/5eg/ fifth edition general - thank fuck for the tome of beasts

>>49104333
>Wasting your trips on such a shit question
It bores you because you lack creativity.

I have a player whose character is a dragonborn blacksmith, and wants to have a shield with extendable legs that can act as an anvil, so he's able to smith on the go.

How viable is that? I don't mind letting him do it, but I also don't want it to make things too easy on him. I know fuck all about blacksmithing, what else would he need besides a hammer, an anvil, and enough heat (which he can use his dragonbreath for)? How long should the forging of something like a weapon or piece of armor take? I've checked the PHB and the DM book and neither seem to have much information in the way of crafting non-magical items.

A friend of mine wants to make a Reaper sort of character


I recomended him a Lich Bladelock, because idk, seemed straight to the point

Anyone else can do better?

>>49104333

The tome of beasts has a collection of good creatures and then a terrible collection of dc30 save or dies that just seem awful to play.

I think the most egregious example is some CR3-5 attractive woman who wants to kill you who causes permanent deafness on a failed save. fuck that.

>>49104444

get less edgy friends.

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From last thread, replying to: >>49104296

Pic related is something I see get posted a fair bit: it's a list of character creation options that are published (or community accepted to be good/balanced for homebrew stuff) to give ideas, though I think my list is a bit outdated.

In general, narrow it down to 4 things: what race you want to play, what role you want to play (tank, dps, healer, buff/debuffs), your character background (gives you some more stats and inspiration for character personality), and then flesh out their character's personality.

>>49104444
Revenant Human, Death Cleric.

>>49104440

google "Portable forge"

>>49103526

I'm with this anon.

I've always said that adding things like 'You gain proficiency in this armour, which increases your AC' or 'you gain health' are bad options for invocations relating to pacts or pacts themselves.

The pact choices are supposed to be utility choices, not straight-up combat buffs like 'you gain 1 HP per level.'

Using charisma instead of str/dex is a good idea for bladelocks, and makes a nice quick fix, but it's still honestly not ideal for a finished-product PHB.

Gish types are supposed to be a bit MAD. It makes them a bit more interesting, in that they aren't just linear 'if you increase your charisma, you increase everything.' It'd also mean that warlocks would always be using 2d6 weapons, unless they wanted reach or something. No point in going up finesse, no need to get heavy armour to be a viable strength lock.

Pact of the blade is just a bad idea in general, that you have to sacrifice other options in order to make melee viable.
Instead, remove pact of the blade. Replace it with something that helps bladelocks, but isn't REQUIRED.
Then, add a patron option that gives you melee-based abilities. 'You can be a melee warlock' isn't much of a benefit, so it can also have an addiional level 1 ability attached aimed to make the warlock more tanky. Medium armour profiency as a archetype is much more sensible than as a pact option, for example.

>>49104444
I'd go with revenant over lich. Revenants aren't semi-immortal undead like lichs are

>>49104440
Smithing, especially forging something like a sword, is an intensive physical act of labor that takes hours. The legs would need to be made out of immoveable rods or else they'd likely fold under the stress of heat and hammering. There's a reason that anvils are essentially a solid 2-foot thick block of metal.

>>49104440
I don't really see how an anvil and shield could ever be interchangeable without being terrible at either one or both of those functions.

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>>49104474
Ah I was gonna repost it but I guess I wont bother, I already got that stuff down etc keeping it simple with a dragon born fighter, but it's honestly everything else I dont have a clue with like how many ability scores I get but I guess I'll just read through the handbook

Also In relation to pic related on yours I'm assuming paths are sub-classes you eventually go down?

>>49104444
reaper from overwatch?
>fiend pact bladelock
>pact weapon is dual hand crossbows
>after emptying them, toss them on the ground, and use your action to resummon your pact weapons with full ammo
>regain temp HP from kills
>be sure to grab misty step as one of your spells
>possibly take levels in fighter/ranger

>>49104333

>Chr 13

Why

>>49104584

I guess it could be a REALLY heavy shield??

I think this is one of those things that should be when the character isn't out on the road adventuring he can spend downtime doing black smithing stuff. Maybe even give him a store.

>>49104559

the lich is the patron

>>49104622
I'd still say go with Death cleric.

>>49104603

No, that sounds fun as hell, but I mean, reaper as in Scythe and shit.
Reckon I'll give him a glaive for a weapon as a stand in

>>49104440
It'd probably be "easier" to give him a magical key to a magical door which leads to a portable anvil + workshop (refluffed/nerfed Mordenkainen's Magnificent Mansion), where once a day he and up to 5 other Medium-sized creatures can enter this small smithing for up to 10 hours. Generally speaking you need an anvil and forge, and even for a dragonborn, his breath weapon skill isn't going to be hot enough or get a good enough even distribution of heat to make weapons or armor.

As for making said non-magical items, it's maybe a day's worth of work for most things, unless we're talking something like breastplate, half-plate, splint, or full plate.

I think the rule in 5e is 25g or 50g worth of materials to be used in crafting over the course of an 8-hour crafting session. Normally this cost is aimed at crafting magical items, but can easily be applied to most non-magical items as well.

>>49104656

what class is he? An Eldrich Knight could plausibly have this as a refluffed Leomund's Tiny Hut, or a divine Paladin of Thor or Hepheastus could have a Portable Forge hooked up to his Find Steed spell

>>49104645

Flavorwise I'd be sorrier for it, but I can definitely see how it makes for a mechanically better character

>>49104656

That sounds like a cool something or another to give him later in the game. I don't know if giving someone Mordenkainen's Magnificent Mansion at level 1 is a great idea though

given that mordekainen's mansion is a 7th level spell i don't think i'd give it to someone until at least level ten.

>>49104592
Yep. It varies for most classes, but by level 3 you pick a subclass (also referred to as an archetype) that gets you more bonuses to your base class.

So for a fighter you can be a Champion or a Battlemaster. The first lets you do a bit more DPS in combat (but doesn't offer much outside of that), or a Battlemaster which lets you do a bit of battlefield control (small movements, ways to make enemies prone, defer advantage or disadvantage, floating numbers to hit or miss, etc.) with a small pool of die.

I'll also recommend the Paladin class to you if you're looking at a Dragonborn and want to be the guy who wades into battle and just do a shit ton of damage while also being a tanky front liner.

As for ability scores, check pages 10-13 for numbers on what stat does what, and page 13 for standard point buy system and the standard set of scores.

>>49104749

especially considering this key would double as a mordekainen shelter for long rests, if it could last for eight hours

It'd have to be at the very least a level 5 present and the forge would have to let anyone in

>>49104764
Ah right makes more sense now

As a matter of fact I'm a bit torn between paladin and fighter but I guess it depends on what I think of for backstory right now

>>49104749
Oh yeah, definitely don't give this to him at level 1. But maybe the group starts out in a small town and he's got an apprenticeship going with the town blacksmith, so he starts out there. Then maybe as he adventures he hears about magical forges and items to aid in the creation of magical artifacts.

Hell, Lost Mine of Phandelver has a freaking Forge of Magic in their lost mine that dwarves and evil shit fought over. Maybe you can expy that over to your campaign, give the party something to do in their downtime (turn the mine back into a working town, with forges and shit for him and NPCs to mine and call home).

Then maybe around level 9 or 10 he gets wind of a magical key given to a master smith by your god of the forge, which let him be able to make anything no matter where he was.

>>49104809
Fighter's main benefits are more Extra Attacks compared to Paladin and more ASIs (ability score increases). Because ASIs double as ways to gain feats in 5e, most Fighters end up getting a 20 in their main damage stat , grab a feat or two, then spend the rest of the ASIs boosting Constitution or Intelligence for EKs.

If memory serves, I think for pure minmax Fighter 20 is the best at nova-ing damage due to Action Surge letting them get 8 attacks in one round, but I don't remember the damage calculations.

Paladin gets more damage earlier on due to various spells they can learn along with smite, but peters off a bit in the higher levels. Then again, not many campaigns get above level 8 or 10, so that is also something to consider.

Anyone ever have interesting homebrew passive abilities that they've come up with?

For example our fighter basically became a hero by accident and as a result started having stories being attributed to him without having done them. So I came up with the idea that he would get extra XP due to being credited with more than he did. Our DM liked it so now after battles he rolls a d20 to determine his extra xp.

Anons? Amateur homebrewer here with a peculiar obsession with monstrous PC races. I'll get right to the point: do you think a PC raced based on the Naga - so, human(ish) head on a giant magical snake's body, no arms (that's a non-D&D lamia) could ever be made balanced under the 5e ruleset?

Just for shits 'n' giggles, here's a first draft of one I've thrown together just off the top of my head:

Naga
Ability Score Increase: +2 Intelligence, +1 Charisma
Size: Medium
Speed: 30 feet
Vision: Darkvision
Limbless Horror: A naga's unique body shape poses great difficulty in using items designed for humanoids. Armor must be custom fitted, doubling its expense value if purchased; magic armor that reshapes itself to fit a wearer will do so for a naga, but otherwise must be manually altered. A naga can only wear Head slot, Neck slot and Body slot magical items, though at a DM's discretion it can also wear 1 magical ring on the tip of its tail.
Telekinetic: Nagas have developed an instinctive ability to manipulate items by thought alone. A Naga has a single invisible "hand" which provides them with the effective reach of a Large-sized creature. This hand can be used to interact with a single physical object at a time, allowing a naga to make all of the normal actions despite lacking physical limbs, including using a magic item or swinging a weapon. When using its telekinesis, a naga treats its Intelligence score as its Strength score for determining attack roll and damage roll bonuses, and the naga's ability to lift and carry. At a DM's discretion, some Strength checks may be replaced by Intelligence checks if a naga could conceivably use its telekinesis to do so, such as prying open a gate, pushing a crate or lifting a heavy trapdoor.

I contemplated adding racial traits like some innate spell-like abilities and/or a poisonous bite, but I was worried I'd be overloading it with abilities and making it too powerful.

>>49104909
pure class, fighter is brutal as fuck

multiclass fighter2/paladin4/bard14 i think could do the most damage in a single attack but doesnt get a second attack unless the bard part is valor

>>49105067
>everyone thinks i killed the ogre
>i didn't actually kill the ogre
>but i'm still a better fighter now despite not having actually fought the ogre

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I attepted to rejigger Armor table a bit for a Bronze Agey setting. It emphasizes shield use quite a bit but otherwise ACs work out to about the same values as in 5e core.

Notes:
>1) You take the worst from DEX column. So, if you're in a lithotorax (glued cloth vest) with a Large shield, your AC doesn't benefit from DEX
>2) Shields and helmets have Sacrifice property. Basically, when you take a hit, you can sacrifice this piece of equipment to reduce the incoming damage by noted value.
>3) Parrying dagger has Parry property. When an attack on you misses, you can deal a d4 of retaliatory damage as a Reaction.

Any thoughts?

>>49105141
It's not a lot of xp, like maybe 50 or so on a good roll. He has actually been doing a lot of the killing so far. All our players were down with it just to give our campaign something different

>>49105141
It could work if the extra XP was given while he multiclassed into bard.

>>49105067

That seems dumb.

>>49105173
Forgot to add:
>4) Light plating is supposed to represent clothes with small bits of bone or metal over them. They're mostly a holdover from an earlier draft that remain here because I didn't manage to come up with another light 12 AC armor that didn't disadvantage stealth
>5) Plate is a normal steel plate. Setting-specifically, it's only available to invading otherworldly forces. I also thought about making it 19 AC but its AC unable to benefit from any other equipment on the table

Playing in a group with barb and fighter Goliath brothers. Should I roll:

> Aasimar Lore Bard
> Dwarf Boxer (Open Hand Monk)
> Half Elf Swashbuckler
> Human wild mage with gourmand for extra flavor
> tiefling knowledge Cleric of Vecna, trying to start his own cult

>>49105437
Cleric or Bard would probably be most useful, utility-wise

>>49105437
>gourmand
>for extra flavor
I see what you did there.

But seriously, fuck healing. I say go Swashbuckler. Force your DM to adapt to an all martial party.

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>ranger's wolf companion has to save against a ghost's Horrifying Visage
>gets a 5
>immediately ages 20 years

>>49105600
Was it up to me, I'd scale it down for a wolf

Where can you find old PDFS of Dragon or Dungeon Magazines? Preferably free copies.

>>49105851
As far as I can tell, this has every single issue of Dragon & Dungeon they ever put out. Even the 4e stuff they hid behind Insider.

http://deathranger.com/

>>49105930
THANK YOU!

>>49105600
Please tell me the Ranger is currently hucking around a crippled senile old doggo sort of half waiting for it to expire but dreading the eventuality?

>>49106187
I'm sorry, anon. Dogs rarely live to 15, let alone into their 20s.

>>49106289
And wolves rarely live past 13.

How do you fellow dms come up with names for everything? The hardest part for me is thinking up names for NPCs, cities, or anything else

>>49106493
http://donjon.bin.sh/fantasy/name/

>>49106493
Does your region have a theme of some sort? Use it if it does.
Is it cold north? Look up some norge of finnish words and mash then together. Ancient city of Kaupunki!
Is it England-like countryside? Pick the most recognizable terrain feature and name after it. Village of Greenbrook

And so on.
Oh, and yeah, random generators are also nice

>>49105173
Couple of issues.

Parrying dagger doesn't make a lot of sense.

The enemy misses you, but you automatically hit and deal damage?

It'd be a staple on, say, warlocks, who don't need the extra hands and would be glad to get automatic damage whereas people such as tempest clerics who get reaction attacks anyway wouldn't get to get any use out of it. I think it's mostly the automatic hitting that I think is contrived, though.

Sacrifice is a bit weird, too.
The party might carry around a whole backpack full of extra large shields just so they can get them all broken.
Still, it's not exactly bad. Just a bit weird, especially that the large shield removes all damage entirely. It's also good to define what a 'hit' is. Is it a hit from an attack? Whenever you take damage? After a dex save?

And here's the worst thing I have to admit:

You screw over the notion of ever having 'strength' as a stat.
Strength was already an endangered species, but when you make it so that heavy armour is actually less AC than light armour with dex, there really is no point in being a strength fighter other than to use GWF. Those who would benefit most from shields would likely be using GWF or something.
Only the barbarian wouldn't care, and the +3 shield technically doesn't affect unarmoured defence.
The barbarian wears medium armour or goes unarmoured defence, so they'll be having a ball.

You'd see less heavy armour, yes, but parties would consist of weaklings.

>>49104584
Make the shield out of adamantium. It would be heavy as hell but if the character is strength based it's not too much of a stretch. Adamantium could be described to have magical properties that resist being warped.

>>49105173
>>49106947
Oh, and there's no obvious downside to wearing a helmet at all. Other than if everyone keeps sacrificing helmets you're going to need a large supply.

>>49105336
Making plate give you more AC than medium armour+dex or light armour+dex should be your first priority.

19 AC but no benefit from other options is fine. In the current situation, that's basically like core DnD plus everybody wears a helmet (so everyone but plate wearer gets +1 AC), except that people won't be able to use a shield alongside it, which doesn't really make sense.
It'd make people actually go GWF fighter, though. They don't use shields anyway.

>>49106947
It's all work in progress and thank you for your answer.

>The enemy misses you, but you automatically hit and deal damage?
You specifically have to spend your reaction, making you lose a possible AoO. But yeah, an attack roll would be in order, I suppose.

>It's also good to define what a 'hit' is. Is it a hit from an attack? Whenever you take damage? After a dex save?
Whenever you take damage. Apllies to final damage. Probably would make sense not to apply it to AoEs.

>You screw over the notion of ever having 'strength' as a stat.
You realize that those same restrictions are in normal 5E rules, right? I don't like them and would probably get rid of them in actual play but I had to include the column for completeness sake.

>>49107002
>Oh, and there's no obvious downside to wearing a helmet at all.
I'm not sure there should be. It's just an item that brings your AC to expected values and could be lost in battle

>>49107063

You're screwing over strength as a stat because you're reducing the AC from strength armor by 2 for no real reason.

>>49107063
I think the parrying dagger should stay as the 'you spend your reaction to gain an effect', but the 1d4 damage seems limited and certainly might want an attack roll, and if it required an attack roll.. It wouldn't be worth it anymore.

I'd think maybe an effect like "you can attempt an attack to get an opening, if you succeed you have advantage on your next attack against them, before the end of your next turn" or something.
I think it'd work best as some sort of support weapon rather than 'deal damage' or 'increase AC', but I'm not too sure what's best for the idea.

It might make sense to apply shields to AoEs, as you can interpose it between you and the effect, much like the 'shield master' feat.

Giving everyone helmets they can get broken sometimes is probably okay, since everybody - Okay, maybe not druids. Some people can't, but most could. Maybe leather helmets or bear helmets.

The strength is a really big point though, and this is the thing that matters the most.
If there is no heavy armour, then the only reason people would go for it would be for heavy shields. And that makes sense, I suppose.
But shields have no strength requirement.
And GWF can't use a shield.

So GWF would be completely out of the question unless you became MAD - Strength to hit, and dexterity to get AC, initiative, dex saves, stealth and such skills..
At that point you may as well become a rogue instead.

Heavy armour already sucks in core 5e, without nerfing it or removing it.

>>49107002
>except that people won't be able to use a shield alongside [Plate], which doesn't really make sense.
As I understand it, as plate became more common shields became used less and less, outside of jousting. When your entire body is a wall of steel, do you really need another one weighing you down?

>>49107118
As I said, a side goal was to emphasize shield use, as appropriate for Bronze Age. There would also be no greatswords or lances, as those are unfeasible to make
And total for a Heavy Panoply + Helmet + Large Shield is 20, just like it is in normal rules for suit of plate and a shield.

Now, I suppose I could make the following:
Heavy armors are all 1 higher
Large shields are now Aspis: +2 AC, no Sacrifice. Gives +1 AC to an adjacent ally of your choice.

Does it sound better?

>>49104440
It's a nice idea, but a shield is something you have to actively parry with. If he wants to use it as portable cover, that could definitely work.
If he wants to carry it around as a shield?
If he's a bear barbarian, let him.

If he has 20 strength, consider maybe letting him.

If he's not awfully strong, he'll have to make it out of mythril.

>>49107219
>Okay, maybe not druids.
Boar tusk helmets, acheaen style

>>49107219
>[parrying dagger] wouldn't be worth it anymore.
It'd be great for rogues. More sneak attack opportunities are always great.

Battle Master, too. It would give you some interesting interactions, like being able to move friendlies around during enemy turns.

>>49107241

>no great swords or lances

or any pole arms?

I honestly don't see the point in all this. Just make your heavy armor 18 AC and get rid of the helmets. what the fuck are the helmets even for? as far as i can tell everybody can wear one and they all give you +1 Ac...so why not just increase the ac on all your armor by 1? So you can...sacrifice it I guess?

The sacrifice mechanic is retarded but the helmet "slot" is dumb too. A guy in full plate in DND already has a helmet on, that's why he's in full plate armor.

Also don't cut out pole arms entirely, especially considering some could just be a big stick with a smaller bronzier tip at the end of it. The strength wielding big-fucken-spear guy is running around with 17 AC (thanks helmet!) while dexy mcdouche has 19 AC (fuck you helmet) while also having a better initiative, more points in a stronger save, more random dex skill points, and probably getting more pussy than strong hands mc shitty armor too.

>>49107241
In real life, not really.

However, you can't really dodge in heavy armour.
In a fantasy setting with magical weapons and attacks that could bypass that armour, a shield would certainly be useful.

The main issue would be seeing out of the armour to anticipate the attacks, but you could imagine it like a shield being able to deflect a bullet that would otherwise be penetrating your armour.


I think the best way to deal with shields is you could have a +2 or +3 AC shield that only people with a certain level of strength could wear without it taking up a hand slot - A GWF could use it if they have enough strength alongside their greatsword. It also takes away any dex bonuses or penalties they have.
You could then scrap heavy armour entirely, and 'heavy armour' would basically be medium armour + no-hands big shield.

Make it also count as technically heavy armour for things like barbarian abilities.

>>49107292
Oh, certainly. It'd have to include an attack roll for that, and the rogue would sacrifice uncanny dodge, which is a fair-ish trade. Though at the rate things are going, I'd be careful about how powerful rogues get.

>>49107258
I just want to see someone wear an elf head on a pike above their own head on a pickelhaube.

>>49107219
>If there is no heavy armour, then the only reason people would go for it would be for heavy shields. And that makes sense, I suppose.
>But shields have no strength requirement.
>And GWF can't use a shield.
See >>49107241
I suppose you could also loot a steel plate off the invaders... Yeaaaah. I gotta think on it.

Thanks for the answer.

>>49107302
Spears are a single most common type of weapons in Bronze Age, they're just mostly one-handed.

>what the fuck are the helmets even for?
To increase survivability at levels 1-2, really. Just a resource you can spend to not die.

>the strength wielding big-fucken-spear guy is running around with 17 AC (thanks helmet!) while dexy mcdouche has 19 AC (fuck you helmet) while also having a better initiative, more points in a stronger save, more random dex skill points, and probably getting more pussy than strong hands mc shitty armor too.
With the goddamn Bounded Accuracy of 5e I keep being too cautious of changing anything too drastically. Which makes the whole 'emphasizing shield use' pretty hard.
Also, It's a bit strange. I thought light armors worked out the same as in normal rules, as long as you used small shields

How do you know when you're a dm that your campaign is any good before anyone plays it?

DM is running a one shot tomorrow night. I rolled (blergh) 18,17,15,12,12,12. Start at level 5, PHB only, no feats.

What is the most fun/interesting character I can make?

>>49107397

in normal rules there is one type of shield: shield. it gives +2 AC and you can't use that hand for items or somatic components or big weapon swinging. That's all there is.

>>49107401
You can't objectively. Best way is just to be flexible and communicate with your players to see what they like/dislike about your direction.

>>49107420
I meant comparing light armor + shield in normal rules and light armor + helmet + small shield in these

>>49107442

I don't see the purpose in small/medium/large shields honestly. If you want a division just do small (+2 no dex penalty)/Large (+3 with dex penalty). I'd scrap helmets entirely. If you want to increase survivability start them at level 2 or give them extra HP.

From the previous thread, regarding Bladelocks.

>You can substitute CHA for STR or DEX on attack rolls and damage rolls for pact weapons
>You gain 1 hp for every Warlock level you have and gain 1 additional hp every time you level up.
>(Other post)- letting you form or alter the form of your weapon as a bonus action like EK Fighter instead of a full action

The HP per level is arguable, but I see no reason why you wouldn't allow the CHA attacks since even if you assume 100% hit rate with melee, an Invocation'd up EB is almost always going to be a stronger choice from not only a damage perspective but because you can attack from 595 feet further away.

That said, what would be a good substitute for 1 hp per warlock level? From what I can tell it wouldn't be an issue at all, and the argument that it shouldn't be part of a pact falls flat because Blade is meant to be the straight combat pact (Not necessarily melee either mind you) and more HP is one of the most direct ways to make spellcasters better at melee.

How about an Invocation along the lines of "While you are wielding your Pact Weapon and wearing no armor and not using a shield, your AC increases by +2"? Blade already feels like it's too dependent on Invocations to work, but I think it'd be too strong to leave as a default benefit.

>>49107397
If you remove heavy armour and you don't allow handless shields, you will kill everything that relies on strength other than barbarian.

Paladins would rather go dexterity instead of strength.
Fighters would rather go dexterity instead of strength.

The current state of 5e is:

Strength: +1 AC, harder to put armour on, armour is more expensive, armour is heavier, better at strength saves (less common and less important), better at athletics (important for grappling), better at holding lots of items (nobody actually tracks weights normally), can use strength-based weapons such as greatswords and do GWF.
Dex: Much better initiative, better at dex saves (common, can be used to completely avoid damage from things such as disintegrate), used for sleight of hand, stealth and acrobatics (acrobatics can be used to escape grapples as well as athletics), is just as good at strength at using finesse weapons. If you are using a shield, strength weapons do just as much as finesse weapons do.

When you take away that +1 AC (or even worse, make it a -1 AC) then there's no longer any point to going strength. If you want to use GWF? Go barbarian, because they don't care.

The main problem this has is that in a bronze-age world the only strong people will be barbarians, or foolish. Which doesn't make sense.


I wish heavy armour got a bit more love, but the only real purpose of it in 5e is if you want to dump dex and end up with crappy initiative and fail all the dex saves.

>>49107485
Helmets are also partly an aesthetic factor. When you descibe a time when the two most important pieces of equipment were helmet and shield, it'd make sense to make helmets their own thing.
Also, I like resource management, I suppose.

>>49107353
Giving heavier shields an STR requirement is a good idea, it seems, yeah. THough they already mitigate usefulness of DEX

>no-hands shields
Okay, that's a bit weird but sounds interesting

>>49107540

I just give bladelock medium armor.

>>49107401
>Know thy players
>Know thy strengths
>Know too, thy weaknesses
>Know thy setting and from there buildest thine hooks.
>Playest thou not with randos thou meetest online
>Beest thou a man of excellency

>>49107662
That's a good band-aid fix but it still doesn't fix the one anon's complaint I mostly agree with- there's no reason to actually engage in melee as a Warlock even with all the Invocations without multiclassing.

755

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Hey, I'm totally fresh to 5th edition and about to join a game, but I've played 2e and 3.x so it seems pretty straightforward. However, I was just wondering a few things: is the +1 to all abilities preferable to +1 to two and an extra skill+feat for humans, or is it roughly equal? Also, is it common to customize a background or is using the existing templates preferred? When selecting proficiency skills for your class, what happens when a background you've chosen already covers that skill? Is there anything not obvious to know about Rogues (Thief archetype)? Thanks in advance, here's hoping this game gets off the ground! I've been curious about 5 since it landed, and it's already looking a lot more unified than 3.x rules.

>>49107778
>When selecting proficiency skills for your class, what happens when a background you've chosen already covers that skill
choose a different one

>>49107778
>is the +1 to all abilities preferable to +1 to two and an extra skill+feat for humans, or is it roughly equal?
Variant human is considered much stronger for almost all characters.

>Also, is it common to customize a background or is using the existing templates preferred?
Customization is common. Just follow the guidelines at the beginning of the Background section.

>When selecting proficiency skills for your class, what happens when a background you've chosen already covers that skill?
You're expected to choose class skills and then background skills, and the background rules say to choose a different skill of your choice if you are already proficient with it.

>Is there anything not obvious to know about Rogues (Thief archetype)?
Fast Hands lets you use everything except magic items as a bonus action. Throw alchemist's fire, throw down caltrops or ball bearings, throw some holy water, lots of good stuff. Just remember you can't drink a healing potion or activate a wand with it.

>>49107778
If you plan on multiclassing or playing a skill-monkey class, +1 to all can be better.

Fairly common to customize your background, but talk with your DM.

You get skill proficiencies from your background before you choose your class. Just choose another skill available to your class.

For thieves specifically, the "Use Object" option of your Fast Hands feature doesn't work with Magic Items that explicitly require an action to use. No bonus action wands for you.

>>49107581
Overall, I like the idea of handless shields as additional armor, but
It wouldn't really make that much sense to make it that it's only possible to no-hand heavy shields. But if any other shields would be no-handable, it would make effective AC of medium armor factually superior. Which is a bit of a problem.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0eY2aB10IlE

What do you guys think about this video on Halfling strength? I do like the idea of applying different AS for different situations, even thought I might not do it in-game just to keep it simple, but I'm not sure if that second score should be a 20.

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>>49107415
Anyone have ideas?

>>49108015
PHB only no feats?

Half-Elf Paladin of the Ancients.

>>49107621
Wearing shields on your arms. Because otherwise two-handed weapons won't really get used.

And the thing is, most classes that wear light armour don't even have shield proficiency anyway.

The classes that wear medium or heavy armour typically do get shield proficiency.
If you can wear medium armour, you'll probably wear that and a +2 shield just fine.

>>49107868
I think if you made all shields usable with no hands if you have a certain strength, that'd be fine in all cases except the barbarian.

It's just that the really big shield would have to give a significant benefit on top of nullifying any dexterity modifier added to AC.

>>49108078
Full absorption of an attack and increasing ally's AC sound pretty big to me
The latter one works best when there's several (more than one, really) heavy guys next to each other

>>49107415
Marty Stu.

Monk.

If racials can take you above 18 on character creation, aim for +2 dex and +1 wis through high-elf.
Then, take booming blade through your cantrips. Whenever you want to use flurry of blows, use booming blade.

You should have 20 dex and 18 wis. At level 4, add +2 wis.

You now have 20 AC.

Abuse the heck out of everything, and make everybody in your group hate you and appreciate that this is only a one-shot.

I'm gonna have my PC's trek through a swamp for a mcguffin next session and I need help brainstorming ideas
I already have the main plot events (bullywugs capture mcguffin, disguised hag attempts to join party to steal mcguffin and trap party, etc)
However, I want to make some cool in-between stuff since swamps are treacherous zones after all. I'm thinking of assigning a bunch of events to a d12 or something.
So far I've got:
>Stirge swarm
>Heavy fog sets in (pc group is a bunch of paranoid fucks so I think it'll be "fun")
>swamp faries trying to play harmless pranks on them (mcguffin is aligned with the fae)
>more fucking Stirges

>>49108123
>Whenever you want to use flurry of blows, use booming blade.
Booming Blade is used by the Cast a Spell action. Flurry of Blows can't trigger on the casting of a spell. It requires you to use the Attack action

Anyone know any organ tracks that would work for the song that Strahd is playing on his organ as the party arrives at Ravenloft?

I considered using Toccata and Fugue, but it's too generic and overused now, sadly.

>>49108218
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5S4h1gcCMBc

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I got abit of a problem in my Curse of Strahd if anyone could shed some light on it. Ive been DMing for a year now but never had my players got past level 5 really because group splitting, real life etc. With this group though, we got three guys who played RPGs for between 5-15 years, one guy who started with me and then a complete beginner. They are all good people and we have fun together, but its just that they usually break immesion hard by making too many jokes, silly suggestions and not being serious most of the time. And moaning how 5e is too casual for them. For me that breaks immersion hard and ruins the experience for me a bit but im not too sure about banging down a "No fun allowed" sign for them when they are obviously having fun with it. Anyone got something similar?

>>49108224
That's too well known, and the song is supposed to be kind of sad and intense, rather than forboding.

>>49108240
If it's ruining the experience for you, either talk to them about it, or stop DMing. The game is supposed to be fun for everyone involved, INCLUDING the DM.

>>49108264
I feel like its fun in the moment but when i go back thinking about it and realize that all the time i spent reading the book and setting up scenes was kind of ruined, thats when disappointment kicks in. So far, ive planned on talking about it next time we play and tell that ill see how i feel about it after finishing Death House

>>49108291
Also, I find it interesting that they're complaining about how 5e is too casual while playing CoS. How far into Death House are they? Theres a fight in there with 6(?) Shadows that can very easily TPK. The Shambling Mound is also pretty tough.

CoS overall is very unforgiving. I'd be interested to hear how casual they think it is after getting their shit ruined by the vampire spawn in Vallaki.

>>49107415
>PHB only, no feats, level 5
Half-elf lets you have a +5 CHA and +5 secondary stat with a +3 elsewhere
With +3 proficiency you get DC 16 spells
Personally, I'd play a paladin because they hit their stride at 5

>>49108318
They think its more casual in sense that "Oh i can't customize every single skill? Pfft." or that "why can i only do 1 action per turn and not have alot of options like full attack, charge, etc". For progress, they just entered the attic and got their ass handed to them by a Animated Broom who knocked two people down and then a specter who killed one of them as the guy failed Death saves.

I checked the next encounters with ghouls and shadows and thought a little about making them less TKP right away into "Not TKP difficulty but still rough"

>>49108078
>Wearing shields on your arms
lmao nigga what

>>49108212
Good point. I brought it up because I thought you could use flurry of blows as a bypass - you can use flurry of blows to bypass not triggering martial arts when you use a bow. Of course, I forgot to read it over, so it'll only work for bows rather than any old attack.

Honestly, it's probably better like that anyway because multi-attack at that level will do better.

>>49108364
Strapping a shield is a thing. Though if the shield is broken, might be rather suicidal

is Monk 1 a good multiclass on a Moon Druid?

AC boost plus bonus action attack seems really good but that level delay on spells and wildshape progression looks painful

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>>49108364
The Uruk shields in the Lord of the Rings movies were a cool design for a shield meant to be used as a weapon too.

I've kinda wanted to run a character who uses dual shields to beat the shit out of enemies but haven't seen any ways to really make it viable.

>>49108364
My father owns strapped shields, along with shields that aren't strapped and require holding.

There's no rules in 5e for strapped shields, however.

>>49104333
Does anyone have a link to the upcoming release schedule? I heard some scuttlebutt that there's going to be an official 5e Eberron book and I want to confirm.

>>49108415
Just ask your DM if you can reskin dual warhammers into dual shields.

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Take Two.
Still not sure about how to justify dependence of strapping on STR, but whatever.

>>49108218
>>49108264
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQm4pPecvX8

How's this one? It's not really 'period accurate' (who cares?), but it's somber and reflective, and grows into a big looming thing from 1:20 to 2:17, before briefly pausing and becoming quietly reflective again.
I think it fits Strahd's despair and rage well.

>>49108454
Must note that max heavy AC now works out to 21

Also,
>Aegis: at the start of your turn you can give +1 AC to an adjacent ally. Aegis bonuses don't stack.

>>49108415
>shields as a weapon
that seems kind of cool

>>49108078
>>49107621
>>49107353
>handless shield
If you understood how shields work, you'd realize this is silly. It's not enough to interpose them between you and an attack; you need leverage, which means you need a strong grip. If you strap them around your arm they'll just swing around it and screw you up more than not having one at all.

>>49108389
Source please.

>>49108422
Then your father owns historically-inaccurate shields.

Is there any way to use the Rogue's Reliable Talent for offensive purposes?

Unrelated- is there any creatures that are immune to Force damage? It looks to be the best general use damage type.

>>49108454
After doing the thing with the shields, I think you shouldn't have boosted the AC up so much.

Probably take -1 AC off of all the heavy armours.

>>49108495
>Is there any way to use the Rogue's Reliable Talent for offensive purposes?
Take expertise in Athletics and grapple almost everything pretty much all the time.

The lack of a second attack will still make you an overall worse grappler, though.

>Unrelated- is there any creatures that are immune to Force damage? It looks to be the best general use damage type.
Helmed horrors are immune to force damage but that's about it.

>>49108495
I'm pretty sure force damage is by definition the damage type nobody resists or is weak to (not even incorporeal creatures). But there could be one or two edge cases. Nothing to worry about, either way.

>>49108495
Wouldn't it turn grappling into a dc 10 minimum
I mean, if you're a grappling rogue in the first place

>>49108509
Fuck me, I managed to forget about Helmets... except for the Steel Plate

>>49108482
Actually it's 22 with heavy panoply, heavy shield, and helmet.

>>49108509
Instead of taking -1 off all heavy armors, just do what 3e did and state that helmets are included in all heavy armor. And take sacrifice off the helmets because it makes no conceptual sense.

>>49108510
>>49108520
Grappling is a good idea, I'll keep that in mind.

>>49108539
If helmets are only +1 AC, there's not a lot of need to have them around. Sacrifice was most of their point.
Also, isn't an attack that splits the helmet but leaves your head more-or-less whole a trope? Maybe not though

>>49108486
Sorry, it was a heater shield, not a kite shield.
The heater shield in particular is often used for display rather than fighting nowadays.
The kite shield is hand-held.

I'd call the guy if it wasn't 7 AM, but since I can't do that right now, it'd be good to hear if you have anything that disproves it.

>>49108539
>>49108538
The problem isn't with the helmet. Everybody has the helmet.
The problem is that the best medium armour's AC has been reduced by one, strong people get easy access to a +1 AC shield...
So now heavy armourfor a guy with 16 strength has +3 AC over a guy in medium armour with 14 strength and 14 dexterity.

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Charger seems like it might be a decent choice for a Rogue since they can dash as an extra action, however it says "Dash as an ACTION".
Would a Cunning Action count for the charging attack?

>>49108593
From what I know, heater shields were, in fact, often used for display, since they developed relatively late into the life cycle of the shield (like >>49107241 said, plate armor made shields shrink and eventually disappear in favor of a two-handed sword grip). So it's quite possible your pa has a display model not meant for actual combat. Does it have any heraldry on it?

>>49108607
typically if it worked the way you were saying then it'd be described as "when you take the Dash action"

>>49108607
Doesn't matter, because you wouldn't have a bonus action left to attack with.

>>49108640
o shit u rite nigga

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Bit of a tweak

>>49108593
Let's do the math:

Stronk McGee, 16 STR, 10 DEX
Normal: AC = 18 (Plate) + 2 (Shield) = 20
BAAT: AC = 18 (Heavy Panoply) + 2 (Large Shield) + 1 (Helmet) = 21

Joe Medium, 14 STR, 14 DEX
Normal: AC = 15 (Half Plate) + 2 (DEX) + 2 (Shield) = 19
BAAT: AC = 14 (Panoply) + 2 (DEX) + 2 (Medium Shield) + 1 (Helmet) = 19

Seems fine to me. Now, I'm not certain if I really should take normal rules into consideration and if STR guys really need a boost as stated in this thread

So, for the Forever DM's here, if you ever get a chance to play a character, what are you going to play?

For me, it's either a Dragonborn Paladin of Vengeance, Half-Elf Wild Magic Sorcerer, or Human Lore Bard.

>>49108709
I made a sort of a noir vigilante Battlemaster Fighter with twin steel batons for weapons to avoid outright murder as much as possible.
Pretty sure it's very suboptimal but whatever

>>49108631
Well, yes. It's a heraldric one.

I think the main problem isn't about straps or handles here.
The main problem is trying to use a shield and hold a two-handed weapon at the same time.

From what I'm seeing, that doesn't actually confer any real benefit. Your shield would be moving with your sword, which means it's just like having a really big arm plate.

Wearing a shield with straps on just seems to limit mobility a bit, but should still be usable.

While I was looking through stuff, I stumbled on this
http://www.lloydianaspects.co.uk/weapons/shield.html
Which might be good to have a quick look at for bronze-age-guy.
But it pretty much explains why things aren't strapped. The more important point to me is that this, along with other things and the heralrdic shield is that it's barely usable with a weapon in the shield hand, so that's clearly not the intention.

>>49108672
Well, beforehand, heavy armour only had +1 AC (18) over half-plate + dex (17).
That said, it's fair enough to allow +2 AC for heavy armour over medium. I feel it should've been like that anyway.
But, the problem is Joe Medium is a bit more MAD now. Normally you don't need both strength AND dexterity, you take one or the other. Stronk guy uses strength to fight, doesn't care about dex. Dex guy could use dex to fight, he isn't supposed to normally care about strength, but if he doesn't get 14 strength he'll be 4 AC down.

>>49108736
Lindy Beige is an absolute boss, as long as he keeps the conversation to HEMA. And as you say, a strapped shield will really get in the way more than anything - even in the event it was secured properly, you wouldn't be able to use your hand for much.

I think Joe Medium was always supposed to be a bit MAD - in fact, due to its 14 dex assumption, medium armor is essentially meant for slightly MAD characters (valor bards and clerics, mostly).

Can you take the same feat twice if it's something like Skilled where it would make sense?

>>49108810
RAW: no, only if the feat says so (and it doesn't).

But at your table, do what you want or ask the DM.

>>49108709
Personally if I ever get to play, I'm going to play a Goliath Fighter (Cavalier). Get me some kind of giant lizard as a mount.

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Slight phrasing clarification/formatting since last thread. Hoping for some more feedback on the new names for abilities, new level 14 ability, and strength of it in general.

Currently running a horror campaign in 5e (supposed to be one day, stretching into 2). Any experiences with trying this? Do's/don'ts?

What I've currently done:
>predetermined what's going on
>set in a small town
>making the players investigate on their own, and giving them reasons to based on their actions (two are currently mind-controlled, and I didn't force it)
>character sheets are just a small slip of paper with a preferred stat (+1 bonus) and two preferred skills (+2 proficiency to each), no other bonuses
>no races/classes/weapons (aside from weapons they gain in the campaign)

I let them have reasonable items (it's set in present day, so they all have cell phones, can have pen/paper in purses, I allowed a multitool but ruled that it's a mostly ineffective weapon, etc, but no "Oh, I'm carrying a taser!"). But it's designed to make them stop and think, then move forward carefully, and can create pressure later.

Might end up with someone cannibalized by a witch.

>>49108736
>http://www.lloydianaspects.co.uk/weapons/shield.html
I actually know all this stuff. Aegis property is actually inspired by the stuff Lloyd talks about in the second video.
And I know that strapping is more than a bit a dubious thing. But right now the tweaks are more about finding the right balance within the rules

Also, when you have 14 STR and 14 DEX you either rolled not amazingly (and why are you even rolling in 5e?!) or you're actually not primarily a "fighting man" and instead some sort of a gish

Also also, as I put it earlier Aegis makes it so you potentially have up to 22 AC when you're a heavy armored guy

>>49108844
I don't love Burning Sands because it would make no sense in most terrains. I get that you're going to a Dervish feel, but it seems odd to use that in a swamp or on a barren mountain.

I think if you're going to get rid of the Italian names, you should strive for a more generic implementation of the theme that can apply to different types of characters.

>>49108866
I think your earlier instinct about not using shields with heavy armor makes perfect sense. Part of the problem is that you're trying to force the light/medium/heavy system on the Bronze Age, which really didn't have heavy armor at all.

Any tips on making a Bard not suck ass at early levels?

>>49108779
>>49108866

Yeah. Though it might drive them more MAD if they need those hands.
... Then again, some of them don't really need their hands. A cleric might enjoy having a greatsword, but they'd probably prefer a shield and sword.

If heavy armour's armour was reduced by 1, heavy armour would only give a single AC above joe medium, where joe medium is probably making the bigger sacrifice having to get 14 strength when they already have 14 dex, or getting 14 dex when they already have 14 strength.
Stronk guy can put an 8 in dex and be fine for AC, as long as they have lots of strength, which they'll use for hitting things anyway.

Hopefully the extra dex features like initiative would balance that out, but I think it'd be a bit imbalanced if you gave Joe Stronk +2 AC over Joe Medium when Joe Medium as to go a bit MAD.


14 strength could be a big deal if you also need
>con
>dex
>spellcasting stat

But I'm kind of thinking now that maybe doing things similar to RAW, taking heavy armour's AC down by one, giving improved +3 shields to heavy armour users and giving some other sort of bonus to GWFers might be a good way to do things. Say, GWFers get a +1 to hit or something to make up for having 1 less armour.

>>49108899
Don't play like a moron? The bard doesn't suck. 2 spells, 3-4 uses of inspiration, cantrips, and a good skill selection make for a versatile support character right off the bat.

Can something with True Sight see through obstructions like fog/smoke/heavy snow/etc?

>>49108899
Understand that you're a support character and don't get in front of the fighter?

>>49108899
Bard isn't awfully great in combat until level 3, but it's great outside of combat.
If you're largely doing combat, bard will suck until level 3 where you can use inspiration in combat.

Don't forget jack of all trades applies to initiative, counterspell, etc.

>>49108391
a 1 dip of monk is good for both cleric and drood for the obvious unarmored advantage, but like you said, its going to offset your casting
that being said, 1 level isn't a massive amount, but if you start at 1, it would be better to get better tiers unlocked before you pick up that monk level

>>49108936
I don't think so.

It'd be like trying to see through a thin wall.

I'll wait on seeing if some other anon can provide evidence to support this, though.

>>49108709
Do you not play with a group of friends? Our new dm just dropped (he was a weird homeschooled kid that didn't mesh well with the group) and we've already agreed to rotate amongst ourselves. Just talk to some of them about it. Running a campaign is just as fun as playing in it and if your group isn't willing to rotate, then stop DMing for them.

Can Magic Missile travel through solid matter?
Like if there was a chain you needed to hit behind a brick wall, and targeted it with the missiles.

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>>49108878
Perhaps I could just rename it Burning Winds, then? Makes it feel better when there's no sand to be had.
If I write the flavor out of the abilities, I still need to find a good middle ground to center the names on. What's more...thematically neutral, but not too generic and not too specific?
But then, I'm not certain that writing the flavor out is the right thing to do. While the existing 2 Colleges are pretty neutral, many other subclasses are quite specific in the archetype they represent.

>>49108974
Magic missile can only target creatures and no, like all spells, you need to have line of sight and line of effect.

>>49108974
'You create three glowing darts of magical force. Each dart hits a creature of your choice that you can see within range.'

Requires a creature, and line of sight.

>>49108957
I'm not sure about druids in wildshape, but I'm somewhat doubtful of unarmoured defence being too great for them.

Both druids and clerics get shields.

Heavy armour clerics will have too low a defence to really make use of it.
Medium armour druids might make use of it since their medium armour options are limited.
Medium armour clerics would only benefit if they had 16 (+1 AC), 18 (+2 AC) or 20 (+3 AC), and multiclassing for just 1 or 2 AC probably isn't worth it.

But yes, I can see it being a choice for a druid if the druid doesn't use barkskin.

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>>49108897
While I agree that this L/M/H system barely applies to Bronze age, I'd argue that it barely applies to any age at all. I've had another armor system draft that's arguably closer to real world (not much) but it requires more work
Also, I'm trying to make as few changes to 5e as possible, because I don't really want to deal with rippling change and remake proficiency lists and feats.

And Heavy Panoply is supposed to represent pretty much this guy in the picture

>>49108983
>>49108995
Yeah, I guess so.

>>49108978
Why burning, specifically, instead of just winds? I can totally see a dancer whipping out a whirlwind with their movements, and different characters can interpret it differently (the dervish can fluff it as sand, for instance). Just make it do physical damage.

On the other hand, I'm not a fan of the ability simply doing really low damage and really low healing relative to the level it's gained at. Perhaps it should instead alter creatures' speed, or impose advantage/disadvantage on particular actions?

I've been told that 5e helps to close the power-gap between high level casters and martials. Is this true? How effective is it? Are Fighters worth taking into higher levels?

>>49108973
We only have a small group of players (with me as DM it's 3-4 others, 3 really reliable people and 1 flaky guy), but only one other person in the group is confident enough with the rules to run a game. I've offered to let him run games but he backs out, wanting to run after my campaign finishes. But when it does, we end up not meeting for months on end because they get swamped at work (millennials working two jobs to pay off college debts will kill this generation's attempt to save money for retirement).

>>49108951

wait, jack of all trades applies to initiative?
how so?

>>49109010
I don't think it's entirely inaccurate; it represents late medieval Europe kind of fairly, which is the point of D&D, really. As long as you keep to historical armor representation (leather armor is made of scales, for example) it does a decent enough job.

>>49109073
It solves the power gap, but not the utility gap. Fighters keep getting better at higher levels.

>>49109077
Initiative is an ability check. ;)

>>49108951
Initiative isn't a skill.

>>49108933
>But I'm kind of thinking now that maybe doing things similar to RAW, taking heavy armour's AC down by one, giving improved +3 shields to heavy armour users and giving some other sort of bonus to GWFers might be a good way to do things. Say, GWFers get a +1 to hit or something to make up for having 1 less armour.
Bit of a clarification: are you saying it's something worth doing to RAW (normal rules) or are you saying it's something I should apply to my brew?

>>49109085
This is correct.
Initiative isn't a skill.
But rolling initiative is a plain dex check - a skill check.

>>49109085
RAW, there's no such thing as a "skill roll" in 5e. There are only ability checks to which you can apply skill proficiencies. Jack of All Trades lets you apply half your bonus to any ability check that does not gain proficiency, and initiative is explicitly a dexterity check.

>>49109073
Dealing damage is the best way to get rid of a threat and martials are great at it from 1 to 20.

Casters at higher levels have way more spelled-out utility, especially when it comes to out-of-combat stuff. Spider climb, fly, invisibility, these are things that casters can cast in spades at higher levels and martials can't really manage.

But in play, these problems are as big a perk to martials as they are to the caster, since casting those spells on their buff martial buddies is usually the most effective use of them.

>>49109103

seems legit

>>49109100
See >>49109103
Skill checks aren't a thing. There are only attack rolls, saving throws, and ability checks. Some ability checks get a skill bonus.

>>49109091
To the brew. I'd still like some sort of benefit to heavy armour users in the core book, but that's another issue.

For the brew I personally think '-1 to heavy armour AC, anybody who has heavy armour proficiency also has heavy shield proficiency, heavy shields give +3 AC and +1 AC to any ally within 5ft, if you're wearing heavy armour and you make an attack and you do not have a shield, you get (+2 to damage? +1 to hit?)' is a good, not-too-complicated way of doing things.

The idea is it brings the AC of the highest armour away from plate armour, it allows for big shields and it doesn't really mess with power balance at all (except shield paladins and fighters give a bit of AC to allies, but that's not a big change).

How would Warlock 3/Cleric X work out? I want blasting and a pet, and the Sorcerer thing seems overdone to me. Can a cleric get by with minimal Wis?

>>49109103
>>49109100
Just checked the Sage Advice compendium. Checks out. Bards get 1/2 proficiency to initiative.

I was wrong. Thank you.

>>49109152
Don't admit you were wrong and move on with your life, this is the internet!

You're welcome and have fun!

>>49109057
>Why burning
That's a good point. At first I would have moved to slashing damage, but it seems that most of the EE spells have wind doing bludgeoning damage as a precedent.
>doing really low damage and healing
This is still very open to change, whether it be a full replacement or just tuning the numbers up (and maybe the duration down in return).
>alter creatures' speed
The area is difficult terrain for enemies, and I don't want to overlap the Gale style by giving bonus speed to allies.

>>49109147
I'm playing one right now, starting warlock2/cleric1 for mask of many faces.

Likely heading up warlock 5/cleric1, then warlock5/cleric3, then either cleric 5 or warlock 10... probably cleric.. Okay, it's a mess, that's for some other time.

You'll still get level 9 spells if you only put 3 levels into warlock, but it'll take until level 20.

It's not a bad choice if you've rolled good stats. You don't need very high wisdom as you won't be attacking enemies with your cleric stuff all the time, though you'll want it for saves.

If you can get at least 16/17 wisdom AND charisma and still have room for, say, 15 strength for heavy armour or enough dex if medium or light, and con... Then you might be fine enough.
Do consider by going warlock 3 you'll miss out on a level 4 stat-up.

But yes, you're slowing down the progression of cleric spells, and it'll take longer to get really high-end spells.
But it's alright.
Not optimal, but you can probably make it work and have fun with it.

If you went warlock 4 or 5 then you could get away with starting with slightly less charisma or wisdom because you'd actually get a stat-up.

>>49109152
Other silly things Jack of All Trades applies to:
* Contested checks (arm wrestling, breath-holding competitions, drinking contests, etc.)
* Breaking open a door
* Surviving without food/water/sleep

>>49109184
I didn't notice the difficult terrain part. It seems reasonable, and I understand not wanting to overlap the speed boost. Maybe let allies dash as a bonus action?

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>>49109255
That still feels a bit off to me.
Something to remember is that this ability needs to be balanced with the existing Colleges' 14th level features, neither of which are a big 1/rest ability. (Lore is gated by BI dice, but Valor gets to be a spell and attack machine)
Also, they get their final style available for use at this level. Really, the ability shouldn't be excessively strong.

>Swirling Winds
Starting at 14th level, you gain the ability to conjure a storm that is bane to your enemies and refuge for your allies. As an action, you perform a magical dance that causes fierce winds to blow around you in a 30-foot radius that lasts for 3 rounds. Hostile creatures that start their turn in this area or enter it for the first time on a turn take 3d6 bludgeoning damage, and the area is considered difficult terrain for them. Friendly creatures that start their turn in the area or enter it for the first time on a turn regain 3d6 hit points.
After you use this ability, you can’t use it again until you complete a long rest.

What would you value a whore at? One of my players' siblings sold herself to a brothel to keep the family from starving in the street, and the character wants to buy out her contract. Since there aren't listed values for slaves or chattle, I'm at a loss.

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Is this accurate

>4 party members with Mold Earth
>Can literally just dig their way to the surface like it's fuckin' minecraft since the starting chamber is raw stone/earth
>Can displace a 5 ft cube of dirt or stone every round (6 seconds)
>Can dig 50 feet per minute per person for 200 feet of excavation per minute

It might be a safer bet to wait until you've reached a bigger room in the event you need to have more space to displace dirt first, but getting to one of the open areas would be trivial since the only steel (The grate) could have the stone around the hinges removed with Mold Earth. The only tricky parts at that point are killing all the bad dudes without losing anyone, but even with just one Mold Earth user it should be possible to escape.

Assuming you started digging at no7 to make sure you have enough room to place displaced earth without clogging the area behind you, and assuming you spent 30 minutes blasting away at the wall to get an opening to raw dirt with Cantrips, and lastly assuming you dig upwards at a 45 degree angle, it would take you around 45 minutes, maybe an hour if you take the time to be careful to avoid cave ins and to make sure your dirt you displace is put out of the way.

>>49109325
Whatever would keep her in sex slavery for life, pretty much.

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>>49109082
Fuck it, Imma post the other idea. It's severely undercooked at this point, so take with a shovel of scepticism.
Unlike the earlier stuff, it's supposed to represent a different take on basic D&D late medieval armors

Armor consists of pieces, some of which have special qualities.
Pieces are divided into categories represented by colored shield icons. You can have only up to one shield of each color. Total amount of shields determines your applied armor proficiency and DEX bonus to AC.

>>49109325
A whore's contract is worth exactly as much as the pimp thinks they can extort from the buyer, plus a bit extra to see how much the buyer really wants it.

>>49109145
Okay, I'll give it a thought. Thanks for cooperation

>>49109334
>>49109339
So, are you thinking in the thousands of gold pieces? Her weight in platinum? I'm still getting used to 5e economy.

Hey look a shitty Feat I just made up off my head.

Elemental Master
Prerequisite- Elemental Adept

In addition to the benefits granted by Elemental Adept for your chosen Element, (Acid, Cold, Fire, Lightning, or Thunder), you gain resistance to that element and creatures with "immunity" are instead treated as being "Resistant" to the chosen type.

This Feat only applies to one damage type, however can be taken more than once if Elemental Adept is also taken more than once.

>>49109370
>Whoring
>Bringing in thousands of GP
I didn't realize this was an interplanar bordello we're talking about.

No man, a merchant class whore might be worth a couple hundred gold, tops.

>>49109370
It depends on the Pimp/Slaver, how they know the PC/character/, the local economy, how "popular" prostitution is in the area, and all kinds of stuff.

Without information other than that it's hard to say.

They might have a personal vendetta against the PC family and demand a ridiculous price, or might be willing to trade them for either another slave of higher value or two of equal value if they don't really care, they might even be willing to say "I see you really care for her, tell ya what boyo I'll sell her for how much she would have made this month"; (If the number he gives to the PC is accurate or not, being cheaper or more expensive, being up to you) or he could just say piss up a rope she's not for sale.

>>49109331
First, whoever designed pic related is an ass and almost requires a magic user of some kind to get out of there.

Second, you'd probably have to use the flesh from the cadavers to make a torch out of their rotting remains or break the cadavers up even more and turn their bones into weapons of some kind (femurs can probably be made into decent enough clubs). They then need to somehow break out enough dirt and stone to dislodge the grate, assuming they aren't able to pry open the bars.

Use the femurs to bludgeon the statues in room 4, use the torch to inspect the water as best they can, find and eliminate the water elemental, then look in the pool for the rest of the supplies.

If they can somehow survive the gellatinous cube then they're basically home free. Get ahold of the rope somehow (use the metal poles like life-size chopsticks?), use the rope to secure yourself and then use the poles to create some sort of pulley system?

Otherwise they can wait for the river to break and then flood the tube, swimming up once the rest of the dungeon floods. Their gear would probably be washed away, but they'd be out of the pit of death.

>>49109325
a years wage or an acceptable improved replacement

Why would you ever use dual daggers over some other weapon? I want to make sneaky dagger man, but I feel like it'd just be pointless when double Shortswords (Or even double Rapiers with Dual Wielder) would be flat-out better.

>>49104603
I don't think you can use two pact weapons, anon.

>>49109706
Some people don't care about "optimization". Generally newer players who aren't poisoned by experience from prior editions.

>>49109706
What is a shortsword but a very long dagger?

>>49109706
Daggers can be much more easily and accessibly stored on your person in multiples.

Also they can be thrown.

And if you're playing say, a Rogue, where the majority of your weapon damage comes from sneak attack, you're still only giving up an average of 3 extra damage.

>>49109818
Generally speaking, broader bladed, less easily concealed, and absolutely awful for reverse-grip downwards thrusts.

>>49109763
>tfw that describes me
I don't even consider myself a "powergamer". It just seems odd to me that a classic thief weapon like daggers would be objectively worse than other choices.

I guess I wish there was a Sharpshooter/GWM type attack for daggers you could take, same sort of deal "-5 to hit for +10 damage".

And yeah >>49109821 is right and the weapon won't matter too much for a Rogue, so I guess I'm getting my balls in a jam over nothing.

How do we fix MAD?

>>49109818, >>49109840
Some short swords are actually a lot bigger then some folks think, especially of the rest of the setting has proper long swords as it is usually shown to have.
Most had blades around two feet long during the late medieval period that D&D's technology is placed at by it's generic weapons and armor selection and had a thin blade tapering to a point; it literally looked identical to a long sword but with a foot less blade protruding from the hilt.

Gladius/Seax-style short stabbing swords with broad blades had broad blades because metallurgical technology hadn't advanced to the point where they could make thinner ones quite yet.

>>49109875
What would be the point of a sword like that?

>>49109899
Honestly, I haven't a clue.
I suspect it was meant to be a smaller sidearm for civilians rather then soldiers or something of the sort.

>>49104440
everyone replying to this post is forgetting about magic

>>49109706
Because -1 damage on average is easily made up for by being able to throw them (switching from melee to short-range immediately) and style.

>>49104440
So your player wants a portable forge which circumvents the only balancing factor in crafting items which is how long it takes that also somehow doubles up as a tower shield which doesn't even exist in the game ??? Wtf???

Players come up with such bullshit sometimew but for some reason we have to humour them with 'yes but' shite rather than telling them to insert that portable forge up their jacksies.

Anyhow. If you want to humour him say fine , but it costs 500 gold ( as its at least worth an uncommon magic item) , crafting with it takes 4 times as long on the road as he simply can't spend as much dedicated time with it and it's not as efficient as an actual forge, and it also counts as a +1 shield but requires attunement. So it's essentially a weird magic item.

>>49109867
Depends on what you mean. Most class are SAD, and even the ones that aren't only really need two, with Con as the constant tertiary.

>>49109246
>Surviving without food/water/sleep
>Not a Constitution Saving Throw
What are you doing son

If someone has a ridiculously high passive perception, say 18-19 due to a variety of factors, do they always spot things?

Say I have a hidden door that requires a Perception check of 16 to notice, do they just automatically see it as soon as they walk in the room? Or does it still require an active search?

>>49110114
>Say I have a hidden door that requires a Perception check of 16 to notice, do they just automatically see it as soon as they walk in the room? Or does it still require an active search?

That's an adjudication thing, really.
I would argue that things that could potentially be spotted instantly without needing to look are ALWAYS noticed by the character because he misses nothing. Very Sherlock Holmes in that if it is there he sees it and takes note of it.

However, things like secret doors or hidden objects (as in they have things blocking immediate LoS or the fact that they are there is not immediately apparent) require him to take initiative and declare he's making a check.

>>49106493
>NPCs
Random shit that pops into your head.
>cities
I take what the place is, spell it backwards, and corrupt it a bit. A town or city located high in a mountain gets called "Niat Nuom".

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>party is fighting some fey
>in an area where spells from everyone can trigger wild magic
>fey hits a party member with an arrow, he fails the save, gets confused (like the confusion spell)
>druid's turn
>casts faerie fire on the fey
>got one, other saves
>rolls a d20
>1
>roll wild magic
>casts confusion centered on himself
>all but the druid and the one party member across the room are confused

if my characters mix dwarven rum,(EXTREMELY high proof), with nitric acid, what would happen?

my friend thinks it should burn hotter than usual

Any way to play an anti magic character other than being an eldritch knight and taking Mage slayer feat?

I want to play a character that hates magic(himself for using magic too) but using it to try and kill all of the magic users that he can. Without going pvp too

>>49110197
This may surprise you, but the chemical composition and possible mixing effects of dwarven alcohol is not well-documented in modern chemistry.

>>49110222
forgot to mention, dwarven rum is just a 85% alcohol drink

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>>49110222
Not him but you could just substitute some exceedingly high alcohol liquor then.
Like an already existing rum. I'm no chemist though so I don't know what would happen.

>>49110197
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nital

Dissolving ethanol in nitric acid is fun times

>>49110254
oh dear, looks like my party will have to re-roll characters really soon

>>49110197
Acid into Rum, or Rum into Acid?

One will give you a temporary metal echant, the other will produce massive explosions and poison gas.

>>49106493
For NPCs i like using random name generators, but sometimes a perfect name just springs to mind
The current BEG in my campaign didn't have a name until yesterday, when I dubbed him Koron Mordlowen, cause he's plotting to kill the current human King.
For cities, I most often go by descriptive names, in the style of mashing two words together. Blackwell, Grayharbour
If I don't go by that, I think of random words which sound appropriate for the race that's living there. Dol Tharim is the capital of the Dwarves, while Dun Arnegarde is a city built by dwarves and men

>>49110232
...that's not even rum then.
That's basically just paint thinner.
Do you even know how rum is made?

>>49110114
I only allow my players to notice something in plain sight, or people hiding. I don't usually let them notice hidden doors, because they're not in plain sight.
Also don't tell them about the gelatinous cubes, which I love using

>>49110283
from molasses?

>>49110283
See >>49110244. 151 is 75.5% ABV, 85 isn't much of a stretch especially for a setting with alchemy bullshit.

>>49110192
You must be damn proud of yourself. How many of them turned blue?

>>49110114
>>49110288
If only there were some kind of perception which you didn't have to roll for to notice that kind of thing.
I'd call it "background awareness" or something like that.

>>49108218
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4kcQCyh1kos

>>49110268
Any character who willingly drinks something mixed with a corrosive acid deserves death
is your party composed solely of barbarians?

>>49110304
Fuck you, passive perception means no party is ever going to walk into a Gelatinous Cube. Do you know how much fun you're missing out on?

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>>49108415
Visions of dragon slayer armour

>>49110283
Processing cane juice into molasses into blackstrap, fermenting an aqueous solution of molasses and blackstrap, column distilling said solution, and ageing the resultant spirit in used cooperage, generally bought secondhand from the bourbon industry.

Depending on the methods used, 160 proof isn't that hard to achieve, just hard to stomach.

>>49110338
>Fuck you, having your players use abilities they're supposed to have to get them killed is more fun for me as a DM

Are you that DM that wasn't letting a Rogue get his sneak attack against someone who RAW and RAI he should have because "he wasn't sneaking"?

>>49110351
No, but I'm that DM who says a character with passive perception 16 won't notice a gelatinous cube 60ft away, when she only has low light vision

>>49110283
>This nigga ain't never heard of overproofing

So I want some way for the players to still be in the game when their characters hit 0HP as at the moment they just sit twiddling their thumbs which is pretty boring.

I was thinking that when they hit 0 they still roll death saving throws until stable, they go prone and can only crawl at half speed. They can take an action but if they do it's an automatic death failure so is very risk reward.

I realise already that means anyone with a healing potion can just hit 0 and get back up agaim which wouldn't be intended , may be plenty of other flaws too so wanted to throw it out.

>>49110423
When my players stabilize, i let them make Constitution saves at the end of their turns. If they make it, they're conscious, and on 1 hp. Only let them make one action/bonus action or move up to half their speed until properly healed

>>49110423
Back in 3.5e there was the "disabled" condition at 0 HP. Might want to look up the rules for that and adapt it... which you basically have.

>>49110448
Yeah I think being able to get up at 1 HP on a con or party medicine? check makes sense when stable makes sense, a lot more fun than waiting 1d4 hours( as much as the grognard in me prefers that.) And a choice between moving or taking an action also makes sense as a way to limit it and still give players a choice.

>>49110423
Let them control a mook! Give them bonus xp for rping it well if they live!

>>49110509
They're able to get on 1hp on their own, but they don't have full turns until they get healed by a spell or with a healer's kit.
It's based on the disabled condition from 3.5 that >>49110491 mentioned, only they don't drop down to negative again after an action, and don't get to both move and make an action

>>49110375
that seems alright.

>>49109752
You can't use ranged pact weapons either. And why would you, it's a downgrade from eldritch blast.

>>49109752
I allowed my bladelock player to summon two scimitard, but they worked as one, if he lost one, the other would disappear too. Not that it would break bladelocks anyhow, god knows they could use the help, with no melee blast shapes in 5e

>>49110114
I think its fair to have certain things require active checks.

what you could also do is just give vague clues that are sometimes traps to make it more interesting than just walking into a room and seeing 3 hidden doors and 2 traps.

like a breeze coming from a wall that could be coming from a monster or some kind of mimic.

>>49105173
Parrying daggers are more of a Early Modern thing, which is about 2000 years after the Bronze Age ended.

Sacrificing helmets and shields is a dumb mechanic that seems to have been originally shat out by someone who thought purposefully flimsy Viking Legal System dueling shields were the equivalent of an actual shield for protecting you against other people in a battle.

It is a decent homebrew mechanic for magical shields though, you sacrifice the enchantment to be protected completely from an attack.

>>49110573
You can make a ranged weapon a pact weapon however you can't summon one without doing so first.

It's stupid, but that's how it's done.

>>49110114
>passive


This is the best article I've read on the topic as it clearly lays out how to handle this.

http://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/4238/roleplaying-games/the-art-of-rulings


Essentially if it's obvious the player spots it which includes spotting an ambush if the players passive perception beats stealth for example.

A player actively doing something in game will activate their characters skills. So if you choose to search for a secret door in the room you get to roll perception.

Player expertise trumps character expertise. So if the player pushes the specific bit of wall with the button that opens the secret door it just happens no roll needed.

And as an addendum to that if you feel a roll is still needed it can be made easier if the player chooses to do something smart, which is pretty much what advantage is for.

>>49110375
Considering a character with disadvantage on perception checks gets a -5 to Passive Perception, they'd have a 11 effective Passive Perception and would fail to see it.

However if they got close enough with a light source without running at full speed they'd lose disadvantage and pass the DC15 test with their passive 16.

>>49108709
>>49108709
Exact situation I'm in, which is why my choices are here
>>49105437

>>49109706
Shortsword + dagger = best

>>49110975
double flails man

>>49104333
>Why is the 5th edition monster manual so boring? Discovering the Tome of Beasts (and Fifth Edition Foes) have made me excited to DM again.
Could not disagree more. Although some creatures in ToB have some creative abilities/attacks, thematically there's a lot of the same going on in there (I think there's like 4 variations of tempting lake beauties in there). And there's a lot less lore being given. I guess someone who loves combat would be very happy with that, but I love all the info the MM gives on creatures, that's what inspires me. I still like ToB, but I prefer MM, and really looking forward to Volo's guide.

>>49110646
>Parrying daggers are more of a Early Modern thing, which is about 2000 years after the Bronze Age ended.
True. It was more of a stylistic addition as the setting I plan on running isn't truly Bronze Age. More like poor in ferrous metals due to elemental magic bullshit long ago.

>Sacrificing helmets and shields is a dumb mechanic that seems to have been originally shat out by someone who thought purposefully flimsy Viking Legal System dueling shields were the equivalent of an actual shield for protecting you against other people in a battle.
While I agree that viking duelling shields were purposefully flimsy, I've seen it argued that splittable (not entirely, of course) shields may have been used for catching enemy's weapon so you can stab the bastard. Now, how historically accurate this theory might be, I don't know.
It serves a side purpose of decreasing swinginess of combat at low levels (and doesn't do much at higher levels) and gives players some mechanical tidbits to play with.

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>>49109325
it depends on where she falls in this chart

>>49111097
Whats the difference between a Saucy Tart and a Wanton Wench

>>49111363
The wanton wench has more exotic services on the menu and will be dressed even sluttier. A saucy tart could pass for the setting's equivalent of a club slut if you didn't talk to her directly.

>>49110344
>Dragonslayer armor
>Anything but Escaflowne

>>49111097
Expensive doxy. Young, attentive, disease-free.

>>49111363
"wanton" implies a certain amount of uncontrolled passion - a whore who's really in it not for the money but for love of the game. "Saucy," by contrast, denotes a smart fashion sense or ribald sense of humor, probably a much classier professional who knows how to induce titillation rather than merely soliciting in the most straightforward way possible.

In the Sword Coast region, would a band of typical raiding Goblins like humans and other humanoid folk enough to call them allies and friends if these people were to help the Goblins? What if a character tried to first develop this friendship through song and dance at their first encounter? I know Goblins in this land love music (they just suck at it). Something is coming up in my campaign where my party is going the more friendly route and basically stopped a fight happening by showing they meant these Goblins no harm and entertained them with a tune and jig. These Goblins may actually have work for this party to do but I am wondering how long these Goblins would act friendly to these guys.

Is there a feasible way to go as a Strength based monk? More of a brute force type?

I was thinking of going Half-Orc Open Hand, and maybe taking Resilient or Grappler, or should I just grab the first STR ASI?

5th level

>>49111706
As long as they were entertaining/till the gobbos got hungry. I'd say daily perform/persuasion checks.

>>49109325
If it was a contract, it probably wasn't chattel slavery but something else amounting to much the same thing. In either case, the brothel is under no obligation to consider ending their agreement no matter how much gold is thrown at them. She may have sold herself for a very low price, as she was desperate and they knew it, and they only might be tempted to give her up willingly for an amount greater than she's expected to bring in for the rest of her career. If she's good, that might be 10,000 gp. If she's not so good and brings in no more than a common laborer, then it'd be more like 1,000 gp.

If the brothel is in fact breaking the law, whether it's slavery or merely illegal prostitution, then you don't need to pay them shit. Get what you want through force or the threat of force because they have no legal recourse.

>>49111715
The best way for a high modifier to pay off is to use it as often as possible. So, concentrate on making a lot of attacks, I suppose.

>>49111715
If you rolled for stats, maybe. The AC will be difficult to deal with otherwise.

>>49111715
Use the Pugilist homebrew

>>49111715
No, there really isn't. You'd need four high ability scores (Str, Dex, Con, and Wis) and still wouldn't grapple as well as a strength-based rogue or bard.

>>49111750
Then I guess the real questions are: how many services does she provide per day, how much does each service cost, what is her life expectancy, and how that number will fluxuate with time?

>>49110114
My rogue has 30+ passive perception right now, and he's level 12
Base of 10
+5 max wisdom
+5 observant feat
+5 (visual only) from A magical item that grants advantage on perception checks, which official sources state equals a +5 on passive scores
+4 proficiency
+4 expertise

Sorry, I didn't notice something?

>>49111886
I think 10k gold is believable. Flesh isn't cheap, and the Madame doesn't run a disreputable house. Girls are fed, clothed, kept clean, she has to pay staff... that takes overhead, not to mention she's paying a modest lifestyle for X ho's. Even if she got a gold a pop for the girl's services, 4-5 clients a day, 40 years, totals out to 73000gp. I think 10k is reasonable to account for diminishing returns.

>>49111750
If they're already breaking the law, what stops them from slitting her throat and dumping her in the river?

>>49111886
The usual baseline given for commoners' income in D&D is that an unskilled laborer ears 1 sp a day, and a skilled but not legendary artisan likely earns 1 gp a day. You don't need to micromanage exactly how many tricks she turns in a night, just decide whether she's on the same level income-wise as a street-sweeper or a silversmith or something even greater. I was assuming that she'll have to stop working around age 50, if not before.

>>49111918
The whole reason they're holding onto her is for profit. And if she dies, there's nothing to stop the party from wiping that place the fuck out because now they don't even have a hostage.

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>>49111912
This fucking nigger can see a god trying to hide itself WITHOUT EVEN MAKING A CHECK.

>>49111932
Presumably, they have their own toughs and not everyone knows just how dangerous a bunch of murderhobos are

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>>49111912
How can we break this even further?

>>49111843
Isn't there some relatively broken / infinite combo type thing with that homebrew, or was that fixed?

>>49111978
With or without magical items? With magic items, there's a legendary ioun stone which increases proficiency bonus. There's the tomes for increasing Wisdom, which technically have no limit if you can find enough of them.

Level 20 boons would allow you to boost wisdom to 30 for a +10 modifier.

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Based on the miracles he performed, how would you stat him /5eg/?

>>49112005
Meh. Mid-level cleric.

>>49109331
I note with varying degrees of interest that unlike the other monsters in the oubliette, the Water Elemental is not noted as being immediately hostile, or even likely to attack the players. Provided the players have a way of communicating with it, they might be able to ask for its aid.

>>49111914
Well, its 5e, its not like the player will have anything else to spend copious ammounts of gold on.

>>49111912
Which is nice, but it means that every single feat and ASI went into an ability score that otherwise doesn't help a rogue. So you'll be very good at noticing just how badly your party is losing each fight.

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>>49109325
I HAVE SLAVERY RULES!

>>49112051
I notice traps and enemies with extreme ease, it's worth it to not get ambushed or miss something helpful or detrimental to the party.

We did rolls for stats, and I did extremely well (hell, the whole group did shockingly good rolls, so nobody is particularly better than another)
He currently has 20 wisdom and 20 dexterity, so he's still an extremely good fighter. He's a variant human, so i just used the starting feat on observant, which is pretty good for dungeoncrawling if your dm actually uses passive scores. ASI's have been used on other things, I never really had to spend anything on it besides choosing perception for expertise, which I don't regret at all considering the mileage our group gets out of it.

But hey, go ahead and talk like you know whats up, pal.

>>49112077
Kudos!

>>49108218
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ub4wI9wHlWI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlICjvs0KIs

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I'm running Curse of Strahd soon, and as well as using the character options detailed in the book I was wondering if the stuff from UA Gothic Heroes is balanced?
If it is I was planning on letting the players take it seeing as it fits the theme.
Pic related, Monster Hunter fighter seems cool.

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>>49112148
It's not unbalanced, but personally I find a lot of it to be bland. I'm not a fan of just cribbing the Battlemaster for your kit needs; more to the point, a "monster hunter" feels more Rangey than Fighty.

Here's the kits I was going to be allowing when I run Strahd, culled from various Interweb sources.

>>49112148
The Revenant can be pretty cheesy or practically unplayable depending on the campaign. The monster hunter is nice enough, just a slightly different battlemaster. The inquisitive is a little underpowered as far as rogue kits go.

>>49112212
What's up with the Revenant?
Seeing as I'm running Strahd I thought it might be a problem if a player's unfinished business is killing Strahd, as they would know where he is at all times.

>>49112243
So just rule that the players can't have that as their unfinished business. Simple.

>>49112207
Those are pretty cool, thanks!

>>49112256
True, I just thought I should mention it as it's the most obvious option.
The problem is that it's really appropriate and means they can't finish their business until the campaign is done - and I'd prefer the PC didn't stop existing mid-campaign.

>>49112243
>>49112256
You could make some creative rulings so that the revenant is pointed toward someone else involved in the matter. After all, the Dark Powers will never just let Strahd die, so storming Castle Ravenloft with stakes and garlic is going to accomplish exactly nothing.

No, the only way to really kill Strahd is to get the Dark Powers to release their hold on him and kick him out of Ravenloft first, and the only way they'll do that is if his pride is broken so he's no fun anymore. It happened before with Lord Soth.

Or, fuck it, let it work as written. It'll be like that duct scene from Alien.

>>49112305
>he's within 60 ft... 30 ft...
>he's in the walls man!

>>49112289
>and I'd prefer the PC didn't stop existing mid-campaign.
Well, there's two options there: first, the character doesn't stop existing, but does feel that their "business" is complete. "Why" is always a good spur for campaign stuff.

Or, the character DOES stop existing mid-campaign. Now what?

>>49112207
>That animu protagonist Warlock
Damn, whoever was in charge of the art for this one probably had a minor conniption when they saw that little edgemaster

>>49112370
That first option is quite good, maybe they aren't satisfied or get new business.
I've seen Being Human, the UK series, so I should be able to get some inspiration from how the ghosts were in that.
The issue with them no longer existing is that they'll probably have to reroll which is awkward in CoS.

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Okay, so i have a weird request. I currently have a campaign that, between two brothers, a feud has broken out, and i am not sure if it will end with the PC killing his brother. I need good music to play if and when he kills his brother. Additionally, i would like to know good music to play for a group in general. more ambient than music to be focused on. I already use the Neverwinter Night soundtrack. Thanks guys.

>>49112418
Sad violin.mp3
Airhorn version

>>49112402
>>49112370
Just letting the revenant stick around after completing his mission is incredibly stupid and out of flavor, not to mention unbalanced. The final death is the price the revenant pays for unlimited free resurrection before then. If a player doesn't want to permanently peace out after completing that one last quest, that player will not roll up a revenant.

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>>49112394
I'm the one who selected it. By the time I got to the Warlock I felt that everything was full edge anyway, so I might as well own it.

Eh, fuck it. Here's the total stuff that I've culled from the Interwebs:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B86CqQWWW_t7b0NmMGxnaEVqdW8/view?usp=sharing

>>49112418
>>49112437
I was thinking anything that fit the theme of fratricide.

>>49112439
That's my problem.
Any actual suggestions?
Non-intrusive ways to introduce characters in CoS?

Is this a good spell list for a 6th level Lore Bard? Good as in well rounded, always have something to do in or out of combat, and has creative uses for either situation?


Cantrip (3)
> Minor Illusion, Prestidigitation, Vicious Mockery
1st Level (5)
> Speak with Animals, Dissonant Whispers, Faerie Fire, Feather Fall, Thunderwave
2nd Level (2)
> Hold Person, Phantasmal Force,
3rd Level (4)
> Bestow Curse (cleric), Spirit Guardians (cleric), Glyph of Warding, Speak with Dead

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>>49112394
That's not just any edgemaster, that's the edgemaster who makes even the murderest of hobos say "maybe calm down with all the murder".

>>49112631
I had no idea, I just wanted to find an edgy warlock looking mofo, and so I did.

Who's Caim?

>>49112587
Blindness/Deafness is worth a look because it does not require concentration.

Stinking Cloud and/or Hypnotic Pattern are worth a look to deny at least a turn to several creatures with one spell.

Just because you can pick 3rd level spells with magical secrets at 6 doesn't mean you have to pick 3rd level spells. You might find some utility with lower stuff, like Shield or Misty Step.

Spirit Guardians is ok if the party has an aoe-focus or you're the only caster, but otherwise that's kind of a meh-choice since you don't have the features a cleric has to bolster you at the range. 1 Fireball does more damage than 2 turns of Spirit Guardians, and front-loaded damage can make some enemies drop quicker, reducing the danger of subsequent rounds and lessening the need for area damage.

>>49112668
Engrish Cain?

>>49112394
it's pretty tame, i wouldn't have looked twice if you hadn't mentioned it. you have a low tolerance for animu.

>>49112668
Caim, a character who's basically a level 20 Barbarian on steroids with a Dragon they've made a Warlock Path of the Chain familar pact with from the game Drakengard.

He murders pretty much everything he comes across in spectacular murderhobo fashion.

"Caim is the former prince of a small kingdom which was destroyed by the dragons in the service of the Empire. He sacrificed his voice to enter a pact with the red dragon and thus escape death. Though desperate to save his sister Furiae, Caim was hesitant to make a pact with a creature which may have killed his parents. His bitterness is due to the brutality and hardship he has endured as a soldier, albeit one of royal blood. His claims to fight for his sister and to avenge his parents' death ring hollow: in truth, he battles to quell the rage inside him"

>>49108454

Just drop the small shields.

And the helmets too, those are still dumb. Just roll helmets in with the armor.

>>49112576
Locals who have had enough? Other planar travelers who got stuck in Ravenloft and failed to get out?

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>>49110220

Sounds like a barbarian to me.

This is the only thing I could find for "Scared Wizard" on google images, the rest of it was just wizard of oz shit.

>>49112892
That's probably a good idea. I might take some inspiration from the Innistrad humans for some different-feeling race types.

How fun is it to do a contemporary real world campaign? We're talking no magic, ghouls and goblins. Just pure real humans and shit being the whole thing. Is 5e rules fit for it? Been thinking of writing up an adventure for it.

What voices do you guys use that aren't necessarily accents?

When I do a really old man I put the tip of my tongue on the roof of my mouth and have the sides of my tongue touch the inner sides of my teeth.

I also have my hobgoblins emphasize random syllables of words (think Eminem and rhyming orange).

>>49112148

I think it's balanced. Seems fun too, I'd say go for it.

>>49112207

the names alone on these seem 100% horrible.

>>49113103

it sounds fucking incredibly god damn boring

i also wouldn't bother playing it in 5e.

So how do you go about combat?

I feel like as a DM, it's my weakest point. Players tell me that I do well with social and exploration encounters but when it comes to combat, I'm incredibly lacking which I agree.

I feel like my creative juices screech to a halt when combat goes and I feel like I throw away a lot of the rules off the window in favor of quickening the process without realizing it. There are times I don't even keep track of the HP of the enemies and just say the enemy died after one-two successful hits from my party. There's also the fact I can't keep the flow of the "theatre of the mind" aspect to the combat so I end up something mundane like "You hit it. You miss."

Am I treating it too mechanically? How do your combat encounters go as a DM? I want to improve on that aspect a lot cause I sometimes kill the momentum of players when we get to combat after build-up towards it via the social/exploration parts of the campaign.

>>49113103
Why not use a system that is actually made for that stuff, like D6 or GURPS (which, memes aside, is dead simple as long as you don't overload on supplements)

>>49113214
Try watching some live play like Critical Role and stuff like that. Might help.

>>49113251
To be fair here, Matt's strong points are playing NPCs and overpreparing on possible PC actions. Combats tend to be overly long and sometimes boring

>>49111912
Fuck man, 33 passive perception. If it were just 2 higher, you'd be able to passively see into the future

>>49113214
A simple way to fix the whole theatre of mind problem is by saying "you hit, what does it look like?" or "you missed, you swinged wide/bounced of armor/you hit yourself in the face" the times when they miss are the only time you have to actually think about what happened.

Also by doing this it makes each character a bit more personalized since they're allowed to show how their character's personality is reflected in combat.

>>49111978
well, it's gonna get to 37 as his proficiency increases. With the hard cap of 30 wisdom, you could get to 42 passive perception, and another +2 from the Mastery Ioun stone and additional expertise, for a grand total of 44
Don't know about much else that would help
and also, that character would do nothing but notice shit

>>49112587
>Doesn't have skywrite
What are you doing son

>>49113103
So, you want to play the Sims?

>>49113214
I make the narrative of the combat more fun by either describing the hits or letting the players describe their hits themselves. Feel free to look at how Mercer handles the combat in Crit Role and Force Grey
If you use music, good combat music is a nice touch too

>>49112148
Played a Monster Hunter/Witcher themed character in CoS. Was a lot of fun and if you pick Variant Human I recommend taking Observation to fit that investigating tracker theme.

Though it depends on how it's played. Personally I went melee swapping between Greatsword, Hand Crossbow, and Long Sword. If I could do it all over, I would have probably tried to get my Dex to 16 for more AC and taken Medium Armor Master.

>>49113214
>track

Obvious start would be to actually run the combat properly by tracking HP. Nothing feels as pointless and arbitrary to players as knowing the GM is just randomly deciding a monster dies. There's no excuse either as you can use sites like Improved Intiative to track monster HP and party intiative.

Secondly stop treating it as though it's a different game, combat is no different to the more social and exploration parts of a game. Heck a combat can involve exploring a ruined forest, while fending off a hostile Ork band and trying to convince their hostage who now has stockhold syndrome that yes really now is a good time to leave.
Evocative description helps a lot, describe the enekiea, describe each of their attacks and get your players to describe what they are doing. Also have enemies talk to the players, taunt them, or beg them to leave,threaten them, use actions like grapple or disarm that screw their shit over, laugh manically as you cast spell clpuds at them.

I understand why it feels different, if done badly it can feel like playing Final Fantasy and hitting another random encounter as the screen swirls and battle music starts. But really it isn't like that unless you want it to be.Your players say what they want to do and you describe what happens just the same as in any other part of the game, the only difference is intiative rounds give it a little bit more structure but heck if it helps don't even bother rolling intiative just let the combat flow from the other scenes you excel at.

>>49113470
It just seems so.....meh.

>>49113276
Counterpoint/discussion about the length of combat in Critical Role: first, earlier episodes have the group be a party of 8, which is an insane amount to try and DM for. Second, the players don't have as good a view of the battlefield as your home game group might, due to being a good 5-10 feet away from the map (or more recently, Dwarven Forge set pieces) to allow for room for cameras to get good shots of the players, Matt, and the map.

Third, and probably most important, is that at higher levels (in almost any RPG with a reasonable focus on combat) is it tends to slow down and bog down a bit, due to a wealth of options for spellcasters, trying to analyze the battlefield for martials, and the large HP pools both the party and the monsters have.

Side point: the longest fight (so far) in CR I believe is the one where it's the group vs. the rest of Grog's herd of roaming barbarians (which was 7 vs. 25+), with the party in the 12-13 range, most of the barbarian tribe NPCs being level 5, and a couple named NPCs being higher level (the Druid was around level 13, the barbarian leader was a level 20 Totem Barb).

>>49110006
It's in the chapter about using ability scores. Those are explicitly listed as ability checks.

>>49113681
It's only fluff, yeah. But it's damn entertaining.
This one time, we fucked over a small group of minotaur sailors on the docks, and as they were running away, i cast skywrite and huge letters formed over Daggerford, reading MINOTAURS ARE LITTLE BITCHES
Had so much fun that skywrite became that Bard's staple spell, alongside tasha's

>>49113251

I will look into those videos. Any in particular you would suggest or should I just click on a vid and look for the combat encounters?

>>49113322
>>49113519

Yeah, I should let my players describe their hits. Thanks for this!

>>49113593

Solid advice, anon. I never thought it that way. I've been so focused in thinking combat as a separate entity that it didn't cross my mind that I should treat is like a social/exploration encounter as well. And yeah, I'm pretty guilty with treating it like a Final Fantasy fight whenever the encounters pop up.

Anyhow, this is pretty helpful, anons. Gonna have a session with newbies this weekend so I was hoping I could find a way to improve my combat handling since I don't want their first DnD session a disappointment.

Hi, /tg/ friends.
How common is it to run your own settings? My group of friends have been playing for about a year and a half now, and everyone who DM's (including myself) has just been coming up with locations and lore themselves. I hear a lot about D&D's official settings like forgotten realms or faerun. Are we missing out or something? Do those settings just exist for people who don't come up with those things as easily themselves? If I wanted to run something in those settings, where would I even find the information for them?

>>49114008

Not really a must play since if you're all happy with your own settings then go have fun. That said, you learn a lot of game design from taking on official works and a lot are tightly designed and tend to get that "Oh shit, I'm stealing this for my own campaign!" when something awesome pops up. I've created DnD adventures for my friends throughout the years and almost all of them were influenced by the things I've learned from playing official work.