it. He was the type of player that was only ever out for himself.

>>48416342
The Dark Elf Rain Man

>>48409021
Anybody have the link for this month's unearthed arcana?

>>48413944
>When you take the Attack action and attack with only
a glaive, halberd, or quarterstaff, you can use a bonus
action to make a melee attack with the opposite end of
the weapon.

But that is literally wrong though. Why would you lie on the internet?

>>48416384
Nice trip. It's coming out on monday.

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Do we have a list of what magic items appear in what AL adventures?

>>48416349
Please tell me you won the roll off

>>48416849
I did. Was kinda nice seeing him all pissed off.

Am I right in saying small races can wield rapiers provided they have proficiency?

>>48417056
Yes. They have disadvantage when using heavy weapons so rapiers are fine.

Next game i'm playing a naive farm boy just trying to do good. I can't decide if I should play a Paladin or a Fighter because the Paladin fluff is really "Holy Agent and Smite EVIL" but Fighter feels a bit to... plain for a character who is already a little.

>>48416342
Drizzt isn't actually to bad as a character but the sheer amount of copies and drow PC's he produced ruined is name.

>>48417429
Oath of the Ancients seems a good fit. Alternately, you could go full Luke, have your parents die in your backstory and go Oath of Vengeance to try and get back at whoever killed them.

>>48417451
I was thinking he could be Oath of the Ancients and his powers are a blessing from something for helping to defend a village or a sacred grove even though he had no training at the time. On the other hand a "Mama told me not to hit ladies" Forest Gump Champion could be fun.

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>starting a 5e campaign with some friends that have never played DnD
>characters so far:
>Gobbly Lyn, Goblin bard, plays the recorder, tin flute and kazoo, extremely handsome.
>Man,the dwarf. The tallest dwarf of all time, at 5'9
>Drumpf Maga, autistic swordsman
>Ratboy the Genius, the most intelligent ratfolk of our time

God have mercy on my soul. This is going to be a cluster-fuck.

>>48417642
You need some new friends.

>>48417642
I've been in a similar boat, just roll with the insanity.

>Goliath fighter whore princess
>perpetually drunk Aarakocra monk
>blackface elf
>dragon-cursed-in-a-mans-body rogue
>DORF THE DORF

Sure, it only lasted ~3 sessions, but they had a good time.

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went to the shop yesterday for the first time in months

pulled a double dragon, shadow and green

>>48417642
>First time players
>Homebrew monster races
Stop.

>>48417804
The only experience they have with D&D is the xD epic greentexts from /tg/, so i expected as much.

>>48417829

hey man, Los Tiburon got all my new players excited as fuck to play d&d, when I first proposed the game to them they seemed apprehensive, but after telling that tale, they were stoked as fuck to play it.

now they are balls deep in everything having to do with the hobby. fun is fun.

unless it's cancer and assburgers.

>>48417642

Roll with it, the goal is to have fun. If you and your friends all have fun with it it's a great success. Just be sure to be honest about your preferences and what you want to happen. Don't drop hints and frown and expect them to read your mind.

>>48417642
Open the adventure with "You are all being deported."

>>48417849
It's actually super awesome to have them so into it now, for ages they told me to fuck off until they caved and made characters (and ran a test scene to learn about combat and shit) , and realized how open the whole experience is.

>>48417868
That isnt a bad idea at all, honestly. Serves as a nice platform for the characters meeting each other too.

>>48417829
This is why you don't fucking let 1st time players just go off and make characters on their own. You have a session 0, everyone makes characters at the table, using only the sources approved by the DM. If you want to introduce people to the hobby, you have an obligation to actually guide them through the process and introduce them to the hobby properly.

And if they don't immediately take to the idea of it, here's a quote directly from one of the kikes over at WotC HQ: "I find that having restrictions in place actually helps breed creativity."

>>48417898
I've already run them through the basics of combat, and their characters aren't really that crazy rules-wise. They arent idiots, and they've all taken time to at least he basics of the player's handbook. No need to be upset.

My players are going to be going on a bit of a plane-hopping adventure to save a friend next week. nothing huge, but just going from plane-to-plane. I need an encounter (doesn't have to be a combat encounter) for each of the outer planes. Any ideas? I don't have experience with the outer planes so I'm not quite sure what to do.

>>48417938
Also the party is 5 level 17 characters with some strong magic items, so combat encounters can involve big monsters.

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Is there a simple way to generate characters quickly in 5th? I haven't played 5e in a while, in exchange for the older basic editions right now, because I've been enjoying a megadungeon style OSR game right now.

I'm getting to the point where I want to DM my own now, but locally instead of over the internet, and OSR just isn't that popular in my area, so I'm going to have to settle for the closest thing to it. The one BIG downside to 5th and it's ability to meet my needs is that I need players to be able to generate characters fairly quickly, less than 10 minutes preferably, because they are going to inevitably die, sometimes in the session they were created.

I don't want to totally gut the class system built for 5e, because I feel that may turn away the majority of the 5th playerbase in my area, but I also need to trim it down to make character creation faster and simpler. What do you guys propose I do to meet this goal? The very first thing I can think of is gutting the background rules into something much more simple. Player characters generally last longer in this type of game, due to receiving full shares of gold and xp, where retainers only gain half-shares of gold, and full xp, so I may allow PCs to use backgrounds to the full extent, and perhaps give retainer characters a d20 random background and allow the player to insert one skill bonus and one language/skill/tool/prof bonus that reasonably fits the background generated. Anything I should add to this?

What about other rules that I can dumb down without making the game too bland? I think my goal is to allow PCs the full extent of the handbook, while retainers, the characters that will generally be the ones generated most often, be given a reduced ruleset. perhaps retainers can only be found with the "original" set of classes? ie, fighter, rogue, cleric, wizard.

Can anyone help build on these, or think of anything that can be reduced in favor of efficient play without dumbing down the rules too much?

>>48410600
Make sure that you and the player are both on the same page about what a tiefling's father is.

>>48418025
I'm a little confused here. Are you saying that you want to run a game where after a player's first character dies they have to reroll as some kind of crappy NPC-tier sub-character?

>>48416120
I'm currently running HotDQ and it has been a lot of fun. It does take quite some work to properly run the first chapters but then again any game needs prep time. As the other anon said it was the first adventure, made when 5e rules weren't even finished yet. But see, I'm a noob DM, this is my first campaign. If I can do it, I'm sure people with more experience should be fine.

>>48418025
There's really no need to dumb down 5e...it's not hard to make new characters and, after level 3ish, deaths only happen rarely, unless you're ramping up the difficulty on purpose to turn it into a meat grinder. All in all, it seems unnecessary.

If OSR megadungeons are what you like, you'd be best to just stick with that. I do love me some Slumbering Tsar and Swords & Wizardry. If you wanted to, you could convert Tsar--or any of the other Frog God megadungeons--to 5e fairly easily.

>>48418098
no. Their first character is going to be a full-fledged player character, but as long as that character lives, and their retainers' level remains equal to or lesser than theirs, they can control that character as though it were a secondary PC. If the retainer somehow levels up over the commanding character, it either has to gain command control, or leave the hiring character's service. If they want to make a full-fledged PC they'd have to do it outside of the game, and not during play. I want retainer-tier characters to be able to be created quickly during the game session, the reason for this being that at the beginning of play each session, I will allow the party to roll once to determine if they find any NPCs willing to become 1st level characters.

The nature of the game gives characters a high mortality rate, and we simply won't have time to create characters the way they are traditionally in 5th as the rules have it now. PCs probably shouldn't be restricted in many ways, but are not allowed to be created during session play.

>>48418201

I agree. It isn't hard to create them, but I'm not going to give other players the benefit of that doubt. Some people love to meticulously build story for their characters, or take time to greatly optimize, some are just too green to be that quick at it. The nature of the game gives it a high mortality rate, and allows for players to drop in and out on a week to week basis.

I don't want to convert other modules or systems just yet because the audience I have to work with isn't that interested in older systems, so I'm settling for, not necessarily dumbing down, but just simplifying character creation, and adding a few minute house rules.

on a side note, I'm throwing out death saves completely and opting for a "grave wound" table, and the ability for helmets and shields to negate this table roll. Players will also need to roll HP at level 1.

>>48418354
>high mortality rate
>roll HP at level 1

..........how many 5e games have you ran?

>>48418310
I'm going to guess that you haven't played much 5e. It's already designed for character creation that takes less than 10 minutes. You literally just write down what's on the background and class and you are done

>>48418354
Why do you want to murder your players so badly?

>>48414810
>I see no reason why he would allow the adventuring party to actually gain enough strength to legitimately threaten him.
If I read the adventure right, he doesn't. The final battle has the party around level 11 if they're lucky. They can only beat him because of some bullshit vs vanpires type magic item help.

>>48418354
If a player likes to write 20 page back stories then changing char creation rules won't fix that. You are going to have to solve that problem by actually talking to your players.

>>48418310
So you want to run a game where players have to manage two characters at the same time and if the "main" character dies or levels up slower than the "side" character (how would this even happen) they have to play hastily/randomly generated side characters (who are only different in that they take a pay cut as if gold mattered in 5e) until the next session?

>>48418354
Have you considered not allowing variant rules? With no feats or multiclassing character creation is literally pick race class background done.

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Are there any GOOD homebrew level 11-20 continuations of the mystic?

The "Psionics Handbook 0.7" from Reddit is full of questionable balance.

>>48418535
How about this one? I don't have the best eye for balance, but it seems alright. Although it was made before WotC changed the Mystic so its rules are in line with the original UA Mystic.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0By6dc9Cd122MOExWTTZ3MUtabjQ/view?usp=sharing

>>48418535
>going to plebbit
Of course.

>>48418535
I've used that homebrew, and beyond the fact that it can cast wish (thematically, I disagree with it, but its not broken) it wasn't broken. It's actually a lot of fun.

I don't see the Order of the Knife and Order of the Immortal as being thematically distinct enough to require two separate Orders, but that's just me.

What do you see as being OP?

>>48418576
r/unearthedarcana isn't a bad place to go for homebrew ideas and resources.

>>48415905
1 and 2 are basically the 0-level adventurers. Starting at 3 or even 5 is totally acceptable later on.

>>48418601
I started at 1 once with my main group; now, all campaigns start at 3.

>>48418060
I've been working on that. I know that, in the book, Tieflings are descended from a kingdom that made a pact with Asmodeus to get demon powers or something along those lines.

I plan on running a homebrew system that has the same cosmology as forgotten realms, just different continents. One of the nations I've set up already has a history of coming into power after taking out another empire some centuries ago; could easily make it the one that resulted in Tieflings.

That said, I will have to break it to her that, while she CAN be related to devilish heritage, it's many many MANY more lines removed that the initial concept. There's also nothing stopping an archdevil/god from taking notice of her for other reasons.

>>48418388
I've ran a few now. All my previous characters have done one of the above things I've mentioned. Yes, some experienced players can do this quickly, but I'm not betting on all my players being this experienced. I want it to be so simple a novice can do it, and 5e generally poses too many choices for someone like that to take less than 10 minutes creating a character unless I literally spoon-feed them it and make it for them. I asked how I can simplify it.

>>48418414
The point is for them to not want to get murdered. Gold achieved from adventuring that is spent will immediately convert to xp. The point of the game is to avoid most combat and get away with the gold.

>>48418431
they can write all the background info they want, just not while in play. I'll be including in the advertisement that it is not a hugely story driven game

>>48418519
I'll disable a few, feats beings disable being the biggest one. I'd like to keep most intact though, to keep veteran 5th players interested. multiclassing may be ditched too if it gets most of the players too bogged down in rulings and extends creation time.

>>48418705
>I wanna make 5e B/X.
lulz

Well, all I can say, then, is good luck. You'll need it.

>>48418794
more like BECMI ;)

I know it'll probably be a trial and error thing for a few weeks, but it shouldn't be as bad as every makes it seem to be.

>>48418621
It could be a direct relation and you just use the tiefling stats to reflect that she's half-fiend, or her father is a cursed bloodline tiefling while her mother isn't. He'd still be very devilish, and maybe he's not just a commoner.

The game I'm in, I'm playing the disfavored of two tiefling sons of a tiefling noble in a balkans-ish region, so our father is basically a devil-warlord. Actually, I bet he's a warlock, since he favors the sorcerer son and is a dick.

Drow paladin of moradin: abandoned as a baby in the tunnels, good ol' minin' dwarf with a soft spot picks him up and takes him home. Wife dwarf takes a bit of convincing, but ultimately they take him in. Raised like a dwarf, finally is told the truth about who he is after overhearing some really painful gossip at too young an age. The kid is dumb as bricks but has a pretty good heart in him, is way too persistent in following after his spot in the clergy, sticks out like a sore thumb and royally pissed off those he trained with simply because he exists. Leaves home to finally adventure and spread the WORD OF MORRADIN.
Is scared of spiders.

>>48418851
Oh, it will, especially if you get any players that have already played 5e. If they're new and don't feel like learning the game from the book as they should, you might succeed, but there's a fairly small chance of that.

I really think you'd be better off just sticking with BECMI, Swords & Wizardry, B/X, or any of the other OSR clones. You'd be happier, because it seems you're setting yourself up to fail.

To each his own, I suppose.

>>48418923
I'd allow this solely for this line, "Why can't I grow a beard like yours, papa?"

Does he wear a fake beard? That'd be hilarious.

>>48418705
Like I said char creation is already pick just 3 things ( race class background). If you want to make it faster you have to get rid of one or more of those.

>>48418961
Yes. Definitely a fake beard that's just slightly off from his natural hair color.

>>48418923
>Raised like a dwarf, finally is told the truth

"You mean I'm gonna stay this color forever?!"

>>48418962
It's like that at level 1 I suppose. I'm probably just going to scrap backgrounds as they stand right now. I'll likely replace it with 'choose 2 skills, choose a combination of 2 languages,tools, or proficiencies, take 5, 15, or 25 gold depending on economic background. I'll also probably disable feats. dont get me wrong, they can make a character intereseting to use, but I don't really like them for some reason. Finally I'll probably impose some multiclassing disable rule for retainers.

>>48418961
If he's got the classic drow hair-metal hair he could pull it over his ears and tie it off under his nose in order to hide his naked chin. The other dwarves could call him Sneezey.

>>48419045
lol, yes, it must be now.

They call him sneezey because when they found him, the only word he could say was his name, but it sounded like a sneeze to the dwarves who did not speak Drow. So, he's named the dwarven word for "sneeze".

>>48417938
>>48417984

pls respond

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How difficult would it be to run Curse of Strahd as a first-time DM?

>>48418705
>I asked how I can simplify it.
All you could possibly do is limit their options. No multiclassing, no feats, no rolling ability scores. But really it's already quick enough, if you're dealing with indecisive newbs then nothing is going to fix that.

>>48419064
Lol, I love that. Sneezey the drow paladin of Moradin.

>>48419137

Not that difficult, the campaign books usually lay everything out for you. Just do your preparation for each session ahead of time, and put the monsters on index cards. If your players are new, you might want to start them at level 2 though thanks to the dangers of Death House.

>>48418923
Boy Sandwich then. Scared of spiders is a nice touch though.

>>48419218
To be completely honest I never knew about sandwich until I wrote that post. I then googled it and saw her on 1d4chan. Love the concept, and you're right.

>>48419137
Do your prep and you'll be fine! Read through the whole book, at least briefly, and read the next session's worth of stuff in depth. Write down or print out anything that might be helpful to reference on the day. Make sure to describe things creepily and play strahd as his character.

If you feel you need a warm up, do the starter set adventure first for a couple of sessions. Stick to milestone leveling and you can even take the same characters through if you want!
It's easy to interrupt too, if you want the mists to come in and steal the characters away.

>>48419218
My current party has a half-drow that was raised by orcs. Her other half might even be orc, though that usually wouldn't work. Rogue who believes you earn things by killing things and taking them. Does not want to accept things she did not win in battle. Everything she owns has been salvaged from enemies we've killed.

>>48419218
I was just thinking that.

>>48419307
reminds me of how I had a half-orc that was raised by halflings. Boy is that a confusing upbringing.

>>48419218
First thing I thought of was Carrot Ironfoundersson.

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Taking part in my first game today. GM is new to being a GM too. Wish me luck!

>>48419647
Good luck my dude.

>>48419647
Blessings upon your game

>>48419137
Consider looking at the DDAL4 missions in the Mega. They're designed to lead into CoS and are a bit more straightforward for the first-timer. Also less likely to kill everyone than Death House.

>>48419647
May all the gods of luck smile upon you.

Don't die horribly.

>>48419647
Good luck. Keep your ears open and don't be afraid to ask questions, the better you understand the situation your character is in the better you can make decisions that are both in character and in line with the GM's intentions, he's new so if things go south due to a lack of communication/understanding he may not be able to tell the difference between an intentional screw up and an unintentional one.

If Sith Lightning were a spell, would it deal Electric or Necrotic damage?

>>48419954
Lightning is closer to the canon, as it is indeed an electric attack. But going half lightning and have necrotic is nice and in theme.

>>48419954
It exists in the form of witch bolt.

>>48420013
i assume he wants a spell that isn't complete trash.

>>48420032
probably lol

>>48420032
True. The only difference would be a movement penalty and needing to break line of sight to end instead of just walking away. And what damage to go with, obviously.

>>48420076
lol.

>>48420032
Vampiric Touch.

>>48419954
If you're DM allowed it, you could refluff Eldritch Bolt as Lightning instead of Force and go Warlock.

>>48420109
That kind of range doesn't really feel like the same thing. No one ever got force lightning'd from two rooms away.

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Why is Witch Bolt considered a bad spell? It's 1d12 without save, scalable with slot level, and pretty good for your spell slot economy. It also works with Hex.

What's wrong with it? I could see it being a pretty good Warlock choice...

>>48420178
concentration, broken by los and range, secondary damage DOES NOT SCALE

>>48420178
1st level damage spells are always quickly outclassed by a mere cantrip. At least magic missile has a gimmick of unmissable damage.

>>48420193
uses action every turn or lose the spell.

You are always, ALWAYS better off using a cantrip

>>48420170
>That kind of range doesn't really feel like the same thing. No one ever got force lightning'd from two rooms away.

Same level of power, though; you could just clone it and lower the range to fit.

>>48420223

So Witch Bolt's fine up until level 5. It's fine for a spell to be good at lower levels and not so good later on.

>>48420223
>ALWAYS
There's no attack roll the next turns, but yeah once you have a 2d10 Fire Bolt its downsides are too big for it to be useable. It's still good up until then, and for some groups the early levels don't take mere sessions each.

>>48420368
Plus you can trade spells when you learn new ones on most/all casters so you can just trade it.

So ive written out a few ideas for encounters. But im worried im too serious and dark most of the time. Un one of the first few missions the captain gets blown up by a child suicide bomber(rambo backstpry style). Any ideas for light hearted rp enxounters?

>>48420319
>>48420368
>>48420387
except the other level 1 spells beat it by miles:

Burning hands, 3d6, cone, half damage on save. deals more damage on average to more enemies.

Chromatic Orb, 3d8, variable damage type, 3x the range of Witch Bolt, though you do have to hit, material component not so hard to get outside of level 2

Magic Missile, 3d4+3, auto hit, 4x the range of Witch Bolt

any of these spells +cantrips the following turns before level 5 will deal more damage than Witch Bolt. Plus chromatic orb and magic missile don't leave you in stabbing range of the enemies where you can have your concentration ruined or just die.

>>48420632
Honestly witch bolt needs to be a gish spell that punishes the enemy for leaving the range, instead of just doing subpar damage once per round. Maybe if it amped up each turn it would be worth it as is.

>>48420913
>>48420913
>>48420913

Scoot along.

>>48420319
Witch bolt sucks at low levels, it gains real strength I find in higher level battles, We have a Sorcerer who in most tough or solo monster fights, waits for the Cleric to hit with guiding bolt so he can attack with advantage, and burns a level 5 witch bolt into the boss. 5d10+5 damage every turn (Quickened for a free hit of it too). And just conserves resources by not needing to cast anything else.

>>48421124
Witch bolt doesn't do that. Read the spell again.

>>48421124
witch bolt ONLY deals extra damage/level on the initial hit, all other hits are at 1d12

Witch is why it sucks

>>48420178
If the secondary damage scaled, it might be handy.

Cast at 5th level for 5d12 damage as an action every turn while your concentration is up, for example. Not that bad, great for spell slot economy.

As it is, using your action and concentration on subsequent turns to deal 1d12 damage is laughable past level 3.