/5eg/ D&D Fifth Edition General: Snek People Edition

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Moon Druid seems kind of boring to me. How unbalanced would it be to be able to turn into monstrosities or dragons or something instead?

>>50288481
Considering that would open moon druids up to even more grapple/restrain add-ons, petrification, unnatural poisons, ranged attacks, AoEs, and other abilities: very. Anything outside of beasts is going to need a very constrained set of guidelines, or specified stat blocks they can achieve.

>>50288481
>Moon Druid seems kind of boring to me.
>he thinks giant scorpions are boring

>>50288381

Too many for one concept. They would've had to refluff the whole class as all being aligned with a particular element.

Could've made for neat splat archetypes, though, because they'd have to branch beyond the usual four.

>>50288481
>>50288498
A better answer would probably be to homebrew a few more fantastical beasts to let the druid turn into. Don't just open up the full monster manual, but throw in a few oddball creatures aside from the usual bears, wolves, and dinosaurs.

>>50288481
http://www.middlefingerofvecna.com/2016/11/circle-of-scale.html

>>50288503
They could've done something similar to the totem barbarian: one subclass with shared abilities and flavor, with several choices to make along the way to make you more mechanically distinct.

>>50288149
Goblin rogue/bard crimelord

>>50288521
>middle finger of vecna

on mobile but imagine I posted a disgusted reaction image or a cute girl throwing up or something

>>50288503
>Too many for one concept.
When wizard gets that many pages for its spell schools i dont think people would be upset element monks had a few pages too.

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>>50288585
>>50288521
i got you

>>50288535
Probably one of the better solutions actually. Better than trying to make it a messier Eldritch Knight at least.

>>50288535
I think they should have held off on the four elements monk, and then put it as a bigger subclass similar to totem barbarian in Elemental Evil. Could have taken up enough room to give it four distinct elemental paths, maybe a few options for each, and it would have given them time to hammer out if it was supposed to be a martial with a few extra damage types and combat tricks, or more of a monk-partial caster

yo /5eg/, can you guys critique my homebrew class? Its supposed to be an archetype for the mystic, but since the mystic is busted atm, i just made it into its own class instead.

thoughts?

http://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/BkaciQ1L

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>>50288587
>MFW never play wizards so I forgot that there are a shitton of schools there

Fuck wizards.

>>50288521
>those channel divinities
do they have no concept of balance?

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How do you make whips good?
I'm thinking of making a duel wielding battle master who uses only whips. Is there a whip mastery feat? Will I be useful?

>>50288642
I don't know what you mean by that, but yes MFoV is a joke

>>50288677
>whips
kinky.

>>50288677
lol no

whips got a sizable downgrade due to lack of support. the only upside to whips is that they no longer have that stupid rule that said you cant threaten squares you can strike, now its treated as an actual weapon, one handed, with reach.

beyond that, its shitty.

>>50288677
Play a rogue. Very little of your damage comes from your weapon damage, most of it through sneak attack. You can sneak attack with reach using a whip because it's finesse.

So what was the point of making Spell DCs start at 8 rather than 10 like passive perception and AC does?

I mean if it was another system I would say it was try to balance magic but this is DND we are talking about...

>>50288732
>level 1 characters with DC 15 save DC

bruh. You'd need to make saving throws better too or magic and shit would just be stronger than it is

>>50288732
It is a balance thing. This way player save DCs cap out at 19 (instead of 21), meaning even a creature with a +0 for that save has a 10% chance of succeeding against it instead of 0.

Keep in mind that it isn't that big of a confusion deal though, since the "8 + proficiency bonus + ability modifier" calculation is used universally, even for NPCs.

>>50288749
or if they somehow had 20 in their casting stat at level 1, DC 17 at level 1. cmon

>>50288481
What if you could only choose partial transformations, like centaurs and mermaids etc.

speaking of homebrew and middle finger of vecna, here is my attempt at a blue mage

http://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/HkliWE2-x

also requesting criticism.

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>>50288677

Create more of a Fantasycraft system where there's more kinds of functionalities for weapons to have which allows you to create more meaningful diversity in the options rather than having several options be almost identical mechanically despite being wildly different weapons.

>>50288677
I give them special disarm and trip properties--forego doing damage on a hit to disarm or trip, Strength save with a DC of 8 + bonus to the attack roll, inspired by the hooked spears in OotA.

>>50288749
>>50288763
>>50288765
Yeah compare it to spell attacks.

If you have a spell attack that's your proficiency plus your casting ability modifier, so if you are optimised you're looking at a +5 out the door.

Given that the average roll of on a d20 is 10.5, having a DC of 15 at lv1 really is mathematically equivalent.

>>50288732
Pretty sure it is a balance thing. This is 5e we're talking about. They at least tried to keep martials and casters roughly even (in combat).

>>50288805

your table formatting bothers me.

other than that, yeah looks fine. maybe leaning towards being too powerful, but eh, no limit on spells known makes it a bit better than the wizard.

>>50288612
hows mine?

Can vengeance paladin's level 7 ability (move half your movement after you make an opportunity attack) work with Polearm Master's Reaction "an enemy walks into your range" thing?

also does the "an enemy walks into your range" polearm master thing apply if you move within ten feet of a monster and they walk 5ft to get right next to you?

>>50288824
Have you read any spells ever? Saving throw spells are almost always much more dangerous/deadly, also there is a big difference between enemy AC numbers and enemies saving throws numbers

plus you don't need to make magic users any stronger. There is no issue with how it's done atm

>>50288856
>table formatting
it looks fine for me in chrome, are you using a different browser maybe?

>>50288612
>13 pages
eh, no thanks.

>>50288805
To clarify, do you learn sorcerer spells AND blue magic, or ONLY blue magic.

If it's the latter, do you still learn cantrips?

>>50288945
you learn sorcerer spells and cantrips as normal, for this build. I'm thinking they may end up being a little too strong with that though.

I'm debating on some various changes, like reducing the number of sorcery points they get or something to try and nerf it. Not sure yet.

>>50288869
If they wanted to make magic uses less dangerous they shouldn't of retain the save or die Philosophy. Most things still to half damage and I save anyway. So an enemy making to save isn't that big a deal to begin with.

Personally I prefer 4e way of making spells just as separate form of attack myself, but I know I'm in the minority.

>>50288824
But saving throw spells do much more than spell attacks. They inflict conditions and cause effects that can entirely fuck up a creature or PC. Besides, the way saving throws work is entirely different from AC. AC is pretty much grounded in a way that everyone can hit anything if they roll high enough. Even a commoner with +2 to hit can still hit as far as AC 22 (which is huge), and even after that, nat20 auto-hits. On the other hand, most creatures have very low bonuses to saves, or even negative modifiers, and there is no auto-success on nat20s, though I wouldn't mind using that rule. If saving throw DCs went as high as you say, then most creatures would have no chance against high level spellcasters (though they already don't have anyway).

>>50288987
There are no save or dies except for Open Palm Monk. However there are plenty of save or suck spells, like Hold Person, Blindness, etc, all the way up to Feeblemind and other shit. Making or failing a save against those spells IS a big deal. Additionally, there's a whole boss mechanic, Legendary Resistance, that revolves around avoiding those spells. And the way saving throws and attacks interact with several other class features, spells, feats, etc.

>>50288987

Making them work as attacks would have been honestly simpler.

It would have reduced out of turn rolling, making it faster and it would have made things flow more smoothly. Having spells be attacks vs <X defence> makes it easier to have non-spells also attack those defences. So you could get a monk hitting vs Ref defence as they go for pressure points or a fighter vs fort as they deliver a massive concussive hit with a hammer.

Would have also let you have 'Oh yeah, that's a bonus to attacks/defence' work properly with everything rather than 'X is a bonus to save DC, Y is a bonus to attack rolls so they don't interact at all despite being basically the same thing'

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What do Tabaxi look like in your games?

>>50288677
Dual-wield battlemaster with rapier/whip and the tunnel fighter style, then go rogue. If a foe leaves the reach of your rapier, they get AoO'd. If they leave the reach of your whip, AoO'd. If they move more than five feet, AoO'd. If they try to leave your reach altogether, they get AoO'd three times, unless they disengage, then they get only one. Rogue sneak attack dice works once per TURN, meaning that on other creature's turns, you can sneak attack again. Throw trip attack maneuver on that and everything falls over, and you can still use sneak attacks/maneuvers with any backup ranged weapons you have.

Become the ultimate lockdown monster/tank.

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>>50289078
using furrybait in my campaign?

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>>50289078

Is it ever okay to put two main saving throws as the class's saving throws for, say, a homebrew such as on that warden one?

It had a very weak level 1, so in a way it wouldn't be imbalanced. Then again, the level 2 looked highly abusable by people looking for ridiculous AC values.

However, you also want to make sure each character gets a decent level 1. Barbarians get rage, monks get bonus extra attacks, spellcasters get spellcasting, rangers help with exploring (which matters more early on), et cetera. Saving throws doesn't really count as much at that point, probably.
You could also instead include a second major saving throw as a class feature, such as with Rogue getting wis saving throws.

Is it valid to consider 'I put two major saving throws as the class's saving throws' to be a sign of an immediately bad homebrew?
My favourite is still when people give a class the 'spellcasting' feature but give the wrong number of spellslots.

>>50289123
>Is it ever okay to put two main saving throws as the class's saving throws for, say, a homebrew such as on that warden one?
No. Stick with the established design paradigm and buff its actual class features.

>>50289134
So you're saying it'd be fine to put as level 1 'You gain proficiency in X saving throws', considering that's essentially a class feature

Though honestly I don't advocate for that. Level 1 abilities need to be more distinct, and that warden's ability was literally
'You learn druidic'
'You can put a light on somebody only you see, like some hallucinating madman. It makes them not get advantage against you and not be invisible. Yet, how can you target an invisible thing you can't see with this?'

does Critical Role work as an audio only thing?
i was thinking of DLing it and listening to it while i work because im working on black friday, but im wondering that if it in a video only format if having be just audio is taking something from the formula.
and if anyone already has it as audio only would ya mind sharing it?

>>50288163
>>50288165
I took both of your ideas in mind and made up a Bugbear Fighter (Battle Master). It looks like it ought to be fun, so I'm hoping it is.

Halberd with 15' reach and maneuvers ought to keep me going in combat, coming from playing spellcasters primarily. The DM likes to use creatures with weird mechanics and keeping some kind of distance ought to help.

Thanks for the input.

>>50288962
That's a LOT of spells known. But I suppose if it doesn't affect spell slots/day then that's not the end of the world. Especially since you can never Absorb any save or dies

I'm going to play SKT and was considering playing a Firbolg Nature Cleric. How do the nature domain abilities hold up? And since I'll be fighting lots of giants, I suspect that Dampen Elements, although still amazing, won't see much use.

I have been asked to run a game in a "not medieval" setting. I've only been DMing for about a year; I know a little about other settings like Spelljammer or Eberron, but not much. Any recommendations?

>>50289134
Established design paradigm gives monks proficiency in every saving throw
>>50289123
>I put two major saving throws as the class's saving throws
if you want people to actually consider using your homebrew you need to appease the raging autism of every person who plays this game, if you're a GM presenting your homebrew as options to your players then do what you want
DESU proficiency in a save is a +2 to +3 most of the time and you're gonna fail your saves like clockwork no matter what you have, it's like giving +1 AC except it will come up a lot less often. The only thing I would be careful with handing out is constitution save proficiency since it doubles as concentration for spellcasters.

>>50289233
WW1 Prussia

>>50289240
>Established design paradigm gives monks proficiency in every saving throw
At 14th level, not at 1st.

>>50289233
I would go for Eberron. The competing factions, intrigue, magic technology, and world-spanning adventures are fantastic. Download the 3.5e campaign setting book and give it a read.

>>50289175
Its serviceable. You get a lot of the data and personality from the audio itself, the only thing You'd be missing is the battlefield data, which is mitigated by good imagination.

imo though, a lot of the charm comes from watching the casts reactions. Things like Matt's DM glare, Travis' sadistic grins and Ashley in general really make it enjoyable visually and adds that extra bit of flavor to the characters.

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>>50289078

>>50289369
Hey, my favorite enemy!

The PCs were still surprised the second time the rug came to life, rolled up around one of them, and leapt into the fireplace

>>50289380
>Second time
>"C'mon guys, what are the odds this will be the THIRD rug that comes to life and tries to smother us?"

Trick question, they ALL DO.

>>50289389
The best part is that the asshole artificer who made the rugs actually got away. The party will never see his revenge coming.

>>50289233
Give them Final Fantasy 1-esque Vietnam.

>>50289199
No advice?

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>>50289094
She's better as a refluffed gnome, being a small sized caster that rides dogs.

>>50289199
Spike Growth and Plant Growth are very good spells you get, as is tree stride.

For your druid cantrip you could take Shillelagh or thornwhip for some shennanigans.

Heavy armour means you can dump dex if need be

I've not played SKT, but with the word Thunder in the title, it's looking like dampen elements might get some use.

All in all a solid choice, especially with Firbolg's doubled carrying capacity allowing you to become laden with gear for long-term wilderness survival

>>50289417
>>50289509
Shillelagh & Polearm master work nicely in tandem for Nature Clerics

>>50289267
thanks for the info, ive heard good things about it but as someone who listens to stuff to get though work and is looking for a d7d fix between adventure zone eps i hope this will do me

>>50288466
Can a barbarian reckless attack on opportunity attacks?

>>50289612
Yes
on your first attack of the round, if you've declared you're attacking recklessly all your attacks have advantage

>>50289641
Ty

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>>50288481
Read this

>>50289612
>When you make your first attack on YOUR turn
Unless you're somehow getting that opportunity attack on your turn and not someone else's, no.

>>50289612
>>50289641
Nope, you make all the attacks on THAT turn have advantage, and the trigger is the first attack of your own turn.
>When you make your first attack on your turn, you can decide to attack recklessly. Doing so gives you advantage on melee weapon attack rolls using Strength during this turn, but attack rolls against you have advantage until your next turn

>>50289612
Better be a swashbuckler rogue with booming blade and warcaster if you want ridiculous reaction attacks.

>>50288677
Rogue Swashbuckler/Dragon sorcerer with the spell sniper feat using booming blade all day.

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i am indecisive and have not played paladin

polearms or sword and board on paladin?

party has a fighter and a rogue i'll be in melee with most of the time. (also a wiz and bard). rogues a swashbuckler and the fighter is a bmaster i think. Dunno what the fighter is using

basically it's either Devotion + Sword n board or vengeance and polearm.

also can't decide to be Triton for fun or Var Human for being stronk and having shield master or polearm master at lvl 1

vengeance triton with a glaive flavored as a trident sounds fun but it's SKT and I dunno how to work him in to it. would also need to wait until lvl 4 for polearm master and use my asi

>>50289709
>>50289750
That's pretty cancer right there lads, don't abuse booming blade

>>50289765
Not as cancer as PAM + Booming blade + warcaster.

I've still yet to see anon who said that specific combo has been disproven rather than just sage advice saying 'uuuh you have to make an attack with the weapon as part of PAM's reaction attack', but apparently it doesn't work, though RAW seems to say it does.

>>50289796
booming blade was a mistake

>>50289755
Both polearms and sword and board are good on a paladin.

You can also do both - quarterstaff + shield. Especially good for shillelagh (charisma).

Polearms are good for vengeance or a damage-focused paladin who will up their attack stat.
Sword and board are good for a defence and team support that focuses on upping their charisma, and is particularly good if you roll for stats and get very good stats as you can focus on dexterity instead of strength while still having heavy armour and still having good charisma.

Basically:
'I want to help my team/I have good stats' - sword and board
'I want to deal lots of damage / vengeance paladin' - PAM.

You'll have at least two people within your aura all the time, so charisma isn't a bad idea.

>>50289802
Honestly makes warcaster more worth it, as 'you can cast with your hands full' isn't much of a bonus when you can juggle weapons. Concentration is nice too.
The question is how often your DM has monsters try to get away from you.

Re blue mage

So I can have 25 9th level spells from any class list at level 20?

>>50289824
Warcaster is needed for shielded melee clerics to function correctly, and reaction hold person is more interesting than booming blade, which clerics don't get, being the most melee-ish full casters.

>>50289836
>Warcaster is needed for shielded melee clerics to function correctly,

nope. You can attach your holy symbol to your shield, and use it for everything included somatic components

Same with Paladin.

>>50289836
>somatic?
>stow weapon
>cast spell
>draw weapon next turn if you decide to attack with it
>somatic + material? You don't even have to stow weapon.
>cast spell
>bonus action spell, yet still want to attack?
>cast spell if weapon is not out yet, attack with weapoon if it is. Stow/brandish weapon, do the other action.

It only takes a cleric a single class in another caster to get booming blade. Wizard isn't a bad choice, as it provides utilities (find familiar is essentially a class feature) and the 'shield' spell. But, yes, naturally a Cleric may not have it.

You only get to concentrate on one thing, so unless you're using your time to throw out non-concentation buffs (you could've done that earlier) or you're using a bonus action to cast a spell and thus can't use an action to cast a spell (Understandable if you're putting out healing word or spiritual weapon) then you'll probably not need to cast it as a reaction.

>>50289894
>>50289836
By the last paragraph I accidentally deleted the paragraph before or something.

Booming blade as a reaction is better than booming blade as an action.
Hold person as an action means you're using a powerful spell and you KNOW you'll use it, rather than just waiting for a monster to eventually trigger you to use it.

And you should be conserving spell slots at some point.

>>50289536
I was considering how to work this out, because as a nature cleric you want wis, str, con, and some dex since you can only use medium armor. With shillelagh str becomes unnecessary, but I'd feel like a shit min-maxer for dumping it. How's this: 13(+1) 12 14 10 14(+2) 10? Feels a bit meh.

>>50289813
Holy shit you're right.

How would I even get shilelelghl on a Paladin though? using a feat for magic initiate is a bit of a waste and multiclassing would require Wis and also be kinda a waste.

stats wise I'll have 16 str 16 cha, easy to get with point buy and as triton or human.

I suppose I'll decide based on what the fighter's doing, if he's balls to the wall greatsword fighter I'll do sword and board, if he's tanking I'll do polearm.
>>50289912
nature clerics get heavy armor

>>50289921
Ae you using the feat for anything else

>>50289921
>>50289813
oh also

no sage advice I could find on this -

with polearm master, can you make a reaction attack when an enemy starts out 10ft from you then closes in to 5ft?

like he's in range for you to attack already, but then moves to right up on you

>>50289926
uhh polearm master?

>>50289536
Polearm master is pretty meh.

Clerics already have things they can do with their bonus action and they shouldn't worry much about reaction attacks because they don't get their +1d8 on reaction attacks, only on ONE of their own-turn attacks.
Cleric should probably focus on ASIs that up their wisdom and survivability.

>>50289921
The only way to get shillelagh for charisma is 3 levels in warlock, pact of the tome.

>>50289938
>The only way to get shillelagh for charisma is 3 levels in warlock, pact of the tome.

well then nevermind

>>50289921
>nature clerics get heavy armor
Oh damn you're right, I'm retarded.

>>50288481
I let a druid in my game also transform into monstrosities, so far it's been pretty even.

>>50289943
Warlock isn't bad at all.

For making your attack stat redundant, giving you a good ranged attack option, giving you booming blade / green flame blade / guidance if you want it, two level 2 spell slots a short rest for smiting and spells that you can't normally get as a paladin and maybe an invocation such as devil's sight, warlock is great. However, it will delay the important features you get at level 6 and 11, so you could wait until later to get it.

So I was reading Arcana Cleric, and they get Potent Spellcasting and 2 wizard cantrips. Does that mean they get to add their wisdom to Green Flame Blade twice? How does that work?

>>50289963
>However, it will delay the important features you get at level 6 and 11, so you could wait until later to get it.

That's the thing. It's SKT. If I survive and the campaign actually goes to level 10 then maybe post level 7 I could go lock but frankly it's kinda redundant at that point

>>50289973
Arcane Cleric with Green Flame Blade and Shillelagh from magic initiate, at level 8:
>2d8+2xWis and 1d8+Wis to second target
Sounds good and decently SAD.

>>50289977
Forgot to mention that unlike getting a level in a full caster, getting levels in warlock doesn't cause you to lose effective paladin spellcasting levels due to rounding down.
It's not redundant at any point, but it has the strongest synergy when you have, say, 20 charisma and only 14 or 15 in your attack stat. That's an effective +3 to damage, +3 to hit. Improved divine smite merely gives you +4.5 to damage.

You get -1.5 spellcasting levels, -15 lay on hands HP, -3 max HP, 3 levels away from new features (probably the biggest deal).
You get 2 level 2 spell slots a short rest, 2 level 1 spells known, 2 level 2 spells known, 5 particularly useful cantrips (choosing from the very best such as BB/GFB/EB/Guidance/Shillelagh), 2 invocations, a lot more SADness through shillelagh.

If you can minimize the impact of '3 away from paladin features' by having it before a row of features that aren't worth it, it might be worth a thing.

But, yes, I'd call it a sidegrade.
If you don't want to play a 'devil's arbitrator' or 'fey ancients warlock' or something like that, don't.

If it's a triton with +1 str +1 dex +1 con, that lends themself both to getting 15 strength and then going rapier+shield and focusing dex, and to just going strength polearmmaster and not giving your team massive charisma boosts. Definitely a typical vengeance paladin's domain, or a crown paladin.

>>50290030
Pretty sure you dont get the same stat damage bonus twice

If that's untrue then brb making a draconic sorc undying light warlock who gets +2x CHA on firebolt and fireball

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>>50289078

>>50290132
It's literally a fucking cat is fine too

Can someone explain why Astral Projection is a 9th level spell? What's so good about it? What is its intended use?

>Triton
>live in the deepest darkest depths of the ocean
>be a magical race from a different plane
>no darkvision lol

The fuck WotC. Give darkvision to fucking everyone before now kneejerk it and go full retard

>>50290062
Frankly using a stick and a shield isn't really what I wanna do and warlock doesnt really fit either.

Leaning either Aasimar sword and board devotion or Human polearm vengeance. Will depend on what the fighter is

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>tfw nobody wants to play 4e

Not that 5e is FATAL-bad, but I just want to play 4e

Are there any mini adventures for fifth edition? I'm looking for something that takes two hours tops, preferably less.

>>50290173
Tritons are from the Sea of Sunlight
>>50290172
Gives 9 people Astral travel and immortality

>>50290264
4e created D&D's biggest competitor because it was that bad

Think about that for a second

>>50290317
Nah, people got salty af for reasons.

>>50290317
No, 4e created dnds biggest competitor because it was different. Wizards could have copied avg of the systems better than 4e, 3.5e, and 5e, and it still would have tanked because the dnd audience hates change.

4e was actually pretty good, and is driving my project to make 5e better by incorporating the good elements of 4e design into 5e.

>>50288466
Fix Warlocks, wizards!!!

But for Reals, fuck people that say that the fixed ranger is over powered. Fuck them all to death.

>>50290317
Just play WoW.

>>50290361
Change all humanoids favored enemy to any two

>>50290372
CHANGE IS BAD, right?

What are your thoughts on Elven Trance, and how do I explain to my players more clearly that 4 hour trance =/= 8 hour long rest.

Assume they are drunken idiots.

>>50290350
>>50290317
>>50290264
As fun as it is to bash on 4e, having played it I have to agree.

It did balance very well.
I liked how HP worked, with higher 'heal surge' values for more HP, for example.
The ways that each stat contributed to a different defence worked well for balance.
Combat was more tactical and dynamic with less input from the DM to spice up the encounter with things you could interact with, such as may appear in 5e battles.

However, it also felt like it did go too far down the MMORPG route and took away too much from the roleplaying element with super-specific combat skills which leads you to think 'well, hey, this ability lets me hit a bunch of people and teleport. Can I use it to teleport up the- Oh, all my teammates are already up there because goddamn everyone can teleport at this point, and if you can't you're going to get fucked over.'

I think the best way to compare 4e to 5e is 'rests'/encounter powers and such.

Long rest - You must essentially 'sleep' or do something similar.
Daily - Very similar to above.
Short rest - An hour of peace.
Encounter powers - regens between encounters. No worrying about having to beg your DM to construct their adventure to just so happen to give adventurers appropriate rest times, but it may take away some of the feeling that even heroes have to rest sometimes, and that they'll be in danger if caught resting.
And at-wills are always at-wills.

I feel 5e works best if you have a really great DM.

>>50290398
no if you do that its better

id remove adv on initiative too

>>50290361
But it IS overpowered. For multiclassing, anyway.

Also 'your favoured enemy is humans, so you now have advantage on all int checks regarding humanoids in any way'
Why

>>50290409
>>50290410
Here comes the ranger hating departament.
Let Rangers have something nice once!

But yeah, it is guarateed to change.

>>50290404
As a counterpoint, I think that just about every system works well with a great DM. My main desire for 4e is its structure and how much more streamlined it is over 5e's less "concentrated" effort, as well as the much better balance (from what I know).

>>50290475
Yeah. Obviously a good DM will make whatever work, but I think 5e pays to a better storytelling experience, which depends heavily on the DM.
4e lends better to structure and clear tactics than having to ask 'what do I have to roll in combat to do [non-standard thing]?'
That depends less on the DM,

My DM for 4e did some pretty interesting things.
At one point near the end of a three-or-so-year campaign where everybody was nearing level 30 (despite several level skips) they used a war simulator game (Can't remember exactly. Total war?) to simulate the battle, with rather than us being involved, just us sitting there and doing that for a change. No 4e rules involved, but it's in the premise of the campaign, and you could say the tactical nature of it relates well to the nature of 4e.
Oh, and there was still a lot of story and talking, but probably less than the combat and I'll say 5e would probably have been more interesting out of combat for what we did, but there were still some shenanigans that went on out of combat.

So what is pathfinder supposed to be good at anyway?

>>50290475
That's a good way of putting it. 4e had structure, which made creating interesting gamestates easier. Combat features a lot more player cooperation, and is rarely just a player standing around stationary taking the attack action over and over again.

You can even see this in social encounters, where the 5e dmg has shitty, unhelpful advice to offer, and the 4e dmg gives DMs an entire framework for running them properly.

That isn't to say that I don't like 5e. I like how the abilities are generally more open, and given the choice I think it's easier to port the good stuff into 5e, rather than into 4e.

>>50290475
>>50290524
>>50290531
When did /5eg/ go traitorous and suddenly like 4e?

>>50290690
Comparing 4e and 5e is like comparing apples to oranges.

>>50290690
It's something I've noted a lot lately. People are getting bored of 5e, and looking nostalgically at the complexity of previous editions. The incidence rate is increasing as time goes on.

5e was a step forward, but it seems the incredible simplicity of combat and other systems might have been an over-correction.

>>50290690
When 4E games no longer happen, what game do those people play?

5E. And they start coming here.

>>50290402
It's kind of a superfluous detail that doesn't really add anything. It's more often then not ignored by most people, or if not ignored, confused with being able to do 4 hour long rests like your players. Long rests are 8 hours no matter what, so half of that is done trancing and the other half is dong what, guarding?
It would be better to just get rid of it outright.

The only cool detail that I get from it is that elven societies don't have beds, which I like the imagery of. Carpets, rugs, tapestries, a multitude of cushions and blankets, with low tables. No beds.

>>50290739
I've never played 4e actually. Or anything other than 5e.

>>50290531
Yeah this is a lot of things that I like, and I'm not saying 5e is garbo. It just feels open in the same way that... Fallout 3 is. "Oh yeah you can do A BUNCH OF STUFF" except it's vague, and the open-ness of abilities is often met with a "No, not that".
It's also a preference, to be honest. I like combat to be a bit more rigid, with flex in HOW you apply it, for example, or using basic rolls for more "elaborate" stuff. Yesterday, my wrestler monk slid down a large piece of ice (Acrobatics), and I wanted to attack, so I was like "Can I do a diving kick?" I like that shit.

>>50288677
Paladin with Protection style.

1d4 damage dice is mitagated by Divine Strikes and Spellsmites.

One-handed allows you to wield a shield and keep your AC high, and most importantly stand near the squishies to defend them with your shield-block. The whip allows you to do this while still keeping you free to melee things due to increased reach.

Also, You're basically Simon Belmont.

Familiars can't attack, does this mean they can't do anything offensive/harmful, or they just can't take the "Attack" action?

>>50290410
It's the choice you take when you have the kind of DM who refuses to let you know anything about the campaign, so you have to hedge your bets because UA favored enemy is either amazing or terrible with no in between.

>>50290758
>The only cool detail that I get from it is that elven societies don't have beds, which I like the imagery of. Carpets, rugs, tapestries, a multitude of cushions and blankets, with low tables. No beds.

That's actually a really cool application of the fluff. Definitely stealing that.

As far as the other stuff, yeah, I kinda just had to link them to http://dnd.wizards.com/articles/features/rules-answers-september-2015 because I had two players that were like ,"It's literally right there in the book, 4 hour trance = 8 hours of sleep" and we were stuck on comparing sleep to rest and vice versa.

>Playing a wizard
>Party is wizard rogue fighter cleric
>Have to carry a 300 lb body up a 400ft steep incline with inset traps.
>Dimension door with the body to the top.
>Go get a drink while the rest of the party spends half an hour dicking with rope and athletics checks.

>>50291057
If your DM doesn't include many humanoids at all, then..

I suppose you could end up against a lot of undead.

The characters should have a right and the freedom to decide 'why are we fighting undeads? There are other threats in the world we're better at fighting' if the DM hasn't gone 'The world is about to explode!' or 'Your hometown is under attack by an enemy that doesn't normally attack and thus you're unfamiliar with!'

>>50291138
>one you can see
Doubtful
>one you can visualize
Unless you've been there, doubtful
>one you can describe by stating distance and direction, such as “200 feet straight downward” or “upward to the northwest at a 45-degree angle, 300 feet.”
Hope you got the angle right.
>You can bring along objects as long as their weight doesn’t exceed what you can carry. You can also bring one willing creature of your size or smaller who is carrying gear up to its carrying capacity. The creature must be within 5 feet of you when you cast this spell.
Hope he was conscious enough to be okay with that.

>>50290410
>Also 'your favoured enemy is humans, so you now have advantage on all int checks regarding humanoids in any way'
Literally Batman.

>>50291161
Well, there is also what would happen if you used your ability to sense all creatures of your favored enemy's type for miles around, and it's humanoids. That part of favored enemy is basically struck through in that case.

>>50291171
Except it also applies to all human-like creatures.

A batman ranger is needed.

>>50291210
Well, that's a good point. I wouldn't say it's a great ability in the first place, though you could use it if your DM allows you to not include your teammates out in the wilderness, or you're a lone wolf faggot.
You do get advantage on survival checks to track humanoids though, so that's a sort of 'sense'.

>>50291138
Sounds about right.

>>50290132
Disgusting.

>>50291026
Bumping for interest. Like, an a Quasit use his Scare ability?

>>50291261
The simple fact is that having to essentially guess what terrain and enemies you are going to fight enough for that stuff to come into play unless your DM is forthcoming with that sort of thing beforehand is a significant part of what sucks about ranger in general and not just beast master. They basically gave UA ranger "favored terrain: all of them" and I take rolling humanoids into one thing instead of having to pick and choose and hope you'll be seeing a lot of kobolds and orcs as largely the same thing, with options for narrower choices that will be more useful when and if they do come up.

>>50291026
They can't take the attack action. They can drop buckets of nails, cast spells if they know any, etc.

>>50291342
>>50291342
Here is a big fringe case.

Can a Gazer Familiar use his Eyebeams? They aren't a direct attack since they are an ability that forces a saving throw, not even a "Ranged spell attack.".

But however, they are very clearly offensive "I attack you with my Eyebeams" kind of thing and it does give a huge amount of offensive power to a familiar, especially one that may be permitted for Pact of the Chain. However unlike Sprites, Imps and Quasits, he offers no special resistances or skills of stealth, invisibility and the like and most importantly, is not intelligent nor humanoid with hands so have a huge degree less utility than the others.

>>50291434
5e can be pretty ambiguous, but I feel like taking "attack" to mean the word "attack" is used in the ability's text is a reasonably straightforward interpretation that makes sense.

Can you get an enhancement higher than +3 in 5e?

>>50288709
You would have to find a way to become proficient with whips since they are martial weapons

>>50291562
Artifact weapons.

If I MC Assassin Rogue and Fighter (any archetype), could I do the following for max burst damage:

Assumptions:
1st in initiative order
1 Extra Attack
Monster is surprised

> Attack (crit+Sneak attack), Extra attack
> Action Surge
> Ready Attack action for (insert trigger like when ally moves / attacks / when it's not my turn whatever you need to do to attack immediately)
> Attack on not your turn via Readied Action (Sneak Attack), Extra Attack

If you went Champ, that's grounds for better critting, BM for more ways to gain advantage, etc. But that would work right, since SA can't happen again in the same turn, but you can get it multiple times per round.

>>50291654

You don't get to use the extra attack feature on a reaction.

>>50291677
Gotcha. I can still get the back to back Sneak Attack, and if there's a Battlemaster in the group, potentially a third sneak attack in the same round?

>>50291711

Yeah, that looks good.

>>50291711
Nah, making an attack from the Battlemaster takes your reaction.

>>50291730

Right you are, forgot about that.

>>50291562
+4 legedary, only mentioned never shown.

Has anyone dealt with half-dragons? Specifically the reversal of the ritual to turn a person into a half-dragon. I have a feeling a PC of mine is going to be turned into one. I'm thinking of its own ritual that has to be level 6-7 with difficult to acquire material components rather than put it off to. "Wish spell lol"

Remove Curse or Greater Restoration might do it.

Or if it needs to be a higher level but not quite wish, simply "Remove Curse cast as a 6th level spell" Ect.

>>50291793
Monster Manual said something about bathing in dragons blood to become one, so maybe get some human blood to undo it?

Last night one of my players drew 10 cards from the Deck of Many things. It turned out much better than expected. He was attacked by an apparition of death, cursed by the medusa card, and is also on a certain demon's shit list. He also has a magic weapon, his own keep, has been bumped up to level ten, and an effriti bottle that gave him three wishes, among a few other things I can't recall. We're in the middle of Storm King's thunder, and the other players are only at level 8. How do I "even the score" for this player? He's a trickster cleric that loves illusions. I'm thinking a cadre of homebrewed devils attacking the party while airborn in the airship would be appropriate, complete with gun barrage and maybe a balor attack. The party has had it too easy, I think, so I want to put the fear in all of them, especially the cleric.

>>50290361
What's wrong with warlocks?

Is it farfetched to just give an Adult dragon telepathy?

Reworking some of the equiptment for a campaign I'm running.

I want to include a Light-Shield, Shield, Heavy-Shield split like older editions and I've seen some people talking about ideas. Shield-Proficiency is removed, to wield a shield you simply need the appropriate armour proficiency.

Light Shield, +1AC and the hand is considered free for object interactions, holding an item or casting somantic spell components, however it cannot be used to make attacks or grapple attempts or similar intensive activities.

Medium Shield, +2AC, the hand is considered occupied but there is no other disadvantage.

Heavy Shield, +3AC, the hand is considered occupied plus a meaningful but not crippling drawback.

Unsure what drawbacks will be fair I want it to cost something to wield a heavy shield over a medium one, so that people don't just grab it whenever they have the proficiency but at the same time it can't be too crippling like hurting action economy.

Here are some thoughts for a penalty I'm unsure what might be best to give.
Disadvantage on Initaitve.
Disadvantage on Stealth rolls.
-5 Flat penalty to Initaitve.
No Reactions, ever.
No Bonus actions, ever.
-2 Penalty to Attack rolls.
-10ft Speed.
-10ft Speed penalty if they lack 15 Strength or are Dwarven.
Max +2 Dex to AC.

Additionally I'm interested in ways that I can improve some of the lesser used weapons, such as Flail, Morning Star, and Warpick, Perhaps some crit-boosting ability (Like, +2 Damage or +1d4 Damage on crits.) or should I just slap Versatile on them?

>>50292202

Give the heavy shield a strength requirement along the same lines as heavy armor. Let's say 14 strength to use it.

>>50292169
Invocations need to be rebalanced and expanded.

>>50292238
A Strength requirement sounds fine to me. Maybe set it to 13 or 15, since that's what the heavy armours in the PHB require. They probably have a reason for having those instead of 12 or 14.

>>50292202
I like the penalty to initative, ultimately it means nothing in combat, but no one enjoys going last.
+3AC, Strength Requirement similar to Plate, and -5 Initative with disadvantage.

A Fighter with 18 Dex Shield and Rapier duelist can use it, but will they want to pay the 10ft movement and huge hit to initative, but a Low-Dex Dwarf in Platemail might not be so bothered by it. Even a Strength build paladin might not want the initative penalty so will elect to take the +2AC shield instead.

How about an ability that any attacks made as a reaction are at disadvantage. It hurts a tanks ability to use sentinel or deny enemy movement but doens't entirely deny it, being unable to react quickly seems a good drawback to wielding a heavy shield but also you dont want to bog down the thing with a wall of text, less people take the +2 Shield because tldr.

>>50292356

It's a shield dude, not a shackle. You don't need to give it four disabilities. Hell, even platemail only has a strength requirement and disadvantage on stealth checks, have some consistency.

>>50289078
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqEVCTMkBnI

>>50292392
+3AC, Intativie is at Disadvantage. Str15 Speed Requirement.

Tower shield users will likely be going last since most STR builds will only have +0 or even -1 Dex so some will consider the +2 Shield over this. Dex builds (Can I hear Roman/Spartan?) will still be hesitant due to the disadvantage to initative and speed reduction, as well as difficult getting Heavy Armour proficiency.

Inb4 Fighter Battlemaster wielding a Shortsword, Tower Shield and Studded Leather.

>>50292202
No reactions and no bonus actions would make it utter shit desu
-2 to attack rolls and disadvantage on stealth rolls seems simple and effective.

>>50292466
>>50292499
Ehhhhh I'd just give it a 15 Str requirement. Keep it simple.

>>50292466
Seems good.

Now onto the shit weapons in D&D.

Personally I think you can just get away with giving Warpick, Morning Star and Flail Versatile, or even combining them.

A Morning Star is a 1d8 Piercing weapon with Versatile. You got a Warpick? Cool, it's a fancy looking Morningstar. You want your character to use a Flail? Awesome, just use Warhammer statwise.

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>>50292517
>morningstars cannot smash apart skeletons well

Why is this allowed?

>>50292537
Don't ask me, ask 5E developers.

I personally think Morningstars would be nice if they had an ability that treat them as dealing both Piercing and Bludgeoning damage when determining vulnerabilities. Not that I can think of anything in the game that is vulnerable to piercing.

>>50292610
Rakshasa.

Fighters are a bit boring; how would you fix them?

Has anyone done so already?

>>50292655
Battlemasters are pretty fun.
Edlrich knights are bad, but pretty fun.

Champions are kinda boring, but they were designed like that. A Half-Orc Shieldmaster Champion shoving bitches prone and then going Sparta on them is hella fun.

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What class is the most fun to play and why is it warlock?

>>50291823
I thought that was Dragon Sorcerers? Half-Dragons too?

>>50291793
Things like Half-Dragons, Sorcerers, and Dragonborn all give credence to the idea that dragons can be like a type of zerg that assimilates creatures into Dragon. Also something like a Half-Dragon is never glamourously a half-dragon. It's always got to be wrong and mutated for me. Same for Dragonborn, sure they're a kind of being now, but once they were another people who incubated into transmutative egg sacs to be closer to their god. That is some creepy body horror shit.

To reverse a ritual to make you half dragon I imagine requires something that's the antithesis of Dragon and to cut or stab yourself ritualistically with it. You don't kill Dragons, you don't Purge Dragons. You Slay Dragons, so the Dragon in you must be Slain somehow.

>>50292861
They have nifty always on type features that reward creativity like pact of the chain, and they come with in built role-playing support.

>>50291904
Anyone? Some feedback would be appreciated.

>>50290410

I think it would be fine if it came with a few more restrictions and the full benefits were stretched out to about level 6.

Fuck people who think the ranger should lose half his benefits when he steps into a city though. Like his senses just dull and he becomes less agile because 'muh woods'.

>>50291654
That's interesting.

You could use a action surge to store a potential sneak attack if you had a reaction to use.

If you're a battlemaster, you can also use riposte to sneak attack.

If you have a battlemaster on the team, you can make a rogue do a sneak attack.

However, do note that uncanny dodge uses a reaction and thus I think it's quite clever that uncanny dodge was snuck in there - it penalizes rogues for going offensive and using their reaction to deal massive damage.

>>50290173
They' specifically ignore any drawbacks of a deep underwater environment. So presumably they can see in a deep underwater environment.

>>50292537
As a DM I'd say all one-handed strength-based martial weapons (any that are essentially direct downgrades of the rapier) can do two different damage types.

.. And I enjoy using creatures which have special rules if bludgeoning/piercing/slashing are used on them. I had clay soldiers that took double damage from bludgeoning weapons, for example.

>>50289802
A cantrip that first has to hit as a melee weapon attack and only offers the target to not move or take damage.

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What would be a new subclass you'd like to see added?

>Pact of the Possessed
>Once per long rest, you're patron sends a spirit to take control over your body. The spirit possesses you until you take your next short or long rest. While you're possessed, choose one ability. You gain an advantage on all checks made with this ability score. Also, while possessed treat the spells on your patron's expanded spell list as being a part of your spells known.

Hello guys, I'm writing a setting but I'm having trouble with the Pantheon(s).

I was thinking in something like:

A primordial god that killed himself because it feel lonely, and it's death made a explosion that created everything.

After that other gods were created, in my setting I have basicaly: 2 human kingdons, 2 dwarven kingdons, 1 elven kingdon, 1 dragonborn kingdon, 1 magocracy and ruins of a major empire in a desert.

Any ideas of how to build this Phanteons?

>>50291434
Can't it just use its telekinetic eye ray to manipulate things? Or is that another beholderkin's fluff? Can't recall immediately.

>>50293181

Where would Alchemist fall under?

>>50293181
So a binder?

Still meh.

I'd rather see a Revenant pact where you gain extra proficiency in a skill or two and a low level feature of another class and let it scale with warlock levels.

>>50293181
Arachnomancer

>>50292904
Love that idea, a high level remove curse along with the use of a dragon slayer weapon. They go into detail about how a half dragon can't reproduce, so to draw inspiration from science you need something to replace I guess the new genes it has thanks to the dragon part, so maybe you need apart of the race you are trying to get back to. But that's like a metaphor for a parent. I guess if this works out the party has quite the side quest.

>>50293181
How come you get to choose the ability? And with giving the warlock so many more spells I feel like you can add some excitement.

>Every long rest, roll a d20, on 1s-2s reroll. Your number correlates to an ability you gain advantage on until the next long rest.

This means you can suddenly gain advantage in deception or athletics and let's you change up your play style and try to take advantage of the benefit.

>>50293294
If it was a primordial make four powerful elemental gods, kingdoms in the mountains follow the earth elemental God, lawful neutral, stalwart and steadfast.

Kingdoms near the water worship the water elemental God. Flowing, changing constantly but always moving. Chaotic Neutral.

Kingdoms in Great Plains or tundra conditions follow the air elemental God, using the power of wind as needed to benefit you and others with windmills and other applications of wind. Neutral Good.

Deserts and volcanic areas worship the NE fire elemental God. Burning bright and focused on self reliance. Things die in the flames, but it also can be reborn.

There I even took care of your alignment chart for you, so a LG cleric can follow the wind or earth elemental. A CE cleric can follow the water or fire elemental.

>>50293181
I wish more things in DnD were based off of risk management rather than exceedingly boring resource management via rest-gating.

>>50293600
I agree, I like the idea of the frenzy barbarian, why not have a pact feature that lets you use an additional warlock spells slot for a level of exhaustion.

>>50293294
Don't just build it willy-nilly. Pick a theme.

Pick a 'pantheon' of philosophies and make deities from schools of thought, ala Planescape. Pick various political forces from your country's history and make a pantheon based on their venerated heroes.

Don't do the boring shit and assign the whole '1 god per race' thing or whatever. Pick themes and work them into your setting entirely so that there's a cohesive strength.

>want to kill off NPCs to show off my players how a big deal the big bad is
>feel kinda guilty that I'm taking away player agency from not allowing them to save this NPC's life

I don't think my players will mind (they love good drama) but this NPC is like a father-figure to their characters. However, there's a general feel that the current villain in their campaign is pulling his punches and I think it'll make a big deal if I let him off a beloved NPC (they're currently 5 months into the campaign) who happens to be the innkeep they've talked to during session #1.

I guess I'm not THAT bothered. If the villain does fail in killing the NPC when the players have the option to save NPC, it'll still give them a big impression that this villain is no slouch.

What do you guys think? Are there times you have to make a big story moment and not have the PCs have a choice? I'm always about giving my players control in what happens but I feel I might give them too much of it. But at the same time, as a DM, that's pretty okay, right?

My DM is doing an evil party and we've only had one session. The three other players have basically never played DnD.

I thought evil parties were always a bad idea, but so far there hasn't been any party splitting or infighting. Honestly, it feels as though we are murderhoboing as usual, just more honestly.

Admittedly, we are trapped in a dungeon, so wanton murder seems sensible to claw our way out. Is the way to play evil parties just keeping them away from civilization?

>>50293600
>tfw I gave my players a Horn of Blasting
>deafened and 5d6 thunder damage in a 30ft cone at will, save for half and not deafened
>each use has a 20% chance of blowing up in their face for 10d6 fire damage

>>50293710
Have the dice play it out, and give the NPC death saving throws. Have the villain leave them for dead, and let the players try and stabalize him as the villain uses it as a distraction to help cover his escape.

Don't just fiat him teleporting in, stabbing the NPC through the heart, and teleporting away. Have it all make sense

>>50293710
I think it's ok to give your PCs a chance to save him, just make than chance very slim. How that plays out, though, depends on the BBEGs skillset. I guess I don't have the same problem as you, since even if my group thinks I might pull punches from time to time, they should know the bad guys also don't want to lose, and WILL kill them if given the chance or if put in certain situations. I feel bad about it, but even though there's been 3 PC deaths in my campaign so far (in about a year time), they all came back through Revivify or a boon given to the cleric.

Hey guys I'm trying to setup monsters in certain places so I know what my group will/can find in certain areas.

I started with forests near mountains in a Dwarven kingdon, so far I put:

Most Common: Harpy, Half-Ogre, Kenku
Common: Basilisk
Unique: Green Hag (Coven
Unique: Young Green Dragon


What do you guys think?

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>>50293899
Seems good. Just in case you don't know the DMG does that already.

>>50293913
If the game stops at level 20, how do you have CR 24?

>>50293923
Because a CR 20 creature is just a medium encounter for a party of level 20 combatants, so anything about that is hard and deadly encounters.

Magic items and Artifacts in sufficient quantities can also effectively make up that gap and sort of inflate the player's levels. Basically that's final boss territory.

>>50293913
Yes I know, but I want to adapt it to my setting. Since the forests are near mountains I put those monsters that fit good in both places.

>>50293923
Because the CR changes with the number of characters playing against a monster and by the number of monsters.

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>>50293923
>The d20 audience

>>50293923
A creature of CR X is only a medium encounter for a party of 4 level X. Or even easier if the party is more numerous or has access to combat magical items. Higher than 20 CR monsters are there to challenge high level parties.

>>50293294
>gods were created

This establishes that gods are made to suit the needs of their worshipers. They probably follow the model seen in some D&D settings where gods' power rises and falls with mortals' belief in them, and a god dies with his or her last mortal follower. So figure out what sorts of divine aid your cultures would want or need. Figure out more about your humanoids than what race they are. Decide which gods are doing well and which of them are on the brink of death by obscurity and desperate to get back on top. Decide which gods use bribes to entice worshipers and which gods use threats. Decide if there's a point where a god can split in two if different cultures worship him or her in incompatible ways.

>>50294009
I was thinking in something like that:

1 - The Primordial God Alpha
2 - After it's suicide the universe were created
3 - With the universe 2 entities were created Good and Evil
4 - These deities struggle for power
5 - They created the first gods to assure dominance over the cosmos
6 - Some gods created the mortal races
7 - Some gods tried to influence the mortal races

Not sure if it would work well tho.

The major problem here that I still didn't figured out how to work is the Good and Evil as entities, this is very hard to explain, to put on papper.

>>50294059
If the primordial god has been dead since before the existence of any other creatures, even other gods, nobody would know about him or worship him, let alone get power from him. You don't even need to mention him.

The rest of it is pretty bog-standard. Having perfectly symmetrical cosmic good and evil is expected but boring. If that's what you're going to go with, then you might as well pick an existing D&D pantheon.

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Boss-like encounters should probably fall under the "Hard" difficulty, not "Deadly", correct?

I know it is arbitrary, but I'm just creating some thresholds here.

>>50294099
I know, I'm having a bad time trying to work this out, it's harder than I thought.

>>50294122
Deadly is any encounter where you've forewarned the players that you will not be fudging dice or softballing them.

>>50294126
Have your players help. If any of their characters are religious, have them make the religion up. There could be hundreds or thousands of gods, countless ones for each domain, each just waiting to interact with the world with the help of a mortal partner.

>>50294099
Which is more trite- having a "Points of Light" style setting where the PCs campaign to defend and eventually gain ground for good that is weaker and losing on a cosmic scale, or the opposite where things are generally noblebright until a boil of concentrated evil pops up and mars the world around it before being driven back?

>>50294122
I'd go with Deadly on any boss encounters. Hard encounters can still be pretty easy if your party is well rested and/or your boss doesn't have legendary actions or a lot of minions.

>>50294122
the boss? deadly, with minions.

>>50294162
>ever fudging the dice or softballing them

I'm giving an NPC a spell that can animate a creature's shadow into the monster version, still bound to them. If it's intended to be a "battle of wills" type effect that charges their shadow with their own energy, should I make it a charisma or wisdom saving throw?

>>50294179
Actually the game will start next week.

I had a file with something around 60 pages talking about the culture and story of the world, however I lost this file and the last backup is a 22 pages only file, now I'm rebuilding everything but the Pantheon is giving me a freaking hard time, I never wronte anything about gods and deities, it's harder than I thought.

Do monsters get to do Multiattack on Opportunity Attacks? Or just hit once with whatever they can reach with.

Do players get to do special stuff for Opportunity Attacks? It's a reaction. Do they still get multi attacks?

>>50294188
Regardless of which is more trite, having asymmetrical good and evil makes more sense. If the two forces are perfectly balanced and doing just as well as each other, it raises the question of what really makes good any different from evil. If you were on the other side you'd be pretty much the same but wearing different clothes.

In D&D in particular, it's useful for good to be on the ropes. It gives the PCs something to do, and it explains why they run into so many more evil creatures than good ones. (Seriously, when's the last time your character encountered a lammasu or a ki-rin?) You could justify it by saying that evil is more practical. Good stands on principle even if it means making a hopeless sacrifice, but evil does whatever works and so is good at survival of the fittest.

>>50294248
>battle of wills
Charisma, no doubt. IIRC a villain from one of the published adventures Strahd can do the same as a lair action.

"NPC targets one Medium or smaller creature that casts a shadow. The target's shadow must be visible to NPC and within 30 feet of him. If the target fails a DC 17 Charisma saving throw, its shadow detaches from it and becomes a shadow that obeys NPC's commands, acting on initiative count 20. A greater restoration spell or a remove curse spell cast on the target restores its natural shadow, but only if its undead shadow has been destroyed."

Inspired by the Dragon art thread. What kind of bollocks would entail for this campaign if everyone in the world was turned into Dragons, except your adventuring party?

OR, do you think a game like that could be fun?

>>50294279
You know, I just had a thought for something I don't know if I've seen in a published setting. A universal conflict more based on the law-chaos spectrum than good-evil.
A world where the white knights of LawfulGoodia are more inclined to work with the orderly LN and cruel but firm LE factions to punish the destructive and disorderly tendencies of CE, CN, and even "misguided" CG.
I'm glad they got out of that 5 scale bollocks 4e tried.

Do you tell your players if finishing this quest/adventure will give them a milestone?

>>50294348
no

>>50294348
Absolutely not.

>>50294348
Nah. In fact, I never really tell my characters anything in advance besides when we are playing and whether it'll be more RP/combat heavy.

>>50294329
I think that'd be a tricky game to run, if only because it massively shifts the way threats work.

Communities are no longer in fear of wildlife, but starvation becomes more of an issue to to the dietary needs of dragons. Take your typical goblin den, then make all of them green dragon wyrmlings instead. There would be chaos as they struggle to compete with eachother with their old goblin mindsets.

Likewise, you might have the more civilized humanoids as metallic dragons and still shapechanging, but you've basically scaled up everyone in the world to be a pretty strong monster at the minimum level.

It might be neat, though I think it'd be better to give a bit of breadth to it and include Dragonborn and Kobolds as well,

>>50294272
someone please answer :(

>>50294272
>>50294512
One strike

>>50294272
No and no. AoO are just a single melee weapon attack, or a spell if you have the War Caster feat. A monster can make an attack with whatever they want, usually their most damaging one.

>>50294512
No, multiattack is an action the creature can take on its turn.
Players gain benefit from extra attack when they take the attack action on their turn as well.
Opportunity attacks are a single melee weapon attack.

>>50294523
>>50294530
>>50294531
dope, thank you

>tfw my players are absolutely scared of facing an adult white dragon
>encounter math says it's merely a Medium encounter for them
What do?

>>50294656
Make it a deadly fight by adding minions and trying to kill them.

>>50294656
say "dungeons and dragons" repeatedly, every time putting more emphasis and volume on "dragons" until you're screeching like a monkey or they get the point.

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>>50294656
Throw shit at them until they beg for a dragon

>>50294656
Have them encounter a grizzly old merc/adventurer who gets in their business and says that they're wusses and he was more than ready to take on such a challenge when he was their age, then have him suggest that if they don't act he'll assemble some others of questionable repute to subjugate the dragon and take its loot for unsavory means.

>>50294656
lair or not?

legendary actions? legendary resist?

>>50294348
hell yeah dude

>>50294348
fuck naww, brah.

>>50294656
They should rightfully be scared. It is a dragon afterall. Assuming they aren't going to just run, add in minions and lair actions to make the fight more deadly.

Also, remember that while White dragons are known for being stupid, that's only compared to other dragons. They are still able to use tactics.

>>50294348
A what?

>>50294678
>>50294696
>>50294732
Not necessarily in its lair, though I could make it so. Being adult, so yes both legendary actions and resistance. It's funny how the encounter math works. Since they are 6 at level 7, it's medium. If they were only 5, it would be deadly. I think, considering how much damage his breath weapon does compared to their HP, plus his advantage of flying, might make the fight harder than it looks. I'm just worried it ends up anticlimactic if they have it too easy, since things have been building up to this fight for about 2 to 3 sessions now.

>>50294815
I would suggest having something waiting in the wings if you need to make the fight easier or harder. For example, you can lead off with some kobold minions, and if things get a bit dangerous you can have the white dragon use its breath weapon to kill off a bunch of the kobolds to show it doesn't care about them, thus turning the tide in the player's favor.

I am thinking of playing a mage/cleric that cannot speak. Should I?

>>50294865
If you have to ask tg, the answer is that your idea is stupid.

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>>50294865

Can a theif use their bonus action to use a scroll? Assuming they multiclassed to get spellcasting ability

>>50294894
Anon, this was a quality post.

>>50294903
That depends on if you classify it as
>Use an action to use an item (yes)
>Use an action to activate a function of a magical item (no)
>Use an action to cast a spell (no)

>>50294865
Fucks your ability to cast spells with vocal components, aka all the good Cleric ones. Also makes communicating in character way more difficult, unless you just assume everyone is fluent in sign language or don't talk to the rest of your party, or else have to pantomime out everything you want to get across to them.

Essentially you'll be a burden on the average party, so don't do that unless all the other players are on board.

>>50294903
Officially, no.

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>>50294808

>he uses XP

>>50294921
Thiefs ability doesnt work on magical items?

>>50294695
Not really possible right now, but thanks for the idea. I might use it in the future.

>>50294849
Problem is, the players have pretty much killed almost all of its would-be minions, and the dragon doesn't know yet. I have more of a need for something to make the fight harder than easier. Maybe a spell? Using the Variant from the MM, an adult white dragon could know and cast 1 spell up to level 4.

>>50295000
>Its minions were killed
Those are an important aspect of the dragon's hoard, now destroyed!
Since whites aren't the longest thinkers, I'd have it rage and start ransacking nearby hamlets. Force their hand, or it'll destroy wantonly until it is sated or others appear to stop it.

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>>50288677
Be a Bugbear.

>use handaxes like improvised clubs
>doubles my damage against skeletons

this seems broken

>>50295000
A spell could certainly help even the odds.

I would recommend Sleet Storm. While it is technically lower level than Ice Storm and does less damage, it's better for the fight, since it creates slippery difficult terrain and forces concentration checks for those standing in the area.

It's also a concentration spell, meaning there will be an easy out if they can land a solid enough hit on the dragon.

Have it lead with that to try and lock the party in a nice patch of ice, then make use of its flight and breath weapon to corral them towards it.

If they seem to be faltering, having the dragon engage in melee out of hubris and fail the concentration check when struck.

>>50290690
I've always liked 4E.

The faggots who went on about "muh MMO" and "muh no roleplaying" never had any idea what they were talking about and were, as I just mentioned, FAGGOTS.

Trying to pick out the cantrips I want as a Moon Druid. Shillelagh and Magic Stones seem alright, but as a Moon Druid I already have a good bit of DPS.

And what are some spells to avoid? Concentration spells seem obvious enough.

>>50295111
I'd actually suggest Produce Flame over Magic Stones. Concentration spells are also pretty good to have at least one of. They tend to be strong effects

>>50293181
your***

>>50294962
My dm doesnt really care for components for spells

>>50294967
>our DM is using XP
>the adventure suggests milestones and ends every chapter with "the party should be X level before heading on to this stuff"
>we're now three levels below what we should be
>it's fucking SKT so giants are going to rip our assholes open

I have Dm'd four long term campaigns and the gods have played almost no purpose. I made up some basic deities but none of the players think about them.

Am I fucking up?

>>50295196
Leave your DM

>>50288677
Not only does that waste a feat, but dual-wielding isn't good for a fighter.

If you get the 'spell sniper' feat, you can claim 'booming blade' and use it at 10ft. I would recommend this on say rogues, but you could also just be a swashbuckler and move away after attacking instead.

>>50295056
>not using your leg as an improvised greatclub
baka

>>50294656
Interesting, my players went in thinking they were going to fight a hag, but it turned out to be an adult dragon instead. I fully believe they'll try to stick it out and fight it, and if I give them any outs they'll take it as me trying to save the monster.

Level 9's vs. CR14 *IN* its lair.

>>50295111
Guidance is actually pretty decent. How often do you hold a concentration spell between combats? I'm not sure but it's great for almost any out of combat skill checks.

Frostbite is one of the best attacking cantrips in the game.

I'd focus more on utility cantrips though, since in combat you'll be wildshaped.

>>50295238
How late do these campaigns go level wise? If the party starts messing with reality-warping McGuffins or are making war trails into the Abyss/Nine Hells, then maybe some god interaction is welcomed. If lower level, then just clerics of the gods giving some guidance "In the name of X" every now and then.

>>50295256
>Not using your dick as an improvised club.

>>50295311
>Not using your dick as an improvised greatclub

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>>50295238
We tend to think about fantasy games the same way we do reality. There is no god in our every day life, so why pay much attention to them in the fantasy world unless they're directly responsible for giving you powers and you need to pay lipservice? Even in a setting like FR where it's established the Gods are like fucking everywhere and characters worship 10 of them at any given time, even if it's just so they won't get smote by the bad ones, no one really cares.

If your players aren't real big into RP, this is fine, because that's mostly what the gods are going to be: RP flavoring, like a spice.

If you really want the characters to pay attention, your Gods and their churches need to take an active role in world events. Characters should receive visions or hear shit in their head, be rewarded when they please the Gods, get their shit kicked in if they are blasphemous heretics, and the plot should likely relate to some plan of the Gods or their mortal henchmen.

You could also take the Mystara approach where the Gods manipulate all events, even the doings of adventurers, because they themselves are physically prevented from meddling in the affairs of mortals WITH THEIR GODLY POWER, but not if they assume a powerful (or not; in either case, not divine) human form and rule a kingdom, or pit one adventuring group against the adventuring group of a rival god, or task them with finding an artifact for them, etc., all without ever revealing that they are actually Gods. See pic related.

>>50295319
I use my head like a maul

>>50295059
Sleet Storm looks perfect for this. White Dragons even have Ice Walk, which would allow them to ignore the detrimental effects from their own spell. Thanks for the suggestion!

>>50295258
How many level 9s? Difficulty changes quite a lot depending on party size.

>>50295378
>>50295238
It's not necessary to have gods manipulating every event in the world or showing signs and miracles to the PCs. Even if the gods don't do much, religion does. The church controlled everything in medieval Europe - they did all the scholarship and science, they were a lot of the local bureaucracy, they owned a ton of land and collected vast incomes from it, and kings would even call on the pope to settle disputes. And those fuckers couldn't even cast spells. Imagine how much more temporal power a church would have if it also had a monopoly on medicine and could even raise the dead on command, for a price.

>>50294348
>>50294967
XP is a much better system for a more 'freeform' freedom game. It means that players are rewarded for what they do, not simply for reaching a point in an adventure.
It's less like a train stop with a snack bar and more like collecting enough tickets in the game machine to redeem a prize.

I much prefer EXP and freeform games, but it's not easy to keep a game going where everybody has freedom and isn't either just following the path of most obviousness and least resistance or is completely lost, as you have to strike the right balance of tempting, actually meaningful options.

How do I make a thrilling adventure involving corporate finance and government regulation in the vein of Atlas Shrugged?

>>50295648
I think you may be in the wrong thread. Is there a tabletop RPG more focused on railroad porn?

>>50295671
No, I want to do this on roll20 and 5e is the most popular.

>>50295693
It's the most popular because most players are looking for pseudo-medieval fantasy, not modern dieselpunk about poor victimized corporate magnates.

>>50295693
With a premise like that I think you'll have trouble regardless of the system.

>>50295727
>>50295725
I wasn't going to tell them it's Atlas shrugged.

>>50295747
Then as soon as they find out that it's not what they're looking for, they'll leave. False advertising doesn't get you very far.

How do you guys handle random encounters and travel?

I find that most often I just tell the party that they walk for a day. I feel bad for doing this though, it seems like there must be a better way to handle it.

I don't want to constantly have combat encounters during travel because we'd never get anywhere.

>>50295790
i use random encounter tables tailored to the campaign. theyre almost never just tables of random fighta. instead theyre tables of events tied to the politics and locale of the campaign, including fights.

>>50295790
If it's a relatively civilized region, sure, they walk for a day without incident. If it's a dangerous area, I usually have someone roll Survival. If their check sucks, they get a nasty encounter and the trip takes much longer than normal. Maybe they arrive at their destination with one or more levels of exhaustion. If their check is good, they encounter nothing or they get an optional encounter that they can avoid if desired.

>>50295790
I think having uncommon travel encounters that may include meeting people might be a thing.

Mentioning some details of importance over the trip such as 'as you go further and further away from the forest, it seems the greenery is becoming more and more scarce' is nice to set the scene.

Maybe offer chances to go off-track just a little, but not a lot unless people really try to persue.

as a player is there anything I can do to become a burning skeleton of vengeance

>>50295420
5 (Barb, Bard, Fighter, Rogue, Sorc)

Inside a giant cavernous grotto of an Adult Black Dragon.

As the DM, all signs point to them being fucked. Knowing my party, any sign of weakness or trying to give them a way out will just get them thinking the dragon is trying to save itself and get out.

>>50295820
>>50295790
tldr: use random encounters that matter and are appropriate to where they are.

in more dense areas, higher frequency encounters.

in more civilized areas, more social encounters.

etc.

Is there such a thing as leveling a party up too fast? I've been having trouble thinking up encounters for the party. They're at low level, and I felt that they should have a little bit of a grind before they get to be the big damn heroes, but I can't help but feel that they think it's kind of dull.

>>50295790
The better way to handle it is to make sure that the encounter ties into what's going on, or otherwise isn't just a pointless fight. Have other travelers for them to meet and inform them of things in the area. If it is a dangerous area and a fight is likely, have the encounter clue them in or connect to whatever is planned. If there's a dragon in the region, have a group of kobolds out hunting game for a tribute, for example.

Random encounters also work better if you're using the Gritty rest variant, since then they can be suitably small and still fit into encounter guidelines. Otherwise, you're kind of force to make the random encounters deadly to pose any sort of threat.

>>50295840
Some characters can make themselves appear like that temporarily - like a vengeance paladin or a scourge aasimar.

>>50288585
Why is MFoV btfo on /5eg/?!

>>50295840
homebrew up a reasonable playable burning skeleton, based on existing published options.

ask your gm.

>>50295851
theres no reason you cant have them start at a higher level or bump them up, but you might want to make sure you give them their random treasure rolls.

>>50295851
If you're having trouble with low-level encounters, high-level encounters are going to be a nightmare for you to plan. There are much fewer high CR monsters, and players gain more and more abilities that can wipe out whole fields of enemies, disable or deal triple-digit damage to boss monsters, or even skip right to the objective without fighting. For your purposes, keep them weak as long as you can.

>>50295237
>implying reaching milestones and doing significant things isn't worth xp
but if the book tells you to do it you should do it

>>50295755
I doubt it. They'd love the truth I'd be spreading

Wodinsford Warblades Spells for Wizards who aren't Wimps.
Greenflame Blade unchanged.
Advantages: High potential damage. Multiple-Targets. Situational Damage.

Booming Blade unchanged.
Features: High potential damage. Mindgames. Situational Damage.

Stormborn Strike.
Melee weapon attack dealing +Mod lightning damage. Teleport to a square adjacent to target. Scales +1d8 for initial hit..
Features: Good frontloaded damage. Mobility.

Glacial Hammer.
Melee weapon attack dealing +Mod cold damage and its speed is reduced by 10ft until the start of your next turn. Scales +1d8 for initial hit.
Features: Good frontloaded damage. Slight CC.

Caustic Slash.
Melee weapon attack. Target takes 1d4+Mod Acid damage at the end of its next turn. Scales +2d4 on both initial and secondary hits.
Features: Highest potential damage. Waiting for Damage is trash tier.

Toxic Spike.
Melee weapon attack. Target makes a Con saving throw. If they fail, they are poisoned until the start of your next turn. Scales +1d8 for initial hit.
Features: Decent damage. Great status effect. Poison is a very common Resistance and Immunity.

Revised Truestrike.
Melee weapon attack with advantage. Scales +1d6 of weapon damage for initial hit.
Features: Accurate, better than the current trash version.

And just for fun.

Noh-Ten Perso-Nelkhid.
Teleport to a square behind a target and make a melee attack with advantage against them. They are suprised. This attack deals double normal weapon damage and an additional +2d8 Necrotic damage, you gain temporary hitpoints equal to the necrotic damage dealt. Creatures slain by this ability have their souls trapped in the weapon used for this spell. Scales +2d8 Necrotic Damage on the initial hit.

where are the new character options in DMG? I cant find this stuff. for example where is the extra cleric domain??

>>50295985
Pg 96 for Death Domain, 97 for Oathbreaker. 286 for Eladrin and Aasimar

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>>50295790
This is how I do it. I roll three sets of dice.
>1d20, 3d6, 2d10
The %dice tell me if there's an encounter at all (tailor % to your need), then the 3d6 tell me the types of monsters/people they encounter (seperate table, bell curve, this does not need to be a combat ecnounter), and the d20 tells me what sort of situation they're in.

alternatively I take the d20 result and take the non-combat encounter
I took the non combat encounters randomly out of a book with over 1300 road encounters.

This way all the work is front loaded, and once done I just have to occasionally swap out the monsters based on CR and the random non-combat encounters.

I roll once a day on the table. Sometimes I let the players roll the dice. So far it works fine for me.

>>50295925
Truestrike is a little too good for rogues considering the main downside of BB/GFB for them is negated if they get advantage.However, I guess they could've found advantage in other ways.

Stormborn strike is, again, while functionally okay actually pretty dumb for 5e considering it essentially tells the character 'Hey, you can teleport AS A CANTRIP!'
So the player will then ask 'Why can't I just teleport everywhere at-will at wizard level 1?'
5e is low powered, and avoids doing these things because unlike 4e the abilities should hold sense for general application.

Glacial one is fine enough, but I'm not sure if the CC justifies the notable loss in damage. Maybe it does. I'd call it underpowered - if it's in melee, it doesn't need to move much.

Caustic slash feels like it should be a concentration-based attack that lasts and deals damage over time if you can maintain it, though not a lot. There are a lot of situations where the extra damage makes it simply better than booming blade for the fact that booming blade is unlikely to kill them unless they want to run from combat, and the fact that since you know the turn order you might know there's no way the enemy will die before their turn.

Toxic is a literally a direct upgrade of ray of sickness, except it's melee instead of ranged. Even for a level 1 character it can deal more damage than ray of sickness.

>>50295258
>>50295420
>>50295842

Anyone else want to chime in? Situation is I have players who jumped the gun on a situation that was going to give them plenty of options to leave / get out, and are now in over their heads fighting something they don't have much of a chance against.

>>50289175
I rip the audio from YouTube and listen while walking/running and doing house work.

I'll miss the occasional joke, or sometimes I'll look something up if they say the map was really cool or whatever, but it tends to work well.

>>50295925
>>50296021
Maybe the revised Truestrike could add casting modifier to damage instead? That's still pretty nice, but requires multiple high stats for a real benefit.

That might make casters a bit too great with crossbows at low levels though, as that's better than archery fighting style in many ways.

>>50296026
give them outs. drop hints they are very unlikely to win. let them decide if they're going to tpk or nit. dont pull punches if they force the confrontatiob

>>50296026
Kill the PCs

>>50295647
>lt's less like a train stop with a snack bar and more like collecting enough tickets in the game machine to redeem a prize.

That still doesn't make any sense for a level-based system like D&D. Whether you're handing out EXP for encounters or saying "you hit a milestone", the result is exactly the same: you get a lump of upgrades when you reach the next level. Milestones are better in this regard because you can just hand them out at the end of the game session, rather than worry about the players trying to "farm" encounters and leveling too fast for what you have planned.

You'd have a point if D&D WERE more freeform, and your hit dice and class abilities and proficiencies increased in a more piecemeal way, but since it's not the argument is whether to use EXP or milestones for level advancement.

>>50296026
Player agency. Their decision, their fate. don't take that away, it'll feel cheap.

However, the dragon doesn't necessarily want the players dead, maybe he wants them as henchmen, maybe as slaves with some magical doo-hickies. Maybe he'll use his full force only once he realises those aren't just some dudes but powerful enemies.

>>50289175
I don't enjoy doing it and end up going back and watching it when I can, but that's dependent on the person. Some in my circle have never watched an episode and have only listened to it, and still enjoy it.

Most diehard fans I know though watch it. More of a connection / entertainment at that point.

>>50296076
That does sound like a good idea. Also makes it work less well with crits, which is kind of a big deal when advantage gives higher chance of crits.

However, it does take away true strike's ability to grant advantage to ranged spell attacks.

An attack that grants you a concentration buff that gives you advantage on your next attack could be good if you can find a way to keep that balanced.

Archery fighting style will still probably come out on top, especially once sharpshooter gets involved.
You can always make it melee-only.

>>50295647
XP is a terrible system in freeform games.
It encourages killing as the main means of accomplishment.

>>50296112
>>50296121
>>50296125


Hmmm, I gotcha. I think I'm having reservations because:

>Evil Person A makes them a deal, sends them to get Macguffin from Evil Person B
>Arrive on Evil Person B's doorstep and engage in convo
>I *plan* on revealing that Evil Person B will double down and make a better deal with them to screw over Evil Person A
>They launch all out attack formation after "Hi, my name is *magic missile*"

Turns out, it's a Black Dragon they're dealing with.

>>50296180
You don't have to kill all of them.

>>50296180
Good opportunity to beat the murderhobo out of them

>>50296204
>>50296207
It's funny because one of the players had talked to me about changing to a new character. His current character feels like he got the adventuring itch out of his system, and wants to go back home. Considering using this as an opportunity to kill everyone but him, and let him end it with a sweet side of survivor's guilt.

>>50296157
Eh, I personally see True Strike as the sort of Divination attack cantrip. Like Necromancers use Chill Touch, Evocation goes for firebolt, and so on.

But if you wanted something thematic for a Divination caster, I think having that sort of slight premonition as you fire your arrows or swing your sword would be quite fitting.

The main level where it's extreme is probably first. Perhaps instead it would be better to have True strike replace the physical stat for the attack roll, but not the damage roll? That way you aren't a flat out better archer.

>>50296164
>implying you can't reward for anything but killing
But, it does feel a bit like the DM gives arbitrary experience if they give XP for not-killing.

>>50296124
Well, t hat's true. Still, you shouldn't have 'farming' since you're in control of the XP, and players won't outlevel what you've planned because hopefully you can make quick adjustments. If it's freeform, you expect players to outlevel certain areas at some point, regardless of how fast it is.

Though, I can see players saying that they'll not approach a boss until they've beat up a few goons for more experience so they can get the next big jump.

I believe DnD can be done in a very freeform manner if the DM has things set up right and is the right sort of DM. Milestones owe well to predetermined adventures, but not the whole freeform thing. I feel the main issue with freeform isn't DnD as a system but rather that it can be quite hard to make players actually feel free. It's very easy to get to a point where all freedom means is 'You COULD do this, but you're going to do what I expect you're going to do anyway' which is pretty much the same as a predetermined adventure.

Also the syndrome problems you get on open-world games where nobody stays on the same plotline long enough. You have to make everything sensibly relate, that perhaps many evil things going on in the world have a similar root cause.

>>50296240
They'd have to be an elf for longbow or something anyway.
Oh, wait, wizards get light crossbows. 1d8.

I can see true strike being made a level 1 spell that makes a weapon attack that then grants you advantage on your next attack roll before the end of your next turn, possibly concentration.
Other than that, I think it might be a little tricky to implement it as a cantrip attack that gives advantage straight away.

Is there any item in D&D that can be used to soak up a boatload of magical energy to be used later? If not I shall make one

>>50296261
>>implying you can't reward for anything but killing
>But, it does feel a bit like the DM gives arbitrary experience if they give XP for not-killing.

Exactly, so you might as well just forego the entire hassle and level them up once you feel like it.

>>50296332
There was a rod of something that absorbs spells that can be used for spell slots.

Already in there.

>>50296261
just make up some guidelines for how much xp to give out for noncombat things. i like to crib the list from shadowrun and assign point values to that (i dont grant combat xp at all)

>>50296332
>>50296351
ring of spell storing, allows 5 levels of spells to be cast at a later date DMG p192

>>50296330
Yeah, advantage straight away would be tricky. I think for that to work, it would need to use your bonus action as well but still limit you to a single attack.

I feel like making it the 'crossbow cantrip' of sorts might be fitting enough. It's not as though it gets much use currently anyway, and having it be advantage mainly just makes it appealing for Rogues.

>>50296345
I don't disagree, but it doesn't really fit if you 'do' do freeform stuff.

Most games are usually much more towards a structured adventure, however, so I suppose milestones should probably be the standard system.

I'm not sure how people feel about varied XP rewards or lack of rewards for people who aren't at sessions or such. Any level difference greater than one or two is a big deal, and being level 4 when everyone's level 5 sucks.

>>50296361
Yeah, that's probably good. However, it might not scale well into higher levels, but perhaps that might encourage them to do things like 'talk to a king' instead of 'talk to a peasant'.

>>50296361
>just make up some guidelines for how much xp to give out for noncombat things.
There's actually a bit in the DMG about how to do this.

The answer is still just make it up.

File: Winter Domain.pdf (1B, 486x500px)

1B, 486x500px

I'm working on a Winter domain for cleric after it got suggested in the last thread. Trying to be more thematic and utility-oriented rather than damage or healing-heavy.

Any suggestions?

I keep seeing this thing shilled around various places. Thoughts?

http://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/Sy-Krg-Tyl

>>50296453
Why does it not fit? elaborate. It fits for me so far.
They simply level up once theyve accomplished one or several grand feats that have an effect on the world.

>>50296564
I have never once seen this thing shilled until you decided to shill it, likely author person.

>>50296532
Level 17 is seriously overpowered looking.

No limits to its use, makes it harder to approach you, forces enemies to make save throws and grants you immunity (something rather rare as a class feature) to an element, though you were resistant before. Oh, AND automatic damage that's 17 to 20.

Mostly concerned about at-will CC.

Level 8 is pretty much an upgrade of most other cleric level 8s that only add +1d8 instead of +2d8 later.
That's odd.

Level 6 is a bit powerful when you consider it adds up on top of some area effect spells.
Not only are enemies suffering from half movement speed, but they also get -10ft speed.
Ultimately, anything that gives enemies difficult terrain and damage is now resulting in them moving no more than 10ft a round without extra effort.
And then, resistance to cold damage on top of that.. Compared to lightningbolt strike, it's way more powerful, but not incredibly overpowered or anything.

Level 2 sounds too fiddley for a DM to manage when you try to describe what squares you want. Make it a cube or sphere or whatever.

Level 1 is okay. Nice way to spite rangers by being better at what rangers are supposed to be good at than them, but eh. Very much like nature cleric, but you sacrifice shillelagh for expertise.