/5eg/ D&D Fifth Edition General

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>>49565514
Does anyone have a pdf of the Planar Bestiary on DM's Guild they can share?

http://www.dmsguild.com/product/193100/Planar-Bestiary?hot60=1&src=hottest_filtered&filters=45469

>>49565763
first post in the new thread?!

must be some kind of new record dude

>>49565774
Well I didn't see anyone else posting besides OP so I figured why the hell not.

>inb4 some autists sperg about me asking for the pdf again.

Plane of Water adventure ideas?

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>>49565514
So I'm thinking about making a disguised night hag supply the party with magical items, scrolls, etc... but slip in the occasional cursed item to keep them on their toes. I want to run a spooky campaign for Halloween and I don't want magic to be too reliable. Thoughts on this?

>>49565763
>http://www.dmsguild.com/product/193100/Planar-Bestiary?hot60=1&src=hottest_filtered&filters=45469

That shit is $10 like seriously just buy it holy shit.

Literally just bag up all the mountain dew cans in your room and take them to a recycling center that's probably $25 right there. There are apps to look up scrap yards that are buying.

>>49566138
Mountain dew is disgusting.

>>49565763
>>49565800
Stop shitting up the thread with this. Jesus Christ. Every single day. How do you not have $10? How pathetic is your life? Just cash in some of you good boy points or something since you want it so bad. You are a pox upon this general. I honestly can't tell if you're serious or just memeing at this point.

>>49566138
When it's a homebrewer that took the time to work on something for the community and is asking for some money for his time and effort, I'm inclined to say that you're being a cheap asshole. Either you pay for what he did, or you figure out the stats for yourself.

>>49566220
It's more of a passive interest. It might be good but the preview isn't worth 10 bucks. Since it tends to reach number 3 on the more popular items on DM's Guild I figure someone might have it. Other people have shared DM's Guild content before and it goes to the community mega so everyone can use it.

On a side note, you need to learn to chill. If my posts are really affecting you that much, I don't think I'm the one you should be calling pathetic. Just ignore the comments and be the bigger person.

>>49566330
(Different person)
Can you at least limit it to maybe asking once or twice a week? Posting in every single thread seems really excessive.

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>>49566330
fine faggot

>>49566382

And when it's the first thing you do any time you notice a thread go up, it's well beyond the point of a "passive interest".

He sounds like he's begging, which is why it's super annoying.

>>49566138
>tfw you buy planar bestiary
>tfw you aren't posting it

Fuck you faggot, seriously its 10 fucking dollars are you seriously that fucking poor?

>>49565809
Doing one now, Sahuagin commodeer the ship the PCs are on and sail them through a hurricane into a crossing into the plane. The ship crashes on the isle of dread/ or doesn't depending on the skill encounter, and the PCs have to find a way back.

>>49566454

I'm not too braindead to manage to make my own monsters or recycle other stat blocks from the MM. It's 5e. If I wanted it I'd buy it but I don't need it. My setting isn't even a Plane-heavy.

>>49566454
Obviously he/she is just super cheap and spoiled. Just because this general has $300~$400 worth of uploaded stuff doesn't mean it's enough.

>>49566489
>My setting isn't even a Plane-heavy
I understand passive interest, but why would you care so much to ask 2-3 times a day if you don't even need it?

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>>49566441

>>49566505

I'm not the guy asking. You're replying to the wrong anon. I was calling the beggar out.

>>49566382
I tried that with a previous thing I wanted for another game and didn't get results. Using one post and one image from the thread isn't excessive. Spamming every other post with my request would be excessive but I think that's a shitty thing to do.

I'm not taking up much space in the thread. Last few threads never reached image limit and out of the number of posts needed to reach bump limit, one post isn't something to complain about.

The last thing I requested was just ignored and eventually I found it elsewhere. The only thing bringing a lot of attention to my posts are anons like >>49566220 that get triggered over the most mundane things.

>>49566449
Not begging just casually asking. People do the same when the new 5e books come out. Since this general has a community mega for DMs guild content I figure there's no harm in asking.

>>49566441
Time Wizards ey. I might be able to get some ideas from this. It might not have been what I asked for but I always like checking out the homebrews posted by others users, thanks anon.

If we're on the subject of homebrew, is there any demand for just a big fat book of more generic npc statlines?

>>49566330
If you didn't like the preview, you won't like the whole thing either. Get a job, sir.

>>49566598
Not if it costs more than 5 bucks.

>>49566572
My mistake, anon. Have a pleasant day.

>>49566575
While I don't agree with you, I do admire your ability to countertroll the Time Wizards poster.

>>49566598
I guess? The NPCs in the back of the Monster Manual have a bunch of guys at CR less than 1, a few of CR 1-5, and like two guys any higher than that. Once your party is around level 10 and getting into trouble in a city, you either have to wing it or send legion after legion of mooks at them.

>>49566614
I was about to call you out and ask if you have seen the preview, but double checking looks like the guy added more pages. Before it only had the cover and index showing what monsters were in the book. Looks more interesting now.

>>49566628
Pay what you want?

I was thinking of just compiling up npcs, maybe making more "classes" of monster races (Mounted-combat focused goblin raiders who throw oil/alchemist's fire?), more generic casters (the ones in the MM are a bit lacking), more interesting generic martials (Net and poison-based bounty hunters?), and that kind of stuff.

>>49566695
Sounds interesting. Would definitely drop 2 or 4 dollars. We can always use more variety in monsters.

Let's just make it a meme to upload fake PDFs of the planar bestiary from now on. Phone posting, but I'll make some up when I get off work.

>>49566695
I tend to run games that are fairly monster-lite. When a monster shows up I want it to be special and potentially terrifying. So I'd probably drop a couple of bucks or something for a bunch of stats appropriate for humanoid enemies.

>>49566645
Not trolling. I legitimately think some of these ideas can be salvaged since my group tend to play silly humor based campaigns.

>>49566726
Please no. That'll just make these shitty arguments take up even more of the thread.

>>49566808
Agreed. (PDF Requester) If my requests honestly bother you, just learn to ignore them.

The only thing dragging out the drama are people with thin skins and aspergers.

>>49566850
>>49565763

Did you at least manage to get the beta version of the document that the creator put up? It's roughly 90 pages compared to the 120 page final version that's on DMs Guild.

I'd dropped you a link a few threads ago I believe.

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Could I use the spell Fabricate to skip the time it takes to craft something (ex: potions) given on page 187's crafting rules?
Feels like something I'd have to ask my DM about, but I wanna ask ya'll first.

>>49566850
The only thing dragging it out is you. You can stop anytime.

Where should I go for basics on DMing? I've played since the playtest, but now some of my friends that have never played want to try and as I've actually played, want me to DM.

I'm assuming Lost Mines is the way to go for first time DMing?

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Why is 5e so lewd?

Is there a way I can spruce up my demiplane a bit? Maybe some trees and open the roof up to whatever sky is beyond these walls of stone?

>>49566457
Hmmm, they've had an encounter with Sahaugin before (ran a modified Dread Pirate Braxis that I converted to 5e), and they also own / Captain their own ship.

Was wanting to do something with either a Sea Hag or a Marid.

So why do warlocks need a patron's dick to suck?
My first contact with D&D was NWN 2 and I still remember Ammon Jerro. Where is the "I'm not making deal with you, you are making deal with me'' feel and using the otherworldly powers instead of serving them?

>>49566951
It's not just him, several angry autistic anons don't know how to shut the fuck up and ignore him. I don't remember the requester talking to the thread until some dumbass started complaining about his requests.

>>49565763
10 fucking dollars dude, christ

>>49567112
You might want to watch that edge, friend.
The whole point of warlocks is that they get their power from a source external to them by cutting a deal. However, their fluff was different back in 3e ("dark magic suffusing their soul") which is why Jerro is different from what you see today.

>>49565814
>I swear my players won't kill her!
One of my players got a +1 longbow and I rolled its features from the tables in the DMG and one of them was a feeling of unease and distrust for the magical item. I'm letting it (very) slowly gain power and soon I think I'll give it sentience. He's already debating whether he will try to destroy it or not every time he uses it or it gains a new feature.

>>49567112
Where are you getting this idea from? The warlock options only say you have to have a patron, not which one of you is sucking penis, or even how feminine those penises are.

In the discussion about Critical Role / Matt Mercer as a DM last thread, more than once it was mentioned that he DMs with a 3.PF mindset vs. DMing for 5e.

What exactly does that mean? I used to DM for AD&D and 3.5, and now 5e. My style is overall still the same (although I feel like I've improved in a number of areas over the years), but it is largely based on who I'm playing with and what type of game we're playing.

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My go-to site for spells was dndmagic.com, but it appears to have been taken down. What do you guys use?

>>49567658
http://googleben.github.io/Spellbook/

>>49567563
One meaning is spells can be used to do almost anything but skills / martial abilities can only be used strictly RAW.

>>49566138
Some people like the preview before giving out the cash. Especially so, if it came to homebrew content.

>>49567790
An earlier version with literally 3/4 of the content was posted a few threads ago so he's had enough of a preview

>>49567112
Is that really that different from divine casters? Especially clerics?

>>49567790
>>49567824
>>49566897

Yup, I'm the anon that linked the pre-release version. The requester is either not interested in checking that out or liked it and wants the full thing.

How much damage is reduced by resistances?

Look up Dice, Camera, Action, folks, it's actually pretty good.

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Posting in fresh thread.
I'm homebrewing a race that's native to a very hostile and barren environment. I want to give them a ribbon feature that allows them to make foraging checks in such environments as if they were a step easier, so to speak. Limited treated as abundant, very little treated as limited. What's an elegant way to word this?
>You are used to making your way in desolate places. When you make an attempt to forage in a barren environment, you consider environments with limited resources to be those with abundant resources, and those with very little resources to be those with limited resources.

>>49567926
Half of the damaged dealt.
just divide it by two and you're done (Rounded down if I remember correctly)

>>49567967
Thanks, brah!

So I'm thinking about making a campaign based around hobgoblins and other goblinoids, as well as ogres with goblin huckers, being the main antagonists, causing great strife throughout the kingdom for unknown reason, and the party is brought in to help quell the problem as well as find out who or what is causing the goblins to attack in such force in the first place. My question is, outside of goblinoids, worgs, and ogres, what creatures are allies with goblinoids?

>>49567789
As a criticism of Matt, that's just not true though. On top of allowing Grog to use his Str for intimidate, he constantly lets them do things skills aren't otherwise meant to do.

As a criticism of edition based mindset, that feels like something that varies from DM to DM. Some people keep things RAW, some people favor rule of cool.

>>49565763
You tried the discord sharing group?

>>49568146
Street to intimidate is literally in the book so fuck you

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>>49567948
Free proficiency in survival and double proficiency bonus for purposes of foraging?

See pic related for inspiration.

>>49568194
*str

>>49568203
Firstly, it's stonecunning, your filename's off.
Secondly, that's a pretty obscure and niche thing. Your party has entered some forgotten ruin and can't find an identifying piece of art or text when the dwarf pipes up "Actually, this is a hobgoblin tomb from the 2nd era. I can tell because of the pixels and the number of stoneworks that I've seen in my time." Foraging is something that happens a lot more often.
Moreover, I don't want to make them better at foraging in normal environments, just capable of doing it in barren ones.

>>49568242
Surely being able to forage properly in shitty environments means foraging in plentiful lands should be a cakewalk for you?
It's already a niche as fuck ability there is zero need to limit it further

>>49568194
>>49568207
The 5e book? So he literally does things in line with the spirit and intent, both RAW and RAI as the 5e ruleset? Really makes you think.

>>49568242
>Firstly, it's stonecunning, your filename's off.
Wow, i never noticed this. Thanks for showing me.

>>49568296
Using intimidate to intimidate someone isn't an example of letting skills be used in non-pure RAW ways, you fucking clown.

>>49568322
The really weird part about this post is that I don't think it's sarcastic.

>>49568242
>Actually, this is a hobgoblin tomb from the 2nd era. I can tell because of the pixels and the number of stoneworks that I've seen in my time.
I kind of love you right now, no homo

>>49568013
The goblins and allies could have any number of beasts or slaves that they force to fight on their side. Captured dinosaurs or wyverns that when released to attack the party, munch a few goblins first. Wild boars or rhinoceroseses. Asshole bandits or pirates that think they're getting some good out of allying with the gobbos. Trolls, spiders, mushroom men, whatever you want.

How would you stat a machine gun from ww1?

I'm thinking

>Can't be moved unless proficient in using, and have 18 str.
>As an action you can lay down a large cone of bullets that deals 4d6 damage to everything in the cone that isn't prone. If you're proficient, you can add a number of dice equal to your proficiency modifier.

I realize this may be stupid, so how would you do it?

>>49568563
Just make it deal 2d8 + mod + sharpshooter/great weapon master damage split among entities in the cone.

>>49568652
This is assuming you'really having it as a standard weapon for the PCs and not some magic item their thing.

Just ordered my very own PHB for 5e. So excited. We've been playing for weeks now but I've had to use the PDF or my friends PHB, it'll be good to have my own.

On a side note, does anyone know any tips for taking campaign notes? I'm not very good at keeping up with the DM as they explain what's going on and the group gets mad if I have to ask them to repeat it over and over.

Side side note, is Horde of the Dragon Queen good? It's what we've been playing and it's been fun so far, but I want to know if it has a good story that pays off later.

>>49568893
>is Horde of the Dragon Queen good
It's definitely the weakest published adventure for 5e, since it was rushed out for the edition's release. There's guides to fixing its big issues online, though.

There's also one really cool chapter that I won't spoil, near the end of the first book.

>>49568893
Easiest thing I've done in my experience is to make simple bullet points as you're playing the game (so that you're not too busy making detailed).

Then when you get time, take your bullet points and sort them into notes about fellow PCs/NPCs/Location/World History. You could do this on small cards or on something like OneNote.

At the start of your session when you're waiting for everyone/goofing around, just refresh your memory and you're good to go!

>>49568893
congrats senpai

when it comes open it up and take a big whiff of that PHB goodness.

HotDQ is actually considered to be the by far worst published adventure for 5e.

If yall are already in it just keep it going, but from what I recall later on it gets a bit bad

Lost Mine of Phandelver, Curse of Strahd, Storm King's Thunder, those are all pretty good.

Out of the Abyss and Princes of the Apocalypse are good too from what I've heard, though I've honestly never heard about Princes

>>49568893
>>49568995
On the subject of note-taking, Trello is a great website for D&D notes if you don't have notecards or are just bad at keeping them in order or bringing them with you.

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Okay, so out of this list of generic and monster race statblocks, do these sound good? Is anything obviously missing? Suggestions?

I want each to feel at least somewhat unique.

http://pastebin.com/A3yrhZJ3

>>49569003
Princes is pretty good if you have a DM who can improvise and runs dungeon crawls well. It's just very open, and there's a lot of different ways players can go right out the gate.

>>49565814
Why not Curse of Strahd?

>>49567824
>>49567858
Not that anon: but all you posted was the cat girl race pdf with the planar handbook page on the cover. The fact that the pdf fit in the thread was easy enough for anyone to know it wasn't the real deal.

Lazy trolling isn't going to stop the reposter.

>>49569554
Not the guy who posted the earlier version, but the guy who posted the catgirl book was me.
The other guy posted a link, not an upload, that was the old version of the handbook.
You're mixing us up.

I hate my co workers. I'm sitting here because my bosses mom refuses to do any work during business hours, but also refuses to see clients if there is nobody else in the building. So I've been sitting here for two hours after closing time, babysitting for this ass, because she's afraid somebody will rape her ancient ass.

Then, to top it all off, she doesn't even conduct her after hours meetings in a timely fashion. For the last half hour, she's been taking about painting a dog house with these people.

And I can't say shit, because she's the bosses mom.

I say all that to ask this. Is basing antagonists for the pcs on assholes you know in real life a good or a bad practice? I can only think of how satisfying it would feel to imagine this person's death at the hands of murder hobos.

>>49569632
I can't help but feel that that post has earned you a spot on a watchlist of some kind

>>49569632
Try not to do that. They make for relatively boring antagonists.

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>>49569575
We get that you're trying to troll the request anon but you're going about it completely obviously.

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>>49569879
I'm genuinely being serious but.. okay?
Enjoy your double agent backwards bait, or whatever it is you're trying to do.

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>>49569575
Nigga, at least wait until the thread is removed from the archive.

>>49570027
>Into the Mists Edition
>No Question
>6 hours ago
We should have kept that thread, this one is beyond saving.

>>49570106
Link is dead anon. This thread's still alive.

>>49568242
Arid Survival
In arid terrain if you make a Wisdom (Survival) check to forage for food or water you are considered proficient in the skill and may add your proficiency bonus twice instead of once

>>49570085
This sounds like I'm trolling but I genuinely don't care about this planar handbook so I never bothered to check if the other dude posted a proper link I just went with it
Sorry :^(

>>49568266
Not very likely as the plants, animals, water sources and techniques would be completely different from desert to forest for example

>>49570163
I'd say if you can find water in a desert you'd probably be able to collect it from a stream
"Plentiful" means "plentiful", there's no point splitting hairs

>>49570185
Hey champ I suggest you go hiking for a weekend without bringing food or water and see how long it takes you to die

Probably a day and a half

>>49570212
Especially if he didn't bring water. I live in the desert and fuck going hiking without at least 4 bottles of water.

Warlock is cool, any good homebrew for more pact boons/patrons?

something feels missing from it

>>49568893
Use index cards, a composition book, or paper.
1) Write down the name of interesting localions or major points of interest. Cloakwater - Lumber Camp
a) Write down why it is of interest. Cloakwater - Lumber Camp, goblins killed everyone.

2) Write down the name of NPC's that you feel are important, recurring, or interesting. Go by the phonetics. Jayne, Jane, Jain, Jhayne, they all sound the same.
a) Write down why they are of interest. Jane - Cloth Merchant, or Jhayne - Elf priest of Sune
b) Write down any tasks/quests they give. Jhayne wants us to go to Cloakwater

As a player, the story of the Hoard of the Dragon Queen (HotDQ) and Rise of Tiamat (RoT) was entertaining and engaging. You play the part of heroes. You visit a some varied locales. It is a dungeon crawl style module at its heart with a light dose of politics.

As a DM, the module needs some tweaking to make it a coherent story that flows well. A number of background lore/information never gets mentioned 'in-game' so some important content and context are wasted unless the DM slips it in through 'notes', 'information gathering', or 'interrogations'. Encounters are somewhat out of balance without giving good reason for why or how to handle the imbalance. This requires the DM to really know the party strength to play things off smoothly.

There are two major reasons expressed for why HotDQ/RoT is the weakest of the published modules.

The first reason the mentioned encounter imbalance. The cause of this is that the module was based off of a combination of DnD Next and other early drafts of 5e, which was pretty close to what 5e came out as.. but not quite a bullseye.

The second reason is the module features a highly linear pathway of progression. The 'railroad' provides little incentive to revisit the module for a second playthough. This reason is highly subjective. I prefer a railroad when it comes to published material. If I wanted a sandbox I would not play a pre-made module to begin with.

Is it common practice to have spare characters made up in case the one you are currently playing dies? I've been thinking about making a couple spares just in case.

>>49570853
I make multiple characters at a time but for me it's just because I get character ideas all the time and I just choose a few to write-up and save for whenever I need to make a new character for whatever situation may arise.

>>49570496
I'm working on a witch themed homebrew for warlocks. The patron is old nature spirits, but most of the content comes from witch craft based invocations and familiar options.

So, I'm playing a character who's from an area with a heavy religious influence, specifically a Church of Pelor controls everything. I'm wanting to come up with a handful of curse words(phrases?) that she can say, ie "Goddamnit," "Jesus fucking Christ," etc.

Currently I've came up with "Pelor's cock!." Or "Pelor's shriveled cock!" depending on how bad the situation was. I've came up with a dumb little flavor story for why it's a thing; in the middle of the Universities is a giant statue of Pelor. The sculptor, for whatever reason, sculpted it nude, and endowed it with less than godlike proportions. The students of the University started saying the phrase as an inside joke, and it spread through the city.

>>49571120
This is fucked up.
But Pelor is the Burning Hate.

>>49571120
If it was so religious
A) the statue would have been foxed or replaced
B) the curse wouldnt be so blasphemous and insulting to pelor

Anyone ever used the "Adventures of Middle-Earth" from Cubicle 7(In the mega link)?

I read through it and it seems pretty great, kinda want to run a game with it.

>>49566441
> posted something more valuable than the request

>>49570685
TL;DR - HotDQ plays like a good Pathfinder adventure path, and Rise of Tiamat like a great one.

>>49571574
What you're saying is the worst of 5e's adventure modules is on par with a good PF adventure path?

What do people think of Chris Perkins as a DM?

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>>49571355
Well, it's not like the sculptor /meant/ to be insulting. The statue is really rather impressive, made of gold, lots of fine details in Pelor's beard, a huge halo above his head. He just happens to have small penis. And anyways, looking through history, the Romans had many, many statues of historically important people and heroes and such. Many of them have small junk.

And it's not like the church condones it. Even churches nowdays don't condone taking the lord's name in vain. Guess how many people do it on a daily basis. Jesus fucking Christ is probably my second most used phrase. Tell a bunch of adolescent college students not to do something, see how well it turns out.

So I recently started playing 5e, but haven't gotten into spell casting yet. Are clerics still the go-to class for necromancer characters?

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I am about to roll a new character soonish.
I still don't know what class I should do and the last classes I have played were druid and fighter, which class should I do now?

>Have a DM that says he wants us to do more interesting things than just initiate combat and hit things
>Never lets us solve things without fighting

>>49571846
Depends on what you wanna play, family.

>>49571760
Necromancer Wizard works well too. For some reason Warlocks don't get Animate Dead.

>>49571871
dude bro I am open to anything
I just want some ideas thrown at me so I can start grindin the good ol noggin

>>49566940
Can't do potions since they are magical and Fabricate says it can't create magic items.

You could craft some armor if you were also proficient in blacksmith tools.

Dungeon Master's Guild question.

Can I reference EEPC and SCAG in my homebrews there? It'll determine how certain spell lists shape up.

>>49571903
Bard is always a lot of fun to play, could even play the Unearthed Arcana Ranger.

>>49571859
>"I want to sneak up behind that bandit put my hand over his mouth to silence him"
>okay roll stealth
>roll 23
>"okay so I creep up behind him"
>wait before that happens a bear jumps out of the tree and attacks you, roll initiative
>"why didn't I see the bear?"
>It rolled a natural 20 for stealth
>"Why was the there a stealthy bear in the trees?"
>There just was
>"Why did it attack me?"
>Because you got too close
>"I never even said I was gonna walk by that tree, in fact that tree is kinda out of the way of the most natural path to take."
>I said roll initiative. Btw, the bandit was alerted by your scream, you see him pull out a dagger and he screams "we've got company!"

>>49571639
That's my opinion having run HotDQ and starting RoT. I'm also in the middle of Curse of Strahd.

Horde mostly suffers from NPC fatigue - not only are they all over the fucking place and they try to not make them die, but many are doing background things that seem interesting. So I gave the players more direct interaction with informants, and spent a lot of time roleplaying faction bickering and backstabbing. It made the players feel like the only sane people actually focused on rescuing he World and its people while politics ducks everything up.

Then in Rise of Tiamat I had the party (who would never, ever be able to capture the castle in HotDQ - seriously a brutal scenario), the party has the black dragon mask and spends a lot of time roleplaying the interactions with factions and the council who now are listening to their words and helping. The political side even led to the dismissal of the open lord of Waterdeep, and a few other story beats that line up with the module better than as written.

On the other hand, Pathfinder APs are typically disjointed messy railroads in the same way all the time. Even the "sandbox" Kingmaker (which is a small hex crawl combined with a typical AP) is a linear set of events and a bunch of poorly implemented new rules. At least some are so over the top it is amazing fun - like Iron Gods or Reign of Winter. It also tends to bounce wildly between edgy stories, safespace stories, muh snowflake stories, etc chapter to chapter because Paizo has a very poor hold over their freelancers. 5e literally foreshadows Storm King's Thunder in Horde of the Dragon Queen because they have two dedicated lore people working on Forgotten Realms storyline planning, and they have the same people oversee contracted writers that work on the whole adventure not just their chuck.

>>49571884
Is it just by virtue of being a good spell caster? Do any classes get good features for handling undead?

>>49572008
Necromancer Wizard and Oathbreaker Paladin both benefit undead greatly. Evil clerics have the whole controlling undead thing, but not much more.

>>49571656
I think Chris Perkins is the aspirational DM. Watching Dice, Camera, Action! he made a paladin think she ate a baby for an entire 2-3 hour show, he makes guests play NPCs following statblocks and NPC rules instead of players, actions of one player impacts the team, bad rolls raise tension but don't just create invisible barriers, he ties the players into a prebuilt module using their backgrounds, he juggles split parties by swapping between them at peak tension or dull moments, he controls the action *effortlessly*, etc.

He's not even a super charismatic guy, but that stream is the most entertaining to me because of his DMing skill.

>>49571884
Warlocks don't get Animate Dead so they can't spam it, short rest, repeat.

>>49572029
Thanks for the tip! I'll look into those now.

>>49571958
Fucking dropbears. Every goddamn time.

I would approve of this DM only is random bears attack the characters all the time for no reason until it comes full circle and they realize the rogue was cursed.

>>49571846
You could pick up cleric. They are a very versatile class if you are creative and use backgrounds and race selection to your advantage. Also classic cleric builds are a pretty decent mix between fighter and druid, minus the animal forms.

>>49572035
>he juggles split parties by swapping between them at peak tension or dull moments

This is a really good thing to make note of for anyone who finds some of their players bored during split party stuff. Also keeps them paying attention because they won't know if you're gonna suddenly shoot back to them or not.

>saw him Saturday
>he won't be coming this Saturday
>or next Saturday
>or anymore Saturdays

>>49565763
Just bought it. Pretty sickening shit fampire. ;)

>>49572442
That's nice. Hopefully someone else posts it soon for everyone to enjoy.

>>49572608
Is this the new /5eg/ meme? Where someone begs for the same handbook every thread and nobody ever posts it because he begs for it every thread?

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>>49571120

Just how easy is LMOP for a totally new, 0 experience DM?

>>49572722
Very.

Just remember to hype up Venomfang or whatever his name was so that the party doesn't kill themselves on him.

>>49572729

Okay. I have a friend who wants to get into 5e but doesn't want to DM it until he's played it, so I figure if I'm going to attempt to DM I might as well try with the easiest adventure. Hopefully, since most of the people have some experience they don't do anything too dumb.

Is it easy to get into any of the adventures from it? I downloaded SKT off the trove just in case.

>>49572751
I think SKT, Hoard of the Dragon Queen, and Princes of the Apocalypse all have suggestions on how to connect LMOP to them.

>>49572765

awesome. dragon queen is pretty bad IIRC, so between PotA and SKT which do you think would be better? Just in case?

>>49572765
Dragon Queen is bad

>>49572783
Have a brief look over the two of them and see which one appeals to you
The flavour of the adventure is an important part of the enjoyment

>>49572751
It's pretty simple to transition to another adventure. There are options in SKT to transition.

Death cleric improved reaper is for 1st to 5th level spells

Does it still work if you cast a 1st to 5th using a 6th or above slot?

>>49572783
If you are a first time DM you might want to do hotdq and then rot because they are more straightforward.

Look up powerscore hoard of the dragon queen for help fixing it up. It might get shat on in tg but its still fun

>Basically playing as an over-the-top Skeletor-like character
>The party rogue keeps tricking him into thinking that what he's doing is evil and part of his grand scheme
>he's actually just helping the party while thinking he has them all fooled into following his evil scheme

Would/Could this character work?

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>>49566598

I'd buy that shit up. Even if it was just a bunch of standard classes throughout the levels. Like say I wanted the party to find a 5th level ranger to help them, instead of spending 10 minutes to make the character, just bam, find the statblock.

Also would love more stats for things like Miners, Prison guards, just your average folk. With the NPC guides in the book it's not "hard" to change things around to suit the NPC, but it certainly would be convenient to have those on hand.

>>49572961
Yes.

>>49566598
Would buy / 10. Coming up with NPC statblocks is a huge roadblock for me in DMing.

>>49572979
I could do miners. The kind that carry mining explosives, or not?

>>49572952

I was going to do LMOP because I heard it was easier for new DMs to do and included a lot of tips for people who probably totally suck.

Are several Will' o Wisps dancing around a place a good enough warning sign for a group of players? Building a cemetary esque encounter.

>>49573018

i was thinking just pick-axe, maybe the Mining Foreman would have a few boomsticks

>>49566695
I like this idea a lot anon, keep us updated, yeah?

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>>49573000
>>49573069
>>49573101
I've started. Here's the second one I've done, a very simple low-level mage.

I want to add in basic tactics, descriptions, or potential plothooks to every generic block, so that might take a while.

To repost, http://pastebin.com/A3yrhZJ3 is a list of what i've got ideas for so far.

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>>49573127

Doin' god's work, Anon.

>>49573127
The alternative spell lists are fucking choice my droog

I have started giving MM entries "feats" to bump their abilities against the party which has feats. My rule is every *CR* increment of 4 I give the option for the boosted ability, and variant humans are a possible racial choice.

For example, a commoner might be able to deal 1d4 on an unarmed strike and grapple in lue of damage (DC 10 to escape). A gladiator might have charger or a archmage might have inspiring leader, war caster, and tough depending on the character (a more bookish one might have observant or linguist or something).

It's really made customizing encounters a lot easier by having a direction to go - especially when you are fighting a lot of one type of NPC.

>>49572035
>he makes guests play NPCs following statblocks and NPC rules instead of players
What do you mean by this?

>>49572930
Yes

Is Giant-Frog balanced for the new ranger as an animal companion? Stats are pretty low but restrain on hit seems powerful as fuck, especially considering the character is playing a Voodoo Half-orc with shield master to shove every day.

>>49573284
I guess rather than waste time making a one shot character he just goes "Okay you guys are like level 6 so here is James the Gladiator." using the Gladiator statline.

Is Polymorph OP? I mean every encounter that is remotely challenging my party just polymorph 1 to 3 characters into a giant ape and shitstomp the encounter while expending very few resources.

>>49573349
It can be? If the wizard gets hit with like, one arrow it can fuck everything up though, due to concentration. And then your un-polymorphed rogue is in the middle of the fray.

>>49573349
How do you maintain 3 polymorphs at once in any sort of realistic scenario? Do you have a 6-man party with 3 wizards? If so, I found the problem.

>>49573383
The Sorceress handles two of the polymorphs with a huge constitution score, massive AC and more absorb element/shield spell slots than you can choke a dragon on, hitting her isn't easy. The other polymorph caster has War-caster so advantage on con-checks as well.

Even IF the rogue is unpolymorphed, he is still as full health and as soon as the casters turn rolls around again, they have the grave misfortune of just casting the spell once more.

>>49573396
Land Druid with Warcaster, Sorceress with Twin Metamagic.

>>49573421
Well, that's a pretty gnarly setup. I wouldn't say it's Overpowered, only that you're using it to its full extent with two casters who specialize in maintaining concentration for such spells.

If you're going to those lengths and your DM isn't A: trying to cockblock you with antimagic, dispell, counterspell, etc. or B: throwing tailor-made encounters to make things 'fair' then

Yeah, it's gonna be a little easy. You'll wipe the floor with most 'normal' encounters, if done by the books.

>>49573021
Maybe try some of the Adventurer's league adventures in the OP?

most of them only take about a session or two each. Def not as ez as LMoP though

>>49573421
Well, what you could always do is plan lengthy dungeons / enemy bases that will eat up these resources if you are wanting to challenge them, or have casters of some sort with dispel magic / counter-spell on their list involved in fights where it is appropriate..

>>49573319
Ah yes, it's also been pretty fortunate and great the guests have been entirely on point. They manage to breathe life into these mundane npc stat blocks and really immerse the pcs into the world of Ravenloft.

Shouldn't polymorphed allies behave like wild animals? With their own temperaments, but would they really be viable combatants?

>>49567142
That just means the root problem lies on the requestanon.

>>49573465
They maintain their personalities, but their mental ability scores change.

Has anyone tried to do mecha in 5e.

>>49573449
That's a nice way of putting it, I don't mind them using their strengths to their advantage it just seems to be a pain when the response to a monster 5-7CR above them is just "Fuck it, go Harambe" and it works every time.

Spellcasters and other tricky foes are even less of a challenge due to tiny HP pools in 5e mean they get dunked on in one round before they act.

>>49573482
The best way to punch through their resources and put some pressure on them is to simply put them in a situation where they can't rest.

Just, don't let them rest for an entire session.

At all.

Keep throwing things at them over and over, harass and harangue them at every turn and force them to realize that they may need to start rationing spells.

And then when they run out of slots, keep throwing things at them.

>>49573421
>>49573430
Try:
>more combats per rest (5-minute workday makes casters very, very strong)
>Smaller spaces where giant apes won't fit
>Counterspell/Dispel Magic

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Is there room for a Cleric domain that fits with Great Old One like entities, or less benevolent gods of knowledge or dark secrets? Perhaps Madness, or...what's a single word for 'forbidden knowledge'?

>>49573482
>>49573496
>>49573524
It's reasonable for intelligent enemies to have heard of the heroes and their tactics and come prepared.

Tranq the harambes.

>>49573127
>>49572979
Uh, before you get too ahead of yourself.
Look up "Adversaries and Allies." Seems to be what you're trying to do.

>>49573597
Oh, I'm sure there's something like this already out there. I'll check it out and see what it hasn't done, and do that.

>>49573478
no, but the recent Zoids threads have been making me want to do it.

>as an action your Panzer Liger can cast magic missile 4 times as a 9th level spell.

FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK

>shield liger uses shield

Would love to try it, even if just for a one-shot.

>>49573619
Cool, that was my intention. Didn't want to dissuade!
I've personally gotten a ton of use out of that one and anything that added to it would be more than welcome.

>>49573531
I've been meaning to try this one out for some time. See how you like it.

https://www.reddit.com/r/UnearthedArcana/comments/3rpgsv/madness_domain_cleric_5e/

inb4 >reddit

>>49573478
One of the Acquisition Inc. episodes from PAX (I want to say Pax East 2015) had AI get into a magic mecha and fight the Terrasque.

What's a good enough amount of warning you think a party can get before they can blame being hurt by a trap not by fate (or the DM) and start questioning themselves?

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>>49573647
Seems like Adversaries & Allies takes the rather clunky approach of adding a full suite of PC abilities to each NPC, and only PC abilities. I suppose that's fine for the end user, since the statblocks are already there and made, but it's not really the approach i'm going to take.

>>49573653
Interesting take, but I feel like it might rely on the madness table a bit too much, especially when a couple results on those are powerful, or rather unclear. Suddenly having a chance to incapacitate each enemy within 30 feet for a minute, or just have them want to eat mud with no stated concrete effect on their behavior, is a wide net to cast.
I feel like what I want to go for is...more forbidden knowledge, a tinge of madness but also hidden secrets. I'm sure there's a word to describe it but I can't think of it for the life of me.

>>49572783
PotA is a toddler sandbox. The party is confined to a valley region of the Sword Coast. It is open to what they do within that region, but it does not delve into what is happening outside that region. Your replay value is limited to the order you execute the dungeons, which changes some minor things about later dungeons and a few overland encounters. Very much a dungeon crawler at heart. The timescale of PotA is less than a year.

SKT is Mars. You get a space ship and you can go anywhere, do anything. That is a lot of sand. Your replay value is extremely high as you will only use about 1/3 to 1/4 of the book during any adventure. Very much a set stage encounters, almost one-shot, at heart. The timescale of SKT can be a year or more.

If your group likes free form within structure, go with PotA. If your group likes balls deep free form, go SKT.

I feel that LMoP flows into PotA better. In LMoP you become local heroes. In PotA you become small regional heroes. In SKT you become both unknown heroes while being world heroes at the same time.. Both can start in Triboar, which is very close to Phandalin.

Do DMs have to follow the spellcasting rules and game rules applied to them, or does the DM guide give them access to special over powered versions of spells...?

I've been trying to figure out what happened int he last session I played by looking through the spells. He had someone use dimension door but didn't follow any of its requirements and gave it a range of 40+ miles.

>>49573848
DM Fiat has always existed.

>>49573848
NPCs do not have to follow the rules for player characters at all, only the rules of the setting.

>>49573869
I don't know what you mean. Homebrewing stuff?

>>49573888
So spells that are impossible to detect and impossible to escape is fair game? Why am I even playing this game...

>>49573349
Problem is you may not be enforcing polymorph properly. Polymorph changes the effected creatures mental stats as well as physical stats. Personality remains, but personality is not combat tactics and higher thinking. It is a monkey flinging poo while knowing it likes to protect his buddies from harm. Even a monkey that wants to protect his buddies might flee if he becomes injured enough. Heck two Giant Apes may decide to have a standoff in the middle of the fight to show dominance or to impress the third female giant ape that just appeared. Maybe the enemy is an expert in handle animal and shoos the miscreants away.

TLDR: If someone becomes polymorphed, they need to play the character as if they were a beast of that type.

>>49573903
Why ARE you playing? Clearly this game just isn't fair or balanced!

You should quit and never play D&D again, and never return to /5eg/. That'll show your DM.

>>49573942
Is there even a point to this comment, besides shitposting at me?

>>49573903
Perhaps the NPC has the blessing of a god, an artifact of unknown origin, or a contingency spell trigger that was keyed to a wish or teleport spell.

>>49573903
The DM is the overseer of the game. You're sitting in a circle telling stories together, and you've explicitly tasked the DM with serving as the entire universe outside of your party.
However, they are also tasked with the majority of pulling the weight to make the game 'fun', or at least the common fallacy is that they are since they can easily put the most strain on the game the fastest by abusing their relatively greater power in contributing to the story.
The DM and all players have the goal of contributing to have a fun game together. The DM is also uniquely tasked with being the keeper of rules, so they can bend them, ideally in order to uniquely contribute to the game.

>>49573995
Given we're all low levels that's unlikely. I think he didn't want to split the group (two players did something stupid, and we don't want a part of it), since he claimed we've all had tracking spells on us for days that apparently can't be detected, can't be felt or noticed, and has some sort of indefinite range and duration. My character is collateral damage in what's coming and hes been deciding for me what my guy does for his own convenience. When I argued saying my character wouldn't do that I got punished.

>>49574019
I get that, but he didn't bend them for fun, he bent them to punish all of us for something two players did.

>>49574106
If you disagree with a problem caused by the DM's reaction to the other players, take it up out of game with the DM and other players.

>>49574129
That's what I was hoping to do, but now people are telling me DMs can go "magic/ setting I don't have to explain shit".

>>49573971
>So spells that are impossible to detect and impossible to escape is fair game? Why am I even playing this game...

this shows that you don't really get the game. The DM decides what is "Fair Game".

He can ignore the rules of a spell, or an ability, or whatever he feels like if he wants to. If he felt that he needed to Dimension Door a character 40m away, then that's what he felt needed to be done.

Now, because he can shouldn't mean he should. Frankly I think Dimension Dooring an npc or whatever 40m away is lazy. If I was the DM I wouldn't pull that no matter the situation, because I would never allow a situation wherein that is the only solution to ever occur. I'm assuming your DM had some plot-important NPC Door away so that yall wouldn't capture or kill him or some shit, and if that's the case, your DM is inexperienced or simply ill-prepared.

You, like pretty much every new player, are looking at the rules and treating them like you would in a "Game", such as a video game. This is why you think it isn't "Fair" when the DM does something that doesn't comply with the rules.

One big piece of advice I always like to give is that Dungeons and Dragons is not what's in the Player's Handbook, the Monster Manual, or the Dungeon Master's Guide. D&D is what is created by the players and the DM as their game progresses.

TLDR rules are not rules, and are only "Rules" to a player because the game would fall apart without them. To the DM, they are guidelines.

Players adhere to rules because if they didn't the game wouldn't work; it'd just be "I hit the dragon with my longsword, which does 20d12 radiant damage because i want it the Dragon to die".

>>49574146
They can. That's not their job, but the power given to them to facilitate their job, of weaving a game for the group that brings about a formerly agreed upon feeling or feelings from the group (fun, suspense, challenge, power fantasy, arousal, etc) and they're doing their job poorly if they actively choose to consistently do things that evoke unwanted feelings (excessive sadness, anger, frustration, powerlessness, arousal).
You need to talk to your DM and inform them that you don't enjoy this. You might then be informed that this was an earnest attempt that failed, or to take it up with your fellow players, or learn that your DM is a power tripper you don't want to game with.

>>49574158
>so that yall wouldn't capture or kill him
Actually we were trying to escape, and he even said he really enjoyed our escape attempt but that it wasn't going to work and spawned dimension door where we were at and keeping watch. We had escaped 8+ hours ago, and the DM even knew we were going to catch up to where they were taking the troublesome party members.

Then at the gate when we were going to be arrested he spawned guards on us again and auto-arrested when is when I started arguing that my character would run again, since my character was lied to about how the arrest would go down. I was basically told to bad.

I understand DMs can make stuff up, but I assumed the non-dick choice would be to try and base it off existing spells or make a plan to accomplish what he wanted that made sense. Deciding somethings impossible, especially when he knows no one is going to have fun with what's happening next session just seems like a shitty thing to do.

>>49574146
Your misunderstanding a core part of RPGs. The DM can and should weave an entertaining game, and that can mean bending, breaking, or ignoring entire parts of the "normal" d&d world.

The PC is bound by certain rules, because those are what allow the adventurers to exceed the norm. Your class levels will, at least typically, result in you being better, faster, stronger, than the normal person you encounter.

The same is true for NPCs meant to be more than normal, especially BBEGs or individuals meant to be threatening beyond banditry.

This can mean that you, the PC, sees something they can't accomplish, just as the villagers witness the same every time the PC takes an action.

Now, the DM sounds inexperienced, and potentially even bad, but seeing "new" or "improved" spells should invoke a response from PCs aware of the normal limitations. That can be interesting, and thus entertaining.

>>49574234
He won't know unless you tell him. Message or talk to him privately and express these feelings. You could learn a lot from his response.

>>49573597

Oh thanks I didnt even know this existed.

>>49573848
You sound like a typical rules lawyer faggot anon.

Stop trying to metagame an rpg and just go with what the story and what the DM tells you happened.

>>49574234
Oh, well that's called Railroading.

Your DM wanted an outcome (You guys being captured), and either isn't experienced enough to come up with a logical, yes-that's-what-would-have-happened reason, or doesn't give a shit, or is so set in his mind of what he wants to happen in his campaign that he just bullshits his way to making it happen.

So to enact that outcome, he makes there be no way that outcome can't occur. You guys running away? Dimension door beyond the limit of Dimension Door and Guards teleport in to arrest you.

Actually your story is quite funny, the "forced arrest" is a classic example of shitty DM'ing, next to an omnipotent DMPC.

If I wanted to arrest my PCs for something, I'd probably have clever law enforcement set up a honeypot operation or a trap of some sort. Some party member overhears some NPC talking about a lightly-defended cache of weapons or goods or something and when the PCs show up, the law enforcement jumps them. It should never, ever be a cut-to-black-you-guys-are-in-jail-now thing, but I'd make it a situation where the PCs couldn't just murderhobo their way out. Think about real life; if some law-enforcement agency set up a trap for dangerous criminals, they'd bring enough law enforcement to ensure those criminals capture, right? So springing 10+ guards on a party of 4 would in no way be bullshit, that's just consistent with logic.

I wouldn't arrest my players in the first place though, unless they had done something truly murderhobo-y and high profile and left witnesses.

Frankly anon, it sounds like your DM is either shit or really new. If he's new, try to talk to him about this stuff. Show him https://youtu.be/6XikjjQok5Y and the other videos in the series, tell him you watched them and saw some cool ideas for campaign stuff in there so he doesn't think you're just straight up like "You're shit senpai watch these and get better"

If he's shit, skiddadle. Little to do there. Don't ruin your D&D experience with a shit DM.

>>49574354
Legitimately the only time I've seen "all the PCs are captured" work out in a non bullshit way is when the players start the first session there.

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This is going to take a while.

>>49574354
>>49574406
PC's are unwilling to accept they aren't omnipotent gods that consequences can never happen to.

If the establishment of any city wanted to arrest or even hang them they could do it easily.

>>49573694
After they fail the trap disarm?

>>49574406
Yea, it's no beuno

I do admit, I like "Some of the party has been captured, some escaped, the captured partymembers need to find a way out and the escaped party members need to find a way to rescue the captured members!"

That's engaging enough to not be total bullshit, but the process of getting there is what's tricky.

>>49574421
PCs are the protagonists of the story. The story should always err in their favor.

They are also not just some random people, assuming they're past like level 3.

Remember that even a level 1 adventurer is above average compared to the average person. Not every guard is a Fighter etc.

>>49574421
I think it's more that assuming an outcome is bad DMing. Sure a party of PCs could be overwhelmed by great numbers, but what if they're lucky or clever and some of them escape into the sewers?
Or what if one of the players gives themselves up to let everyone else escape? Rewarding that sacrifice would be a cool moment in the game, plus a jailbreak or saving someone from execution is a fun mission.

>>49573848
Then that exists in the world you live in! Rejoice as once you defeat the dude your local wizard will be happy to pay a pretty penny for it.

>>49574432
No I mean, like, in an open area I put five dancing wisps, you think that's a strong warning of danger?

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>>49572979

Anon I find a really good strategy for this is to just know a few things generally and come up with shit on the fly.

So like a martial focus character around lvl 5 is gonna have a +7 to hit most of the time (main stat of 18 and prof +3. Defensive focused martial characters might have a +6 instead because Constitution.

Health is about 8x the level you want them to be, give or take 1-3x lvl depending on whether they are scrawny or have godly forms.

No PC ever builds a character focusing around every single feat at their disposal. Memorize a few of the more impactful ones for each class and the restrictions on them. Then either just keep the feat in mind or find a way to work it into the NPC in a way that results in a similar power/utility increase. So for Monks Ki is fairly simple so keep stunning strike in mind. A ranger will probably only focus on like 1 or 2 spells per spell level they know. For a Battle Master, for example as a class that might have too many options to implement quickly, add an extra weapon die to their attacks to simulate throwing out a maneuver die every now and then (greatswords hit for 3d6, longsword 2d8 etc) and give them a special option to replace one of their attacks (such as shield bash) that hits for less damage but can knock people over etc.

I feel like this is a lot more straightforward, although it does require a good memory of the various feats, spells, and mechanics of the game.

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Who uses minis and battlemaps?

I don't like to give players maps because then they spend too long debating optimal tactics and it feels like playing Descent.

I prefer to rely on providing descriptions of the combat and relative distances. But all the major dnd players seem to like battle tiles and figures.

>>49574630
Personally, I love the tactical aspect of minis and maps. It's part of why I'm really sad 4e went away. That said, I can see where it would bog things down, and TotM definitely works better for some groups.

>>49574630
we have a grid and minis to help figure out basic strategy, spell range, movement speed, etc

without some physical markings players get confused
>is the door on the left or the right?
>wait there's a door?
>there's a corridor??? well I wouldn't have done that if I had known...
descriptions are hard to hold in your head while planning what to do, and when it's a room your character is in it feels cheap to be deprived of basic visuals.

>>49574630
i play d&d to play an rpg not a roguelike
i really like being able to do everything through audio only

>>49574630
There are some issues a DM can face when trying to deal entirely in theater of the mind, even excluding issues of tactics and combat mechanics.
I, for example, have memory issues. Even using a grid map with minis, i sometimes have to re-ask for descriptions of areas we've been to, and having very basic little pictures drawn can really help.

What are some good level 1 and 2 damage spells for a sorcerer?
I feel the spells I've taken so far are suboptimal.

>>49574630
I tend to use maps/minis for large encounters in DnD and rooms with interesting features. Small encounters get pure theater of mind.

I find it eliminates most sources of confusion.

>>49574630
I love minis and battle maps personally. It makes planning your turn as well as visualizing the battle so much easier as a player and as a DM it helps you know what your monsters and bad guys can and cannot do due to terrain and ally / enemy placement.

>>49575068

Pure damage?

Level 1 Thunderwave and Magic Missle. Chromatic orb if your looking at numbers.

Level 2 Shatter and Scorching Ray

Effective dickery? Sleep.

>>49575211
Was thinking of Sleep, but we're doing Curse of Strahd.

>>49575068
I like Ice Knife, specially if your DM rules it can be twinned. At low levels Sleep is amazing. Swarmed by kobolds, goblins or what have you? Put 'em all to sleep and save the day! Shatter is good, and if you want to have a bit of utility Invisibility is never a bad choice. Personally, when I played a tiefling sorcerer, I also picked Maximilian's Earthen Grasp. It's a fun spell.

Fuck I love playing a sneaky, tanky Ranger. Got amazing dex rolls, so with Pass Without Trace I get a +17 to my stealth rolls. 51 HP at fifth level. Four spells. My dex modifier and my proficiencies and my +1 bow give me a +8 to my attack rolls or a +3 if I want to use Sharpshooter to get an extra 10 damage. That and Hunter's Mark and Horde Breaker equals damage for days my guys. Damage for days.

Quick question though. When you roll a natural 20 on attack rolls, does the base damage you do double, or do you just automatically do max damage, I.e 2d6 damage would be an automatic 12 instead of rolling 2d6 and doubling it?

Thanks my guys.

>>49575326
You roll the damage dice again, but don't add your modifiers again.

>>49575268
Ah, in that case, Color Spray is nice debuff that surprisingly still works on any undead IIRC. And don't forget to get Chill Touch as one of your numerous cantrips.

>>49575334
You're supposed to add strength/dexterity modifiers to damage rolls? I was told it was only supposed to be applied to attack rolls.

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>>49575353
Essentially, if you have +4 dex, a +1 longbow with Hunter's Mark and Sharpshooter, on a hit you can deal 1d8+1d6+4+1+10 damage. On a natural 20, you can deal 2d8+2d6+15.

>>49575367
jesus christ

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>>49575355
>>49575290
>>49575211
Thank you fellow travelers, I will now show Strahd who is the boss around here.

>>49575367
PHB page 106
>Damage Rolls

>>49575374
>>49575388
Well Fuck me. How can I bring this up without the DM getting angry? I don't want to make it seem like I'm correcting her or saying she was wrong.

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>>49575407
>she
She's fucking stupid

>>49575407
Show her the PHB, or alternatively your dick.

>>49575420
I wouldn't go that far. She's actually very nice. I just think she's new to 5e. To be honest I am too. I've only played 3.5 before this. I don't think the 'she' part has anything to do with it.

>>49575421
I don't think that'd go over well.

>>49575407
Bring it up before the next session. Just ask her to look that page in the PHB, and if she has the Monster Manual, how all monsters add either Str or Dex to their physical attacks.

>>49575420
Ignorant DMs are a large source of suffering. I once had one that had monks roll only once for both attacks in Flurry of Blows then if it hit they had double damage.

>>49575407
Definitely talk about it outside the game, not inside.

>>49575443
>I don't think that'd go over well.
Why, is she opposed to the PHB?

>>49575461
No, but I think she'd be opposed to the BBC. Not that I have one of course. I couldn't think of another three letter acronym that meant dick.

>>49573482
They have shitty int and cha and pretty bad wis, use saves

God I just hate this one guy in my new group so much.

He's never played before, which wouldn't be an issue, except he constantly tries to act like he's some D&D veteran and is probably the most obnoxious rules lawyer ive ever seen, and we've not even played yet.

Endless yammering about his "build", trying to get people to give a shit about his male human fighter with the soldier background like it's something no ones ever thought of before

On top of all that, yall remember that kid on the playground who constantly, constantly lied and then bragged about pointless shit? That's this kid.

Im sorry 5eg but I needed to vent. Everyone else is already sick of him too, they don't even bother replying to his dumb shit now. And the games not even started.

>>49575690
Unless your friends with him outside the game. Just fucking kick him already, or convince the GM to do it. Barring that tell him to shut up.

Are familiars useful? I'm torn between getting that or Magic Missile as my third spell as an Eldritch Knight. The familiar seems cooler but I doubt it will do much in battle...

>>49573021
I meant lmop into hotdq

>>49575756
People here always act like you can just talk your way through everything

You canbwith normal, functioning human beigs sure, but this guy is clearly on the autistim spectrum. If I told him to simmer the fuck down he'd probably have a meltdown and go beat up his mom like in that louis theroux documentary.

The DM is way too polite (or too much of a pussy) to do anything even if I brought it up, which'd be pointless since he already knows.

I really dont know why my DM let him in, it was obvious from his application that he was an undesireable.

He literally I shit you not wanted to play that DragonKnight homebrew from dandwiki, no joke.

When told he couldn't he straight up copied my character, down to class archetype race background alignment and even fucking home town. We told him he should try and make his own character and he got all prissy, and said that his character was completely different, then made some dumb thing I didnt read.

I'll stick around for the first session and see how it goes. If he's as terrible in game, I'll bring it up. If it's real bad and the DM won't too anything about it, I'll just leave. In two other campaigns that don't have a captain sperg in them.

>>49575883
Sweet jesus i have to apologize for how fucked all that post is

If you guys ever consider getting a samsung phone, don't. The keyboard has a like 1-2 second delay and just completely ignores inputs at times

>>49575783
Familiars are really useful.
As a Fighter, you have enough combat capability without adding more through your spells. You really don't need Magic Missile.

>>49575894
I have the same problem having just recently switched from a Sony.
Sometimes my keyboard stops for a second and then repeats whatever the last couple words I typed over and over.
So it comes out with a sentence that's like this like like like like like this.
Fucking bizarre.

>>49574630
Personally I don't like to give them battlemaps, firstly because i can't draw for shit and secondly because i don't have money for minis and i feel bad by just having a sign on the map. But the ugly truth is that with Maps my players are 100% more involved in the game and don't start to search for their phones.

>>49575690
He's excited to play and is happy with the choices he has made. Don't be a cunt you daft cunt.

>>49575783
Find familiar is worth gold. Seriously. Cast it for an owl and boom, an extra pair of eyes to roll perception with dark vision and advantage. Plus the ability to scout with flight and just the role playing aspect of having a majestic as fuck owl.

Any opinion on the domain management rules from here: https://gurbintrollgames.files.wordpress.com/2016/08/combined_wip.pdf

Does anyone know if the loremaster edition of the adventures in the middle earth might have a prewritten campaign in it? Would like to buy it when it comes out but would like someone preset to run.

>>49576006
>with Maps my players are 100% more involved in the game
Hear hear. It's just so much easier to get involved when you actually have a visual representation for stuff. Even more for online games, where you don't even have decent communication some of the time.

>>49576059
So a familiar basically gives advantage to every attack? That seems pretty useful.

>>49576365
Until someone looks in its general direction and the familiar dies, with its 4 HP.

>>49576365
Pretty sure getting advantage on attack rolls depends on how you use it but you get two perception rolls where you might only make one giving you advantage by definition.

>>49567003
l-lewd.

>>49576365
Yes, sage advice just confirmed familiars can take the help action.

>>49576373
>>49576377
>>49576478
Pretty cool. What should I name my new owl familiar, /tg/?

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>>49576506
Horton.

>>49576365
Only the next attack when you use the Help action to assist with an attack.

Super useful giving your rogue or fighter or yourself advantage when needed. Was thinking next time when the planets align and i can play of doing thief rogue + magic initiate for a monkey and have some kind of Alladin + Abo tag team.

Is there any reason NOT to get booming blade on a tempest cleric. It just fits the theme and in insanely powerful but you have to get a feat to get it.

>>49576609
>Need a feat
What are high elves?

>>49572621
Yes. When that handbook costs $10 and goes to funding some individual that put a SHIT LOAD of work into their product and the guy begging is an insufferable cunt.

>Trying 5e out for the first time.
>Starting at level one, not sure how long we'll play.
>Only other player is halfling rogue.

Any suggestions for good two person parties? Does it even matter?

>>49576786
That basically still costs a feat since you need to use an extra ASI to max Wisdom.
So, SCAG variant half high elf.

So for those of you that use (and enjoy using) critical fumbles, what do they look like for spell attacks?

>>49576913
Or variant human with Magic Initiate.

>>49576909
Paladin

>>49576909
It doesn't matter.

My suggestion would be a Str. rogue or fighter, and you guys can go the "You hold him, I'll punch him" buddy / goon duo route.

>>49576528
Horton it is. Now I just have to whip up some backstory and I'm good to go.

>>49565514
What is the most broken build possible? I'm curious how possible it is to break this edition.

>>49577043
There isn't any breaking. No infinite loops or reality bending. No Pun-Pun. No Peasant Railgun. No Arrow of Destruction. No Clericzilla.

None. Now you are free to have *fun*.

>>49577063
Neat. What are the neatest abilities, in your opinion? I heard Druids are cool, specifically moon Druids.

>>49575789

Oh, okay. I'll keep that in mind. Maybe by the time we finish LMOP we'll have internet again.

(I'm moving to a new place with the guys who want to play, so we won't have internet for a while. It's why it'll be important for me to dl stuff now)

>>49577077

Druids are fun, yeah. Shapeshifting is most powerful at early levels, when the party is most vulnerable and in need of friendly bears. After level 10, you'll be using your shapes mostly for utility; cast a concentration spell, then turn into something with good mobility, senses, whatever. Or a giant constrictor snake! The improved grapple is fantastic crowd control, and also pretty damn cool to imagine. We've got a moon druid in our party, he's a swell guy.

Another really strong ability that doesn't get talked about as much is wolf totem barbarian's pack fighting thing. Barbarian attacks something in melee, EVERYONE gets melee advantage against it. Our wolf barb is fantastic lead offense. She picks a target, howls, tears into it; we pile in after her, and it goes the fuck down. Excellent tactically, and gives her a sort of leadership role in the group.

>>49576944
They fizzle as soon as they leave your hand, or go blasting out into the distance to smack some poor innocent 3 miles from you.

>Critically fail an eldritch blast, ray of energy goes flying off. 2 days later they come across a town where an old woman is found dead in her garden, medicine/investigation/arcana checks find an eldritch blast wound to her head.

Running Curse of Strahd, any ideas where the party would be able to find new weapons /silver their weapons? It doesn't seem like there is a smith around in any of the towns. Should I add one to the central town?

>>49577239
Have them find corpses of previous adventurers that fell before. A Waterdeep Tabard with a Silvered Battleaxe is much more interesting than buying one from a smith. Or sell them in general stores, but like one per town.

>>49577239
There's no silver in all of Ravenloft, if you read the module.

They skip it as a currency and go straight to Electrum, even.

>>49573524
Or enemy "beast tamer" rogues with expertise in animal handling throwing bannanas arround.

>>49577239
>>49577264
Oh right, Strahd wouldn't allow any smiths to be making weapons that are good at killing vampires. So yeah I guess find them on corpses of past adventurers. [/spoilers]

>>49577077
One-handed quarterstaff with Shillelagh and Polearm Master is the closest thing we get to suprememe cheese in this edition. Mostly because of the silliness of holding a big ol' stick in one hand and a shield in the other, twirling the stick like you're a fucking ninja turtle.

Combat encounter suggestions for large groups of players that are well rounded and have plenty of magical items? 7 people, 9th-10th level, (Bard,Barb,Cleric,Ranger,Rogue,Sorc,Druid)?

They seem to walk through most monsters, and most encounters are pretty easy for them if they're not fighting the environment itself.

Anyone running SKT with the official support stuff on roll20? How is it?
Was thinking of possibly running it for my players when we're done with LMoP, which may take a while yet.

>>49576944
>Drow Warlock critfails Eldritch blast right next to us.
>Explodes in a 10ft radius.
>damages me and other ranger by around 3
>Nearly kills Druid who was surprised and rendered prone by earlier crit attack.

>>49577239
>>49577264
>>49577306
I may have misread the original post a little though, as I thought he was looking for -just- silvered weapons. I actually included a spooky ghost in a chest that could repair and craft new items, but he could only do it with old metal, so the players scavenged a bunch of metal cutlery and whatnot and he was able to forge a few weapons.

I can't recall if the module has any way to acquire new weapons other than scavenging them. I vaguely recall that the Gypsy camp had some manner of procuring weaponry, but I'm not certain.

>>49577335
At least he doesn't have to roll for perils of the warp.

>>49577325
Up the CR, or combine environment and monsters. Have things that need to be done while combat is happening. Like keeping a lever pulled. Or have smarter enemies that focus one person at a time like they do.

>>49565763
>Does anyone have a pdf of the Planar Bestiary on DM's Guild they can share?

I just bought it. If it stops your incessant begging, I'll upload it tonight.

>>49576365
Generally you want your familiar to fly away and hide in combat. As a Dm I wouldn't allow the help attack action for a non pact familiar, or if I did I would target the familiar swiftly. Otherwise I wouldn't go out of my way to kill it.

>>49575068
Optimal Sorc spell list:

Cantrips: Firebolt, Mage hand, pick a melee cantrip(shocking grasp, booming blade, green flame blade, sword burst or thunderclap), and utility (predistignation , minor illusion or mending).

Lvl 1 : Shield, Chromatic orb
Lvl 2 : Scorching ray

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What class is he?

>>49577325
Hordes of foes that employ tactics such as grapple and shove, or one of my personal favourites, excite a duel.

Midway through combat the hobgoblin boss calls out a direct 1 v 1 me bro to the martial. Can distract the fighter from defending his allies but in a way that is fun for all and memorable. Up to you what the outcome is if others try to help the fighter, or if the hobgoblin will keep his word on the challenge or is it a trick.

>>49577260
>>49577264
>>49577306
>>49577340
Thanks all! I'll make the scarcity a part of it then, as part of the oppressive feel of the realm. Finding dead adventurers with good weapons will be a nice, rare find. I think I'll hide a ghost smith somewhere too.

I'm wracking my brain trying to find a way to make a functioning unarmed barbarian and all I can come up with is asking the DM to let me ignore the wisdom requirement on a monk multiclass.

Which still isn't even very good.

>>49567948

Skills in foraging is a bit broken, as racial skills for party exploitation is a bit broken.

I'd say instead you should go the other way around, and say that he can survive on half rations

>>49577568
Tavern Brawler
Wolf Totem
Learn to not worry about dealing as much damage, and focus on having fun and why you want to make the character instead of trying to make a character do what it can't do.

>>49577374
Yeah, I was reading up on familiars and there seems to be some disagreement in what they can and can't do. I guess I'll just ask my DM if I get the advantage for distracting monsters with a bird.

>>49577568
Or you know ask the DM to change two things for monks:
AC is either 10+Dex+Wis mod or 10+Str+Wis mod.
Hp die is a d10 (7 average)

There, now you have your musclebound brawler.

>>49577617
I just wish that grappling had established rules to give some kind of advantage to grappling single targets without having a sword in your offhand to stab with.

I also don't want to burden my newish DM with having to okay silly things like whether I can grapple two people at once and bonk their heads together like a three stooges skit.

>>49577264
That's not true, Ravenloft is packed to the brim with silver - so are the dangerous places in Barovians. The best explaination for a lack of silver are the lycanthropes (good and bad), encounters with werewolves even specify that they will not expose themselves until they confirm the potential victims don't have silver.

Vampires are not affected by silver, so it is just his servants that get rid of it - in my game they dump it in the lakes or in the mists.

Is a Wizard/Warlock multiclass a good idea? What would be a good way to divide up the levels?

>>49576506
Hedwig because it's also gonna die.

>>49577853
Thematically I've always liked wizard/warlock but mechanically they don't have any real synergy

You'd probably just want to go wither warlock 2 for the invocations (ability to read any language is great for a wizard) or 3 for the patron features, although none really spring to mind as being particularly worthwhile.

>>49577460
fuccboi level 69
Jokes aside probably a multiclassing barbarian wizzard

>>49577975
I mena you could always go bladelock and at least have soemthing to fairly defend yourself with in melee.

>>49578008
Eh, at that point you're probably better off going bladesinger and using warlock for the standard darkness/ultravision combo.

>>49577975
I've been considering a homebrew witch tradition that uses some Warlock stuff to combine things a bit better, but I've not ironed it out even conceptually very well.

Would you consider allowing your PCs to take a feat that changes the primary attribute of a class to something else?

>>49578286
Explain.

My first doubts with this is that it generally just makes it easier to cheese builds or offset MAD....which is kinda built in to prevent certain shenanigans.

>>49578286
Changing the primary stat to Dex for a Barbarian would make a really damn strong barbarian.

Tg im calling on you to help me do something nice. Ive been going through a bout of a depression and a friend of mine has helped taking me out of my own head by coming with me to d&d. Now he got into it and is going to start his own table in his hometown, and I want to make something nice for him, something that really shows what his gesture meant to me, but I'm not as creative as I once was.

Help me out guys. Please.

>>49578338
>strong barbarian

Surely you mean that he would be a very dexterous barbarian?

>>49578355
Leather dice bag
Dice tower
DM screen
Dice cup
pencils + paper
a folder
books
Papercraft minis
Dungeon maps
Maps
3d Papercraft maps
Papercraft
a 6-pack of beer
a 6-pack of local brews
a 6-pack of good beer
a drinking horn
a stein
a bottle opener

>>49578355
What do you actually have the skills to make senpai.

If it's woodworking make a sick dice tower.

DMs in the thread:

Do you have your players roll their characters at the table (either as part of a session or as a dedicated character creation session), or do you have them do it individually before the first session?

>>49578694
Usually i had them roll in the Roll20 room a couple of days or so before our first session. I would really like it if they had their backstory or at least part of it written up before we begin.

What's a good adventure for a first time dm and first time players that isn't lost mines?

>>49578694
If I intend to run solo introductory sessions to establish their characters I let them roll separately.

Otherwise we have a session that is entirely character creation.

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>>49578772

>>49565514
can anyone tell me how to get a pdf when using http://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/? Everytime i click get pdf it take me to a page to print the thing and it doesn't allow me todownload it as pdf.

>>49577568
Dwarf battlerager with Tavern brawler. Punch for 1d4 damage, grapple as bonus. Pronelock fuckery, spike armour wrestling, free temp hit points. Prone lock erryday.

>>49578869
Nevermind, I thought you only had first time players. If you've never played or DM'd before start with LMoP.

>>49578938
You print it as a PDF. This works better in chrome. It's one of the print options.

New thread >>49579206

Just finished lost mines of phandelver. What adventure should I buy next to work on? What one do you all like the most?

>>49574630
not using battlemaps just saps all the fun out of playing a rogue in combat.

>>49579348
Does it? Can you not just say "i sneak behind the enemy? or "i use X for cover?"

>>49579430
Trying to picture a battlefield for cover and line of sight as a rogue is very difficult. Also you can put your character somewhere and clearly see whether you can see someone, whether you're flanking someone, where everyone else is in relation to that.

>>49578694
In the past few months I've only had people new to the game at the table. They tell me what they want before hand and I write it up. If I was playing with experienced people I'd have them roll up at the table but not discuss and plan too heavily with everyone else. I'd also check their math at the end, especially for stats because I only do point buy in 5e so far.

>>49578413

I actually have the sickest fantasy themed bottle opener. Might be something into it. Thanks

The folder is also a great idea.

>>49578537

He's got a huge lego collection, to the point where he can reliably DM with it.
I'm shit at woodworking, but maybe a lego dice tower..

>>49579640

Whats the likeliness of you being able to pull off a cape?

>>49580177

They're actually a surprisingly common piece of fashionwear where I live (Portugal)

>>49580247
You know how to work fabric, or know anyone who can?

>DM doesn't let us increase an ability score by 2 with an ASI, can only put 1 into two different stats

opinions?

>>49577853
What >>49577975 said.

If your DM is cool with it, see if instead you can make Int the modifier for warlocks as opposed to Cha.

>>49580458
It's not so bad if you plan around it. You probably won't get to 20 in a stat, though.

Are feats allowed?

>>49580458
It's shit.

>>49580478
Feats are allowed. Seems like for non-MAD characters everyone is just gonna be loading up on feats and shit.

>>49580480
That's how I feel too. Gonna take me 3 ASI's to hit 20 in a stat.

>>49580458
Seems like it buffs casters even more because lots of spells do save or half damage. Where as martials have to hit with their attack to do anything, and then once again you are stuck with less damage because you can't pump your main stat.