/5eg/ D&D 5th Edition General

>>49502584
Maps with grids is the best way to do it. Though, as a roll20 DM, I tend to not map out areas unless it's important that it has a map. I'll usually have a picture to sum up areas, then draw combat maps as needed.
Yes, I know, I'm lame.


That table's cool as fuck. That's a great way of using that program. You don't even need a super expensive projector for it. Must've been lots of work, though.

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>>49502584
>>49502377
>>49502377
>>49502377
>>49502377

Reposting this question.

>>49502584
My group prefers theater of mind, though if an area is big enough we'll break out a grid and minis. Most memorable was when we did a running battle through a city, and we broke out the Mordheim terrain. Having a batshit crazy troll on an Otuygh chariot chase you down is something you don't forget easy.

I'm gearing up to run SKT soon and it looks like I may have an all warlock party to contend with. Patrons look like GOO, two different Fiends, and an Undying. At least one of each pact. Anything I should be careful about, other than the lack of versatility, and maybe staying power per encounter? They're most likely to be based out of Waterdeep so buying consumable magic items/hirelings will be easy.

So my country's FLGS are neckdeep in Magic the Gathering so I can't find any dry erase battlemats for grids.

That said, I'm willing to make my own. Any kind of material on stores that I can purchase that would make good battlemats? I'm thinking of getting a large whiteboard but I'd like to carry the grids around so is there's some type of paper that I can draw and erase on that's readily available for purchase in an office supplies store?

hows revised ranger

>>49502584
My current campaign is kind of a mixture.
I have a map of the entire dungeon, with encounters and loot and details of what is in each room.
If they're dealing with a place which isn't commonly traveled (most dungeons are not), it's down to the players to map out the dungeon for themselves as they go. They have to be careful of getting lost.
If they run into monsters in the dungeon, we use the grid and make an area with whatever dimensions the dungeon room has for that encounter.

The last dungeon the players went through had pretty small rooms and 1-square wide corridors.Really made them think carefully about positioning. The Wizard and Sorcerer made great use of Cloud of Daggers.

>>49503003
Not bad. Which is saying something, since every take on ranger in 5e until now has been hot garbage.

Beast Master needs some tweaking. Mearls has said that if it does go to print, beast master pet will scale with Ranger levels only, not total character level.

>>49503003
Pretty nice. Apparently lackluster at the later levels, and it seems to be a little too good for some of the level 1-3 features (excessive multiclass potential).
They should throw a feature such as 'advantage on initiatives' until the later levels.

Fine if they don't, though, because then I'll have an obnoxiously minmax build to use when I really, really hate a DM.

>>49502584
>abstract dungeoneering

Google gives me AngryDM's article and I've been reading it and it seems rather off.

I know large dungeons can be a pain to map out and as a DM (sure the players as well), it can get tiring for them to check the 15th room of an old college dormitory to find nothing (or maybe have the DM roll a random encounter table which adds to the ad nauseum) but the style seems to take away some sense of control for the players if the DM is doing the rolling for them, I feel. (At least that's how I'm understanding the article)

Like in the article's example:

>“You find yourselves wandering narrow, cramped hallways, undecorated and utilitarian. Most of the small rooms you poke are empty, save for a stone shelf. Occasionally, you find the remains of a candle burned down to a stub. Here in these workrooms, bookbinders and scribes toiled by candlelight to preserve the knowledge of the ages.”

What's stopping the players from wanting to check these small rooms? Why does it the example's Event List (d8) have to do the wandering and hand holding on these zones? Am I reading and understanding it wrong? Cause to me, it comes off as on-rails in this way:

>Players enter zone
>DM describes zone
>DM rolls on Event List (wandering monster)
>DM says what happens
>DM rolls on Event List again (they find a secret door)
>DM says what happens
>DM Rolls on Event List
>somehow it lands on "Transition to <new zone>
>DM then asks if players want to go further or stay
>PCs stay
>DM rolls again
>etc.

Granted, I read the part of the article where AngryDM says that he doesn't want to take control from the player when it comes to exploring these dungeons but the system he has laid out seem to not address that. Did I misread? I feel like Abstract Dungeoneering takes away player agency when it comes to exploring dungeons. In a way, it does destroy the needless time to explore dormitory room #15 but still, I dunno.

Hey there, anons. Race-building guy back again repeating his inevitable request for criticisms and suggestions as to which race to tackle next.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1XovWm65MSmIzQWSMDMXo0_aIpZgq9YSa2KkpO3kThS4/edit#

For those who'd rather not poke around and try to figure it out, here's the direct list of races I need to get written up:
Pterran
Bladeling
Fey'ri
Rogue Modron
Hamadryad
Satyr
Huldra
Dust Genasi
Rain Genasi
Magma Genasi
Blight Genasi
Smoke Genasi
Tanuki
Mujina
Kawauso
Bakeneko
Itachi
Tengu
Spellscale

Criticisms brought up in the last thread:
* Racial feats are near-universally overpowered; need help toning those down.

* Many races are either bland, underpowered or both - need help boosting them up. Finding more "fluffy" racial traits and switching out the boring "free proficiency" skills is definitely on the list.

As an aside, could really use help figuring out where to go with the Spellscale and Yokai races. The former in particular... I wonder... Maybe go for a subrace mechanic based on Draconic Ancestry, and give 'em damage resistance, spell-like abilities and possibly other features based on canon dragons? Because, honestly, the old Blood Quickening mechanic probably wouldn't work in 5e and was kind of bland back then anyway?

Oh, I just realised... I've been focusing mostly on the crunch, but, maybe I should take a step back and try writing up racial fluff instead? Or should I leave that until I have all of the races statted?

>>49502649
I think there was an article on what the guy did, cost like 200$ or so, about half for the projector and the rest on the cables and setup used to suspend it over the table.

It's cool, but probably not as useful as it can be. Now, if it was like a large touch screen table, THAT could be much better, letting players move minis around digitally and it updating line of sight as they move.

Too bad those types of tables cost literal thousands of dollars.

>>49502584
To whoever in the last session felt like i called him/her racist.
I'm sorry.

>>49503485
Were we talking about Greeks?

>>49503003
Pretty great.
And MCing with monk now makes up for both classes having low damage.
Especially love the new favoured enemy feature.

What's so good about Moon Druids?

>>49503203
All those races have fluff, just write up the crunch

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Question folks:

I understand the hate of the idea of being railroaded, the idea of being fucking pigeon-holed into a quest/whatever. BUT does anyone else, as a player, feel inclined to flow right into your GMs plans?

My thing is that the GM should act as another player (ie additional PC in a way) in regards to OOC planning. I mean this in the way that I don't want to disrespect his time outside of game, ie planning and such.

Am I the only player that feels this way?

pic unrelated

>>49503550
Wildshape lets you assume the full statistics of the beast you become, except you keep your Int, Wis, and Cha scores, and you get your skill and save proficiencies in addition to the beast's. And when you revert, you have whatever amount of HP you did in your humanoid form as you did before you transformed.

Now pair that with *Much* better available beasts to choose from in the early levels (You can become a Crag Cat at level 2) and wildshape continuing to scale beyond 8th level. You end up being a very capable front-line melee combatant, while still being a full caster when not in beast form.

>>49502584
>Top-heavy wine glass on top of your character sheet in a dim room.

That's getting knocked over in the first hour.

>>49503636
What other cheese is there in 5e?

>>49503631
At the start, yes. If the GM is dangling hooks the only reason not to bite is if you have a genuine adventure you like the idea of better (say the GM told you of a dungeon of rabbits, or all the characters have a common city in their backstory so they want to go there) or if you're an asshole. However, if the GM has a plot planned, then even if you try to follow it the end result will be wildly different, and no good GM will write a story and then insert the players. As a GM I don't really care if the game is player driven and I'm left reactionary, or GM driven where I'll need to do more prep and drive the action.

>>49502861
Just go into any printing shop and laminate a big sheet of grid paper.

If I cast barkskin on myself and then shapeshift into an animal, does the spell still affect me or it just ends? What about feats?

>>49503631
My preferred way of having things done is

"The DM builds the world. The players then dictate the direction and what plots they get involved in, and the DM builds the word more specifically where the players are, so there's always something going on and something for the players to follow. The players, however, only have as much freedom as they know what they're doing is (a choice between 'left' or 'right' means nothing if you don't know where either leads, which is just as bad as the DM rolling for plot) and thus the players should have options that they know may well lead to what their end goals are.

When I was developing one world, I noticed that the lore I was basing it off of had a lot of villages and cities and places that were destroyed or abandoned for various reasons. I thought in that case that there'd be good room for the players to potentially help change the course of fate of those places being destroyed and it'd end up being much like an x-com thing where the players have many things they want to do at any given time and can't do them all, and may have to be willing to let fate decide whether a place is lost or not, but gives them a chance to intervene and really make themselves a part of the world as they go out and save a nation. Or, more like, a village or town.

>>49503724
There's no reason they can't work, unless they say so. Feats that require weapon attacks for example don't. Barkskin targets a creature, and transforming, teleporting, going to another plane etc. do not make you a different creature than when the spell was cast so it still works.

>>49503785
>>49503631
Also, more on that, I'll admit there are times I feel 'I kinda wanna do this, but I don't want to waste the DM's time.'
It kinda sucks a little when you know and expect something you want to do to maybe be a waste of time for everyone else or something, but I think it's generally good to stick inside plans, to an extent. If something makes perfect sense or is vital for your survival (retreat and rest, the DM might not have expected) then it's probably something to do. An occasional detour.

Detouring all the time will just end up obnoxious. Also, DMs should be prepared to not get everything they planned used. It's nice to have a rough idea and do the easy padding out when a player gets closer, or make content that they know they could use at any point (e.g. make an outdoors map for random encounters).

>>49503832
I think that's part of making the character fit in the party. If they want to go save their mother from an uncurable disease but the rest want to delve dungeons and find loot, then the character shouldn't be there in the first place. Especially in longer campaigns I've seen this make players retire characters because they can't make up reasons for them to stay, and I think motivation is one of the most important parts of a character.

>>49502678
MP spellcasting has never worked, stop.

>>49502678
If you made it so they DIDN'T add their spellcasting modifier to their MP it works out almost perfect. If you used the Spell Point Cost table for casting with MP then early on if a character rolls well they will be able to cast a few more spells than average but this quickly evens out ending up with them having slightly less casts at 20, again on average.

However if you let them add their spell casting modifier they would get a lot more MP than a character would have spell points on average. A fix for this would be making every spell double its level in MP. This way they would have a ton of MP, but higher level spells couldn't be thrown around like candy.

>>49503910
*every spell cost double its level, eg: 1st = 2mp, 2nd = 4mp, etc

>>49502584
I don't know if it's because we're lazy but my group has never used any form of map; we all just imagine the setting

>>49503871
It's normal for a character to want to go see their mother or something, but they can either have it tied into the main campaign (find herbs as you dungeon) or have it assumed to happen outside of the main adventure.

>>49502678
Also there'd probably have to be a restriction on how many times a day you can cast level 6+ spells. Most casters can only cast one of each a day without some sort of crazy magical item.

>>49503663
Multiclassing from Warlock into Paladin or Sorcerer. Your spell slots from Warlock don't stack with the ones you get from other casting classes, and will always replenish on a short rest. You can still spend them for any class feature that asks you to expend a spell slot, like Divine Smite or Font of Magic.

Bards are full casters in this edition while having better hit dice and weapon/armor proficiencies than the other Arcane casters. College of Lore's 6th level feature is the bard's 10th level, even earlier. You can grab useful Class-specific spells like Aura of Vitality or Elemental Weapon 3 levels earlier than a paladin can.

Also, (Variant) Human Monk 1/Arcana domain (To grab Booming Blade and Green Flame Blade) Cleric X with Magic Initiate Druid (to grab Shillelagh) as their bonus feat. Use a Quarterstaff and have fun.

>>49504064
Multiclassing from warlock isn't really cheese. It still limits the max spell level you can cast (And might deny you foresight or wish or something similar), gives you two spell slots, or only three spell slots every short rest at about level 11, when a full caster will gain spell slots every level.
It's pretty balanced, though you do get odd things like cleric-warlocks being able to heal every short rest or paladins using that to smite.

Bard grabbing class-specific spells is pretty cheese, though.
>bard being a better ranger than a ranger is

You're missing 'grab war caster and grab pole arm mastery' on the spoilered stuff.

>>49503663
A warlock can go pact of the chain to obtain an invisible familiar. This familiar can technically remain invisible while using the 'help' action to grant any ally advantage on their next attack every turn, costing actions only from the familiar.

The rogue can use GWF by meleeing enemies with a heavy crossbow. It only deals 1d4 damage though and uses strength.
The rogue can also fight using strength with finesse weapons, but this is only really useful for barbarian-rogues.

High level wizards can use wish to cast 'clone' and then shove that clone into a pocket dimension and make the entire party immortal for free.

'Heat metal' is ridiculous when used against heavily armoured targets.

As hinted at somewhere above, booming blade works brilliantly if you have warcaster to use it as a reaction attack.

>>49503631
I have no problem biting the GM's plothooks. I draw issue when the hook's in so deep I lose agency as a character. I've had GMs that simply narrate our characters' actions to us, as if we were one of his NPCs.

Some GMs would rather play with action figures than with a group

>>49504160
>You're missing 'grab war caster and grab pole arm mastery' on the spoilered stuff.
This was errata'd

>>49504160
Just to clarify, 'heat metal' is a level 2 spell that can deal 20d8 damage if you cast it on someone wearing something metal that they can't remove in a minute (i.e. heavy armour) and then you can run as fast as you can (you don't need line of sight to keep concentration) and keep dealing that damage.

>>49504160
>>49503663
Continuing...

If you have 2 levels in warlock and get the wizard's illusionist capstone feature, you can at-will make ANY object that fits within a 15ft cube that doesn't move or has more than one part to it.
As such, you can conjure adamantium walls at-will, whenever and whereever.

Anything that gives you a reaction attack outside of your own turn can be used to give a rogue a load of damage, as they sneak attack even when it's not their turn, as long as it's not more than once a turn (once anybody's turn). Battlemaster, or an ally using a spell that makes the enemy make willing movement would be good examples.

If you grapple and then shove someone, they can't stand up because they have no movement until they spend an action to get out of the grapple and succeed. You can get insanely good grapple checks through a barbarian with a level in rogue for expertise.
Hunters can get giant crab pets which auto-grapple enemies that get close.

>>49504196
From my memory it was only eratta'd with regards to cantrips before there were any cantrips that could use the polearm to attack.

>>49504208
>>49504196
http://www.sageadvice.eu/2014/09/16/polearm-caster/
"No – polearm master applies only if you use the weapons it lists to make the attack"
Booming Blade uses the polearms to make the attack.

Which classes are mechanically the weakest? And how would you fix them?

>>49504302
Ranger. UA did it. Sorc is almost strictly weaker than Wizard but is viable for multiclassing and is still good.

>>49504328
UA didn't fix Ranger, It made it viable for multiclassing into, that's it.

>>49504302
Aside from ranger (which gets talked about enough) there's no definite.

There are bits and pieces which suck, such as Four Elements Monk, Champion fighter if not used to maximize synergy, EK if you have no fucking clue what you're doing, berserker barbarian, barbarian's levels after level 5, Sorcerer compared to wizard (Only really good for quirky things like twinned spelling up haste), warlock can feel a bit worse than other casters sometimes although has nice flavour.

>>49504334
Compared to what it was I'd consider it fixed. Not sure how it works out but at least on lower levels it seems to definitely be better than some of the questionable subclasses like champion, Wot4E and berserker. I wasn't here when it was released but haven't seen anything analytical in terms of how it compares to other classes, I could just be talking out my ass without understanding how bad it still is.

is Dra-Sorc 1/ Rogue (Swashbuckler) X a decent Multiclass choice?

and does a monk boost of AC work along with Sorc dragon skin or mage armour so at lv 3 the character will have 19 ac

How would you increase the power levels in 5e?

>>49504366
>dra-sorc1
But why?
So you can have the 'shield' spell even though you'll have uncanny dodge?

>>49504397
Any number you see, times it by 10

>>49504366
>>49504399
Oh, if you're looking for mage armour (which is basically what the dragon sorcerer armour is) then it's not really worth it.
It's good for people who don't have any armour proficiencies such as wild sorcerers, storm sorcerers, wizards...
But if you ever find +1 studded leather (which 'may' happen) then mage armour is completely obsoleted.

Even then, you might as well take 1 level in fighter just for the +1 AC fighting style, because you get other things such as more proficiencies, more HP, second wind, etc.

>>49504397
You play pathfinder or you throw overpowered magical items with no downsides everywhere like a fucking magical whore.

>>49504397
>>49504424
Or you start everyone at level 15

>>49504399
ok the point of dragon sorc-Swashbuckler is to get a bit of cantrip from sorc like booming/GFB as well get that 13 Ac early on so you dont have to hope for magic armours

as for >>49504416
I had the idea of making a kamen rider character who most of the time uses his fist to fight hence monk as base class. He would then multi into 1 dra-sorc or 2 warlock for AC boost and plot wise being magically experimented upon
(dragon skin or magic armour invocation) So I was wondering if monk's Unarmored defense work those mention above
Hence you get
13 AC+ dex mod +wis mod

>>49504424
I'm not that autistic.

>>49504478
>So I was wondering if monk's Unarmored defense work those mention above
It doesn't. Your AC is either 13+Dex OR 10+Wis+Dex.

>>49504637
so the actual calculation would be
(10+UD mod or source)+ dex mod

>>49504681
It's actually like "AC is 10 + Dex modifier, OR you can choose to use another method if you have it (only one at a time)"
Other methods include Monk UD, Barbarian UD, Mage Armour, Dragon Sorc, etc
You're effectively right, but there's no 'actual calculation', that's why they always mention 10+Dex in these other methods.

>>49503533
No i was asking reviews of my homebrew for the 7th level deep stalker and didn't realize that 13ft could be stupid instead of puttin 15

>>49502584
https://www.reddit.com/r/dndnext/comments/302fe8/revising_the_eldritch_knight/ any thoughts /tg/

My group of friends, whom all are totally new to tabletop roleplaying games, really like the starter set and its LMoP. We're looking at committing to one of the bigger modules, is there any recommondations? Thanks.

>>49504715
>>49504715
i see,I just though UDs is what a class can do to increase AC, while MA/DS ability improve the natural AC

>>49504746
>is there any recommondations
Stop playing 5e and go play pathfinder.

>>49502584
I go with theatre of the minds for most things, but during combat I break out a whiteboard. The characters and enemies are quick and most llikely labeled drawings.

To me, it's better than dealing with miniatures and a big grid. Also I don' want to spend money.

Currently a level 2 fiendlock going for blade pact.
Stats are
16
14
14
9
11
18
In order.
How the fug do I make this work?

Can someone give me some tips on making a good bard?

>>49504334
Yeah you'd multiclass a non-Beast Conclave ranger out after 7 or 8 in an optimal build but a 20th level UA ranger isn't a waste of space like the PHB one.

>>49504851
Get yourself a greatsword and hit things with it

>>49504746
If you mean you've finished the starter set, then it depends if you want to keep your characters or not.
If you don't mind rolling new characters then any of the modules other than Hoard of the Dragon Queen and Rise of Tiamat will be fine for you.
If you want to keep your characters you can transition from the end of the starter set straight into Chapter 2 of Storm King's Thunder, which is what I'm doing with my group of newbies (out of the four of them only one had ever played D&D, the other has played some Paranoia).

>>49504874
Have a good charisma, pick up healing/buffing/debuffing/crowd control spells, and sit on the back lines so you take as little damage as possible. Outside of that you got nothing to really worry about when it comes to making a bard.

>>49504851
Try and get medium armour prof somehow. Probably your best bet is taking a level in fighter and taking the defense fighting style. Can get up to 17 AC with scale, which is only 50gp.
Warcaster feat is great for keeping up concentration on hex.
Two handed big weapons will be good for you, being high strength. You can also take a hand off to cast (get a component pouch) without having to put your weapon away.
>>49504874
Probably go dex as your next highest stat after charisma, either for finesse weapons or going archer bard.
Even if you want to use vicious mockery as your bread and butter, a weapon is helpful in tight spots or weird situations.
Other than that, just pick some fun spells and crack on! Minor illusion is a great cantrip (put a wall in front of you for complete cover, as well as helping your inevitable lies)
Faerie Fire is good, healing word is only a bonus action, tasha's hideous laughter is good to disable a single opponent while you take out the rest of the battlefield.

>>49504978
I got medium armour proficiency with the variant human feat so that's all good.
Why the component pouch instead of arcane focus?

Just got into a new campaign! I can't decide between

The new Revised Beast Conclave Ranger.
A Moon Druid
or A Tempest Cleric (with Booming Blade and Lightning Lure)

>>49505478
You don't need to 'get out' the pouch to cast spells. It sits on your belt, and you can access M components as long as you have a hand free.
If your DM is a stickler for 'you can only do one thing per action', you might get stuck with your arcane focus in your hand in between turns, stopping you from using your weapon for opportunity attacks.
It's only a small difference, but there's no disadvantage to component pouches apart from it being impossible to find magic ones.

>>49504851
2 Level dip in Paladin. SMITE EVERYTHING.

>>49505693
In that case it doesn't matter :D
Maybe it's because our group is full of new people but the DM doesn't seem to mind as I described my focus as being attached to my belt.

>>49505679
I'd say either go with the moon druid or the revised ranger. First though, did you talk to your DM about the revised ranger?

new to 5e, just rolled a Half-orc Tempest cleric.

What's the best options for multiclassing, so I know what to look into down the road?

>>49505782
Not yet, but he's pretty open to UA / 3pp stuff.

>>49505876
Sorcerer for some Thunder/Lightning spell.

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EN5IDERanon here. Reposting my mega which has been fully updated, up and including issue 101.

https://mega.nz/#F!rAoGFBBJ!7oaBSiTtMQl5uDnevTEzHw
Also, if you have the time, could some kind anon critique the bane wraith conversion I did?
http://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/rkZ6RtAVp

I am new to multiclassing but does short rest only recover warlock spell slot only

>>49506000
Yes. Some other classes can regain some spell slots, but not all.

>magic weapons change size so they "fit" whoever attunes to them
So could a Small creature wield Heavy weapons if they're magical, given that they should change size to suit them?

>>49505876
Tempest Cleric is strong without any multiclassing.

>>49506021
Yes. Heavy weapons still apply disadvantage to small characters though. Heavy doesn't say small characters can't wield them.

>Evil bad super demon archlich
>has done that thing where he seals his soul in a bunch of magical items phalactory(?)
>want them to be highly desirable items that people have killed to own

>first one is an powerful orb that summons hellfire that can (and has) destroyed cities but also has the power to mind control.

>second is a cursed gauntlet with spikes inside that, like a trap from saw, if you put your hand inside it would be impossible to get it out intact. But allows you complete control over the elements and elementals.

>third is a dagger that if you stab your heart with, kills you but resurrects one person close to your heart.

Can you guys give me some better ideas? Powerful effects that would be highly desirable

Players do earn the adjusted XP from DMG page 82 or they earn just the normal XP and the adjusted XP is only to calc the CR of the encounter?

>>49506245
>phalactory
It's spelled phallictory.
Also
>like a trap from saw
You should be ashamed.

>>49506311
Normal XP from the stat block.

>>49506245
what power are you looking for?
I mean the I got the idea with a basin/bowl which you donate/sac your blood and the container makes a clone of you but it drains you remaining life

Why are the optimization fags so bad at it in 5e?

>>49506335
Thats why i want some help making better ones, this is my first ever session i want to have something cool.

>>49502861

Order it online you fucking dumb-ass. You clearly have internet access.

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=d%26d+dry+erase+battlemats

So when you make the BBEG/villain do shit like "telepathically" speak to the player party at once in the middle of the crowded city or perhaps have the villain group be encased in some magical barrier that's probably 20 feet in diameter so they can protect themselves from incoming players that might interrupt their ritual, do you, as a DM, let that happen or do you have to follow the logic/rules of the game to make that happen? Cause if I did, Telepathy notes a willing creature should be viable for Telepathy and I'm sure a player wouldn't be willing for the BBEG to get into his head, that and the magic can be cast on a single target vs a group. Then on the other example, I am pretty sure there is not a spell that summons a large magical barrier that can deflect projectile damage.

>>49506350
Just items that are old, strong and filled with magic i suppose

>>49506367

Sadly, local customs fucks everyone in the ass where anything that ships from abroad will just double or triple the price I pay for. I am not dealing with that shit. Thankfully Book Depository ships directly to my door so I was able to get the core rulebooks easily without having to deal with customs.

>>49505972
this should be posted on the general intro.

>>49503106

AngryGM is probably the most conceited RPG blog since TheAlexandrian. The guy doesn't even use swear words properly, he blanks them out like a fifteen year old. Blog should be taken down, IMO.

>>49506360
They start from the 3.PF mindset that it can't be achieved by a single base class, and since there's no prestige classes, they try to convince themselves multiclassing for cantrip optimization is the way to go.

>>49506419

Ahh okay, I understand then. You're not a fucking dumbass in that case. Good luck OP. I would suggest fucking local customs in the ass, also, if you ever get a chance.

>>49506468

Thanks anon. I rather like my DIY shit (I made a budget DM screen recently) so I'm willing to make my own battlemat which is why I asked for possible materials I can work with. That said, I did google for that and I got something to start on.

>I would suggest fucking local customs in the ass, also, if you ever get a chance.

Aye, that would be the fucking day.

>>49506360

Because there are no interesting options in 5e. Basically zero feats, no interesting combat styles, nothing that promotes inetresting choices in combat such as Power Attack or Expertise, which were nice ideas that could EASILY be improved upon. no, instead, it's just "when do I use my second wind / action surge", the same pre-package power bullshit that ((((Mearls))))) ensured was kept in the game because it's the way he likes to play, because he is too mentally handicapped to make in-game decisions beyond "I use muhh powahhhh"

Just witnessed a Level 0 adventure my DM friend did for our new players. We had like the entire day and night so there was enough time to do separate origin stories (thankfully, 2 of the 4 players decided to play a brother/sister duo so it was just three Level-0 sessions) and it was pretty damn great. DMbro allowed the players to describe their home, their family and stuff. Like the DM would ask the player where did he live, and the player would describe his home and the people he loved and cared for then the DM would make the mother appear and the player would say "I liked it when she'd pick me up and sing me a song to me while she pulled that beautiful locket and made me play with it" which the DM would describe.

Things like that that made the players engross themselves into their character. It was really good and I wished I recorded and jotted down everything what he did. It reminded me of the tutorial prologue stories you see in video game RPGs (the "DUDE, WHILE YOU'RE AWAY... YOU'LL NEVER GUESS WHAT JUST HAPPEN TO THE TOWN!" hook).

>>49506392
You can always create new spells. Also, the monsters, npcs, and bad guys, etc DON'T HAVE TO FOLLOW THE SAME RULES AS PLAYERS. If they need to do something, then they can.
Monsters can have weapons the players can't use effectively, or spells they can't learn. Big monsters get extra actions in between turns and stuff.

>>49506541
Ah, I was wondering where the bait was. There it is.

>>49506214
Well yeah that's more what I meant, couldn't they make it smaller?

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>>49506728
Do you think that your weapon's size, or weight, has any effect on its stats... in this edition?

Just be happy that gnomes can ride dogs and still wield a lance that's as strong as a greataxe without any trouble

Is there a decent character creator for 5e online? I'm not seeing one in the pastebin. Orcpub doesn't have genasi, half of the others don't let you multiclass, etc.

So, me and several friends recently started a group up. At the time, I really wanted to play a homebrew class, but couldn't find any good stats for it. So I rolled up my second choice, and went to town. Well, recently, I've found a really good statsheet for the original class I wanted to play.

How should I go about switching characters? Should I do it organically, ie wait for them to die, or pull up some reason, Oh I'm retiring (at level 3). Or should I even switch at all? I am happy with my original dude, I'd just be slightly happier with my new one.

>>49506855
Talk to the DM. After a big wrap up, have him go his separate way for some personal quest or reason. It's retirement that lets you bring him back, or lets the DM use him as an NPC story hook or something.

>>49506850
Download the anvil spreadsheet creator, that's pretty good

>>49506850
>needs help making a character for 5e

>>49506887
It's not that I need help. It's that I want an easy way to display and update stats for our online campaign. Haven't used roll20 much yet so I'm not sure how good the built-in character sheets are.

>>49506872
I was avoiding this one because I don't have excel on my fresh install, but yeah... I'll go get excel and mess with it. I just wish it was standalone or online.

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>playing pirate with the bad reputation feature
>in icewind dale
>try to steal free drinks
>dm says it doesn't work because icewind dale isn't really ''civilized''
>get kicked out of the bar
>mfw

This is some bullshit

>>49506914
Smack your DM.

>>49506911
If you use the 5e shaped sheet, Roll20 is fantastic for character management.

The OGL one though... it's not great. It's missing a lot of advanced functionality and regularly breaks without any adjusting.

>>49506914
>>49506929
explain what is wrong here?
I understand PC is your normal roguish dick in a vile area which is normal?

>>49506610
wait wasnt it a few tread back there was someone who did the same thing

>>49506981
what's wrong is that the book clearly states that you can get away with small crimes in ''civilized'' areas meaning civilization. Icewind dale is a civilization therefore bad reputation feature should work but DM ruled it didn't

>>49507011
>bad reputation
ok DM is being a dick

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>>49503339
>large touch screen
thebonerrises.jpeg

>>49506995
Someone was asking about doing that, yeah

>>49506666
Holy shit checked

>>49506869
Yea, we were supposed to meet up today, so I was going to talk to the DM about it. I just figured I'd ask ya'll in case you guys had a good idea.

And my cop out was to have him join the town guard. He's a fighter mercenary. An easy job as a guard in a frontier settlement would sound good to him.

Does someone have the tread where that one dude planned this level 0 PC background building

>>49504366
Swashvuckler/Dragon sorcerer is the go to gish multiclass.

Just focus on using GFB and BB as they work with sneak attack and the archetype feature grants you the ability to dash around your target safely.

>>49506728
You mean remove the heavy property? RAW, no, but it's reasonable. Removing the heavy property is a trade-off rather than a straight buff anyway due to GWM.

How do i convince my group not to be dumbasses in combat.
They basically split up and each pc fights between 3-5 enemies at once. Im nit even using hard enemies like cr1/4 tribal warriors, and they have allies that are cr1/4 bandit statblocks with some reskinning. Every fight has been very lethal and ive been having the enemies ignore downed pcs.
Any tips?
Ive even told them they need to fight as a group but they dont listen

>>49507502
Take off the kid gloves and start letting them die. If they repeatedly die, make some suggestions about what they could do, but don't force the issue until they get curious about getting better.

>>49504746
Princes of the Apocalypse is fun (so far) and there's an intro adventure for it geared to 1st level players...

>>49507502
The only way they'll learn is to stop babying them and start RP'ing your monsters. Give them opportunities to succeed but don't throw the fight if theyre being dumbasses.

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Would it be too stupid to make certain monstrosities (like owlbears and gryphons) count as beasts for tspells that say "beasts"?
Last week one of my players wanted to use conjure animals to summon a gryphon, I told him no at first since gryphons weren't beasts, but thinking about it that's kinda stupid, since a few sessions back I let another player use "speak with animals" and animal friendship on an owlbear.

>>49506911
>>49507599
Yeah roll20 5e shaped sheet is good, but tell your players that it adds most modifiers (proficiency, dex/str/etc) automatically so don't touch those unless you really have to.

>>49506335
>>49506245
phylactery

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So one of my players love Planescape: Torment and I'm thinking of running an adventure for him set in the Outlands/Sigil. Thing is, I'm wondering if reading the Planescape Campaign Setting PDF from 2e enough for me to get a setting running in 5e? At least fluff-wise. I'm sure there are gonna be crunch I have to convert but as far as I'm concerned here, I just want to get a good look into the lore of the world of Planescape so I can make sense of my friends' adventure in there and make it feel as genuine as possible.

>>49507989
"lol".

The Planescape Campaign setting pdf wasn't enough to get a campaign running in 2e, there's a reason it wasn't revived in 3.5.

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I want to have a monster hunting board for some simple sidequests. Does anyone have some advice or tables on what the rewards should be? What kind of reward should you get from killing a CR2 vs a CR7?

>>49507735
Not stupid at all. I would argue that, while many monstrosities are simply killing machines (chimeras, manticores, etc), many of them are similar enough to real-world animals that they might be considered beasts.

>>49504766
Just alternate methods, one is a straight boost and one is derived from a stat modifier. The straight boost is written as such because it isn't tied to a stat modifier.

You can tell when you look at creatures in the monster manual. Some have AC that is ten+dex, and ones with "natural armor" is 10+dex+another number, for a lot of stuff it's 2 or 3. And since the other number isn't tied to any stat it's added to the 10. In other cases the monster has armor, and it indicates the anyddedrmorrmor they're wearing.

I'm fairly certain there's some text somewhere in the PHB or DMG that explains natural armor and how you can only get AC boosts from one source (not counting magical items)

>>49508209
Pages 136-137 of the DMG has charts you could roll on to help determine loot.

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>>49502584
>DMs, how do you run your dungeon crawling? Maps, grids, theatre of the mind, abstract dungeoneering?

I run 5e with a full set of Piazo and TSR grid maps, a full collection of Pathfinder pawns, and a couple hundred pawns I've made on my own, like pic related.

I should take a new pic of one of my map setups.

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>>49502678
5e doesn't need fixing.
(well Rangers need fixing, and Elemental Monks a slight tweak but) stop fixing what ain't broke.

>>49506855
Not sure what you mean by stats and statsheet. You mean you had an idea for a class you wanted to play, but nobody had created something similar until partway through your game?

>>49507989
Plan to do a lot of work on your own.
Which you should be doing in any case.

I have the entire collection of D&D Lankhmar modules and fluff books, and very little of it was of any practical use. Reading all the novels a couple of times, THAT was of practical use.

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>>49502584
I'm trying to figure out what to do with this. I am thinking maybe a very strong monster that could potentially do a TPK if the party acts stupidly but not really sure, anyone got a good idea?

could anyone screencap or copy+paste the stat block of the hulking crab from SKT?

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>>49508420
Remember that scene in the crevasse in Peter Jackson's King Kong?
That.
Lots and lots of horrible fucking bugs.

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>>49508475
Gotchu famalam

>>49506392
>I am pretty sure there is not a spell that summons a large magical barrier that can deflect projectile damage.
Wall of Force.

>>49506728
>The greatsword becomes smaller to better fit in your hand
>It is now a shortsword

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>>49508580

I'm thinking of combining some elements of Ruins of Thundertree to Cragmaw Castle. Any ideas? I'll definitely not bring the Twig Blights and Ash Zombies. I'll probably make Reidoth the druid be a prisoner (probably make a possibility of saving Reidoth and having the Owlbear in Cragmaw an opportunity for Reidoth to befriend and use against the goblins.)

The Young Green Dragon is going to definitely be a spectacle. Maybe appear close to the end when they start to leave the castle. Sadly, I dunno how to bring the Dragon Cultists in (though I believe those forsadow of the Tyranny of Dragons adventures which I'm not sure if we're gonna run) since the Venomfang is gonna be a dragon who appeared there cause it might find the castle as a suitable lair.

>>49507735
On thing to take in consideration, though, is that Conjure Animals doesn't really let you pick what you summon, just their CR. The DM chooses the creatures.

What I do, though, is I use kobold.club with type set to Beasts, the CR the player chose and the current environment in which combat is happening, or closest natural one. That narrows it down to just a few creatures, then I have the player roll to see what they get.

>>49508209
Think of how valuable the monster parts could be, or how dangerous it is. There's also the matter of who's paying for it and how wealthy and willing to pay they are. That said, I don't think there can be a straight calculation. CR 1 and below monsters are worth much much less than CR 5 and above. Like, let's see some CR 2 monstrosities... Griffon and Ankheg. Those feel like they should be worth somewhere between 100-200 gp. Now closer to CR 7... A Medusa is CR 6. A Hydra is CR 8. I feel like those should be worth at the very least 1000 gp. Hydra is closer to 3000, maybe even 4000.

>>49503631
As the GM, I don't want my players to feel any obligation to take any hooks or bait I put out. This comes from my mentality of being a player, and that is that I'm playing a character and not a piece.
You move a piece to the whims of the game, like a knight in chess can only move in an L shape. A character flows and relies on a personality to make decisions and, ultimately, pave their own path.

Now, if it's completely established that there's some railroading fun campaign to go along, then as a player I'll go with it, just taking it as my character would.

How do I run a stealth type encounter?

>>49509359
Get some metal gear solid music going.

Set up a fairly detailed map. Be sure you understand how hide mechanics work. Guards have a passive perception that players need to beat with their stealth checks, but a high stealth check does nothing if the player ends up in line of sight of the guard with no cover. That doesn't mean a guard should instantly spot a player when the guard's movement makes the player's cover ineffective, but the player should be forced to do something to get to another hidden space before the guard gets a turn.

Pay attention to lighting and remember rules for dim light and how it affects passive perception.

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>>49509359

>>49503724

Yeah, this ain't MtG where a creature transforms but first is exiled and loses all previous enchantments and then it re-enters. You would totally keep Barkskin on. As a GM, even if the rules said you don't, I personally think that is anti-fun and would allow it anyways.

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I did a "Yes, and..." today and it was hard. I had to force myself to not just easily go "no." I can see why because you deal with so much as a DM that when players ask for things they just feel like complications to all this work I just did so it's easy to just go "no" automatically.

My response to the question was "Yes and you can attain this custom feat from the Martial Options fan supplement by taking it at a later level or through training in the phb where it explains training."

Anyone else have some good examples of them providing "Yes, and..." results for their players?

First time DM here, only 4 sessions under the belt. It's hilarious watching the players fumble their way through the plot and assume things that're completely wrong.

Plus I didn't realize how fun it is to fuck the players over (fairly).

>>49503724
I've always ruled that when you shapeshift, any spells or effects that would affect your new form stay active. Anything that wouldn't is suppressed, but the duration still ticks down.

So lets say you have both barkskin and charm person active on you. You then wildshape into a bear. Barkskin would remain in effect, since beasts can be targeted by it. But charm person only works on humanoids, so it's effect is suppressed while you're transformed. I was going to use enlarge person as an example, since that was a classic example from 3.PF, but since it affects all creatures now it wasn't a good choice.

>>49509852
>Group automatically assumes religious folks in secluded village are evil cultists
>They slaughter entire town
>Spend the next 20 minutes explaining the campaigns over, they murdered the good guys and irredeemably fucked up
H-Hilarious

Shooting Stars.
You can expend 1 to 3 charges as an action. For every charge you expend, you launch a glowing mote of light from the ring at a point you can see within 60 feet of you. Each creature within a 15-foot cube originating from that point is showered in sparks and must make a DC 15 Dexterity saving throw, taking 5d4 fire damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one.


What happens if I use more than 1 charges? 5d4 fire damage per charge?

>>49509359
You should probably have room for several roles. Even if the main goal is stealth, there should still be room for the louder members of the party (particularly heavy armour users, who already get penalized more than they should) to do something such as distract a guard at the entrance.

I don't know, do it payday style. If the alarm goes off there'll be enemies that come in waves and they'll have to complete objectives while under attack.

>>49509830
What was the question?

>>49510004
Yeah, each charge shoots another star so it's like firing a bow three times.

>>49510004

>For each charge you expend, you launch a glowing mote of light from the ring at a point you can see within 60 feet of you. Each creature within a 15-foot cube originating from that point is showered in sparks and must make a DC 15 Dexterity saving throw, taking 5d4 fire damage on a failed save, of half as much damage on a successful one

For each charge you fire a mote. For each mote, things caught within 15 feet save or take damage. If something is caught within multiple motes, they would have to save multiple times, and would take damage from both motes.

>>49504767

Stop shitposting. 5e is great and you're just being an elitist neckbeard.

>>49504767
Go back to your own general, shitlord. Guy asked for adventure recommendations, not system ones.

>>49510004
Read the very end of chapter 10 of the PHB.
'Combining magical effects'.

Only one of the effects applies, but you can shoot stars at several different locations.

It's NOT firing a bow three times, because that is making three seperate attack rolls. This is like casting 'Charm person' on the same person twice as part of the same action - only one 'charm person' resolves.

At least recommend a good system like star wars ffg >>49504767

>>49510144
Charm person isn't a damage effect, so no it isn't.
It's like targeting someone with three magic missiles.

>>49510229
>>49510144
Or alternatively something like vicious mockery, as that's a save vs. damage.

>>49509968

>group takes down glowing white bear
>the white bear is immune to holy attacks (HINT)
>the bear deflates when dead, and the skin is covering up a breathing body underneath
>party's first reaction is to cave its head in with a warhammer, thinking it's a second form.

It was a forest spirit. They killed the spirit of the forest before even talking to her. Straight up as soon as they saw a body under the fur *kthunk* the warhammer right into the skull.

Hilarious because they're going to regret that very very much.

>>49510229
Magic missiles works as three seperate attacks, except the attacks automatically hit. That's how I see it anyway, in that eldritch blast will make seperate attack rolls for each ray. It specifically states that there are different rays /magical missiles.

Vicious mockery's 'next attack has disadvantage' definitely doesn't stack. The damage itself is questionable, but you could use vicious mockery twice in a turn with quicken spell. The difference is that you're not casting it at the same time, I guess.

If the 'enemy makes a save, then takes damage' is an effect, then by RAW it wouldn't apply more than once.

I don't know, it would've been better if the information like item rarity and charges (6) was included, but by the looks of it... 15d4 twice a day, 1d6 at dawn or so is pretty okay for a very rare magical item but then it doesn't seem like there's really much reason to only use 1 or 2 charges except 'if you only have 1 or 2 charges left'.

Trying to find some sage advice or word on a forum about it, but I'm failing.
I can't find anything that suggests it is allowed, and nothing that definitely suggests it isn't.

I want to play a half-orc paladin of Cyrollalee (halfling goddess of hospitality)

What specifics should I spec her for? I only have the character concept in mind and can't think of the crunch.

>>49510376
A goddess of hospitality would, I think, focus more on protection and healing that smiting. They'd probably want their followers to enjoy life and be merry rather than live in pious devotion all the goddamn time.

So I'd say Oath of Ancients, sword and shield style, focus on buffing and protecting your allies rather than smiting baddies.

>>49508499
this thing is too weak and looks like a cock

>>49510352
Easiest way to figure out if the result of a spell is an effect:

Can it be dispelled?
Damage can't be dispelled.
Damage is not an effect.
If something is within the overlap of multiple cubes from the motes, it must make a save for each cube it is in.

>>49510519
>recharge 4-6 free action AoE charm that causes targets to automatically snare themselves
>possibility of starting the fight restrained
>3d6+2 damage with +4 to hit (advantage against restrained targets, obviously) and an additional 3d8 damage against a restrained target
>14d12+42 HP

I wouldn't call it weak.

Naturally, a sensible party might be able to take it from a distance if it's not in a cramped environment or it can't hide.

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>>49510615
According to the PHB it is. Everything below the duration/components etc is an effect, according to 'casting a spell' part of chapter 10.

>>49508377
Im doing this because the setting im playing requires it. A person casts magic from the same pool, not being limited by "slots"

>>49510864
Then why don't you use the Spell Points Variant from the DMG? Page 288, if you haven't read it yet.

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>>49510229
It doesn't matter if it's damage. Per combining spell effects (and the broader DMG errata on combining game effects), two features of the same name never stack, only the most potent applies.

I think we're alive

>>49502584
Why use roll20 if you are projecting the maps? Even with the highest subscriber level the map tools are complete dogshit.

>>49511120
Probably for fog of war and convenience.

I like Roll20. It's probably the best VTT i've used so far.

>gave a level 3 party a total of 16,000 GP and a boat that flies through space
Was this a bad idea?

>>49511207
No, this was a level beyond bad ideas.

>>49510947
That's still different than what's being presented. A Ring of Shooting Stars' ability to fire motes is a single feature that can create multiple motes at once. 1 Source, no duration.

For a good comparison, see the 9th level spell Meteor Swarm. It too is a single feature that produces multiple areas that require a save, but *unlike* the Ring of Shooting Stars, it specifically calls out "A creature in the area of more than one fiery burst is affected only once."

>>49503631
I tend to bite the hook, or make them myself, pretty often. An RPG adventure story is written as a group, not one guy, which means you should always help the storyteller.

>>49507550
Ive had 2 deaths and around 20 drops to 0, in 5 sessions. Only 4 of them had combats. So around 5-6 drops/deaths per combat session.
Also how do i speed up combat? Skip people who arent ready?

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What if the population of Unther found some strange technology while they were exiled to Toril's sister world.
Gunpowder and the means to create guns and cannons.

>>49511348
Would explain why the world-shifted dragonborn got whooped so summarily after the Sundering.

>>49511207
Bad but also whatever.
Are things expensive? Is the flying boat one of the few reliable means of travel? Do they need a crew to pilot said flying boat that'll eat through those 16,000gp if they aren't constantly pulling in more income?
If no to all of those things, yes.

>>49510753
>>49510615
>>49510947
Damage is an effect, but it's an instantaneous effect, not an ongoing one. Instantaneous effects can't be dispelled, and can stack as merrily as they want (because they'll never try to "both affect a target at the same time). Ongoing effects can be dispelled, and if their durations overlap the most potent effect is the only one that's counted.

>>49511248
I think this would be true. You're caught in multiple individual blasts. Unless the rules say otherwise (like in meteor swarm), those detonations are all instantaneous damage sources, and do their own thing.

>>49511207
The boat is fine because it's mostly a story element - it's not like they can go to places the DM doesn't want them to.

16,000 GP is a lot of fucking money and you should find ways to encourage them to spend it. Obviously don't take it forcibly, since that's a dick move, but this much money is very much easy-come, easy-go. Present them with charitable opportunities like constructing a church (if that's the sort of people they are), or investment opportunities like buying a mansion (because let's face it, they're probably selfish murderhobos).

Is there any way I can encourage my PCs to surrender to guardsmen after being framed for murder of a noble without it seeming like bullshit?

If 5e got a book of vile darkness supplement (or similar), what archetypes would you want to see in it?

Barbarian: Some sort of cannibal, get a bite attack while raging, can eat corpses to regain HP.
Bard: Pied piper type designed around creating thralls.
Cleric: Death domain already exists. Not sure here.
Druid: Some sort of decay/vermin/swarm theme for sure.
Monk: Bring over PF's Hungry Ghost style.
Paladin: Oathbreaker covers a lot here, not sure what I'd replace it with. Maybe a knight that serves evil dragons? Could be neat.
Ranger: Soul Hunter, uses the souls of their fallen enemies to get more powerful.
Rogue: Unsure here.
Sorcerer: Abyssal or Fiendish bloodline.
Warlock: I really have no idea, all of their patrons are already 'evil'.
Wizard: Demonologist, concerned with summoning and binding demons.

Mustache twirling intensifies.

Hey guys. I have a group that wants to start playing 5th edition. There are 4 of us and we want to come up with a fair way to share the burden of DMing. Any suggestions?

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Is it possible for a warlock to wield a wand of the war mage and rod of the pact keeper at the same time and still use somatic components? Could the wand/rod count as a focus?

>>49511842
Cleric: manipulative cult leader, perhaps?

>>49511820
lol no
Actually yes, but the players will resent you for forcing their hands.

>>49511767
They're instantaneous effects, but they all occur at the same time and they don't specify that they'll add up. If it was as a full action and then as a bonus, the bonus and the full action instant effects would add up. However, this is all part of the same action and there's nothing to say that each star makes a seperate attack. Rather, everybody who is caught within any number of stars makes a save against being in a star, and takes the damage if they fail.
You are either inside a star's effect area, or not. There isn't anything that specifies 'A target can also be inside the effect of two stars and makes a different sort of save, same DC but higher damage'.

Scorching ray specifically states that it can affect the same target multiple times and states to make each attack seperately.

I'd really like to see a bit of RAW or some sage advice or something that actually really determines it because it seems the magical item is poorly worded and the only stuff in the book pretty much just says 'Spells of the same effect don't stack.'
I'm not really sure what the RAI is, either.

>>49511820
I had the opposite issue. Expected the PCs to act like proper PCs and resist arrest/run away, but they just let themselves be captured.

>>49511919
Magical wands and rods explicitly count as implements, so that's fine. However, the +1/2/3 bonuses would not stack (so dual-wielding a wand +1 and a rod +1 would give you a +1 to your spell attack, not a +2). You would get access to both secondary effects though.

>>49511965
Wait where does it say the effects do not stack? I thought that was for duplicate items only.

>>49511959
I had this problem once. I expected them to do the 'chaotic dwarf' thing but instead they acted like a proper dwarf should.

>>49511820
That sounds kinda railroadey. Rather, isn't it easy enough to have a scenario for both if the characters are captured and if they run away?

You can always just set 30 guards on them who come along, grapple, shove and net the PCs into submission to the point where none of them can do anything.

>>49511919
A rod is an arcane focus. So is a wand. You're good.

You do realize, of course, their bonuses wouldn't stack?

>>49511952
They don't need to specify that. As Meteor Swarm demonstrates, "no overlap" is the exception to the rule. Which makes sense, because damage is not an ongoing effect, has no duration, and the word "instantaneous" is at best philosophically interesting but not extremely relevant.

The "combining game effects" paragraph in chapter 8 only applies to effects with "durations" that "overlap." Damage has no duration, doesn't overlap, and is therefore not subject to those rules. If I throw 3 grenades with the same motion, they'd all hurt you.

>>49511995
I don't think it says explicitly, but it's common sense. +3 is already enough to bend the bounded accuracy over it's knee. +6 would destroy it.

>>49511862
OPTION 3: THE GODS MUST BE CRAZY
With this approach, there is no permanent DM. Everyone makes a character, and one person starts as the DM and runs the game as normal. That person's character becomes an NPC who can tag along with the group or remain on the sidelines, as the group wishes.
At any time, a player can spend a plot point to become the DM. That player's character becomes an NPC, and play continues. It's probably not a good idea to swap roles in the middle of combat, but it can happen if your group allows time for the new DM to settle into his or her role and pick up where the previous DM left off.
Using plot points in this way can make for an exciting campaign as each new DM steers the game in unexpected directions. This approach is also a great way for would-be DMs to try running a game in small, controlled doses.
In a campaign that uses plot points this way, everyone should come to the table with a bit of material prepared or specific encounters in mind. A player who isn't prepared or who doesn't feel like DMing can choose to not spend a plot point that session.
For this approach to work, it's a good idea to establish some shared assumptions about the campaign so that DMs aren't duplicating efforts or trampling on each other's plans."

From the DMG rule variants, page 269.

>>49511965
>>49512048
That bonuses would stack for warlock spells, by RAW and RAI. They are both magic items and both require attunement, the only way you would get both is by a very lenient DM.

>>49512048
In this case both items are +1. But yeah i can see it

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>>49511842
>Rogue: Unsure here.

Jack the Ripper themed serial killer? Might be too edgy. Maybe a Spring-heeled Jack themed hopping demon rogue.

You forgot the fighter by the way. It's hard to think of examples that don't either overlap with the Oathbreaker (fighter empowered by evil) or the barbarian (bloodthirsty fighter).

>>49512028
By that logic, 'you may attack and deal damage to the same target multiple times' is an exception to the rule when making attacks with magic missiles, scorching rays, eldritch blasts etc.
That would imply that if there wasn't a specific rule for it, you wouldn't be able to fire a second ray at the first target by RAW because it would have no effect.

There are very few cases where save throws overlap, so it's not really properly documentated. You'd have to have a sorcerer cast a save throw cantrip twice with quickened spell, which doesn't normally happen.

It pretty much says 'the effects of the same spell cast twice both work if their durations do not overlap'.
So the question is, does the duration of two instantaneous spells overlap if you fire two of them at the same instant and they land at the same instant?
You could say 'instantenous = duration = 0' but you could also say 'time at which star 1 applies = time at which star 2 applies'

>>49511995
I don't know if it outright says it anywhere, unless you count the "no overlapping effects" section being loudly discussed in this thread right now.

I'd say "well, you can't shoot out of both at the same time" except I'm not clear that RAW you wouldn't still get both secondary effects (+1 to DCs, ignore half-cover). But it should make sense that if you only have access to +1 weapons, you're not intended to have a +2 to hit.

>>49512090
By RAW, maybe, and we can keep debating. By RAI, absolutely not. No past edition allowed combining the pluses from magical weapons (and make no mistake, "arcane focus" is just a magical weapon for spells) because they would allow access to higher pluses at lower levels, which is awful for game balance.

>>49512080
I take it there are more DMing suggestions in the DMG around page 269?

>>49511174
In terms of actual map control maptools is a lot stronger - roll20's map making and gridded maps are the weakest part of the entire VTT.

>>49512135
I'll agree with that, but I could hardly get maptools working half the time. Roll20 is easier to use in general.

>>49512121
No, these are different cases. You'll notice that all the spells you listed were targeted spells, meaning you pick targets and the spell attacks them. In that case, it makes sense to specify you can pick the same person multiple times.
In the case of the Ring or Meteor Swarm, we're talking about explosions. They don't target a person, but rather an area of space. It shouldn't need to be said that their areas can overlap, because that's geometrically obvious. The question becomes whether the damage also overlaps, and Meteor Swarm suggests that by default, it does.

>>49511995
Think of it like this: you gain a +1 bonus to attacks with spells as you cast them through the wand/rod. You're not using both to cast the spell, you're using only one.

>>49512121
I was about to say exactly what
>>49512168
just said.

>>49512178
The bonus is given simply by holding them.

>>49512126
Indeed. Those are Plot Points options. Very interesting, but kind of hectic. You'd need the right group.

>>49512198
Yes. But a ring of fire resistance and a robe of fire resistance wouldn't stack, because it's the same exact effect.

Those +1's aren't different in nature; both of them make your spells more accurate through basically the same mechanism (a +1). In past editions, they'd just have to say "it's the same bonus type" and leave it at that. Here, you're left to realize that there's a reason a +2 focus is incredibly more rare and valuable than two +1 focuses. (foci?)

>>49512195
Type faster, n00b

>>49512165
Fair enough. I've never had the java issues a lot have, the only problem I ever had was establishing a server connection which is moot when you are projecting to a live game.

I guess roll20 would let one window be a player and another window be the GM so you could have a more effective DM screen easier.

>>49512251
>n00b
I didn't realize it was 2004 again.

>>49512272
You could control the projector with a tablet or something, and set the DM up with another machine that has the DM's window open.

>>49512198
Ah! I went to check the items and here's where you have it wrong: Rod of the Pact Keeper requires attunement by a warlock. Wand of the War Mage requires attunement by a spellcaster. Warlocks are not spellcasters, technically, as they lack the Spellcasting feature. One could multiclass, yes, but I think this should be enough to assume those aren't meant to stack.

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>>49512313
Oh shit brotha you might actually be right

>>49512284
>Implying 2004 ever ended

Anons? I was just looking through my copy of S. Petersen's Field Guide to Lovecraftian Horrors, and recalling that Pathfinder introduced a "Deep One Hybrid" PC race somewhere, and I was curious;

Are there any real obstacles to presenting fully-fledged Deep Ones as a PC race choice other than "muh Lovecraftian traditionalism!"

I mean, let's face it, amphibious traits and inhuman looks aside, the Deep Ones are one of Lovecraft's most *human* races; they eat, they sleep, they have a civilisation, they mate, they're capable of bartering with humans convincingly using both carrot ("we will give you gold and rich fishing") and stick ("we will drive away all the fish"), have recognizably human goals...

Let's face it, compared to traditional D&D races like the Lupins (anthropomorphic wolves), Aranea (sapient, sorcerous spiders who can shapeshift into a humanoid form), Diaboli (beings from the land of dreams who look like purple devils), and Tieflings (spawn of mortals touched by the essence of pure evil), do they really seem that inhuman?

>>49512313
A spellcaster is defined as any character capable of casting a spell. Even just the Magic Initiate Feat will qualify you.

>>49512313
>If the prerequisite is to be a spellcaster, a creature qualifies if it can cast at least one spell using its traits or features, not using a magic item or the like.

>>49511842
>Bard: Pied piper type designed around creating thralls.

This is basically how I'm playing my bard. I steal rituals from the villains we kill to repurpose them to my own ends.

I've already made a personal animated armor body guard, a fey knight vassal, a box of ghosts, and there's an Orc-Human political alliance that I forged myself and that I have my eye on to do something aboutwhich soon.

>>49512168
Just because a spell says '(see poisoned condition)' in its text doesn't mean that otherwise it would be talking about some other poisoned condition. Some of the text isn't entirely necessary, but just nice to have.

Not to mention, magic missile functions 'a bit like an area effect spell' according to https://twitter.com/JeremyECrawford/status/610955844918886400 .
The fact that it 'functions a bit like an area effect spell' and thus you add evocation wizard's level 10 feature to every single bolt seems to suggest more towards overlapping instantaneous effects, but in the end the spell still picks targets and specifies 'you can attack the same target multiple times'.

I think the magic missile case might just about prove it though, as it's all in one instant yet applies each individual attack as if different instances of damage the same ongoing effect or something.I don't quite get it, but it sounds better to me than 'a spell specifically states something, therefore the effect is usually what the spell doesn't state'.

Really though, the item should have a clause such as 'Each star resolves seperately' or 'enemies save against all stars in the area of effect and take full damage from each if they fail'. I think it'd be more interesting if you couldn't stack the effects anyway, because otherwise most of the time people will just fire as many as possible at the same small group of enemies unless they're against weak mooklings.

>>49512333
I don't see a problem, I just don't personally see the point. The whole shtick with Lovecraft is that things exist that shouldn't and merely finding out about them is enough to drive you mad. If you treat them this casually, they're really not Lovecraftian anymore.

Lovecraft isn't a setting - that came after. Lovecraft is an atmosphere. Playing a horror makes it... not.

>>49512334
>>49512337
These spoilsports have a point. Stacking attack bonuses is still ridiculous.

>>49512377
If you cluster against people with AOE attacks you deserve to have 3 charges used against you every round.

>>49511997
>railroady

I understand the assumption but when they're told to stick 'em up, I don't intend to punish them for what I expect them to do, that is, flee. It won't be particularly hard to escape as they're quick and good with stealth. I was just wondering if anyone had any methods of suggesting it'd be a good idea/not game ending to surrender. They're a bit new to D&D.

>>49512358
>I steal rituals from the villains we kill to repurpose them to my own ends.


See, this is how you play Chaotic Neutral without going "LOL, SO RANDUM xD"

>>49512409
If enemies spread out so they can't be hit by those 3 AoE attacks, it'd be better to just aim those 3 AoE attacks at the one mook than all three of them.

Having 1 dead mook and two live ones > having three half-dead mooks

>>49512240

Yeah the problem is I'm the only one in the group who has played D&D before and I'm the only one who has DM'd before. But I fucking suck at DMing and they want to learn as well. I was thinking we could take turns every week, but I'd start us off

>>49512442
If you make sure the players are well aware their characters are capable enough of escaping a standard (non-adventurer-proofed) prison with a bit of work, or there's some sort of courtly system they can go through, they might do it.
Also make them aware people might hate them for disregarding the law.

Really depends if the characters are lawful or chaotic or not, I suppose.

>>49512459
>there's an Orc-Human political alliance that I forged myself and that I have my eye on
>chaotic

>>49512481
Unless one mook is already heavily damage and you're not sure how many blasts are necessary. Tactical decisions! They're good!

>>49512519
>Fucking with political alliances primarily for self interest
>lawful
Sword cuts both ways. In either case, it's definitely a Dickish Neutral move.

>>49512566
Fucking with political alliances is still manipulating the rules from within. Plus, you'd notice the dude is building himself an army.
This guy seems LN/LE.

>>49512566
That's more lawful evil, actually.

Furthering civilization and society for your own ends. Forging alliances for your own benefits, putting in a slavery system...

A neutral/chaotic move would be more 'eh, that's too much work, I'll just throw phamphlets about love everywhere until orcs and humans love each other, I don't care about official treaties'

>>49512566
>Fucking with political alliances primarily for self interest

I fuck with political alliances, but its mostly for as you put it, either my own best interest, or preheminently, what my character considers the team's best interest, rather than an overall moral compass, so I'm guessing that overall cancels out into neutral

>>49512603
Sure is neutral.
LAWFUL neutral.

>>49512306
I'd just project the map on a grid using the picture file and be done with it.

>>49512598
>putting in a slavery system...

Is it slavery if by the time I gave them the offer, they jumped at the opportunity?

>>49512670

>manipulating circumstances so others are desperate for your chains

I don't know if it's slavery, but it sure is jewy.

>>49512334
>>49512337
That's weird. I figured warlocks aren't considered spellcasters when I was thinking over whether they could use a Pearl of Power.

>>49511820
Sure, have the guards beat them down mercilessly if they even OC talk about running and lock them into a hellhole prison. If they are wanted criminals and the guard know where they are, they will send in the SWAT equivalent instead of approaching as an individual anyways.

If they want to escape make them earn it.

>>49512358


Y'er a Warlock Harry

>>49503663
Duo lance wielding halfling BM Ranger on a vulture pet
It's not even that good, but by God is it cheesey

Why does Pact of the Blade exist? Is it solely for crossclassing gishes?

>>49503203
So... I know people are checking this out. Nobody got anything to say on the races - or even the other crunch - here? I could really use opinions, or just somebody willing to talk. I'd bugger off and leave you all alone, but I can't get onto EnWorld Forums these days and, as we all know, WoTC's forums have been nuked for years.

>>49512831
people liked hexblade

>>49512815
Can halflings even wield ONE lance?

>>49512845
I'll be frank with you. If you had a short list of a couple of races for worldbuilding purposes, I'd probably care a lot more than the current situation, where you have a wall of race names and no context.

>>49512694
>>>/pol/

>>49512750
They totally can until they hit 7th level.

It's like how Sorcerers who have access to Eldritch Blast (through feat or multiclassing) Can only apply Twinned Spell to it before it produces more than one beam.

>>49512869
Both of your sentences seemed incredibly dumb on first reading, but after 10 seconds of actually considering them they both make perfect sense.

So what exactly is included in "Humanoids" when you pick it as the new ranger's favored enemy.

my ranger is a deep stalker and fought the Drow for decades, so I figured Humanoids would be the right choice as assumedly it includes Drow.

Does "Humanoids" apply to any sentient, bi-pedal race around the same size as a Human? Does it includes goblins, orcs, hobgobbos?

>>49512493
Then do that. Run a campaign made of one shot adventures or something similar. Take inspiration from Acquisitions Inc.

>>49512920
It applies to anything in the monster manual with the "humanoid" creature type. Which includes all player races.
Have fun in PVP, I guess.

>>49512498
They've recruited a few NPCs of varying strength, if they get imprisoned I'll definitely have the NPCs help them stage a jailbreak.

>>49512920
In the monster manual, right underneath a monster's name in italicized text, it'll say something like 'medium humanoid (human), lawful evil.' If it says humanoid there, favored enemy applies. Note that as of now, all PC races are humanoid.

>>49512831
It's actually pretty useful at high levels to bond with a staff, but the obvious use it very limited. It needs Extra Attack and an AC boost.

>>49512970
>Bonding with a Staff that can be used as a quarterstaff
Never thought about this before. This is really appealing.

>>49512962
>>49512968
Ok, thanks. Is there a list of strictly Humanoids out there or do I gotta dig through the phb

>>49513097
>the phb

the MM

>>49513132
>http://kobold.club/fight/#/encounter-builder
Set Type to Humanoid.

So. I think I'm going to a run a oneshot where the party is a band of evil bards. Level 10. Any cool ideas?

>>49513155

Yes. Hunger-Games esque talent show. The prize is satan's own golden fiddle

>>49513097
You gotta dig through the MM, but it's not like you need a list. Like you said, most things with a head, two-ish arms and two-ish legs are humanoids, provided they aren't extraplanar in origin.

>>49513155
Why bards specifically? Would it perhaps make more sense to have them be a performing troupe of non-specified classes, and mandate they all be performers of some type? It seems like all one class would be less fun (because you're always directly comparing yourself to everyone else).

>>49513155
Enthrall the slackjawed masses with the power of Ye Olde Music which Rocketh.

>>49513175
>Why bards specifically?

My guess is that if every one is going to royal rumble, Jack of All Trades goes a long way to keep things ballanced

Be mindful of that counterspel though

>>49513192
It's not confirmed they're fighting each other, though. Hunger games suggestion hasn't been approved yet.

>>49513213

secret six/ suicide squad doing an escape from hell / assassinate the White Duque / we're idiots but not total assholes is an option I guess

>secret six

Oh, oh, one of them lands a Get Out Of Hell Free coupon. Word got out. Plot ensues

>>49513213
>>49513259
Oh, I'm not the bard guy. I was just pointing out that >>49513192 was assuming they'd need to be competitive against each other but there's no reason to assume that yet.

>>49505972
You're missing issues 15, 62, 89 and 90 of En5ider.

>>49512970
What do you mean?

>>49512622
How would you do fog of war / exploration?

>>49511820
Nobody ever likes this
Its always bullshit because you'll need to bring 100 guards to beat the PCs and thats just ridiculous

I had a DM once literally use 10,000 guards with an antimagic field generator and adamantine antimagic shackles because we were framed for the murder of a peasant woman

>>49513440
>beat

The PCs are free to murder their way through a bunch of low level guardsmen who believe they're just protecting their city. The question is, will they -want- to? They have spells like sleep and a variety of ways to escape the immediate threat, and once they do that, the rogue's double movement speed in cities kicks in, AND they're in the middle of a giant festival, it won't be a grueling ordeal to escape.

But yeah, with DMs like the ones you've had I don't blame you for reacting this way.

>>49511820
the best way to do that is to not do that

>>49513175
Because I suggested a single-classed one shot and they picked bard. Besides, they might multiclass around, one has already said he wants to be a bardbarian.

>>49513174
>>49513191
>>49513192
>>49513259
Cool ideas. I was considering having them with a common goal which, once accomplished, turns into a massive PvP, but only at the end of a session. A Hunger Games thing wouldn't be as fun, I think, because the people who are defeated sooner have nothing else to do afterwards.

Serious question: what's wrong with ttrpg players on roll20?

My friend (actually my friend, and not myself) is recruiting for a game on roll20 and like 99% of character applications are some stupid shit.

like he provided clear guidelines that all characters should in some way have some sort of stake in the focus of the campaign, but still all these people make are shit like "blah blah is a mercenary with a mysterious past.. he only cares about himself and doesn't let others get in his way..."

like is it so hard to just make a character that's not a half-demon chosen one assassin? Or an animated suit of armor paladin-mercenary thing using some fucking absurd homebrew race that gives you like ten racial abilities? Can you just play like a fucking soldier turned adventurer or a questing paladin or something that's not fucking dumb?

>>49513629
>turns into a massive PvP

I literally cannot see anything that could go wrong with this idea,

>>49513629
Multiclassing would be fun. Especially if you stipulated they must all have at least 1 or 2 levels, to make each character unique. Not necessary to demand it, of course, if players might do it anyway.

And I do like the idea you have there. "We work together for the [reward]... and if any of us survive, we can settle it between ourselves then."

>>49513694
Gee, I wonder why these players couldn't find games in real life

>>49513440
>Its always bullshit because you'll need to bring 100 guards to beat the PCs and thats just ridiculous

>one of the guards shaking his hands in fear of what you've done to his partners drops a golden orb
>But the rogue tries to grab it!
> Make a dexterity check with disadvantage
>the clerk accompaning them that cowered at the start of the battle is actually a bard. He uses cutting words
>Before the ball cracks, you just see the words " Nanny Ogg's Scrumpentious Sleeping Tonic."
>Every one makes constitutions
>Every one fails no matter what

There, solved your problem

>>49513694
God damn. This is why I don't advertise my games on roll20 and just play with friends.

I only play with text, though, so maybe that's why I haven't applied for your game.

>>49513440
>you'll need to bring 100 guards to beat the PCs and thats just ridiculous
Probably not, unless they're really high level. Unlike previous editions, the guards actually can hit the PCs without a crit, so their damage will be rather respectable.
A dozen or so guards using actual tactics could probably beat mid-level PCs.

>>49513780
>>Every one fails no matter what

>The Paladin / Barbarian / Fighter makes the save
>They get an action in.
>If they try to restore anyone in the party, the bard counterspells as necessary
>"And with round 3 this happens"
>More guards appear and start throwing bolla chains. Or maybe he starts casting a level 3 Hold Person. Make checks onto their dump stats
>Go "Pretty close you guys, but no cigar"
>"But DM, why were they so prepared?!?!11'!!"
>"Yeah, it's almost as if someone tipped them off..."
>The DUN DUN DUUUUN takes their mind off the railroad and into the next mistery

>GM okay'ed a player being a winged tiefling

welp

>>49513870
They're not that broken, especially if you go dungeon crawling a lot.

>>49513870
GM is either prepared with Earthbind, or incredibly naive.

Personally I'm hoping for the former.

>>49513892
i dunno senpai a character having 30ft of fly speed from level 1 seems pretty fucking busted.

Like one of the dudes in our party is gonna be a fighter. How's he keep up with a flying paladin?

>>49513926
If they're going Paladin, they're probably not planning on any ranged cheesing. Yes, a fly speed from 1 is probably too strong, and should be done in some other way, but in this case it shouldn't be game-ruining.

>>49513926
it's probably not going to make much of a difference in combat.

>>49513961
>>49513973
Hold up, what's the rules for having wings?

Can't you not wear armor above light? or you have to have specially fitted armor?

I think a part of me disliking the choice is that tieflings are ultra-rare in the setting and the rest of the party is like, human dwarf elf. Nobody else is some ridiculous character like that, you know? we have a soldier, a merc, and a sage.

"I want to play a half-demon with wings" is a screaming red flag for me, dunno about you guys.

>>49514006
Right, tiefling is borderline special snowflake as it is, only working really well when done right. Wanting to add uniqueness to a tiefling paladin is like wanting to add sugar to a chocolate cake. Like, it's okay dude, work with what you have already.

>>49514006
>>"I want to play a half-demon with wings" is a screaming red flag for me, dunno about you guys.
Now there's a good point, the player very well might be shit, given that they're the specialest snowflake in a party of more mundane types.

I'm sure any reasonable DM would require fitted armor, but I can't think of any particular rules aside from precedent set by Dragon sorc's feature.

>>49513382
Magic staffs are all quarterstaffs and can be bound to like as weapons - same with arcane focus staves.

>>49514095
Which is dumb, because quarterstaffs have to be properly measured and weighted, but them's the rules for ya.

>>49513926

Would you be so buttbusted if they had chosen Aarakocra instead?

>>49513870
I'd OK it, but that guy will be a pariah in settlements and would be warned about it up front. As is I follow the uncommon race box in the PHB pointing out how people react to the different races. The only thing I didn't do was have Barovians murder a dragonborn on sight - winged tiefling would not have the same grace.

>>49514118
That is a layer of detail D&D doesn't need, my man.

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>get tricked into making a deal with a Great Old One

So any interesting ideas for rogue/warlock? Normal bladelock is the obvious path but seems like there are some cool stuff you can do with the other 2 pacts.

>>49514060
>>49514064
Oh and of course, he's got a op as fuck homebrew archetype from guess where.

I'd normally not give a shit about what someone else is playing but shit man, the rest of the party is standard PHB stuff. This guy's got a special variant flying tiefling that's also using busted ass homebrew shit.

>>49514125
yea, who the fuck allows aarakocra? Flying pc races are just bullshit man. Some poor new first time player is playing a non-variant human, that's just not fair to him.

>>49513926
The party I'm running for has an aaracokra cleric. He was the only one that died so far, and twice, even.

>>49514164

well my point was that the anon seemed to be complaining because its a special snowflake race, but functionally isn't really different than an already-existing freak race

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>>49504160
wow I never thought of the Cleric-Warlock before, sounds like a very sustainable support character. You always have some acceptable damage and provide a service most people don't want to play.

Eldritch Blast all day, Heals all night

Would also be cool to make a backstory for a Holy Man getting tempted into Warlockery during the adventure, or use that Warlock patron (positive energy guy?) that grants Radiant and Light spells. They want to bring light to even the darkness of the Underdark.

Could go for a scintillating cool Gold (light) and Black (edge) color scheme, too

Very nice for a conflicted caster or a light cultist

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I need to make a magic lute for one of my players, I already know it will have blasty lightning/Thunder 1st-3rd level spells but I don't know which ones yet, ideas?

How is Moon Druid in the later level? I heard they aren't as powerful, but are they still useful to the party?

Also are they any cool or neat trick, a Moon Druid can pull? I heard something about Spike Growth + Auto Grapple attack and dragging enemy through the floor?

>>49514197

Thunderwave
Thunderclap
Lightning Bolt with a chance to break the instrument or misfire and hit the PC instead

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>>49514153
I heard tomelock can become a "poor's man" version of the two other pacts if you grab shillelagh and find familiar.

>someone brings girlfriend to session to play
>session lasts 7 hours instead of the usual 10 because she wasn't feeling well
rrrrrrreeeeeeeee

>>49514370
>you normally play 10 hour games

jesus fucking christ, that's way too long for a single session.

>>49514197
What the other anon said. There's also Shatter and Witch Bolt, but the latter is shit.

>>49514376
well my tues and friday groups are only 5 hour sessions, so I wanted my saturday/sunday group to be a little longer so we usually go 10.

It takes fucking hours to do anything so it doesn't seem that long when you barely move anywhere.

So I've always been a BX D&D /Runequest GM, but the playgroup has been clamoring to try D&D 5th edition.

I had an idea for a setting I haven't done before, since it's a new system... But cracking the books it looks like I have my work cut out for me.

Frozen North/New Frontier sort of game, mining colony hewing out Ye Alde Fantasy Metale. Adventures (and character origins for people FROM the new world) would draw on Samoyedic Shamanism, Eskimo/Inuit folklore, toss in some pseudo-lovecraftian/buddhist shenanigans with ancient temple-cities buried in the ice-cloaked mountains, maybe an elemental court. More mundane threats would include the weather, pirates, offended sapient orca in the bay.

How well equipped is 5e for such a setting? How hard is it to brew up backgrounds. Should I even bother with archetypes or just leave all that vanilla?

Assuming my DM allow me to use optional pet for the Revised Ranger...

how strong is Giant Crab? It start at 17 AC but the damage is a little low at +3 to hit and 1d6+3 damage. The grapple on hit might be handy though and so is blindsight and swim speed.

>>49514187
The main advantages are eldritch blasting and being able to cast spells like 'aid' on short rests. However, I wouldn't recommend it for non-fun purposes unless your DM allows for maybe 2 or 3 short rests on most days. Otherwise, it doesn't really make up for the lost spell slots until later levels - and lacking level 9 spells and such sucks in itself.

>>49514421
>How well equipped is 5e for such a setting? How hard is it to brew up backgrounds. Should I even bother with archetypes or just leave all that vanilla?

Are you talking about character backgrounds and monster archetypes?

>>49514421
All that you mentioned sounds like fluff, the mechanics of which can be covered by the stuff in the core books already. So it can handle that just fine.

Backgrounds don't really need to be brewed. The ones that are in the PHB are generic, and if you read the front part of the backgrounds chapter it describes how players can customize them anyway.

As for archetypes, I'd avoid messing with them unless there's an option that is absolutely not covered by any of the existing class options.

>>49514421
Character backgrounds? Incredibly easy, read the start of that section in the PHB.

Class archetypes are a bit more difficult.

Yes, 5e could handle that sort of setting very easily.

>>49513813
But thats wrong. Fireball

>>49514535
Why wouldnt the guard's employ a wizard with counterspell?

>>49514501
>>49514531

The only reason I was worried about archetypes was handling a shamanic sort of caster. Though I suppose you could tackle the various portrayals with Clerics and Druids that have been refluffed.

>>49514535
I could have sworn that the guard statline was a bit beefier.

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>>49506400
>>49506350
>>49506245

> A Crown that shows you the future but subtly lies to you to enhance the Lich's power. Currently used by a Good Queen who unwittingly guards where the Lich keeps some of his shit because she thinks it's an entrance to Hell in there. She'll be hard to convince to part with it or remove the guards. The Crown also shows the Lich where you are. The matching royal Scepter might be the rumored fortune telling relic, as a red herring to mislead adventurers.

> A "blessed" church steeple that is actually a Spear/Staff. The parishioners refuse to give it up, as the Steeple protects them from all Evil even when the rest of the town has been attacked, the invaders could not get into the Chruchyard, nor cast weapons or spells at them. The enemies were sent by the Lich to trick them, of course. The Steeple has Protection from Good and Evil at will and absorbs and stores spells for use by the holder.

> A Snake Ring that bites the wearer and makes them immune to poison but turns their blood into magical liquid gold which hardens to gold nuggets on the ground. Used to torture people for money.

>>49514609
Those are just the rank and file. Most cities would also have people protecting them represented by Veteran and Knight statblocks. Maybe also Mages and Priests.

>>49506855
what's the new class

>>49506245
I've made this for my campaign:

The Pale Ring of Myrkul
While wearing this ring, made out of clear alabaster with bone engravings, you gain the following benefits:

Undead Ward. You are considered to be under the effects of the sanctuary spell (save DC 15) to any undead creature. If you attack or cast a spell that affects an undead, or if it succeeds on its save, it is no longer affected for the next 24 hours.

Undead Tongue. You have advantage on Charisma checks when interacting with intelligent undead.

Undead Touch. You can use your action to cast chill touch (+5 to hit) or ray of sickness (3rd level version; +5 to hit, save DC 13). Once you cast ray of sickness from the ring, you can't do so again until the next dusk. If any of those spells are on your class' spell list, you can use your own level, spell attack bonus and spell save DC when casting them.

Curse. While attuned to the ring, you have vulnerability to necrotic damage, as it seizes the opportunity to claim some of your life.

>>49514238
>I heard tomelock can become a "poor's man" version of the two other pacts if you grab shillelagh and find familiar.

Boy, I wish.

Bladelock is a poor man's version of a Tomelock with Shillelagh.

Is the new deepstalker ranger any good?

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>>49511820

If you do this you're a shitty DM and FUCK YOU

>>49514951
It's the same as the PHB ranger's deepstalker (from the Light, Dark, Underdark! UA) but with much better base class abilities, so... yeah.

>>49514568
Refluff warlock, cleric, druid, ranger or sorcerer in some way.

Homebrew generally sucks.

So for the forests gnome "Speak With Small Beasts" I'm trying to nail down what exactly can be done with it, especially since I have a pet mouse from my background. My DM found it a stretch to say "go into this cave and tell me how many dudes there are", but I'd think tasks like counting and pointing directions would fall under that category. Would a mouse that i've grown up with be able to preform more advanced things like drawing a room layout in the snow or be able to discern if something in a room is of importance to me (gold wise and plot wise)?

>>49514381
>>49514236
>>49514197
>>49514236
Alright is this too much for a level 5 (soon to be 6) character?

>protection from evil and good (1st level)
>protection from energy (lightning only) (3rd level)
>Thunderwave (1st level spell)
>Shatter (2nd level spell)
>Lightning bolt (3rd level spell)

>>49515395
drawing? barely, with terrible detail
object identification? maybe, if it was common, or you had a very good picture
people? it should be able to know very vaguely how many, as in one, a few, or lots. but in no way would it be able to identify them

rats can learn quite a bit, including individual people
mice are retarded rats
also, they have a lifespan of something like 2 years max

>>49515440
>

Holy shit.

Yes.

If you want, you should make it start with one or two of the spells but set criteria to unlock the rest.

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So I'm pretty new to D&D (I'm two sessions in now) but I'm already getting bored with my meelee/ranged fighter. We faced an awful lot of elementals yesterday and they all seemed to have some resistance to physical damage.

Is there any way I can give my fighter some more options? Maybe having some trick arrows made that deal fire damage or something? I know almost nothing about playing this game outside of exploring dungeons and interacting with some NPC's we run into. We haven't been to a town or anything yet.