5eg - On my Phone Edition

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>>48872786
Should've included that, it's basically just getting a shield instead of pact weapon. Also Plate is OP, I'll probably just replace Mecha with the ability to bond with heavy armor, but I kind of want mecha transformation to work.

>>48872851
>If you play online, what tools do you use?
Roll20 for character sheets, battle maps, and rolling.

Discord for chat between sessions, private messages, and voice.

>>48872983
Right now I'm using Skype and we're going to try discord out. Any tips for a DM with 24 hours before the game?

This will be the last time I post these, promise.

Dumping some homebrews I've been working on the past few weeks. Already had some good input here, would love to hear some more before I tidy these up, make some graphical changes, and throw them on the DMsGuild.

Barbarian Paths
http://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/ByXalmSD

> Primalist - Spellcasting variant
> Warboss - Ork inspired
> Dervish - Tazmanian Devil

Bard Colleges
http://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/HJtVb9Uw

> College of Faith - Divine healing / support
> College of the Phoenix - Martial Support / buffs

Monk Ways
http://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/B1-L3BTod

> Way of the Beast - Animal styles for better martial options
> Way of the Wukong - Mage Slayer variant
> Way of the Kensai - Sword Wielding sandal wearing weeb samurai

Ranger Archetypes
http://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/SkpZBnJ_

> Dreadstalker - Inspired by Spirit of the Night MTG cards
> Maverick - Trick shooting ranged option
> Sky Sentinel - Niche fluff centered ranger of the skies

Rogue Archetypes
http://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/SyGRUsiD

> Revolutionary - Stop the gubment!
> Ruffian - Thug, hooligan, bruiser
> Time Bandit - Prince of Persia

>>48872851
>If you play online, what tools do you use?
Discord and Skype to host games.
Also MS Paint to crop maps, Notepad to track stuff like hit points and WordPad for writing up more specific notes. And that's it.

>>48872995
Tell everyone to get in the voice channel and check their audio 10-20 minutes before the session.

Make sure everyone knows they can change people's audio levels for their side only by right-clicking their name in the voice channel.

>>48872918
"Gee, I've just become a level 3 warlock. What should I get?"
>augury as a ritual
>a few cantrips
>a stupid little pet
>a weapon... despite you not needing a weapon.
>+2 (or more!) AC with almost no downsides whatsoever
Guess what players are most likely to pick.
Invocations are okay, though.

>pact of the plate
"Gee, I've just become a level 3 warlock with 14 dex. What should I get?"
>augury as a ritual
>a few cantrips
>a stupid little pet
>a weapon... despite you not needing a weapon.
>+3 AC with almost no downsides whatsoever because you can just get half-plate, more if you find magical armour
Guess what players are most likely to pick.
Invocations are weird.
Counter barrier is unusual because it kind of wants you to have magical medium armour with + bonuses, which the DM might not feel like giving you. Not to mention, isn't half-plate technically an AC of 15 regardless of your dex, it's just that you can then boost that AC by 2 using your dex?
I wouldn't say it's overpowered. It's weird, though.
>pact of the Mecha
Kind of cute. HP limited to 10x your spellcasting modifier limits it at 50 HP. Given it only takes a bonus action to use, this is probably a fair invocation.

My criticism here is that the invocations are mostly perfectly fine, but you seem to think it's fine to give non-multiclassed warlocks the option to straight-up improve their AC over less directly combat-useful benefits such as cantrips or a familiar.

I attempted to start making some social combat rules for more complex social interactions that still leave a lot of freedom to roleplay and moves quick enough.

I'm curious about feedback beyond "social combat is garbage" since I'm just trying to codify the more dangerous conversations a party might get into instead of just a few rolls or something like a skill challenge.

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>>48873078
Forgot the attachment

>>48873002
2/10 made me reply
I can't tell if you're intentionally making shit or if you seriously think any of these are playable. Do not reply. I don't care either way kiddo.

>>48873074
>>48872918
Also, I neglected to mention, aside from counter barrier relying on your DM giving you magical armour, it also locks people out of using the breastplate for no stealth disadvantage, because the breastplate only has AC 14/16.

I suggest finding some way to make it so the pacts aren't just giving flat AC increases to warlocks, and to make counter barrier dependent on something else such as the AC increase being half your proficiency bonus, rounded up.

>>48873078
Wew lad

Social combat is garbage - You are trash.

How's that?

>>48873226
>expert roleplayer

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Well, while everyone is posting homebrew I might as well too.

http://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/r1bQkBm5

The Witcher as a class. Let me know what you think.

>>48873316
S A L T Y
A
L
T
Y

How's your first time on 4chan friend? :^)

5e has the most built in room for characterization, but it light on character options.

>If I ran GURPS I would abandon the idea of 5e as a tactical experience

>I would run it with background or ability score proficiency was from the DMG and use it as a lighter weight dungeon explorer with a healthy bit of humor.

Well I don't plan to GM but I wanted to play something on the side when I gm shadowrun. 80% of the games on roll20 seem to be 5th so I wanted ask here to see if that is something I could get into.

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>>48873002
Way of the phoenix seriously got my attention Because I'm a huge birdfag and love phoenix How Am I supposed to save these again? Last time I used the print button to save as PDF but a blank page and the second and third pages were missing.

>>48873359
'Salty' is a reddit expression
And social combat is garbage in anything but Exalted, but that still doesn't mean you can't have a system worked out for trying to convince people of things

>>48873078
I recommend you read this: http://theangrygm.com/systematic-interaction/
It give some good ideas and techniques for working out how social encounters play out. Read his other articles too if you want good GMing advice.

>>48873358
Not how Yrden or Quen works precisely, but the games kept changing how Yrden worked from the original source material because it overlapped to strongly with Quen I guess in gameplay.

>>48872851
I use roll20 to run games
Pyromancers dungeon painter and deepnight 8bit map maker for making maps I would kill for the former to have a desktop version, I find the online version to be irritating
Rolladvantage for tokens
Donjon to randomly generate dungeons, and sometimes loot.

>>48873498
>theangrygm

>>48873074
For shields, I'm not sure exactly what the downside should be. I know it's a big strict upgrade, and unless you used weapons before then it being a focus doesn't even matter so removing that doesn't work. I get that they are too powerful even if warlocks want to mostly stay at the backlines blasting. I can see Tome being better for that if there weren't any exclusive invocations here but with abilities from there as well it definitely feels too powerful.

Plate is less thought of, Counter Barrier was originally another one for Bastion so that's where the 16-AC is from, I do want it to scale with magical armor but that wasn't intended as a huge thing, sort of like shield master not giving +2 but +(shield AC) to account for magical shields. ProfB/2 makes sense. I don't want to require 2 invocations just to get to heavy armor but maybe it should just be a custom suit of armor with 14 AC or something, but bonding to existing armor should still be possible. It wouldn't be too bad to limit it to light armor though I guess, and then MCing/feats can get you heavier armor and shields, which are used to greater effect but hopefully not OP.

>>48873514
Yeah, I used Witcher 3 as a basis since people will probably be most familiar with that iteration of the setting.

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>>48873498
Are you serious kid?
>Posts shit
>"HURRRR DURR IS IT GOOD GUYS?"
>Everyone tells you it's shit
>"EVERYONE ELSE IT WRONG"

Kill yourself

>>48873498
>social combat is garbage in anything but Exalted
Dogs? Rules-light systems like Everyone is John and Fiasco? Unless I misunderstand the meaning of the phrase.

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Is it bad I want Elemental patrons for warlock? not a different pact for each element but rather a single pact that goes "Choose an element" and depending which element you gain different spells and evocations.

>>48873498
>'Salty' is a reddit expression
It's from the FGC and has reached such widespread usage now that even my stupid little sister whose primary internet experience is Vines and Facebook pages of hiphop faggots uses it. Doesn't even know what Reddit is.

>>48873514
>Not how Yrden or Quen works precisely
Wait, it's not? What do they do then?

>>48873569
I've seen that, definitely one on Dandwiki which was shit as expected, but I think there was another one on DMsG or something.

>>48873498
All of that is literally codified in the homebrew you posted that in response to.

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>>48873600
I'm not even gonna bother reading the homebrews there.
Also DMs guild stuff, i've got mixed feelings about it, some stuff is great, other stuff I think it's great then I go "man this does not convince me at all"

>>48873569
You've got a baked-in reason for their existence with the Princes of Elemental Evil, and presumably their Good counterparts would be up for that as well. The Elemental Lords (Akadi / Grumbar / Istishia / Kossuth) might not care that much, but they do deign to take on Clerics and Kossuth at least has more interest than all of them and plays tit-for-tat.

It could totally work. One easy ability might be having a single attack from Eldritch Blast optionally deal damage matching your patron's alignment.

>>48873559
No you got it. Dogs in the Vineyard is probably the best social combat followed by the burning wheel.

>>48873577
They're both defensive Signs, just with different functions.
Yrden creates an impenetrable barrier that surrounds the witcher or something near him until he disperses it. The downside is that even though nothing can get in, nothing can get out either so it's useful only to take a breather or as a defensive ward.
Quen deflects fast-moving objects, such as bolts or arrows. It can stop a sword strike just ONCE, but this causes the spell to shatter and might still cause a heavy strike to get through as the blow might have too much mass behind it.

>>48873569
>>48873631
>>48873634
Speaking about elementals, are the derivative "elemental" planes like smoke and magma still a thing?

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>>48873157
Thanks for the feedback!

>>48873468
Here ya go.

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>>48873631
Yeah that's exactly how I feel, it can give ideas still though. This one for example, there are a lot of balance problems but I love the types of features so I want to make a more balanced version of it.

>>48873693
The Paraelemental Planes?
I don't remember them being mentioned but that doesn't mean they aren't there.

>>48873693
4E got rid of them (along with the primary Inner/Elemental Planes and a few other ones like Limbo) and rolled it all into the Elemental Chaos.

5E brought all the planes back and just SURROUNDS those Inner Planes with the Elemental Chaos, inasmuch as you can surround infinite planes with both clear borders yet seamless transitions into the other Inner Planes (don't ask, it's not supposed to make sense).

>>48873536
Shield master certainly works better if the DM gives you magical shields. I guess that is true. It does start out at +2, reaching up to +5 if your DM is really generous. Starting at +1 and increasing with magical stuff sounds a bit more dangerous, though.

I'm not sure what to suggest for binding plate/shield to you, though. I already think pact of the blade is kind of poorly built.

>>48873726
>middle finger of vecna
Unsure if it was a vecna, but got told by a bunch of people in /5eg/ not to use anything from them.

>>48873091
I think the system needs a lot more simplifcation as any player trying to get into this will spend a bit too long working houserules out.

Why is int used for armour?
Int might improve the opinions others have of you through appearing intelligent from word vocabulary and the like (if you can do tha language) and may perhaps be used if multiple people are trying to talk to you at once, though that's sort of into wis territory too - perceiving multiple things at once and memorizing multiple things at once before analyzing multiple things at once.

Not to mention, anybody with crappy social stats will just obsucate for either side all the time, and anybody who isn't alone can just have an obnoxious blathermouth blathering on to obsufucate all the time. It's like dodge, except every time you take the dodge action the entire party gets the benefits.

I think the Game of Thrones tabletop thing, that song of fire and ice or whatever it was had a nice looking social 'intrigue' system you could always steal.

But still, I think it needs to be simplified a lot.

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Been about a week since I posted this homebrew of mine and got a little bit of feedback on it. After toiling away for awhile I think I finally finished it.

I am aware that Reanimator is probably broken, but I made it in an attempt for it to completely replace the animate dead spell(which has a lot of problems with it).

>>48873762
I have some issues with it, like the no sentient weapons thing and the action to summon, outside of the more glaring problems like doing less damage, taking more risks and spending more resources with feats and invocations. Shields and armor are a lot more helpful innately though, just the ability to summon armor onto yourself as an action can be very nice and the AC is always helpful. Gonna have to think about how to limit shields though, even if I allow bucklers I don't want to say they can only summon smaller shields of +1 AC or something, though that might be the best way to balance it.

>>48873908
They have a lot of conversions, some good ones now and then but mostly mediocre to bad. I also think they are a bit distanced, they don't take a lot of feedback so if something isn't good I just give up on it instead of suggesting improvements (like that one there.)

>>48873693
Depends on the setting.

>>48873726
Honestly this seems pretty balanced, if not a tiny bit slightly underpowered. Save for one thing.

"Wave -
You embody the unstoppable power of a crushing wave. While you're raging and aren’t wearing heavy armor, you can use the Dash action as a bonus action on your turn without provoking opportunity attacks. In addition, you can make an attack on a creature immediately after using the Dash action and you gain advantage on the attack roll and knock the creature prone on a hit.

Firstly, the wording sucks.
Using the dash action DOES NOT TRIGGER OPPORTUNITY ATTACKS.
I assume they mean 'you do not take opportunity attacks if you use the dash action on your turn'. That effect would be more powerful than 'take the dash AND disengage action as a bonus' since taking the disengage action still fails against sentinel creatures.
Alright, so you've just used a bonus action to dash. You now immediately get to attack, because the dash action does not require you to move anywhere, it merely increases your move speed that turn, it does not require you to even more.
You then also get advantage.
You then also get to KNOCK CREATURE PRONE WITHOUT SAVE. You can then proceed to multi-attack it then run off at the speed of light without opportunity attacks.

Holy fuck.
They were doing so well up until then, and then they suddenly lost it and said 'You know what, we've failed to make an overpowered character. Let's make it overpowered.'

>>48874030
Yeah that one's insane. I wrote a bunch of stuff reading it the first time, at some point I may just re-create it with some tweaks and some big changes.

>>48873955
Oh, now I think about it. Being able to summon armour allows you to use otherwise stealth-ruining armour without wearing it all the time.

It might also be nice if you want to pretend to not be battle-ready.

However, not all DMs require you to take your armour off in your sleep. Doing that would punish dex-dumpers too heavily and force everybody ever to have good dexterity or suck. A super-tanky guy with 3 dexterity would literally have an AC of 6 in the night and not be able to do anything about it. And there are a lot of times adventurers have to stop sleeping for things.


I don't think the balance is to limit the AC increase.
I think the AC increase existing at all is the problem.
Other pacts do not confer direct combat bonuses other than to melee locks through shillelagh or pact of the blade - and melee locks suck. Pact of the tome is unlikely to help your combat potential a lot when you already have the best damaging cantrip in the game, that deals almost never resisted damage.

The pacts are generally utility over anything. Pact of the blade can be considered utility as it doesn't increase your damage output, but let you fight in melee instead of with cantrips which were more powerful anyway.

Maybe merge the shield and armour pacts, don't allow it to give proficiency but give it some extra utility and maybe open up an invocation that gives armour/shield proficiency. Though, that might be treading on 'you can cast mage armour at will' invocation.

>>48873913
Basically Int is the ability to overcome your personal reason/resolve with an argument.

I agree that I sort of broke form making so many actions using varied mental stats, when the fundamental was: Wis=Con, Cha=Str, and Int=Dex. I think I should lean into that more.

I like the positions more than the actions, any thoughts on how to simplify? With low(ish) "hit points" and high "damage" along with easily getting advantage I think it should be over quickly which is part of the point.

>>48874163
If you haven't, it might we worth reading some of the social combat from other systems, but I think you might already have done.

I don't really have much of a clue myself.
I like how things work right now, though I do feel some stats (like int) need more use, even though it'll be hard to justify the use of intelligence as it's pretty much just brainpower and memorization. Also, sometimes social events are resolved without even referring to a charismatic character's charisma once, whereas combat may constantly refer to combat stats. I guess the fix to that is that many casters use charisma for their abilities.

I'm doing my best to think of some sort of simple system, but I keep crashing at 'There are too many situations which would call for special rulings'.

A simple system that allows people to taunt might be nice, though.

>>48873955

Any particular homebrews from them I should check?

>>48873002
Well path of the primialist is a piece of shit
>Druid evocation spells
Yeah no that's not too good
>Can't retrain spells
>Spell slots have no regeneration notes for either short rest or long rest recovery
Let me make sure to mention in case you read my notes: fucking make it per short rest because otherwise it ultra shitty
>No calculation for what the spell dc/to hit is
>Con spell casting
No no no no that's fucking terrible, everyone uses con, make it wisdom like a druid or something
Not fucking con
Mind frenzy is okay I guess, no real opinion at this point
>Rage heart
This feature is so bad, everyone has con anyway so making it your casting strength isn't special, and roll an additional die for what? You didn't say what type of die. It's also terrible because it eats a rage
>Iresight
That shouldn't eat a rage, seriously, make it a daily ritual or something, not a fucking rage eating ability
>Storm fury
Well, you broke me. This is a better damage type fireball that knocks people prone, but it eats a rage, does shitty damage, hits allies, and gives you exhaustion
Overall it's shit
Fucking remake it

I'll review warboss because I like 40k
>Half orc only
Make it both half orc and orc only, orcs are a race that's going to be made soonish
>rage is enlarge
I have no issues with this
>Con mod per day to give people adv on str check/save
Str checks/saves aren't common enough for that shit, make it recharge on a short rest or just can use forever
>Legendary resistance
I like the meaning because it makes you more like a mean motherfucker legendary creature man
>Make people scared AOE
This is also good for that motherfucker angle, I like this subclass a lot, except for the adv on str stuff, make that better or something that effects other saves too

>>48874237
The aggressive position is for taunting and baiting and generally being a bully in your arguments. It's suited to quickly reduce AP, so in a situation like torture or questioning a prisoner you can be aggressive and they start with very low AP and you do a lot more damage.

For intelligence there it requires a bit of posturing: you need investigation followed with a reasoned argument to use intelligence to attack without the other side being factually wrong.

I think there needs to be a better defense against deceptions in general though.

>>48874240
Good shit. I've been kinda iffy on the Primalist for awhile now. Definitely have an idea for where I want to take it.

Also, glad you liked warboss.

>>48874030

I like the idea of it, but I think you shouldn't make a weapon and attack and instead should smash into them for like 1d4+ Strength mod damage, prone on a failed strength save.

>>48874141
>Oh, now I think about it. Being able to summon armour allows you to use otherwise stealth-ruining armour without wearing it all the time.
That is true, I only thought of it as being able to wear armor during night encounters and such, which my GM does do and I'm torn on. I want monks to benefit from those unprepared scenarios but yeah, rogue and dex fighters etc. don't need the buff. You're right about the shield though, a merge does sound like the logical solution, getting rid of the Shield invocation and stuff.

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What do I do as a Wizard if my DM doesn't seem like he'll be giving us any gold? We're playing Out of the Abyss and I'm worried I wont ever get a chance to copy new spells.

Also in your opinion, what are your top spells for Wizard? I'll be coming in at level 3 and tried to keep a good mix of offensive, defensive, and utility. What I have so far: Chill Touch, Minor Illusion, Prestidigitation

Ray of Sickness, Ice Knife, False Life, Mage Armor, Shield, Alarm, Find Familiar, Detect Magic

Scorching Ray, Mirror Image

>>48874307
Still. If you just want to taunt an enemy in the middle of combat, you shouldn't have everyone freeze up and step down from combat for a moment as everyone starts arguing.
As fun as it would be to play phoenix wright, that would be ridiculous.

I suppose it's fine to take down charisma's position of 'used to convince people you're right' and instead hand it over to intelligence for 'logic and reasoning', but you'll find most shorter arguments aren't won by a factually correct quote or a list of statistics but instead a charismatic man controlling the direction of the conversation or something.

I suppose there's probably an option to use charisma to persuade and intelligence to give facts, and that's fair enough.

>>48874408
The 'not being able to wear armour at night' thing really feels kind of unfair.

There already aren't a lot of benefits to going strength and using heavy armour, without forcing anyone who went heavy armour and dumped dex to be suddenly squishier than even a wizard. Not to mention your DM is more likely to rule you'll fuck up acrobatic type stuff in heavy armour than to someone in less.

I kind of did the same thing to one of my fighters before, but I can sort of justify it as fair as that particular enemy was like being hit by a truck (the PCs were being really adventurous trying to fight this) and that it would only target AC half the time given how low level anyone was.

Oh, enough about that though.
A good utility might be to allow you to switch clothes at any given moment with ease, including armour. That might broaden its use a bit.

>>48874487
Oh, I let my players taunt in combat to frighten enemies as an action. This is really for a set social encounter scene and not so much to be mixed in with normal combat so much.

>>48874481
Copying new spells shouldn't be your worry.
Your worry should be money attached to spells.
You need 50gp to get a diamond to cast chromatic orb.
100gp for a pearl to cast identify.

You get two spells to your wizard book every level. That's more spells you have access than any other class - 44 by level 20. ... Ha, just kidding, Clerics, Druids, Paladins, Rangers etc can just choose whatever spells whenever, they have access to all thei class spells.

Shield is a must.
Alarm, detect magic and rituals like that are all good as you can cast them without preparing them.

Mirror image is good.

Firebolt is probably a good standard attack cantrip, given its range and d10 damage. Still, other attack cantrips might offer more utility if you want it.

Don't feel like you have to get a combat spell for level 2 such as scorching ray. Sometimes it's better to use that slot for utility. Still, it might be useful in your earlier levels since until level 5 it'd be your best attack if you go all in. Not to mention, its upcasting doesn't suck so bad.

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How do you Fighter?

>>48874582

really most classes shouldn't be dumping dex anyways when you can usually dump int and charisma and be better off for it.

>>48874827
With a very large inventory.

>>48874827
Want to not think about things and just swing? Champion

Want to paint the battlefield like it's your canvas? Battlemaster

Want to cast spells and be not *just* a fighter? Eldritch Knight

>>48874657
Rangers don't prepare spells, their spellcasting is basically just a weird mix that wants to be druid but not.

So I'm joining a second campaign for off-weeks for my main game, and I'm considering rolling a skill-monkey half-elf. With a charlatan background it should be fairly easy to roleplay I think, but I'm looking for ideas for roleplaying the build.

>>48874913
It's the worst spellcasting methodology in the book and unique to a class that's already not fantastic. Why couldn't they make it work just like Paladins? Or even Druids, since the fluff says the get the magic "like Druids"?

>>48874657
Can't you just replace the materials with an arcane focus?

I can't decide the race of my Druid..

He will be spending most of the time in Wild Shape, pretending to be animal and spying/scouting.

Ghostwise Halfling
+ Lucky (several DM around here go with "fumble do bad thing" rule)
+ Telepathy

Half-Elf
+ Better CHA for Deception
+ Skill versatility

Any thought or recommendation? I think telepathy would open up more RP potential.

>>48874990

Telepathy is incredibly useful for communicating in beast form, I think that's a huge advantage on it's own.

>>48874851
If this happened, almost everybody would dump int.

It's already the case almost everybody dumps int.

Int just doesn't do a lot other than give you reason to know some things in-character you could probably work out with the correct spell from your wizard, anyway.

It's boring.

I dump dexterity because it just feels less boring, and I don't have to either pretend to be dumb/bad memory or forego it and do bad roleplaying.

So, yes, anybody who can use heavy armour can dump dexterity.

However, they're still penalized - dex saves are more common than int saves. A lack of stealth, and a lack of initiative. Still, that's not a massive price to pay.

If you wanted to metagame a lot, tanks would usually have low strength high dexterity (save for barbarians) because if you use a shield, there are no stronger one-handed weapons than a 1d8 - what the rapier is. You lose 1 AC for going studded leather + 5 from dex or half-plate with + 2 from dex. You can use dexterity on ranged weapons, too.

So, currently, you can kind of dump your dex. If your DM constantly makes you fight without armour, however, you're kind of fucked.
And that isn't really fair, when what you're doing is adding attribute diversity to the party.

Yes, I am making a big deal over nothing. Usually it's nothing.
But I don't want to see DMs actively encouraging that everybody takes dex.
Because the unfortunate truth is, dex and con are always good stats on everyone. Int and str are rarely as good.

>>48874988
No. If there is a price tag, you must provide that regardless of if you have a focus/component pouch.

However, the item is not consumed unless it specifically states/heavily implies that the item is consumed.

>>48874827
>>48874893
Also Banneret / Purple Dragon Knight (SCAG) if you want to be a Warlord / General on the battlefield.

>>48874951
A half-elf charlatan skillmonkey lore bard is literally the next character I'm looking to play. He's currently on the lam from authorities for pilfering the coffers of older women. He's a lush, preferring the finer things in life, and is consequently horribly vain, almost to the point of narcissism.

>>48875044

>I dump dexterity for reasons

Sure, that's fine, you'll just have to deal with not having a lot of AC out of your armor. That's the trade off.

>can dump dexterity

you CAN but it's almost always a worse choice. there's no sense bitching about how sub optimal you are when you're the one making yourself sub optimal. and it's not just fighting unarmored, it's the much more common dex save, all the dex skills, and your initiative that suffers too. dex is the god stat this edition, it might not be fair but that's just the way it is.

>adding diversity to the party

I think party diversity comes from more than just your stats.

>>48875075
PDK is a terrible archetype.

What should your AC be at Level 17?

>>48875163

depends on your stats armor and what your gm gives you

>>48875044
I thought you were constructing an argument for dumping int there. If it's a boring stat and doesn't do anything mechanically or in roleplaying (outside of making you feel like player skill/knowledge - character skill/knowledge ratio is appeased) then wouldn't you just not care about it and instead focus a bit more on dexterity?

>>48875104
>not having a lot of AC out of your armor
Once that character is out of their armour, their AC is so low in later levels that ANY attack can hit them. Commoners in rags have more AC than your superhero fighter.

The character might have +1 AC from fighting style, +5 AC from magical shield, 18+3 AC from magical plate armoura ll the way up to 27 AC, but..

Once they're caught out in the open, any attack that is not a 1 will automatically hit them if you assume the enemy is a late-game enemy.

That's not a good system.
You might as well tell the fighter to sit out completey while everyone else has fun, because otherwise his character is either going to be a meatshield or die.

Now, I have a good case against everything I'm saying. It's all part of being a weakness. The fighter should sit back and do archery. The paladin should focus on spells and hide away.

Maybe that's fine, and it encourages people to think a bit more about their situation.
If the DM does this constantly or has that specific character immediately surrounded or the likes, however, that would be punishing players for their choice of character.

If everyone always chose the optimal choice, we'd only see strength on GWF fighters and barbarians.

And I'll admit, you can get some interesting things going even if everyone put an '8' on intelligence, but still.
It limits viable build options, and takes away from the character creation fun.

It'd just be nice if D&D could somehow balance stats for once.

>>48875301
>It'd just be nice if D&D could somehow balance stats for once.
Is there a game that does this well? I've played a few other games with stats and I can't think of one that isn't also a very different system from D&D while still technically being stats, like Everway and Dogs in the Vineyard.

>>48875301
>>48875104
Okay, I sort of half-argued against myself there, but I think I can shorten my post a lot.

Yes, it's okay to catch people without their armour sometimes.
If you do it all the time, you're a dick, in the same way you'd be a dick to never allow short rests to warlocks.

Also I'd kind of like to see there being more of a penalty to dumping stats. Nothing that's stop dumping stats from being a thing - dump stats are fine as a concept. It's just if you can dump a stat and gain absolutely no negative effects unless your DM calls you out...

>>48875299
If you're in heavy armour, dexterity is less of a boon, but still much more of a boon than intellect.
It's something you can easily afford to lose.
Normally, you just lose a bit of initiative, you suck at dex saves and that. You can live with that.
If your DM keeps catching you without your armour, however, your DM has every single time turned you from 'party tank' to some sort of side supporting role that can't really get into the combat.

>>48875375
Honsetly, it's not an easy task. I think the most success comes out of this when you have only very few skills, and players don't make up for lost skills for all the zero-intellect players.

5e had a good idea going for it with saves for all classes. But then, there aren't enough int saves, cha saves...
4e had an 'either or' idea going for it, which was maybe suboptimal.

>>48875301

Yes, that's why you don't dump Dex. It's a choice you're making. I'm not saying you should always be without your armor but getting caught without your armor should be a real risk for everyone but barbs moon druids and monks.

and I guess sorcs and wizards because they wear robes anyways. With an enchanted shield your AC will still be decent and your damage and HP will still probably be fine for a short ambush encounter, you're just at a weaker point because you rely more on your equipment.

How do you deal with PCs that say they sleep in their armor / don't care if they stink?

Is moon druid low AC in wild shape (even counting 16 AC from Barkskin) going to be a problem at later level?

>>48875551

a bit but you should be able to soak it with your HP.

Either way once you're out of wild shape you just go back to being a full caster.

>>48875527
>any caster with two brain cells to rub together effectively can't be disarmed of their spellcasting ability
>anyone with weapons can get their shit jacked at a moment's notice
>and they have to have their defenses completely down every night beyond merely being unconscious
It's a pointless punishment for just Heavy armor classes. Light and most Medium armors will never be too uncomfortable to sleep in. Don't worry about it. If they don't want to take a bath when they're in town or some shit, have the more well-to-do NPCs react as tehy would someone who stinks.

>>48875551
Once you get to 20 that's 126 HP per round that they need to get through before damaging you, and before level 20 you go between that and playing like a normal full caster.

>>48875592
>no more spell slots

You were saying something about casters not being disarmed of spellcasting?

>>48875452
A shield still takes an action to put on. Well, hopefully you can normally do that, but you might not always have the time.
Though, an action to gain +2 to +5 AC is really good.

Fun-wise, I think not allowing players to sleep in their armour is okay, and can create a challenge for a fighter who'd normally just run up and sword everything. Maybe they'll learn to be tactical for once.
Balance-wise, it shouldn't be done unless non-heavy-armour users are punished sometimes, too. For example, there are some times you just can't dodge. However, we left behind touch and flat-footed attacks with pathfinder.

That's my conclusion, without me going into a paragraphs-long monologue.

>>48875527
Typically characters may face exhaustion or lessened benefits of a long rest.

I'd say that they should be making con saves to not get those penalties, though.

Make it a risk, not a definite thing that they'll end up a mess.

It's good to think about how you're doing things, though.
Are you going to jump the players constantly in the night? Let them wear armour.
Are you going to do a couple of one-offs on odd events to change the tempo? Don't let them wear it without penalty.

>>48875527
Give them armor with built-in prestidigitation for cleaning

>>48875630
Yes, disarmed. How are you going to steal someone's spell slots? Your comment makes no sense.

>>48875592

>can't be disarmed of their spellcasting ability

unless you take away their focus/component pouch, bind and gag them?

not to mention a spellcaster with a big fighter in his face is probably not in a great position anyways.

Is a melee ranger ever a good idea?

>>48875856
Yes. TWF ranger is D&D iconic.

Mechanic wise, Ranger combat style allow you to ignore pre-requsite, so you can be pure STR TWF and all that good stuff.

>>48875748
Druids can still wild shape, though that would stop actual spells. I think this is mostly in combat though, anyone is useless when tied up but spellcasters are fine without their gear while fighters rely on it.

>>48875748
What kind of spellcaster worth their salt does not have at least 10 different ways to get away from a fighter?

>>48875856
I don't think the spells and class features are generally as tailored to melee as they are to ranged, and if you wanted to dual wield I think there's a lot of other things competing for your bonus action, but it's not damning or anything
>>48875884
The second part of your post make me wonder if you're even talking about 5th ed

>>48875909

even if you do you can still be deprived of your spellcasting by the methods i mentioned, not to mention losing your spell book as a wizard.

>>48875908

but unless you're a moon druid your wild shape form sucks anyways. I guess you're ungrappled? But they can probably just grapple the new form and continue beating the shit out of you. hell it's even worse for you because your arcane focus is a big stick that can be broken or disarmed anyways.

>>48875748
Focuses can be worn and you can have multiple component pouches, and even put foci in them. You can't disarm all of that in a fight. You need him to surrender, strip naked, wear a gag and fat mittens, and shackle his arms behind his back. And there's STILL probably some bullshit spell he can get away with.

Meanwhile, with anyone else, you just pop the bow or sword out of their hands with a skill check or Disarming Attack and now they're scrambling for a shitty spare weapon, if they even have one.

What is the easiest way to build a monster from scratch?

>>48876058

>focuses can be worn

your focus has to be out and in your hand in order to cast spells and if they see you trying to cast something with it they can probably smack it out of your hand, cut the rope, etc. etc.

druids focus is a stick anyways. you think WAY too highly of casters.

>>48875953
I want to play a melee fighter with a fair amount of utility, and ranger seemed the best way to do that.

>>48876094
Invent the universe.

>>48876105
>i put some twigs on each of my 12 component pouches
>and i hold two at a time
>also they're all over my belt and sash and in my pack and so on

>>48876149
i mean stat wise

>>48876150

you don't just pick up a random stick, they're specifically magical in nature. quit bitching about casters already, martial classes are fine.

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Reposting this. My take on Favored Soul.

http://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/r1bLcFjMc

>>48876195
And they're not expensive, and you're not limited to one.

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>>48872851
What's everyones thoughts on the Revenant subrace?

>>48876496
I hope they introduce more "template" race options like this. It's a good way to bring twists into the races without making something 100% brand new.

Like half-elf options from the SCAG.

>>48876459

Disarm his first one, and then grapple him. He can't grab his foci and can't cast spells that require somatic or material components all of a sudden. You could probably do that and gag him and then have someone beat the shit out of him.

Even then, this is a cooperative game and the DM is the one running the show. If the DM wants every character including spellcasters to be more vulnerable than average, they will make it so. You just have to let go of your beef dude, it's so focused. It's like being abnormally mad that a Paladin could multi class with Dex instead of Strength because Paladins have to be strong muscles for some reason even though honorable fencing duels goes hand in hand with Paladin (level with me, you're the same guy aren't you).

Martials are not in some kind of horrible position in this game. You have to get something for that massive caster anal pain.

>>48875097
>Be me
>130 year old Half-Elf
>Gone by so many other names in my time
>Don't know who I am anymore
>But I remember one thing
>I ruined the one person who ever genuinely cared for me
>Odd jobs under false names ever since
>New skills and knowledge but no redemption
>Started off as a rogue, stealing hearts in the night
>Sang songs to the people to distract them from their coin
>Sought redemption in the church, but none to be found
>I hear some adventurers are in town
>Perhaps with them, and the skills I've learnt on the way
>I can find my peace

>I can find forgiveness

Can a monk use ki if he's not at peace with himself? My monk is pretty brash, so I don't know if he can be considered a real monk.

>>48876846
Sure.

>>48876846

Why not? Ki is just your ability to channel your 'life energy' or whatever so even a headstrong, hot tempered monk could be able of doing so. He's just more likely to misuse or abuse such power but he's not locked out of them.

>>48876846
My Monk was a spoiled nobleman's son who was a rake and a wastrel until the "tutor" his parents hired to shape him up turned out to be a martial arts master who basically called him a giant faggot if he couldn't even master himself.
He STILL likes drinking and feasting and screwing, but he exercises and trains his skills constantly when not doing those things and focuses himself mentally to accomplish his superhuman physical feats.

Being a D&D Monk is a skill like any other, it just takes a lot longer and a lot more personal dedication and training to become one compared to a Fighter who really just needs to learn to fight and use his equipment properly.

>>48876573
>He can't grab his foci and can't cast spells that require somatic or material components all of a sudden

Are you fucking high? You can cast spells while grappled just fine, just like you can attack while grappled just fine. If you want to change it so that for some damn reason wizards cant hold onto a wand but rogues can hold onto a dagger while grappled you aren't exactly playing RAW or the rules of common sense, and grappling is probably OP as fuck in your games (which ironically just makes moon druid even stronger, since critters 2 size categories larger than you can't be grappled period.)

>>48875981
>even if you do you can still be deprived of your spellcasting by the methods i mentioned, not to mention losing your spell book as a wizard.

Why the fuck do people act like losing your spell book is a big a deal on a wizard? Newsflash: you still have more spells prepared than a sorcerer has known, and you don't forget them all when you wake up in the morning.

Read the fucking book you stupid nigger.

>>48876924
What it is is kinda irrelevant since it changes depending on the universe, but in proper Daoist stuff (where the philosophy of it stems from originally) your Qi is basically like a metaphysics energy you harnass.
Think of it less like your "life force" and more like a special metaphysical muscle you have to do special exercises to train.

I bring you the Dragoon 5eg.

http://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/SyXB22mq

It obviously hasn't been proof read or anything like that. Just want to know your guys opinions on the balance.

>>48877064
Should probably add to the start that it's a fighter Archetype. Also shouldn't Height of the Dragon be every 10 feet? Some things could use rewording, for example "foe, Dealing a normal attack in damage + your Level" could be worded as "foe, dealing your weapons damage + your Fighter Level. You are then..."

Grammar/Spelling errors I've seen:
>"The element you are resistance to..." [*resistant to]
>Hight of the Dragon [*Height]
>(the save does not cahnge) [*change]
>This Becomes [Grammar, neither needs capitals.]
>at 7th level [*At...]
That's all I could spot, hope it helps.

>>48877374
Looking more for balance changes before i pretty it up and worry about grammar changes, your comments will still be helpful when i get round to it tho.

>>48877374
Also the changes to the height of dragon from 10 to 12 feet was so that you could fall further before each "tick" of damage. should prob specify that as an actual change rather then just stating a rule.

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>>48872851
Moar-lock.

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>>48872851

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>>48872851
-

>>48877473
Issue is though, measurement in D&D is done in 5's. So 15' would be best, for what you're wanting.

>>48877587
Ah, fair point.
Will make changes.

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>>48874827
This is how I fighter
>>48875122
>>48875075
What's so bad about it again?
I also wish the archetypes they introduced in UA and stuff would stop giving superiority dice and bring new mechanics instead.

>>48877671
>What's so bad about it again?
The features are weak.

Anyone know where I can find PDFs of :

Kobold Guide to Combat

Kolbold guide to Plots and Campaigns

Kobold Book of Lairs

>>48877798
I'm retarded wrong thread. Please ignore my stupid shit.

Is there an Ability Score minimum for spellcasting? I'm playing an Eldritch Knight and wondering if I can have negative Int.

New DM here, I have a quick question
Am I supposed to let my players all make the same roll if someone else fails?

Say for instance they are trying to persuade an NPC of something, if the first guy fails his roll, am I really supposed to let every single person in the entire party make their own persuasion check? That seems kind of like cheating to me, giving them 3-4 chances at it if one guy fails.

>>48877925
It's mostly first-come-first-serve for Social bullshit

>>48877815

I believe there is, and it would tell you under the relevant class's spellcasting rules (in this case, Wizard). But I haven't played a caster in 5E yet so I could be wrong.

>>48877925

Generally depends. If it's something like an investigate check they could go again if they have reason to suspect they failed (e.g. multiple characters might decide to search a very suspicious room). With a persuasion check, generally no. They made their attempt and the person will be persuaded/unpersuaded by the party, so unless a followup roll is much better thought out or VERY successful, it would be unlikely to change someone's mind. But you're the DM so it is your call in these grey areas.

Would using Unseen Servant or Mage Hand in the bedroom be creepy to your character?

>>48878017
>perverted shit
NO

>>48878017
>>>/pfg/

>>48878084
>Telling someone to go somewhere else when the spells are in 5e
http://ephe.github.io/grimoire/spells/mage-hand
http://ephe.github.io/grimoire/spells/unseen-servant

>>48878107
>being this new/dense that you don't know that /pfg/ might as well be Magical Realm General

>>48878133
>Assuming people that haven't touched Pathfinder play Pathfinder.

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>>48878236
>implying you need to know anything about pathfinder to post your fetish fantasy shit exemplified by this example picture I'm posting as an example that is relevant to the retort I am responding to your greentext with there

>>48877925
our dm lets someone damage control response with disadvantage sometimes, or advantage if they chime in and figure out some good dialog

all depends on the situation and the npc we're dealing with.

>>48874481
Remember to demand the spellbooks of slain enemy wizards

>>48875527
Who cares? All you want to do is crow over them and jerk yourself off with midnight assassin attacks

>>48877925
If they want to try persuade as a party then it fall under "Help" action.

As in they get 1 check with Advantage.

>>48876496
It's bad

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I'm considering giving my players a magic sword soon. It does not affect living things and passes through them harmlessly, but rends inanimate objects with ease. I imagine the two things they'll attempt first are attacking the weapons/armor of enemies, and structures, so I'd like to lay some rules down for them.

When attacking items, I'm thinking of using the Rust Monster rules as a base. When attacking a weapon, it takes a cumulative penalty to damage equal to the damage dealt, and breaks if it reaches -5. When attacking armor, it takes a cumulative penalty to AC until the armor's bonus is nullified, at which point it is destroyed.
However, I'm unsure how I should calculate the damage in order to balance it. Should it deal 2 to objects? 1d4? Str/Dex modifier?

>>48879083
sounds dumb

>>48879083
sounds gimmicky desu, but if you insist I would use the d4, no additional mods.

I want to make Maldron the Assassin.

Is it possible to have a rogue using knight gear?

>>48879229
yes, either by multi-classing or picking up the moderately armored feat.

why would you ever

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>>48879245
Thank you, it's good to know a lot of character ideas can be recreated in DnD one way or another.

Because pretending to be friendly is a legitimate assassination tactic. Also, he's awesome.

Dragon Sorcerer/Swashbuckler: How much of each?

>>48879083
>Doez zero damage to living entities
>Inorganics go one damage die up
For instance, if the weapon it is normally does a d6, go to d8. If a d12, go to 2d8
This makes it really good for inorganic and inanimate things, as it should be by your description.

>>48879083
Why make it so weak? D4? FUCK the d4, you could break objects faster with a normal sword.
It already cant do damage to living shit, right? So make it do hella damage to objects to compensate.

>>48879321
>(You)

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>>48879083
Nice Monado, nerd.

does anyone have Mike Schley maps in general ? they are kinda expensive to buy for a poorfag like me...

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Regularly some lore in the PHB, MM or SCAG will refer to the aquatic elves, but has there been an offical write-up of a playable sub-race? The closest I can find is the letterbox in the SCAG, but it doesn't have any stats.

>>48873002
Well you took positively to me to commenting on your other things may as well do some others
>Dervish Barbarian
>Death Grips feature
Dual wielding isn't usually good and as a barbarian you already gotta drop one bonus action to go into a rage in the first place. d6 to d8 damage isn't really too good either despite it being a feat
>Cutting Wind
I like this, it's a good feature
>desert gale
I don't like this at all because as a barbarian in a rage you can't cast, I guess it does keep you protected outside of a rage
>Blood Sirocco
Now the thing is you wouldn't want to use with is a d8 weapon, but with like a better damage die weapon
half the features would work better with a greatsword/maul/greataxe, the other half aren't very good

>College of Faith Bard
>rerolling heal dice
>temporary HP inducing bardic inspiration
Well both of decent and don't rub me the wrong way
>Song of rest cures disease and some other stuff
Well I do actually really like this, because song of rest usually sucks because you have to spend a hit dice to get the healing, but it now offers something else.
>Conviction of peace
>It's a better sanctuary per cha mod
It's good, I'm really not sure how it compares to the other bards, but it's still good

>Phoenix bard
>Fire dancer thing
w-well on it's own it's great, I think it might be too powerf-
>Ignite the soul
oh jesus christ man this is way too good together
Adding cha mod to bardic inspiration on it's own is way too good, but unarmored defense, prof in martial weapons, and better speed all together is too great
also
>Unarmored defense doesn't say whether or not it works with shields
>Blaze of Glory
>reaction to give other pcs extra damage die, but it's fire damage
hope your DM isn't throwing demons at you, otherwise it'd be worthless, this might be also way too good because per short rest
>Heat of Battle
This feels balanced for a high level feature
overall pls nerf

Trying to come up with something for a player who is a pretty decent guy all around (good roleplayer, makes interesting characters, fills in whatever role the party might need) and need a bit of help to make sure it's balanced.

Currently he's playing a Oath of Ancients Paladin 6 (rest of the party is Divination Wizard, Moon Druid, Hunter Ranger, and Berserker Barbarian, all level 6 as well), and they're about to finish a quest where at the end is a Young Blue Dragon who has been raiding several caravans along a desert trade route for the past few years. I plan on there being one magical item for each, but a unique one and not just a generic +1 sword or +1 armor.

Here's what I've come up with so far:

> Runic Blade, legendary, requires attunement
At first glance, this weapon seems broken: the blade itself only extends out about eighteen inches, a jagged break along the width of the weapon, yet the handle of the sword is a similar length. At best guess, you would imagine the sword itself in it's full form is almost 5 feet long. Yet the moment you grasp the weapon you feel a surge of power inside it as the rune on the hilt flares green for a moment before growing dark.

Currently, the blade itself functions as a +1 Longsword. However, once per long rest you may speed a command word. If spoken, spectral illusions of the blade's full length appear, turning the weapon into a +1 Greatsword for the next 10 minutes. In addition, whenever you hit a foe when the sword is in this form, you deal an extra 1d4 Force damage.

The idea being that this is something he can look to find the remaining blade pieces and re-forge the weapon back to it's full power and glory (+3 Greatsword, deal an extra 1d6 Force damage per hit, 1/long rest make a melee attack in a 15 ft. cone in front of you. Every enemy hit takes normal weapon damage, must make a DC 17 Con save or take an extra 3d10 Force damage, save and take half.)

>>48879832
well its not imbalanced in the broken form if thats the concern. and really, it doesn't matter if its balanced, all it really needs to be balanced against is the rest of the partys rewards, which in some cases might require it to be even better (if he is clearly the weakest, and you want to throw him a bone)

that being said, are both of those weapon types he uses? maybe he doesn't want a sword if he's only using hammers. also the obvious question, does he ever use a shield? if he doesn't, then the broken weapon is weaker than a normal +1greatsword when not powered up, and only marginally better for 1-2 fights

if he does use a shield, then its power up mode is going to be relatively useless since he'll have to drop his shield to change his 1d8 to 2d6+1d4, which even if its more damage, he might not want to do.

the full power fixed mode is the same, and additionally it cant really be op/balanced, because you dont know when, where, or what level they'll be when they get around to fixing it


tl:dr, if you think its balanced, it is. just ask if you think he'll use a weird variable weapon in BOTH forms though

>>48879616
Kind of, but no.
Half elve's have a variant that mention them with 30ft swim speed.

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Guys, I need help. I'm making a chaotic evil valor bard for a game, essentially Euron Greyjoy ripoff. Still, sadly, I must play a musical intstrument in order to cast spells.
What instrument should I choose?

>>48880789
Tambourine
Kazoo
drum
triangle
tap shoes

>>48875856
It's alright but I think the devs didn't realize ranger spells and mechanics make two handed weapons better than dual wielding for a ranger most of the time, even though ranger lacks great weapon fighting style

>>48881095
Why is that?

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Using archetypes in my game, brother wants to be a "highlander" type character, from the show. I was thinking Barbarian class, but do you think Fighter or even Ranger would be more appropriate?

I was thinking a guy who could fight with a sword but also kick ass with maybe lightning abilities...

>>48877671
>>48877754
Other archetypes give the fighter more stuff. The PDK gives benefits to everyone else, which can be nice but does nothing for the personal power of the fighter. To the fighter, it's like playing with no archetype and the rest of the party needs to be built to benefit from the PDK features.

>>48881103
Any turn you cast Hunter's Mark or move it to a new target, you can't use an off hand hit from two weapon fighting, and so it's better to have a two handed weapon on those turns unless you're a Dex ranger, and then it would be better to go rapier/shield.

>>48879313
If you want more spell power, Sorc17/Rogue 3. You'll still get Fancy Footwork and Sneak Attack for your Green-flame/Booming Blade and you'll get Wish too. Rogue17/Sorc3 if you want to be martial-focused but still have (very limited) metamagic, or Rogue19/Sorc1 if you only want the Draconic Armor bonus.

>trying to get an offline game going
>none of my friends have ever played tabletop
>wife wants to play
>brother-in-law says he'd love to play
>tell him to ask his friends
>"sure okay"
>remind him every once in a while
>"ah yeah sure"
>ask my best friend
>he says he wants to play
>tell him to ask his friends
>"sure okay"
>neither of them properly ask
>they always dodge the question
>we're still one player short
Stop being flakes and just ask them, you little pukes.

>>48881105
Definitely not a Barbarian. You want a Fighter for this largely because Fighter gains the most from single weapon style, unless I'm mistaken.

If lightning abilities are a must, go Eldritch Knight. If you just want lightning effects on your sword, just get a magical sword.

>>48881351
Sorry, the reason why I say not Barbarian is mostly a thematic one, not a mechanical one. MacLeod was more of a perfectionist who constantly trained his arts, which fits with the Fighter. You could make a raging type if you want, though. Just don't expect to get any lightning abilities.

>>48881105
>>48881351
>>48881371
not to be dense or anything
but why has no one suggested tempest cleric?
you even get the quickening, a "mentor" (god), can be melee focused, and have lightning damage

>>48879814
I don't see the option to using a 2hander as bad per se, since I don't want to pigeonhole a character into a certain fighting style and the theme remains the same. Although I could rework Death Grips or even a different 6th level feature entirely.

Glad you liked College of Faith (is it dorky to change it to Seminary of Faith, or College of Hymns, or College of Theology)

Is adding Cha to inspiration die that bad? At first it was an ability that had a recharge feature (6 on a 1d6), but that was becoming too many rolls. Any suggestions?

Also, I think Blaze of Glory balances out because it's common, but so is fire resistance.

Can you use GWM's damage boost with things like booming blade? I tried looking for answers online but all I could see is that BB works with sneak attack but not extra attack.

>>48881604
Yes
you're making an attack so you can choose whether or not to take a -5 to hit for +10 to damage

Hey dudes, I'm making a sorcerer for a campaign starting soon. Considering the relatively limited library of spells i'm going to have available, what are some must haves, and what should I take as my 2 first level spells?

>>48881626
Ah I see now, thanks. it seemed a bit unclear to me since according to an official ruling it doesn't work with extra attack because it isn't technically a weapon attack but a spell action with an attack essentially as a component so i wasn't sure. thanks for the clarification

>>48881525
>>48881371
>>48881351
>>48881105

What about Sorc 1/Fighter X

Lightning theme, Unarmored AC, Fighter skills, etc.

>>48881848
No that's shitty

>>48876962

Because you have to use your spellbook to prepare your spells. No spell book = no spells prepared.

>You can cast spells while grappled just fine

Unless you can't grab your foci because your arms are restrained? If you're gagged or your mouth is covered or something you can't speak (meaning no verbal components) and if your hands are restrained you can't use somatic components either. Why is that such a hard concept to grasp?

>>48877815

No but you probably shouldn't dump Int.

>>48881243

You can't learn Wish until level 18 unfortunately.

>>48881975
Didn't the original argument come up because of martials being unarmored or unarmed is a way bigger deal than casters?

If we assume this is something happening at night, or in the middle of a long rest....isn't it safe to assume that casters will have little to no spell slots left?

Thus being more assfucked? Grappling, shoving, proning, restraining, picking up a goddamn weapon is going to be easier and get more mileage for a martial than a caster who only has cantrips if both are caught in a vulnerable position.

>>48882018

Yeah, although this particular dumb argument was because the poster was saying you can just disarm martials and they suck but there's no way to disarm casters from their spells (even though that's wrong and bullshit).

>>48881321

You can do fine with a 3 player party.

>>48881975
you can still cast spells without your spellbook. you just can't prepare new ones. you're locked into whatever you already had prepared. Not having the book doesn't prevent you from recovering slots after a long rest.

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>>48881975
>Because you have to use your spellbook to prepare your spells. No spell book = no spells prepared.

Not quite! Read the 5e wizard rules a little more carefully.

Spell SLOTS are now separate from spells PREPARED. Spell slots are how many times you can cast things; prepared spells are the list of spells you can choose to cast. If you fight all day and do all the casting you can, you are out of spell slots, but you still have the same spells prepared.

Spell slots come back after a long rest. You then have the option of using your spellbook to switch out some of your prepared spells. If you choose not to, or if you LOST YOUR SPELLBOOK, you just have the same spells prepared as before.

It's not Vancian magic any more, you don't forget things when you cast.

>>48882132
>Vancian magic

Is it only Vancian because you prepare X 'specific' spells, and then "forget" them afterwards?

What are names for other types of magic systems?

Like, if I wanted something more modular (using a resource like spell points to create a spell by dictating size, shape, damage, damage type, effect, etc.)

>>48874238
Path of the elements as posted is interesting, College of Masks and Dirges are cool though maybe not great mechanically. Aand that's about it, for what I've written down/downloaded so far anyway, I still haven't gone through most of their stuff because there's so much. I see their stuff on Reddit now and then but haven't been anything good I can remember.

>>48882041

>but there's no way to disarm casters from their spells (even though that's wrong and bullshit).

Yeah, seriously. Take away a caster's ability to perform either verbal, somatic, or material components, and they're scrambling through their books hoping they've prepped at least one spell that they can still cast. Hell, lots of casters use an Arcane Focus, which is often a weapon, meaning you can literally disarm them and prevent them from casting.

I haven't seen this happen much, but I haven't seen martials get disarmed much either. Hmm... I should do both more in my campaign. Improvised weapons are fun.

>>48882173
Any thoughts on ANY of the homebrews posted in this thread so far?

>>48882158
I believe vancian magics is called such because of how magic is described in The Dying Earth series by Jack Vance, which the D&D magic system has been based on since AD&D, make even OD&D but can't confirm.

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R8 my Swashbuckler for a 3rd level one-shot adventure this weekend? Half-elf, haven't decided on skills yet.

STR 8
DEX 16
CON 12
INT 14
WIS 10
CHA 16

>>48882132

I got that but I figured you had to prepare spells each day, but I guess looking back at it I can't find anything that says that. Not necessarily that you forgot spells when you cast them, but each day you had to prepare your spells all over again.

Either way I wouldn't understand why someone would think that taking a Wizard's spellbook away wouldn't be a huge downgrade to their power considering that is the entire purpose of the Wizard class; to have a huge amount of spells to prepare from their book each day. Sorcerers will have a smaller number of spells learned (and I've honestly always thought that sorcerers should get a few bonus spells; like 5, depending on their bloodline) but they have metamagic to make their spells 'stronger' too.

>>48882208

In our campaign we wound up getting taken prisoner and had everything of ours taken away. In the break out where we were going to get our stuff back so we could kill the shit out of the guy who took us in we kind of ran into this. The bard was searching the big fancy garden for an Insect Chrysallis for Polymorph but my caster character (who had rolled 14 for strength) just started long swording enemies. It was a good session.

>>48882158
>Is it only Vancian because you prepare X 'specific' spells, and then "forget" them afterwards?

In Vance's (actually pretty cool) system, spells took a long time to cast. Rituals, basically; no way you could do one from start to finish in combat. But you could cast 99% of a spell in your lab in the morning, then keep it almost-finished buzzing around in your head. Get in combat, perform the final 1% of the ritual, throw a fireball. It's not "forgetting," it's more like a spell is a brain-musket that you load, carry around, and then fire.

Systems where you use spell points are usually called spellpoints systems. No cool name, sorry.

>>48882257

Yeah that's a swash buckler alright. You might want more Con for more HP but it's a one shot so if Int fits your character concept roll with it imo. It's a one shot so a lower con and wisdom saving throw probably wont' be a big deal.

>>48882257
> 3rd level
> Half-Elf
> Feat

House rule..?

>>48882257
> CN
0/10.

>>48882299
Brain fart. 4th level.

Would a big city in Faerun have the need for essentially a private detective who solves magical murders? Is that already a thing that has a name?

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>>48882363

Sure. In Eberron, fantasy Sherlock Holmes was one of the expected and supported playstyles. Detectives were called "Inquisitives," and were a build of the Rogue class focused as much on discovering crimes as committing them. I kinda like that, that the skillset for a really good criminal and a really good detective are basically the same.

You don't necessarily have to go rogue, of course. Diviner wizard would make sense too, especially if you were more focused on MAGECRIME.

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>>48882363
Well, there are examples (the "Murder in X" novel series) but the whole (A)D&D thing sort of devalues the concept of murder mysteries. I mean, if you can raise the murdered person with a diamond and a cleric of sufficient level, or speak with the dead with a spell to ask whodunnit, the murder investigation usually becomes rather short. It would take a lot of trickery to prevent stuff like that.

>>48882478
Yeah, that was the goal, focusing on magic crime. Though I was trying to figure out how to work necromancy into it as I really want to try out that build instead, despite how useful Diviner is.

How do you guys handle romance in your games? Typically I've never really done anything beyond, "You can buy yourself a barroom wench and roll a free hit die to regain HP and benefit from a short rest."

But I mean actual romance. It's just sort of developing between this NPC one of the players rescued and himself. I don't want it to get gay because I have no real intention of talking out love but whats a reasonable solution?

>>48882500
True but I was thinking that the case where that couldn't work would be rare and the character could work with a lot of other mysteries by hire instead. Seems reasonable enough in the usual traits of a Wizard. You're right, though that kind of thing is what I'm having trouble figuring out.

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>>48882502

Ohh, that could be a really cool angle, actually. A whole Speaker-for-the-dead thing, settling the affairs of murder victims so their ghosts can pass on. Using speak with dead a lot, of course. Occasionally reanimating a victim so he can tear his killer's throat out. Go for it.

Wanting to run Tomb of Horrors converted to 5e, Paranoia-style. What's a good level and how many characters should each character bring?

>>48876454
>channel divinity before clerics do, every short rest,
Steal a cleric feature. Not interesting, but I suppose it's okay. However, why are you obtaining it at level 1 AND THEN using it more times than even a Cleric can (until later levels a cleric can use it multiple times)?
>proficiencies
Very useful. You can now get up to 19 AC with 14 dex, whereas dragon sorcerers need 20 dex to get up to 18 AC. This also allows you to use magical armour/shields.
>commune as ritual, level 10 spell
Eh, I suppose. Though originally the commune spell specifically states an avatar or angel of a diety rather than the diety itself.
>divine intervention
This is stupid.
This is NOT the divine intervention feaure.
Do NOT call a feature the same as another feature if it is not the same.

>extra attack
Eh.

>cleric's divine intervention feature
>roll 1d100
>at level 19, you have almost a 1/5 chance of makeing it work
>only once a long rest, or once every 7 days if diety intervenes
And then, the favoured soul feature you've suggested:
>roll 1d10
>at level 19, almost a 1/2 chance of success
>regardless of if you succeed or not, you can use it again after a short rest, or after 7 days


Honestly, I don't really like it.
It doesn't bring anything new or interesting in. It's just there to be better than a dwarf sorcerer for armour. It's like the theurgist wizard, except instead of stealing cleric features, they're upgraded cleric features.

I'd just kind of like to see more new possibilities.

>>48882544
Yeah, I think it's a really neat angle. Thanks! It'll just be weird since we're at level 3 and the campaign is Out of the Abyss. I don't want to ask for anything that can be construed as a mechanical advantage just for backstory's sake though.

My idea so far was that he was following the footsteps of a mentor who would be an expert at this kind of thing. His mentor disappears and the trail led him into the Underdark. He would have notes and such on spells that his mentor had, giving a good justification for learning more spells during the campaign.

The thing I didn't look deep into is can Wizards copy spells to their book that aren't on the Wizard spell list?

>>48882531

It's sometimes annoying how high-magic Faerun is. But there's still room for murder mysteries!

Raise Dead costs 500 gold and doesn't work if any major organs are missing or destroyed. Chop off the head and throw it in the harbor, no Raise. Resurrection is 1000 gold and a 7th level spell; even in Faerun, it's gonna be fairly rare. The vast majority of the populace won't be able to afford either kind of rez, but a bereaved family might be able to scrape together a couple hundred gold for an investigation. And then there's the missing persons cases (hide the body and no rez,) and the "someone murdered me, I didn't see a face, find out who!" cases.

>>48882257
Parrot familiar? Pretty neat. I like green flame blade more than booming blade, but to each his own.

also why are you posting human and not half-elf

>>48882615
Thanks for this, I got wrapped up in that idea and started to lose hope, but you're right!

>>48873726
Why does everyone make earth so boring, earth rage should create tremors and you should be able to shatter skulls with a headbutt

>>48882611

>can Wizards copy spells to their book that aren't on the Wizard spell list?

Not usually, sadly. But your character concept is cool, a good GM might be willing to allow an arcane version of Speak With Dead. Maybe use the spell research rules.

>>48882617
You mean the art? Ehhh, his human side is more dominant feature wise, but his youthful elven nature betrays his age.

>>48882611
no

>>48882636
>>48882645
I might be able to convince him but if not, I'll find a way.

>>48882615
>won't pay 500 gold (potentialy 1000 gold) but will pay a large portion of it, 200/300 gold to find out who did it
If they can't afford the revival, they'r probably not going to spend away their livelihood just to know who dun it.

>>48882617
They're a rogue. A swashbuckler, at that.

>use booming blade
>dash as bonus action
>move ~40ft away or so without provoke opportunity attacks

They then have to choose to move, or not attack anyone and be subjected to yet another booming blade the next turn unless they have ranged attacks.

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>>48882209
I just woke up but I'll take a look.

>>48877558
A bit weird, keen sight and the ability to go through walls on top of the invisibility makes this better than Quasit I feel, it's not even much worse in combat. Illumination shouldn't be a problem, it's mostly just replacing shapeshifting with going through walls which is a problem, considering invisibility works so well with one and not the other.

>>48877566
>>48877540
These are gucchi

>>48877064
This doesn't show for me? Pic related. Also, I hope you know falling isn't the same as landing form a jump.

>>48876496
Is weird because even if subraces are balanced against each other in vanilla (with gnomes especially I'm not sure they are), I can't keep that in mind for every race/subrace I create so I'd rather just have it as a separate race or something you work with the GM to make when it comes up, which should be rare enough to justify that.

>>48876454
Easy one is that there's no archetype feature at 10th for sorcs, even if it is mostly a ribbon. I think channel divinity instead of domain spells is ok, might be a bit frontloaded compared to others. I'm not a huge fan of divine intervention for cleric already, and this is better than that for some reason. Has anyone played FS, and if so how does extra attack work out? It seems like a nice boost at level 6 but that you'd need feats to stay above fire bolt damage.

>>48873946
35 ft. radius seems weird, also bag o' rats. 4 tHP at first level is too much as a bonus action, at least they should expire so you can't do one combat and then every combat since then you can use this frequently. If you can only use the souls that died in that same combat then that isn't as powerful. Otherwise it seems cool.

cont.

>>48882834
cont.

>>48873358
It's made for a purpose I won't ever be able to align with, I could use a fighter archetype with some witcher-esque abilities but this goes either in a witcher setting, which I think I'd use a different system for (I haven't seen a witcher one but there should be something more fitting it than 5e at least), or in a kitchen sink "throw anything in" setting which I'm not too into. As it's a class I'm not going to read it thoroughly desu.

>>48873091
Since I have a Dogs campaign on hiatus, I prefer keeping this away from 5e.

>>48873002
Commented on several of them before, and someone else is already taking it on themselves to do some serious feedback.

Aand >>48872918 is me so that's all, I think.

>>48882633
Yeah I'd model it after the Investiture, which has a cool earthquake aura.

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>>48882834
Just looked at the very same time you posted some suggestions for my homebrew. Good timing, I ended up changing the radius for the Soul Sculptor feature and made it so only humanoid souls count.

My reasoning for the temporary HP thing being a bonus action is related to the fact you can't stack temp HP, so if you'd want to upkeep your temp HP you'd have to keep using your bonus actions after getting attacked and hurt for more than X(X being whatever your temp HP is).

>>48882797
Or they could ready action to hit the swashbuckler if he get in melee range again.

>>48877064
I don't really like it. JUMP, that is.
There are no rolls.
You automatically hit.
You automatically deal weapon damage + a certain amount. At level 20, you would probably be dealing, if you have a +3 weapon:
1d12+3+5+20 damage.
So, 28 damage with an extra 1d12. Automatically hits.
There are very few cases where you automatically hit AND automatically deal a decent amount of damage. One of the best examples would be a portent-tempest clericwizard.

The only reason it's better than multi-attack is because it automatically hits, which seems a bit fair.

You also have way too many uses of it. Well, that could be fine, though it seems like it'd be a pain to keep track of if you have 15 uses of it every short rest at level 20. You might as well say to the DM 'Can I just assume I have infinite uses on it so I don't have to do more paperwork?' At the lower levels at level 3 even 5 per short rest might be a bit much.
You don't really have to change the number of uses of JUMP, but the fact that it automatically hits is a weird thing. Not only that, you can technically make it work with a heavy crossbow.

What sort of wording is 'normal attack'?
If I always using booming blade, is that my 'normal attack?'
Instead, say something like 'you make one melee weapon attack' or make the enemy do a dex save to halve damage.

Master of polearms looks a bit boring.

Draconic resilience's wording would probably allow you to resist physical damage. 'Element' is not well-defined.
(Cont...)

>>48882944
>Action to ready an attack
>No movement.

The swashbuckler has effectively CC'd that monster and taken him out of the fight.

>>48882912
Cool, at higher level you could still get 25 tHP 6 times every combat if you manage to fill it out of combat, but if you're not mass killing slaves then it should be ok, moon druids are getting 5x that every round so it's not like you'll be tanking a ton, and this is against some epic foes.

>>48882944
>>48882984


Which makes me wonder.....Why exactly would a creature know about the effects of Booming Blade, or even a PC who gets hit by it?

There's no save, there's nothing that "let's the affected creature know" it's under some effect, etc.

>>48883022
That part of magic is up to the GM/setting, whether a fireball is tracable to you for example, or whether somatic components mean everyone sees you casting a spell or it's just a flick of a finger.

>>48877064
(Continuing..)
And aside from that, level 15 does not state it has to be an 'element'.
Is 'force' an element?
Is 'lightning' an element?
Is the winds bludgeoning you an element?
>the element you are resistance to
But you are resistant to two elements.
Honestly, I think resistance to two elements might be a bit much for a fighter archetype. It's also a bit of a boring feature, but hey, no less boring than warlock level 10 features. Though, pact of the fiend has a rather cute level 10.

Why does the breath weapon have no actions required to use and have infinite uses?

Why does level 18's feature fuck with the breath weapon when you probably can't even use it unless you really can use it infinite times whenever?

And honestly, doublejumping is starting to get a bit silly.

>oh look, these mooks have 25 HP
>if I jump on them, they automatically die without rolls
>jump
>bonus jump
>two mooks down, you have moved up to three times your move speed while you're pogoing around the battlefield

I don't really get why this is 'attuning with dragons' when it really just looks like you're a crazy man pogoing about the battlefield.

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>>48883013
I figured that it'd be a bit harder to keep getting temp HP since the range and new humanoid requirement limits its ability quite a bit. So it should be fine at later levels while maintaining effectiveness through most levels.

Anything else that looks off with the homebrew?

>>48882944
True.
What would happen then is likely the rogue would attack at range (Which wouldn't trigger sneak attack) and then they move and ready another attack next turn and the rogue starts kiting with a ranged weapon.

But honestly, any rogue could do that with a ranged weapon.

Alternatively, the party tank might move in on the guy, attack him and then move out of his range again. Because readying an action takes a reaction to use, and so does an opportunity attack.
So the guy must either choose to conserve his reaction in case the rogue comes along and let the tank beat on him, or actually try to get an attack off on the tanky guy. ... And then get another booming blade.

I think the real answer here is 'enemies shouldn't be alone.'

>>48883057
Nothing much, the last two features may lack a bit of combat power compared to the draconic features (free flight and active fear/charm aura) but I'm not quite sure what use there is in being partly/wholly ethereal so maybe there's some good stuff coming from that to balance it out.

I made a quaint little short dungeon with interesting puzzles, traps, and encounters that hopefully a party of 3 3rd level adventurers can get through in a single 4~5 hour session.

I've tied it into the main campaign, revealing a bit of backstory for one of the characters who has minimal backstory and asked me to run with it. Two of the three players are part of my ongoing campaign, and will definitely will connect the dots.

I just realized I don't have a compelling reason or plot hook for them to actually want to go through this entire dungeon, let alone explore its entirety.


Any ideas?

So far I've got

> Some locals recently discovered some ruins
> It's a stronghold inside a glacier
> Main entrance is encased in giant wall of ice
> secret entrance underwater.

Any suggestions?

>>48883022

They wont' know what's happened but it 'sheathes them in booming energy' (whatever the hell that is) so it's not like they don't know what's happened until they walk around. Once they walk around and the booming energy makes them take another few D8s of damage I'm sure they can make the connection that walking with weird energy = bad for health.

Dose anyone have that list of home brew eldritch invocations? Or just some home brew eldritch invocations in general?

>>48882615
I have a lot of fun figuring out ways that the magic solutions don't just answer the question for you.

Like say you use magic to speak to the dead person's ghost, but the dead person did not see the killer because the killer was invisible, or the killer used illusion or enchantment or just a plain old disguise to make the victim see or believe something wrong. There's nothing short of Wish that cannot be made misleading or only partially useful.

>>48882512
BLS RESBOND DDDD-:

>>48883324
Talk to the player and say it's going to a spot you're not comfortable with directly roleplaying.

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>>48883260

>>48883324
Don't roleplay the scenes, but give summaries and perhaps rolls.
Implied sex over actual sex.

How do I help out a friend who's a new DM?

>Last night's session
>Our boat gets rammed and boarded by 40+ gnolls
>We're all level 2
>The whole session is a three and a half hour combat session, with most of it being him rolling for the gnolls or the slaves we saved
The entire encounter feels incredibly scripted, only one party member takes damage
>Party rogue shoots off flares, attracting a non hostile dwarves pirate Lord to dispatch the stragglers
>He kindly leaves after trading some nice words with us
>DM tells us off for letting the slaves die, nevermind that the most any one player accomplished was to throw two gnolls overboard and crush the neck of a third

What can I tell him to make him a better DM? The whole session was incredibly dull and despite being vastly outnumbered we didn't feel in danger at all.

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>>48883384

>>48873002

Alright, I'm kind of a bard expert, so I'll give you feed back

Faith

I'm not crazy about it. I mean, a support bard spec isn't a bad idea, and you certainly touch upon my pet peeve about bards which is that they don't learn counterspell naturally, and your capstone touches on that, even if it doesn't do it very well..

Also, you shouldn't be primary focus for healing in the party, the same way a lore bard shouldn't be the DPS or a Valor bard shouldn't be the tank. If you really want to heal party through song, you can just play a life cleric with that fluff for spell casting.

Now, tt should be more about, if anything, helping the healers of the party, the same way things like, the Song Of Rest, helps the natural healing of a short rest

Now your temporary hit points idea isn't bad, as it borrows from the Inspiring leader feat.

I might have gone the way of an inspiration die allows you to add to people who heal themselves, through potion or spell.
This way, at level 14 when you become able to benefit from your own inspiration, you could do away with that feature of rerolling dice instead.

So, by removing the mysteries of Faith feature, now you get the chance to put something in for entry level in its stead. Say that expansion to the song of rest you were meaning to design. It only makes sense considering that's when you learn song of rest in the first place

Ending afflictions shouldn't be your bardic goal Though you may certainly learn spells to do that, the point of those spells is that you can work in a pinch where the dedicated character cannot. The ideal scenario is that while there is a character that does that, you make characters that already do their jobs well, do them great (or characters that do their jobs well, do poorly)
Instead, consider perhaps the ability to halt time during short rests, by which I mean, characters who are under duration effects (like, for example, Druidic Wild Shapes)

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>>48883402
And my one from earlier, Bastion taken a bit from >>48883384.

>>48881975
>Unless you can't grab your foci because your arms are restrained?

Even if you pick up the the grappling feat that lets you restrain people this is still not how it works.

>RESTRAINED
A restrained creature's speed becomes 0, and it can't
benefit from any bonus to its speed.
Attack rolls against the creature have advantage,
and the creature's attack rolls have disadvantage.
The creature has disadvantage on Dexterity
saving throws.

If you want to stop a spellcaster from spellcasting using normal actions in combat its not going to work. Even if you use a battlemasters ability to disarm or a have a rogue sleight of hand to pickpocket a focus or pouch, there is no guarantee that they don't carry more than one, and I imagine most wealthy spellcasters would once they can afford it, in the same way that most martials carry a lot of weapons.

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>>48883438
For good measure.

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>>48883260
May as well throw this in.

>>48883440

>Okay, so when I grapple this guy I'm going to hold back his arms with my strength
>Okay, he failed the contest, so his arms shouldn't be used

Just because there's no rules for it doesn't mean you can't do it. You don't NEED rules to do something. Just fucking say you're doing it, especially if it's reasonable.

>>48883422

>don't learn counterspell naturally

do they really need to though?

>>48881975
>If you're gagged or your mouth is covered or something you can't speak (meaning no verbal components) and if your hands are restrained you can't use somatic components either. Why is that such a hard concept to grasp?

They didn't give it a code word in the conditions appendix, so strict-RAW-fags can't figure out implications.

>>48883324
I'd give the players the freedom to say how their relationship develops, but to keep the sexual details to a minimum.

If they want to have a rp session on their own and summarize it for the rest of the party, that's fine. As long as their romantic developments don't happen to involve finding a chest full of loot in the same bush they're shagging in.

>>48883422
I appreciate the input, I really do, and will definitely be looking to make some improvements with your suggestions in mind.

But....
> I'm kind of a bard expert
This made me chuckle...hard.

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>>48883172
14th feature is a bit of a ribbon I'll admit, as for being ethereal it means you cannot be harmed at all except by those in the same plane of existence(ethereal plane). In combat it probably doesn't have much use unless you're running or want to avoid something really bad like a magical nuke you know is coming, so it'd come down to GM discretion.

I focused the more combat related stuff on the 6th level feature as it remains potent throughout every single level, eventually at 20th level you can raise a young dragon(can't remember which colors). And if you're going the minion/necromancer sort of character having a young dragon zombie/skeleton to ride on while having an unlimited army of undead with Finger of Death, then there is really no point in having any real additional combat features.

>>48883422

who must weigh very carefully is taking a short rest is worth loosing that buff. This way, that opens a lot more options for game play, and once again returns you to the point of "Bards, making *you* better."

This opens you up to your level 6 feature. Instead of a short rest expansion, you could improve upon the Bard's level 6 feature, Countercharm, bring that level 14 feature of yours down like, eight levels.

Not only it makes more sense it's down there because of countercharm, it's also the time when Lore Bards are first capable of learning Counterspell

I'd probably do just that then. Expand the effects of countercharm, who give the party advantages on saves against Charmed and Frightened, and probably also give the party, say, your Jack of All Trades proficiency bonus on other saves against magic spells as well.

So, by condensing all that, and getting you closer to the mechanical behavior of a bard, you now have a much tighter subclass, aaand you still have a brand spanking new free slot for a Level 14 feature.

>>48883506

They get to add their charisma modifier, half their proficiency and an inspiration die on their ability check...

I'd say yes, Counterspell is mandatory for a bard

>>48883526
>This made me chuckle...hard.

Really? It makes me cringe, but the truth is, I got a little bit way too into it and played nothing but bards for over a year

>>48883492
>Just because there's no rules for it doesn't mean you can't do it. You don't NEED rules to do something. Just fucking say you're doing it, especially if it's reasonable.

Now stay with me here, because I understand you are fucking retarded.

If you can do this to a wizard, why can't you do it to a fighter? An ogre?

Making it so someone can't move their arms period is outside the scope of a grapple. Even if you TAKE A FEAT to make your grappling the strongest it can be, it still only gives people disadvantage on attack rolls (and hey! that applies to wizards too, if they want to try and shocking grasp you or whatever).

If you implemented this rule combat would cease to be about attacking and start being all about grappling(for martials and casters, since polymorph and wildshape are thing you know) , since you can't do a god damn thing if you are grappled apparently. It would be a race every turn to see if you could grapple an opponent, and the first to fail is put at a serious disadvantage since it takes your whole action to escape and you can't do anything (according to your new rules) while its happening.

Just because you can make up a rule doesn't mean you should.

Fucking retard.

>>48883580

I just think it should have a cost; they're already almost the best casting class in the game.

Help me /5eg/, I need a mini for a male half-elf bard that isn't terribad or a complete fop. Anyone have miniature lines they particularly like? Without alternatives, I'll make one on heroforge, but that's more than I want to spend to get something paintable.

>>48881975
Martials are just as strong or prob better up to about lvl 15. Once casters can make demi planes, teleport, and make simulacrums of martials, things get a bit crazy.

Also you can cast while grappled cuz you are not restrained unless they have the grappler feat and pin you.

Personally I think paladins are the strongest class up to lvl 13

>>48879095
It is, I'm still refining it.
>>48879157
Noted.
>>48879321
>>48879338
If I used the d4 approach, it would be with the Rust Monster method of draining the object's effectiveness while striking. The weapon would lose 1-4 on damage rolls to reflect the damage done, and would be useless and broken at -5. Similarly, the armor would lose its effectiveness until it gave no bonus and was destroyed. I am trying to work out whether it's better to use that system, or simply assign it AC and HP values as in the DMG.
Does it make more sense to wear down something that's being cut up, or simply hack until it's destroyed?
>>48879404
Haven't played those games. It's a combination of reading /tg/ magic item threads, thinking of what a sword with a ghostly blade might do, and finding this way back in my memory reserves. https://youtu.be/YJ5pbAj3Wf4?t=177

>>48883615

You can do it to a fighter but most fighters don't dump Strength and Dexterity, and most Wizards don't have proficiency in Athletics.

Jesus christ man, you have got to cool it on this autism. You've been arguing about this for like two days and all you do is rage like a tard whenever somebody suggests a reasonable course of action. Why is "with your big faggy fighter strength you manage to restrain the sickly wizard" such a difficult concept to grasp? Just because you can restrain a spellcaster you're trying to subdue to keep them from casting doesn't mean you should be doing it every combat, especially to fighters who are probably going to break out and actually just plain old kill you anyways. Why don't you do it all the time? Because there's a risk associated with it and if they succeed you've wasted your attack doing nothing, when you could just slug it out and probably take them down faster. It's an option.

>>48883580
I'm gonna have to disagree with you on that one point. I don't believe Counterspell is mandatory for a bard. It's definitely an option, but not mandatory.

To be fair, literally EVERY class could benefit from picking up counterspell, as it is a very useful spell.

>>48883535

Now, for you college of the phoenix...

It's not a bad idea that you decided to take the valor bard and give him a splash of flavor of the swashbuckling rogue, it's quite good actually but... your level 6 and 14 features and kind of a crapshoot

Personally, I'd just as soon scrap them entirely. But hey, the Bard's secondary ability is supposed to be dexterity, so maybe think instead of stuff that works off that for level 6, and the phoenix lore is that "it was a bird that sang a song so beautiful apollo stopped to listen to it" so maybe work off that for your level 14

>>48883682
What's wrong with the 6th level feature?

And I like that for the 14th level, maybe some type of Enthrall or Blinding Light type ability. Thematically fits, and mechanically is in line with "martial support".

>>48883619

the lore bard is the best healing class in the game, because it gets to pick up Aura of Vitality at level 6, and heal 20d6 in a minute with a 3 level spell slot

So fret less about making him a good healer, and more about making him a "bardic healer", because you're not making any less cheese than what is already in the rules

>>48883675
yeah, but not even the abjuration mage gets to add as much benefit to it as the bard can.

>>48883384
>deals 1 less damage on average if you use it with strength
But why.
I can most likely see the scourge pact being used in the hands of a multi-classer who is using a shield, which means they might be wearing heavy armour and might therefore want to use strength.
Not only that, why a 'range of touch'? Some spells have a range of 5ft, and will now be shorter ranged than 'touch' range spells. I'm thinking of things like booming blade, though normally you have to get spell sniper to make them reach 10ft.
Even then, the invocation seems a bit of a waste for just 5ft more rane.

Pact of the mystic treader actually looks interesting. I'm still worried it's invading on some other classes by not only letting you go fast, but being a primarily ranged (eldritch blast) class go fast, but it is more in the realms of what a pact should be.

Still think all these 'pact of the weapon' should be compacted into a better version of pact of the blade, that allows you to take invocations for specific weapons (which can by RAW be traded out for other invocations on level-up) and allows a bit more flexibility.

>>48883399
>tells you off for letting slaves die
Unless you're something like a paladin or someone with heavy morals, there's no reason to tell a player off for doing what their character would do unless it's plainly stupid (chaotic stupid characters).
Tell them that even if it's high fantasy, there's a line of realism and suspense of disbelief.

>>48883700

It's just weird. The ability to just, generically and apropos of anothing do fire attacks has nothing to do with bards.

At level 6, Lore Bards get learn any two spells from any class. Valor bards get to do an extra attack. Phoenix bards get to... give an extra attack on fire? It doesn't fit
Especially since Valor Bard inspiration already allows you to add an inspiration die for damage

>>48880024
He's been playing the Paladin mostly as a melee bruiser, getting into the brawl with the Totem Barbarian and them being bash brothers and presenting himself as another enticing target for monsters to attack first. He actually took GWM for his Fighting Style and uses a normal Greatsword currently, but will shift to sword and board if the situation calls for it (specifically, warhammer and shield).

The other items I plan on giving to the party are a Staff of Spell Storing (5 spell levels worth of slots) for the Wizard, a +1 Frost Brand Longbow for the Ranger, a +1 Breastplate made out of bone for the Druid (who has been struggling to find anything above normal leather armor to wear), and a +1 Brutal Greataxe (crit on 19-20) for the Barbarian.

>>48883580
>They get to add their charisma modifier, half their proficiency and an inspiration die on their ability check...

Aren't you forgetting Glibness? With that on, a bard can pretty much counterspell a god

>>48883653
>You can do it to a fighter but most fighters don't dump Strength and Dexterity, and most Wizards don't have proficiency in Athletics.
And some monsters have much higher checks than either. I highly doubt that fire giants would be the same sort of challenge if they had unlimited at will Hold Monster with essentially no save.

>Why is "with your big faggy fighter strength you manage to restrain the sickly wizard" such a difficult concept to grasp? Just because you can restrain a spellcaster you're trying to subdue to keep them from casting doesn't mean you should be doing it every combat, especially to fighters who are probably going to break out and actually just plain old kill you anyways. Why don't you do it all the time? Because there's a risk associated with it and if they succeed you've wasted your attack doing nothing, when you could just slug it out and probably take them down faster. It's an option.

See, this makes me think you don't know the rules to the game. If you have more than one attack, you can make a grapple as ONE of your attacks. So you don't waste your whole turn if they succeed once (they may have to succeed a whopping 8! Times depending on the level you play at.

Then, when you try to BREAK a grapple it DOES TAKE YOUR WHOLE ACTION.

Even if you are a fighter guy that only has equal odds of completely shutting down another fighter guy, I would still attempt to grapple them with my extra attacks, because odds are high that since I have multiple attacks and odds are equal he will fail, and if he does his whole next turn is wasted.

I am butt blasted or what have you because everyone discussing this is retarded. If you just REALLY wanted to fuck over spellcasters hard (since the grapple change would just make druids stronger anyway). Do it in a different way. Make a new common item that people can buy everywhere, like hunters traps or some shit. Here, I'll stat one for you:

1/2

>>48883902
2/2

Don't play a spellcaster in my setting: This item appears to be a large penis. When thrown, it unerringly attempts to lodge itself inside the nearest source of magic, a spellcasters mouth. If this object is used within 30ft of a character with spell slots they must succeed on a DC 12 dexterity saving throw to avoid having it fly into their mouth. If they fail they cannot speak until they use an action to perform a successful DC 12 Athletics(Strength) check to remove. Cost -5 gold pieces.

>>48883912
>Not a cursed ball gag
C'mon, anon.
Or maybe that could be the counter item, that lets a mage cast without verbal components, but become unable to remove it or speak.

>>48883912

Joke's on you, my Aphrodite cleric is proficient in dildos and uses them as a holy symbol

>>48883902

>as ONE of your attacks

most classes only get two attacks.

>if you want to nerf spell casters

I don't, I think the rules of the game make it possible to do that without stupid magic items.

>just make druids stronger anyways

Moon druids aren't even that great for most of the game. What is with your hate boner for them? Where did the moon druid touch you anon?

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>>48883741
Yeah >>48883452 was my attempt at making them just invocations for Blade, but it's a bit clunky and might require a bigger fundamental change to the pact. I did do an edit of the Treader but then I started on the shield and armor ones and it's also still very similar to singular's one.

>>48884131

While I don't know why this has to exist I think I like it overall and it's kind of cool and fitting with the Seeker patron.

>>48884055
>as ONE of your attacks

>most classes only get two attacks.
Holy shit you are retarded, even if you only get two attacks its still in your best interest to grapple. Especially so if you are a raging barbarian.

>I don't, I think the rules of the game make it possible to do that without stupid magic items.
RAW, they don't. I was spelling out how retarded your houserule is because it has the side effect of changing the game from "Dungeons and Dragons" to "Chokeholds and Pins". With this change I know for sure I would never play a dex based martial, for instance. Being able to grapple people would just be too strong.

>Moon druids aren't even that great for most of the game. What is with your hate boner for them? Where did the moon druid touch you anon?

I thought you were under the impression that casters were too strong. If they aren't, then why houserule in grapple changes against them? If you are just a babbling retard, I apologize for interrupting you. If you had a point to make for the last day or so please state it clearly so the goalposts won't continuously be moved.

>>48883741
Part of the problem was the boat was so crowded a lot of the party was effectively being body blocked, with the slaves panicking and not listening to any of my attempts at inspiring words (I rolled 15+ on both checks, they still panicked).

>>48884236

I'm not under the impression that they're too strong at all, especially because I think someone saying "I grapple them to restrain their arms' makes sense and I'd let someone do that. You can't have your weapon or your shield out when you're doing it so it's not like there's 0 cost to you.

The person I was originally talking to thought casters were too strong, martials sucked, and strength was a sad stat that was almost useless (just like Int too I guess) and that the world for martials was dour and sad.

>>48884196
Seeing that document I did start thinking about what pact boons really are. I think they should have different playstyles from each other sort of, but in essence they are just gifts from the patron so almost anything goes. Now that they've semi-officially released a patron-specific pact that's open as well.

>>48884278
I am under the impression that casters are not too strong even without retarded grappling house rules. They have much higher out of combat utility than martials, but martials get much better in combat damage and utility to make up for it. Furthermore Legendary Resistance shits on spellcasters.

I will state once more that your grappling rules are bad, and that you don't even know the rules of the game in the first place. I find further evidence for this in your post:
>You can't have your weapon or your shield out when you're doing it so it's not like there's 0 cost to you.

You actually can have a one handed weapon out when you are grappling. You only need a free hand to grapple someone.

It is possible that you thought your grappling rule additions were balanced because you never actually read what grappling does when trying to argue about it. I apologize if this is the case, but it does not make you any less of a retard.

>>48884449
>combat damage and utility
meant to say "and durability" got auto corrected.

>>48884449
I think he meant you can only have a weapon or shield, not both.

>>48884449

>>48884500

If you want to hold both your arms which you would need to do to stop somatic components entirely I think you'd need to use two arms, at least in the initial grapple. I think if you worked at it for a few turns I'd let you position yourself in a way where you could get a hand free but restrain both their arms (maybe) but it wouldn't be a one turn deal.

>your grappling rules are bad

they're not even rules, codified into the book or something, i just think if you describe something well i'll let you try it. "Can I try to hold his arms down?" "Sure, go for it give me an atheltics check". It's the same as "can I try to jump slightly farther than the book says I can?" "Yeah give me an athletics check." I don't think there's a problem with that at all.

>>48884500
Not having a shield out against someone that can't attack you is hardly a cost though.

>>48884580

If it's just you vs the caster it's not a big deal but if he's got friends who come beat the crap out of you you might be sorely missing that +2-5 AC.

>>48884580
5e works better with multiple creature encounters.

>>48884131
Oh, right, I didn't read that.

Still, ignoring lifedrinker is kind of a big issue, since the only thing that makes bladelock decently viable is the fact they get two or three attacks with lifedrinker applied. And, I suppose, that warlocks get invocations and spells over a typical fighter.

Though in the same thing it's sort of good to make it so you cannot stack lifedrinker and another invocation, because it's nice to allow players to still have room for non-combat invocations.

>>48884253
That sounds even worse. I'd kind of like to hear the DM say why a bard isn't able to do non-combat things like that. Sure, you could say 'oh, you have to use a magic such as calm emotions' but that's still a bit limiting. That's 4e material, having brilliant combat abilities but crappy out-of-combat abilities.

It is in the rules that you can move through the spaces of non-hostile creatures, although the DM might rule if things are really heavily packed that you won't be able to get through.

I don't know, you should probably invite him around for tea and talk over it.

>>48884653
Not to mention, if any caster is alone then honestly the DM shouldn't expect them to be unkillable without absolute plot armour bullshit.

A party of 5 could kill an ordinary caster before they even get to do anything.

>>48884692

Yeah. Honestly the entire reason this argument sprung up was because someone said you can't disable a caster like you can a martial, which is bullcrap.

>>48884571
> they're not even rules, codified into the book or something, i just think if you describe something well i'll let you try it. "Can I try to hold his arms down?" "Sure, go for it give me an atheltics check". It's the same as "can I try to jump slightly farther than the book says I can?" "Yeah give me an athletics check." I don't think there's a problem with that at all.

If you are the DM and the enemies never use these tactics against your players, who cares then? You could have your encounters based around grappling wizards and if you catch them they self immolate or some other such things as long as it makes the game fun.

With that in mind I still wouldn't make a dex martial in your campaign if you allowed things like that though. I would feel p.bad as a dex fighter if the str fighter was ending fights with one roll and I was useless.

I will still say you are retarded because this wasn't close to what you said earlier and you are still moving the goal posts, but you do probably know how to run a game and have a good time.

>>48883615
>Just because you can make up a rule doesn't mean you should.
You know that restraining arms is already a thing in D&D. It's what manacles are for. Sure, just using your hands to restrict arm/hand movement is less effective, but there's no reason it shouldn't be possible.

>>48884670
Yeah I wanted to make them all as good as lifedrinker, I really dislike that you need to take two invocations as bladelock that don't do anything except get to nearer to being on par with other locks. So I'd rather fix the pact's issues in general with buffs than give more powerful invocations, as that would mean you use half your invocations just to make the pact work etc.

>>48884729
You can't as easily is the point. You take a fighter's weapon, he's near useless. You take a caster's focus, he's a bit less useful. Even if you tie both up, the caster is still more capable in some situations, like druid's wild shape. That was the point, I think.

>>48884665
I understand its a trade off for balance but that is the one thing I don't like in 5E. I'm still a fan of the big boss encounter without needing to include henchman, lieutenants or patrols to the big encounters.

>>48884791
Well yeah, if you have manacles thats obv. fine. I wouldn't let someone with their hands manacled behind their back attack with a greatsword either. But I would say to put manacles on somebody would require them being either willing or incapacitated.

>>48884809
The ones suggested don't look very strong at all, though. I can't see them being better than a +damage up to +5 from lifedrinker.

>>Just because you can make up a rule doesn't mean you should.

I keep telling this to a friend that DMs. He thinks he's not a real DM if he doesn't house rule/homebrew but when he does something it always cascades into a cluster fuck that breaks shit. Then he changes shit again and tries to retcon the story to fix his fuck ups which confuses everybody, even himself,and then people stop going to his games.

>>48884864
To do that you have to have bosses which can do almost everything.

Party just flies above them? He has to have some sort of anti-ranged.
Or, he has to have his own lair to abuse.

Really, battles with henchmen are more dynamic and make sense. Power in numbers.
A single person being incredibly powerful with no henchmen and still thinking he'll be perfectly fine is like a superhero without his sidekick who constantly saves his ass.

There are ways of making single creatures more powerful, such as through legendary resistance, legendary actions or weird versions of haste spells, I suppose.


I much prefer bosses who aren't mary sues and instead have to rely on actual logic to win. The eggman type boss who is faster than supe sonic himself, but can't actually hurt anybody by himself and has to rely on creations and underlings.

>>48884877
>But I would say to put manacles on somebody would require them being either willing or incapacitated.
Yeah. Or at the very least, two people being involved in the process.

For the record, if a player of mine used their hands to restrain someone's wrists, I would use grapple rules, but I'd give the restrained creature advantage on the check to break free. Also I would let them kick/stomp/headbutt the person restraining them or people nearby with no disadvantage.

https://twitter.com/NathanBStewart/status/766681967555338241

That's a sexy alt cover.

Where's the run of those style of covers for the core books, Wizards?

>>48884864
Legendary and lair actions required then, which will require homebrewing unless you want to use the very small amount of creatures with legendaries.

>>48884902
Yeah I kinda stopped working on them for a bit since it's hard to find what categories are best and such, just like weapon mastery feats there isn't an established categorization of weapons. Working on them a bit, any suggestions, either for how to make them better or how to structure the invocations are appreciated.

1d8 versatile 1d10 finesse weapon. Balanced at level 1?

>>48885197
Normal covers are all nice looking and I get that they want to keep it

>>48885387
I'm assuming this is about Katanas again. No one uses a versatile weapon unless they want to grapple and stuff, which doesn't work with dex. It would do nothing I think.

>>48885414
There aren't any 1d10 finesse weapons period though.

Just make sure rogues don't have proficiency in it to start and it should be fine is still my opinion though.

>>48885414
Not a katana but close enough. Big elfy LOTR-style curved sword. Also thinking about throwing a bone to a dex-based Arabian Nights fighter.

>>48885443
For a paladin. So it won't be abused.

>>48885387
It would be superior to every other finesse weapon, since it does as much damage as the strongest one-handed finesse weapon in one hand, and the lack of two-handed options is the one negative factor balancing finesse weapons against normal ones, to counterbalance the convenience of attacking and defending with the same stat. So whether you think it's balanced depends on whether you think finesse weapons need improvement.