/5eg/ Fifth Edition General:

I really want to like Circle of Death, but it doesn't seem like it can compete with other similar spells.

>>51634956
>What makes a villain good
A good alignment ;)
Understandable motives and strength of character

>>51634956
Having a reason for what he's doing (even if it's "born with a fucked up brain"),
not having a sad-sack backstory that's meant to "justify" their actions but really just makes them seem pathetic and weak compared to everyone else who's faced hardship but didn't turn into a hypocritical lunatic ("the government killed my wife / let her die so now I will blow up several city blocks to stop the government and also everyone else's wives who happen to be there oops"),
and not acting under some delusional pretense that they are "the good guy".

>>51634956
Not having an overpowered level 7 feature jesus fuck oathbreaker

>>51635028
>understandable motives
You really meant sympathetic motives. A shitty, unsympathetic motive can still be understood and processed; it's the writer's job to make sure people know what's going on, but it doesn't necessarily follow that knowing what's going on means a character's motivation has to make any logical sense or be even remotely reasonable or justified.

And it's crap. Trying to unite the world against the invading alien forces that no one knows about is not best achieved by using your billions of dollars, advanced technology, and incredibly infrastructure and influence to wage a destructive war against all the nations of the world until they finally come together to defeat you, whereupon you reveal, "This was my plan all along, now you are one and can stand against the alien horde."

If you were strong enough to challenge every nation at the same time and could build a nearly-unstoppable death robot army before anyone noticed, you were fully capable of convincing people that the alien armada was coming and making a strong attempt at stopping them with just the one or two nations who agree to assist you. No reason to kill millions to get to the same point.

>>51635086
What's wrong with their level 7 feature?

Overly sympathetic villains can drive the players away from completing goals.

It's generally best to have them not too insane, but overall opposing, and that the idea of them ever redeeming themselves is hard but not likely. But at the very least, they have a reason for being as they are.

But not a 'Okay, let's have 10 sessions of crying in a corner and not actually doing anything but just considering the moral implication of killing this villain or just becoming bakers instead'.

>>51635171
It makes them stronger than a DPS-focused fighter in pretty much every single way possible.

Only a dex fighter would have anything over them, and that's 'I can hide at a distance and shoot people'.

It's important to note that if your players want to switch sides and join the villain, you did a piss poor job of creating the villain.
"Sympathetic motives" and "sympathetic backstory" does not and should not translate to "is right and should be sided with".

>>51635177
Any serious analysis of a sympathetic villain reveals they're actually terrible, unsympathetic people, and the author is relying on you not look too deep into this or put far less weight on the villain's atrocities than whatever their triggering event or goal is. The teensiest bit of moral calculus blows the whole thing up--even villains whose justification IS based on moral calculus.

I blame the shades of grey morality bullshit that started infecting everything a little over a decade ago.
>here's our badguy
>oh but it's bad writing if he's unrelatable
>here's a tragic backstory
>don't you feel sorry for this literal mass murderer
Yeah, sorry, you're not getting me to excuse the Holocaust and WW2 on Hitler being sad because he couldn't get into art school or a Jewish bully stealing his lunch money.

>>51635217
To explain further, the only thing fighter has over paladin is they barely have more sustained damage

Oathbreaker just shits all over a GWM+PAM fighter by using PAM.

Oathbreaker sacrificed a support aura ability for 'lol more damage' and is probably the best sustained damage output in the game, on top of all their other abilities including probably the single-best burst damage in the game not including magic missile abuse.

File: Kensei v2_1.pdf (1B, 486x500px)

1B, 486x500px

>>51634987
Better? Added your suggestion and also covered the case of gaining martial weapon proficiencies from other sources (feat/multiclass). I do worry about how it compares to open hand a little. Hand has slightly less average damage, but the ability to knock up to 2 foes prone with Flurry is extremely powerful.

Summary of changes from UA Kensei for anyone who gives a shit:
>Path of the Kensei
+Kensei weapons are Monk weapons
-You only get to pick 3 from the martial list, excluding the 1d12 or 2d6 melee weapons
-No using STR for ranged weapons
-AC boost only happens if Attack action is used for unarmed strikes
-No pummel
+Flurry of Blows can be used to make a weapon attack instead of 2 unarmed attacks

>Sharpen the Blade
+Treat 1's as 2's on damage dice for kensei weapons

>Other
+Pretty pictures

>>51635026
It's a very large radius and the damage is rarely resisted. You'll appreciate it if you need to wipe out a mass devils or demons. It doesn't really shine against most things you want to kill though. Most living things burn.

>>51635340
>can't use the greatsword
what's the fucking point then
>can still use GWM via polearms
this is just a 'no fun allowed' rule

>>51635137
No idea what you're talking about, but the nations did stop his death robot army, so that means whatever they've got now must be even better than the death robot army was, and is therefore better prepared for the aliens than the villain was alone.

So, what is the best Adventure Module? Are there any adventure modules well suited to a low number of players?

>>51635051
how about "the government killed all my friends because their dungeon insurance expired while they were taking an unauthorized long rest in the dungeon and now I shall get my revenge by blowing up the factory where they make the request forms for level 9 monstrosity theme dungeons?"

>>51635410
You've got 100 super-soldiers, the other 10 nations of the world have 1,000 soldiers each. It's 100 vs. 10,000. Your super-soldiers kill 90 soldiers per death they sustain and are eventually defeated.

The aliens arrive and there's just 1,000 shitty soldiers left. Oops. Your super-soldiers were worth 9,000. It would have been far better to combine those with even a third of the world's other soldiers.

War is destructive. The combined nations of the world don't necessarily beat your army because they have superior technology, but because they now grossly outnumber you. But after a long war, both forces are far depleted and should be much easier pickings for the aliens. It was pointless to start a war.

>>51635217
There is the slight problem that they are very prone to being gangbanged by fiends and undead.

>>51635405
>can't use the greatsword
The problem is that there doesn't seem to be a simple way to balance using a greatsword/greataxe/maul and using monk unarmed strikes at the same time, without a massive low-level damage spike. And making kensei weapons not monk weapons screws up other features of the base class. It's lose-lose. Any suggestions?

>can still use GWM via polearms
Thanks for reminding me. Although this decision is predicated on the topic above.

>>51635468
I hope ancap DnD will become one of the memes of /5eg/, it deserves it.

>>51635348
That sounds fair. If I absolutely hate knowing it, I can swap it out next level.

>>51635447
> So, what is the best Adventure Module
Curse of Strahd. There's no discussion. Either you know that Curse of Strahd is the best adventure, or you're wrong.

>>51635489
If they raise dead or anything similar, they can counter-gangbang, though.

>>51635340
I don't think using two-handed weapons with a Kensei is bad, just being able to get +2 AC all the time by sacrificing an attack to MA but largely making up for the damage in the rest of the round. They can have proficiencies and use whatever weapons they want, just no weapon stat usage when gaining their AC (in a round, because they should still be able to reaction attack with their greatsword).

>>51635574
That's true, an oathbreaker/necromancer duo may be the best love story possible in 5e.

there's no way to donate your undead to someone else so they can use animate dead to sustain is there?

toilet mimic

dick move?

>>51635026
>Tfw one of your players used Circle of Death to execute a cave filled with hundreds of civillian slaves to prevent them from being sacrificed to an infernal demon godess.
>Tfw when several sessions earlier, his companions called him stupid for picking that spell claiming you can't save the world with a circle of necrotic doom.

>>51635652
Rappan Athuk's first level is one long poop joke culminating in an almost invincible shit mimic/toilet mimic

File: marderarmy.jpg (249KB, 1038x1023px) Image search: [Google]

249KB, 1038x1023px

Here's a good villain. Fucking Marder from Galient, a show about giant robots and guys with swords from the 80s, when sci-fi and fantasy always came as a pair.

Marder is from a galaxy-spanning civilization whose technology has advanced to the point where no one wants for anything. There is no disease, no hardship, no commerce, no need to work, and no resource scarcity. The human drive to invent and explore has died out, as civilization has reached the limits of their technological capability. Everything is completely stagnant; humanity has even lost the ability to design or build new machines themselves, or even understand how their technology works, as the mechanized systems are completely self-replicating and self-sufficient. The people wander around with blank faces, knowing neither joy nor sorrow, having their every physical need catered to by machines, existing purely to live out their lives as lengthily as possible. Every time another civilization (all human, resulting from an earlier diaspora) meets theirs, it is immediately outclassed and absorbed.

Marder has a problem with the vast and overwhelming majority of humanity being nothing more than zombies. He believes that conflict is responsible for driving innovation and exploration; not just conflict between peoples, but conflict between man and environment. He wants to start a violent assault on a planet which will jar awake its "sleeping" peoples and read them into his cause, taking his ever-growing army from one defenseless, slumbering world to another, until all humanity is awake and suffering and in-fighting and warring just enough to want to push the boundaries of knowledge.

>>51635626
Animate dead animates them with spirits from shadowfell or something. At best the spirits might mimic what the creature did in their past life like muscle memory or something while idle.
It doesn't bring their actual spirit back.

File: galientfight3.jpg (225KB, 1236x1040px) Image search: [Google]

225KB, 1236x1040px

>>51635731
To that end, he searches for and finds one of the backwards planets outside the galactic hegemony that still possesses the ancient, war-waging technology that the grander galactic civilization abandoned long ago. The ancient weapons are unknown to the people, who have a simple, pre-feudal culture and a medieval level of technology. He uses his advanced knowledge to make weapons far beyond them, and goes about enslaving villages one by one, absorbing them as new soldiers and manufacturers for his dark army, while searching for the ancient technology that will let him take his crusade to the stars.

He is a brutal despot and purposefully inefficient in his conquest. He immediately quashes any internal rebellion, but allows outside resistance movements to flourish and move largely unopposed. He wants to stoke the fires of hatred and liberty in the people, to create and identify leaders who can help his greater purpose, and to suss out which methods are best for rousing humans to action.

When these resistance leaders confront him, he always makes a pitch that they join him. He does not want them to bow and scrape, to acquiesce because they fear destruction or desire a less wretched existence, but because they have been convinced that he is right in technological progress and a striving for physical and intellectual betterment are at the heart of humanity's purpose. He seeks willing participants in his bloody crusade, styling their future conquest as a liberation, a resurrection, rather than some base power-grab. But he is under no delusion that he is "a good guy" or is doing "the right thing"--he openly admits that he is playing the part of a demon.

File: 1410655278801.png (85KB, 262x246px) Image search: [Google]

85KB, 262x246px

Need some help with a plot line I've written myself into, so I'll condense as much as possible.

The players have been in contact with two mining companies. One is owned by a young dude who inherited a stone quarry from his father. The other company is owned by a grossly successful businessman who used to work with the aforementioned father, and wants to buy the business out.

The stone quarry has become infested/haunted by some kind of monster(s), and its keeping the miners from working. Young dude thinks rich businessman is the cause of it. He isn't, but the players think he is, due to the businessman being a tiefling who has the whole "devil in a nice suit" thing going on.

What ACTUALLY happened is that someone, a third party not yet known to the players, is down in a recently-uncovered wing of the mines, fucking around with an ancient fucky dark magic altar previously belonging to some lich the king slew years ago. And a Great Old One is involved somehow but I don't know how to finagle that in yet either.

So now I need some reason for the tiefling businessman to be interested in the failing mine that doesn't make him out to be a villain.

>>51635340
>using a Spider Clan slut to represent your homebrew class

Shamefur dispray

>>51635776
Well, maybe the tiefling owed the guy something and wants to 'help out' (and also, at the same time, get some insight as to what's going on) to pay back the debt, even if he can't repay the guy's father anymore. So they're fine with helping scout things out, or at least it looks like an act of kindness.

>>51635753
The aesthetics distantly remind me of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vay_(video_game). It's a shame I barely played that game back in the day. Now I want to go to a monster-infested cave and maim things.

We've just hit level 5, and as a paladin I can now cast find steed.

I was leaning towards getting an elk, or is there a similar power level of mount that would be better?

>>51635776
He's interested in it because he thinks he can buy it for cheap and then deal with the problem itself. Much cheaper to buy a failing mine, then pay some adventurers or a group of clerics/paladins/church to go in and fix the evil brewing there than it is to buy a successful potential mine. Kinda like how people in the real world go and buy shitty houses, then fix the place up themselves and sell it for quadruple what it would've been if it had been a normal house.

>>51635835
A very large turtle.

>>51635835
Ambush Drake.

File: baptisminblood.png (456KB, 704x480px) Image search: [Google]

456KB, 704x480px

>>51635753
Also, he kidnaps a Queen and puts her in fucking green carbonite because he thinks she's hot and will eventually love him. This is completely separate from his desire to reawaken humanity, but also underscores the fact that he is a massive asshole.

He finally unearths and overhauls the technology he needs to take his crusade on the road, amasses an army large enough to crush the first sleeping planet he encounters, and teleports his whole HQ, army, and the rebel forces attacking him at that moment right into the middle of a city on said sleeping planet. He causes widespread destruction and mayhem, crushing everything, slaughtering tens of thousands, until at last the sleeping people begin to shows signs of actual life.

Whereas for hours they stood there, passively watching death and destruction unfold, letting robots run right up to them and slice them in half, or staring uncaringly at explosions racing towards them or falling debris, they now began to dodge, and even pick up bits of wreckage and swing back at the footsoldiers marching on them. Marder had his proof of concept; he could wake not just the "barbarians" of that lost world up, but also the slumbering people of his own civilization through violence.

But then the galactic council that oversees everything noticed this, worried about this violence and "wakefulness" spreading to other solar systems, and did what their ancestors have always done when this happens--pressed the button to deploy THE ERASER, an ancient spacefaring weapon they didn't even understand anymore. It zoomed over in a matter of hours, vaporized everything, and Marder's ambitions were crushed. His last act was to basically say, "Well, this didn't work. There's always a bigger dog. I gave it a good shot. I'm sorry to have dragged your backwards planet into my fight, let me send you back before you get atomized along with me. Also, here's your mom (the Queen) back."

>>51635776
If you don't want him to seem villainously interested in the mine, have him withdraw his offer, not just reduce it, since he thinks the trouble there makes it worthless and he doesn't have any way to fix it.

>>51635731
>Marder
Off topic, but a general of the IMC in Titanfall is also called Marder.

>>51635776

>So now I need some reason for the tiefling businessman to be interested in the failing mine that doesn't make him out to be a villain.

Since the mines now count as a dungeon due to the presence of monsters, the government has dispatched a crack team of assassins to kill all of corporation A's miners. The tiefling leader of corporation B is in a desperate race against time to find the miners and sell them dungeon insurance before the government comes to kill everybody (leaving the monsters alive, of course).

Plot twist: He brought the wrong kind of insurance, so it is a moot point either way. The PCs will still have to pay taxes on their way out.

File: Galient 24.mkv_snapshot_12.32_[2013.03.26_12.30.33].jpg (30KB, 640x480px) Image search: [Google]

30KB, 640x480px

>>51635894
He's great because he is unabashedly a bad guy. His motivation is not one of personal loss, failure, or petty revenge; there is no event in his background that "breaks" him in a way that reveals his moral fortitude was weaker than any number of normal people who've faced similar losses. He doesn't want your sympathy (because he isn't sympathetic), he doesn't try to guilt you, he doesn't want to argue that you (or the other characters) are "just like him", or any other villainous cliché that's now en vogue.

You can kind of see where he's coming from, and maybe you could make an ethical or philosophical argument that stagnation is death or the people he was fighting weren't alive to begin with, but it's a really tough sell. It's not only hard to justify to his own people, but pretty much impossible to justify to the citizens of the backwards, medieval planet he invaded and trashed; these guys don't give two shits about the galactic community. They don't even know what a galaxy is. But it's not ACTUALLY impossible, and conquered people actually did sign on and become totally loyal to him, even to the point of going down with the ship when he offered to teleport them back.

Good villain. Shit fashion sense. 80s as fuck.

File: 7650e0414f0200ca80d9bf59f45cebae.jpg (182KB, 650x919px) Image search: [Google]

182KB, 650x919px

>>51635776
>So now I need some reason for the tiefling businessman to be interested in the failing mine that doesn't make him out to be a villain.

>he knew someone in the mines and thinks that i he explores it he can find out what happened to them
>possibly even a lover

>interested in the shrine, thinks he can sell it

>is actually pious and wants to destroy the shrine for his god
o
>thinks the shrine belongs to his god and wants to restore it

>knows of a hidden gold vein or some other resource

>wants to sell it to deep gnome refugees as cheap housing

>>51635828
>>51635840
>>51635903
>>51636004


Appreciate the responses.

Followup inquiry: fluffing up a lich's apprentice, who also wants to be a lich, but has been touched by a Great Old One.

Okay, We've just rolled up our new group for Into-the-Abyss and I want advice on how to play my character as it seems I've fallen for a trap that I did with my last group.

Party consists of me, a Male Human Cleric of the Forge, hearty and supportive of his friends, was studying how to work with the rare adamantine metals when he got seperated from his caravan in the underdark and wound up captured by drow as a slave.

Unfortunately his friends include.
A Female Half-drow bard with a scouser accent, even amoungst the common drow she had to be extra vicious and cut-throat due to being half-human. Nice in general but loses her temper and gets stabby quick.
A Female Halfling Sorceress who weaves umbral shadow to her own will. Flighty and selfish she does what she wants, when she wants, however she wants.
A Male Goblin Rogue who works as a jeweller and fence, he found himself as a slave with nothing but his bad attitude and penchant for stabbing people in the kidneys. Voted most likely to open a chest of treasure and ask the GM how much he can stuff up his sleeves with a 14 on his slight-of-hand.
A Male Half-Orc Fighter, Dumb and dense as a brick, simple and naive but does what he is told because he isn't smart enough to come up with his own ideas. Hits things hard and that is about it.

As I've already retired one character in my last campaign when I realised that he was the Lawful Good upstanding citizen folk hero fighter amoungst a crew of a Dickass Assassin, Dickass Paladin, Dickass Barbarian, and Dickass Warlock, and while it isn't so bad playing the straight man, I got tired of playing the game where I take down the villian ready to take back to town to face justice and then try to guess which of my four companions is going to sneak behind my back to torture and murder the prisoner in the middle of the night for a jolly.

So how can I play the friendly/fatherly cleric that works with this group of twats or should I just roll a Dickass X instead.

File: yoshidunbine.jpg (111KB, 736x521px) Image search: [Google]

111KB, 736x521px

>>51635832
>Over a millennium ago, in a far away part of the galaxy, a huge interstellar war had taken place. During the conflict, a large machine escapes the battlefield. Its guidance system damaged and pilot dead, but it continues hurtling outward into space. After a time, it crashes into the planet of Vay. This planet is inhabited by people, but they have little technology. The machine, programmed only for death, rampages across the planet killing and destroying anything it sees. It takes the combined forces of the five mightiest wizards on the planet to stop the machine. Its power is sealed away in five magical orbs, which are taken to far away hidden places. The machine itself is also locked away.
This is the kind of science fantasy backstory that gives me a boner.

As for the art, it's Yoshiyuki Takani.
He does cool robots and tanks.
>https://www.google.com/search?q=yoshiyuki+takani&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiiupPR44HSAhWmsFQKHY6zATgQ_AUICCgB&biw=1440&bih=719

File: lich ohaiyo.png (199KB, 895x893px) Image search: [Google]

199KB, 895x893px

>>51636140
>fluffing up a lich's apprentice
lewd

>but has been touched by a Great Old One.

LEWD

>>51636140
Apprentice is actually the BBEG, plans on bringing back the lich for the GOO to consume so he can indirectly learn how to become a lich. Infuriatingly intelligent and tactical, knows when to run and when he might die(from the party and other hazards). Set up many precautions including having someone else take the blame for his actions.

>>51635654
That's perfect.

>want to make sorcerer
>make sorcerer
>literally only player, no session yet, rolled stats
>discover rogue

Holy shit, rogues are awesome

I don't know if I want to be a thief assassin or detective

If I go assassin I want to make poisons and throw daggers

Think my DM would be PO'd?

>>51636237
Can't really make poisons too well in D&D 5e.

File: Have.Gun.Will.Travel.1957.s01e07.Strange.Vendetta.DVDRip.Xvid-TVV.avi_snapshot_25.12_[2017.01.28_00.35.34].jpg (52KB, 592x448px) Image search: [Google]

52KB, 592x448px

>>51635776
You can have two villains. They don't have to be working together or even know about each other. Villainous plots often intersect. The businessman could find out about the demon shit and realize he's way in over his head, too, and now seek the party; he originally wanted the mine because, well, he likes fucking money.

Reminds me of an old HGWT episode, but there's only one bad guy. More people need to base plots on HGWT episodes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhpJLlA-OL0

>>51636262
>profiency with poisoners kit
>deathblow someone with a dagger
>their high initiative fart stops surprise

Assassin is shit

>>51636322
Simply ask for the much more sensible ruling that if all non-stealthy people are surprised (And thus nobody can potentially rat you out and yell out that there are stealthy people trying to sneak up on you) that you get a 'surprise round' where there is no iniative and you can just do all your assassin shit.

This way you don't fight with the DM with how combat and initiative works when you want to end combat because you lost initiative and then restart initiative.

>>51635568
Not everyone wants to play a horror campaign. Picking something specific, some players are going to enjoy the fact that Strahd can just turn up apropos of nothing to antagonise the PCs, and some are going to look at that and say "yeah, we get it, the super DMPC could kill us all because he's just so powerful, maybe if we're lucky he'll do just that and we can play something else".

>>51636374
this desu

surprise rounds > surprise initiative
turn delays > ready actions

>>51636436
Good luck getting a table to treat CoS like a horror game, ha ha.
>oh shit there's vampires and werewolves here, let's fuckin' kill 'em
The closest this gets to horror is when the party realizes
>oh shit they're tough, run away, we're gonna need a better plan for this shit
then come back two weeks later with dynamite in a barrel of holy water

So me and a few friends recently picked up 5e starter set with the mines of phandelver adventure, but in our first fight we got trounced.
There were a few lucky rolls by the DM and a few unlucky rolls by us which ended us but after that, every fight with goblins seemed to always be this almost deadly fight.
Is there something we might be missing?

File: 1255725059376.jpg (31KB, 600x400px) Image search: [Google]

31KB, 600x400px

>>51636462

>tfw playing a big fucking 6'8" dragonborn paladin
>tfw strahd is four foot eight or some shit

gonna have a whole lot of fun when I find that sunlight sword and shove it right up that fuccboi's ass

So I was looking at the human ethnicities in the PHB (thinking about removing the skill bonus trait and making them give different bonuses) and I was a little unsure of which each one exactly is. Can anyone familiar with forgotten realms confirm my suspicions?

Calishite - Middle Eastern

Chondathan - Mediterranean

Damaran - Slavic

Illuskan - Nordic

Mulan - Egyptian

Rashemi - African

Shou - Asian

Tethyrian - French

Turami - Pacific Islander

>>51636522
Nah that fight's one of the harder ones at that level because they ambush you. I had the Cleric go straight down during the first round because he told everyone to stay back while he checked ahead.

>>51636374
>>51636441
3.pf oldman detected.

>>51636537
At the very least I know that Rasheman is Russian-esque and Tethyrian are this weird Spanish hybrid thing (though that's more Amn.)

>>51636190
>This is the kind of science fantasy backstory that gives me a boner.
It was extra-cool at the time because I'd played Vasteel beforehand (the only game on this list without its own wikipedia page) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Working_Designs and the war machine was clearly from that game. They even called it an ATAC.

>>51636552
But we spotted them beforehand and weren't ambushed.
We also lost our Cleric first round after a goblin crit.

>>51636436
>>51636462
To be fair, intuitively speaking there's little reason to expect a vampire to be able to overpower a room full of adventures and little reason to think its a better idea to wait days or weeks before fighting him, considering he may be simply waiting for them to fall asleep, etc.

I'm still baffled by how crazy fuckin strong 5e vampires are compared to... every other iteration of them in past editions.

I'm a new DM with an enthusiastic group of players. I want to run through the modules

What is a good sequence for me to go through, knowing that I should start by Lost Mines of Phandelver?

Anons? Two simple questions:

Could 4e's Swordmage be converted as a new class in 5e, or are you basically stuck making the best of it with an Eldritch Knight Fighter, a Stone Magic Sorcerer, a Blade Pact Warlock, or a Bladesinger Wizard?

Secondly, would you consider a Runesmith subclass for the Artificer to be thematically appropriate, given it's an explicitly magic-based "gadgeteer" sort of archetype?

File: 06f19e24f49b43d314438f8db55dc270.jpg (3MB, 4409x6295px) Image search: [Google]

3MB, 4409x6295px

>>51634956

I really want to like phoenix sorcerers, but they seem absolutely horrible on paper.

Their core ability works for 1 minute per day. Really?

>>51636633
Compare the 5e warlock to the 4e warlock. That's about the best you're gonna get.

>>51636618
You could run Lost Mine, and then jump to Elemental Evil. I think.

>>51635568
Curse of Strahd is trash if you run it as written.
It's presented as a sandbox but has one route you basically have to follow to have any hope of fighting appropriate encounters, and because it's a "sandbox" it's possible to miss pretty much every important encounter.
Also, I have a feeling a lot of people would be opposed to the idea of the mists.
It's great if you're willing to put work in, but people use premades because they don't want to put work in.
SKT is better as written.

>>51636633
> want a class bloat in 5e
you need to get your head over that mentality anon. Either learn to refluff or go back to 3.5 and complain about the game being broken.

>>51636618
After running mines, start CoS. If you're unsure, there's a guide on DMing it in the mega, full of good ideas and advice.

I want the BBEG of my campaign to be a terrorist who storms a magic armory and steals a bunch of gear for his crew with plans on destroying a massive city, and I want each of the PC's to have a gang member to go toe to toe with. What would a good antithesis be for the PC's player races be?
I've got a kenku, so I suppose I would want to do something with him going against a Yuan-Ti.
Should the goliath go against an elf or a dwarf? Or maybe a gnome?
Should the tabaxi go against a werebear?
What even would be a match for the triton? A tiefling, a lizardfolk, a rakshasa?

>>51636618
...I think almost all of the modules are just 1-15, so if you run Phandelver you can't run anything else, and running any of the modules is incompatible with running any of the other modules.

>>51636654

I'd be okay with having to always start back at level 1 if that were the case

>>51636668

You misunderstand me

I want to know the sequence of Modules I should master in order to give an enjoyable progression of gameplay with me as a DM.

Like, first I should give'em phandelver, next maybe start over at Out of the Abyss then maybe next curse of strahd?

>>51636618
What >>51636668 says isn't entirely true.
IIRC both Elemental Evil and Storm King's Thunder have sections that pretty much explain how to transition from Lost Mines.
I feel like even Curse of Strahd might have something to that effect.

>>51636668

Strahd actually works decently as a continuation since you can skip Death House and the group has a bit more of a choice of locations based on their levels.

>>51636537
What >>51636557 said.
Rashmi are Russians (Ukraine / Belarus, really) with Mongolian skin tone (but not features).
Amn is Spain.
Calishites are "black" Egypt / Moorish Spain.
The actual Muslims in FR are Zakharan.
Chondath is Mediterranean Italy, yes.
Damarans are Slavo-Germanic.
Mulan / Mulhorandi are literally, actually, really Egyptians. Canonically from Earth, teleported to Forgotten Realms.
Shou is a blanket for all Asians in Faerunian FR, but go to Kara-Tur and it's majorly Chinese, with other areas and peoples dedicated to Japan, Korea, etc.
Turami are black Moors, Moroccan / Tuareg ethnically but very different culturally.

>>51636703
>maybe start over at Out of the Abyss
As someone who ran that as my second campaign, I'd advise against it unless you're really confident in your abilities.
The prison break opening can get confusing with all the characters you have to keep count of, and the exploration and chase elements can be hard to pull off if you don't really know what you're doing (like I didn't).
It doesn't help when you've got a new group of players who don't really "get" what the Underdark is about.

>>51635568
Eh, I don't think it'd go well with my style of DMing. I'm not very good at horror.

Honestly, I was thinking either OotA or Storm King's Thunder, which would you say was better of the two?

>>51636711
They do, actually. Depending on the game though, they warn that you might be a bit higher levelled than recommended.

>>51636711
Nothing that takes place in Ravenloft needs a transition. You get there by accidentally tripping through a portal, wandering down the wrong forest road that gets increasingly misty for no apparent reason, or pissing off the wrong entity. Any party at any time could find themselves outside Barovia and go "oh fuck".

It's like those episodes of Scooby-Doo where the gang is just heading back home from a concert but Fred takes a shortcut because it's raining and suddenly theyr'e in front of a spooky-ass mansion. There was a realm transition somewhere that you didn't notice and now you're boned.

>>51636747

Well, how is Princes of the Apocalypse like then? Pretty good?

I mean, I know the Dragon stuff is supposed to be the black sheep of the family

>>51636862
The dragon stuff is a pretty big railroad. There's a few articles on how to fix it, though, and those are pretty good.

>>51636862
PotA is great as a series of inter-connected adventures and dungeon runs, but it's actually so high-stakes that it's hard to fathom there being so little interest or aid from outside nations and forces as there is. It's not like you're in the middle of nowhere and no one knows what's going on; Neverwinter and Waterdeep are a stone's throw away and you're trying to stop an Elder Evil and four hideously powerful Elemental Princes (who, in their full glory, could match a few demigods) from rampaging across a key economic trade route.

It begs for a little spicing up by the DM. The adventure runs through to level 15 and no one in the world really takes notice. A party of five level 15s should have their own fucking barony or something.

>>51634956
the slightest hint of depth
Ganon is a pretty typical "im gonna take the macguffin and take over the world" type, but he has a certain amount of class and presentation that give him depth. not to mention the story bits in WW and TP that deepen that.
a little depth that all it takes

I want a quick one shot to try my hand at Dming. I'm already a rule monkey at my table, thanks to you guys.

Is book of lair from kobold press a good starting point for a new DM?

>>51636657
>Curse of Strahd is trash if you run it as written.
I agree, the travel encounters are ridiculous and the setting doesnt feel "alive" at all.

>>51636522
It can definitely happen that you get downed by a cat in the first fight. Level 1 sucks. I start newbies in LMoP with the maximum starting HP for their class.

>>51635731
>>51635753
>>51635894
>>51636103
Fuck man. You just convinced me to go and give Galient a proper watch instead of getting distracted after the first 5 episodes.

>>51637344
>cat
Fucking autocorrect. I meant crit.

>>51637362
>>51635731
>>51635753
>>51635894
>>51636103
/m/anlyman in my /5eg/?

File: CaptainZeon.jpg (68KB, 464x640px) Image search: [Google]

68KB, 464x640px

>>51637433
You know it.

Tfw wanted to play Mekton Zeta for a mecha RPG but that shit for character creation was too damn complex.

Does anyone have a document that contains the AL magical items certificates that can be printed?

>>51636633
Play a Stone Sorcerer. It's in this week's UA. It literally IS a Swordmage.

>>51636537
I wouldn't try to make too many connections to European looking people. Faerun is low latitude, so ethnic groups who are typically tan people irl are darkies instead. The only true honky people are Illuskans. There's also the "Amn is Spain" argument and other shit that's just wrong. They have a part of their history that is identical to the Moorish invasion, but they didn't have their religion replaced and the region has more in common with northern Italy, northern Germany, and other odd medieval money grubbing republics than the aristocratic and rigid medieval Spain.

tl;dr get some old setting books if you can find/pirate them. anything pre-4th edition should be decent.

File: italiansandwiches.png (82KB, 860x403px) Image search: [Google]

82KB, 860x403px

>>51637081
>the setting doesnt feel "alive" at all.
I get what you meant but you should probably rephrase it next time.

Planning on playing a Glaive Battlemaster Fighter, PAM/Sentinel with Tunnel Fighter. What is the best way to boost my AC?

So, working on heavy metal bardbarian. Basic idea is big guy who smashes skulls with a guitaraxe, rocks out, and brings his own pyrotechnics to turn the place into the cover of a heavy metal album.

If I go for more Str, he smashes skulls better, but all the lightning/thunder spells have lower saves. (See: Thunderwave, Call Lightning) Also lets him moonlight as a grappler if need be then too.

Or go higher Cha, get better saves, but bit less head-smashing

Any input? Looking at Barb 8/bard 12 based on what 9-12 offers for each class. Also considered refluffed paladin instead of barb, but then you can't make "half-naked with random spiked leather straps" work as easily. Same with EK Fighter.

How to get every spell?

>>51637953
Wish works on everything 8th or lower
Then just Wish you knew all the 9th level spells

>>51637953
Be a wizard?

How does one play a Druid in a heavy RP game
And which circle can I get the most enjoyment? Barring Moon cause everyone said that is OP

Does anyone have Fifth Edition Options: Optional Rules and Mechanics as a pdf?

>>51638102
>How does one play a Druid in a heavy RP game
However you want?

>Barring Moon cause everyone said that is OP
Moon starts extremely strong and then tapers off in later levels. OPness is relative.

File: the_Magus_Class_(10569946).pdf (1B, 486x500px)

1B, 486x500px

You're regularly scheduled gish class for the day!

>>51638102
My Half-Elf Moon Druid has this stat array
8 10 14 14 16 14.

Using Half-Elf proficiency on Persuasion and use Enhanced Ability on Charisma while I'm in town. He's the party secondary face after bard.

>>51638102
Circle of the twilight. Enjoy being nuclear druid.

>>51638102
>Druid in a heavy RP game
protect nature and animals
take a leadership role when traveling outside of cities
ask animals for help
use high WIS to make people think you are wise and knowledgeable
shit son be creative

Warlock is a Ranged Charisma Martial class, with access to utility via spells, and the occasional combat trump option.

Pacts are 1/2 utility, and 1/2 options for when enemies get into melee range.
Tome has melee usable cantrips, originally via spell saves, now also with BB/GFB
Chain has the ability to donate its "attack" to the familiar, or use Help from the familiar to negate the disadvantage.
Blade sacrifices most of its utility for the gain of better melee self defense.

>>51638102
Fluff your druid as Darwin. Traveling researcher who is trying to figure out biology.

Warlock 2 / Sea Sorcerer X

Would the curse only activate once for Eldritch blast?

So a level 5 PC can only push enemy 25 feet (or 45 with quicken spell) and not 30 feet (or 60 feet with quicken spell)

>>51638520
It literally says once per turn.

>>51638540
I know. I was kinda hope that I was wrong...

Legit question, why do the fiends want souls? Like, certain archfiends are obvious like orcus just wanting more servants but is there any actual use to a soul? Do they eat them? The way I'm currently flavoring it in my campaign is just as currency like gold was for humanity, nice and shiny but very little intrinsic worth for their society.

>>51636140
>>51636212
>touched by a great old one
lots of unnecessary eyes and tentacles where they shouldn't be

>>51638820
You answered your own question.
Literally everyone wants servants, not just Orcus.

>>51638846
Are you implying there are places that unnecessary eyes and tentacles SHOULD be?

>>51638820
Traditional lore is that souls can be used to both turn into new fiends and used up as reagents for epic-level fiendish magics or power-ups for a fiend. Eating souls is essentially the fastest way to start climbing the ranks to a demon prince or a diabolic duke.

>>51638879
mostly implying a lack of rhyme rhythm or structure to em
tentacles behind the teeth, an eye between knuckles, tentacles coming from under nails eye on the back of the neck

>>51636140
Which GOO? Cause they're not all tentacles and goo. Hastur, for example, likes his undead while Yog-Sothoth is just bubbles to other dimensions.
>>51638879
>Literally everyone wants servants,
How do they make that work though? Like, orcus is mostly undead based so him enslaving souls to more efficiently necromance makes some sense with the always evil undead shit that Wizards does but what do the other guys even do with theirs? Do they just reforge the fucker into a fiend or some shit? Like, Bob the baker makes a deal with the devil to woo the town's pretty girl. When his soul is claimed what the fuck is Asmodeus going to do with him? He is going to be a mane or lemure, utterly useless except for kicking around a bit.
If that's all they want to do there has to be more efficient ways to torture people.

>>51638956
Even manes and lemures have their uses, and if they are YOUR underlings, when one manages to move up, you have a useful tool.

File: pally.png (389KB, 800x600px) Image search: [Google]

389KB, 800x600px

Whats stronger: Conquest pally or Oathbreaker pally?

>>51637872
+3 armor

Anyone have the consolidated character options list, or is it in the Mega?

>>51638336
From what I've read of this so far, I like it much better than Eldritch Knight, although I think that enspell simply causing the weapon to deal magic damage and function as a spell focus would be more acceptable than giving it a +1 to hit and damage bonus as well.

>>51638336
What book is SV an abbreviation for? It's homebrew, I assume.

>>51639210
Sterling Vermin. Not a book, but the name of the homebrewer/group. They have a few other entries up on the DMsG

File: outstanding.jpg (14KB, 235x223px) Image search: [Google]

14KB, 235x223px

so the group i run just finished (after much struggle and many detours) the lost mines module.

any recommendations for a group of 4th/5th levels' next adventures? i've run stuff i've come up with myself/the seat of my pants, but no fucking way am i confident enough with it yet to wanna go in without some sorta module just in case.

>mfw the party's last spell slot was a silence big enough to get the entire boss chamber

File: 1414207145397.gif (658KB, 500x366px) Image search: [Google]

658KB, 500x366px

>>51634956
I need animated objects to assault my players with.

Would reskinning the Flying Sword and altering its damage die depending on object size and shape work?

Pic unrelated

>>51639249
Is there somewhere I can view a consolidated list of their homebrew spells and their effects? I don't see them on their website.

>>51636633
Stone sorcerer is reeaaally swordmagey. More than I ever thought 5e would get. Too bad the fluff is all wrong

>>51639259
Storm King's is made to run right after it pretty easy. Princes would probably work too. Not sure about the other books.

>>51638430
So then how to maximum out of being a twilight druids

File: bro grabs.jpg (17KB, 386x383px) Image search: [Google]

17KB, 386x383px

>>51639350
was it really? thanks, friend. i was considering tyranny of the dragon, too. how the hell do you figure what you're players would enjoy most. damnit.

>>51637894
You're probably better going full valor bard and just saying you come from barbaric lands

how much better is multiclassing paladin with sorcerer now that stone sorcerer is a thing?

>>51639426
Tyranny of Dragons is pretty ass, overall. Definitely go for Storm King's. It has some hooks in it to get you from Phandelver into it.

>>51639018
Oathbreaker is fun and good

File: jazz music.gif (957KB, 500x418px) Image search: [Google]

957KB, 500x418px

>>51639483
toss up between princes/storm king (both tied into phandelver easily from what i've read) and apocalypse (because the party had a nasty bit of underdark fun in a sidetrack anyways and that'd hook nicely)

thanks again, i got thinkin to do.

>>51638820
Tormenting souls gives power to the tormentor.

>>51635269
>WW2 was Hitler's fault

Mm, yes.

The treaty of Versailles had nothing to do with it.

>>51639464
The synergy isn't really there until Sorc 6, but after that enjoy being the best Radiant Mafia build from 4e.

>>51639590
I was thinking mostly from a fronline tank. Access to the shield spell, 13+CON armor, as well as sorcery points to give yourself more smites.

>>51639590
Radiant mafia gotta inflict radiant vuknerability though. Although Sorcerer X / Paladin 2 seems pretty fun.

>>51639658
13 + CON is equal to full plate at 20 CON.
That shouldn't be your main focus.

>>51638102
Be a fucking agent for the king in your off time. You're a druid, it should be neigh impossible to keep track of you once you leave a city.

>>51639695
> neigh impossible
You mean actually impossible with pass without trace + cragcat form

File: FoxitReader_2017-02-09_02-06-18.png (242KB, 345x420px) Image search: [Google]

242KB, 345x420px

what domain a Cleric of Astilabor would take?
There's nothing like a "fortune" domain, so I guess Knowledge or Arcane could work?

>>51639710
No, he turns into a horse.

>>51639695
>Neigh Impossible
All the king's horses will not be able to find you, that's for certain.

The word you were looking for is nigh, not neigh.

>>51639748
>>51639750

FUCK

>>51639730
Protection domain from the Cleric UA.

File: brainchan.jpg (6KB, 164x188px) Image search: [Google]

6KB, 164x188px

>leave 3.5 group
>friend who's still in said group says new person is bitching about 5e every time it comes up
>special snowflake who by admission has only ever played arcane casters

uhh....

>>51639730
here: have the inspiration for our group's healy cleric. worships a god of knowledge
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cv1RJTHf5fk

>>51639730
>specifically lists Protection

Oh, I don't know, maybe Protection?

http://dnd.wizards.com/articles/unearthed-arcana/cleric-divine-domains

File: 1477012889230.jpg (124KB, 995x1024px) Image search: [Google]

124KB, 995x1024px

>>51639763
>>51639775
Oh for fuck sake I totally forgot protection was a domain in the UA, all I could remember from it were Forge and Grave.
Thanks

>>51636322
>proficiency with poisoners kit
This is stuff like this that makes me question the tool profs sometimes; the rules for poison in the book only refer to poisoner kit once, in their own entry in the equipment table. Otherwise it seems to be entirely Nature skill, which afaic should cover both herbalist and poisoner kits.

File: 897985-Poison_Crafting_Revised_Rules.pdf (1B, 486x500px)

1B, 486x500px

>>51639852
Yeah most kits have like no rules, so as a GM you gotta make shit up. Some homebrews attempt to fix that but they don't convince me, I'm hoping WotC will adress crafting in a UA someday.

>>51639908
Mearls has consistently for months been talking up these "new downtime activities" rules we'll be getting. Crafting might be part of that.

Personally I think the idea of crafting rules being more complex than "have recipe, ingredients, tools needed, make roll" is kind of stupid, but hey, no accounting for taste.

>>51639933
I hope it just some little change that make the crafting tools useful while not actually breaking the game economy.

Maybe something like fast crafting that let you create common non magical item equal to shop cost (within price limit). Kinda like forge cleric ability.

File: herbalism.pdf (1B, 486x500px)

1B, 486x500px

>>51639908
>>51639933
>>51639961
Don't get me wrong, I want crafting to be simple, maybe have a few dicerolls to determine quality of the item but that's it.

>>51639908
I'm also mostly annoyed at the implication that tool prof might be needed to do anything. Mostly because then you get shit like a lot of classes not having a way to start with tools that make sense; Rangers get neither herbalism nor poisoner when at least one would make sense for example.

>>51639933
Nature makes sense to know about and how to harvest a poison, a poisoners kit should allow for safe application and styles of poison to be made.

Knowing that this gland secretes a numbing oil is essential, but it doesn't inherently let you turn it into a digestible, contact, or airborne toxin.

>>51640039
I'm not seeing how you could know one and not necessarily the other. We're not talking about academia, but about degrees of practical knowledge.

There isn't that big a distance between knowing and doing in that case. More importantly literally none of the descriptions of Nature I've seen manage to give a compelling explanation as to why it exists as a skill if it's just survival for the bookish nerd classes.

>>51639994
Oh boy don't get me started.
One of my players wanted to play a poisoner and I modified a background just for the possibility that he may not take assassin.

>>51640092
Nature IS academia, its an intelligence and learned skill. Survival and a Poisoners Kit are both practical knowledge and application.

>>51640114
Speaking of poisoner assassin... which poison is the best to use together with assassinate? Wyvern poison?

>>51639335
Yeah, I'm probably going to refluff the "Stone" Sorcerer as a Soulblade or something more swordmage-fluffy in my homebrew and make a new Earth Elementalist subclass for my sorcerers there.

Is there anyway to get use out of an Assassins 9th and 13th level abilities or should I just Multiclass out of it into something?

I was thinking Fighter, Ranger or Artificer.

>>51640139
Drow Sleeping, auto critting is a big deal.

>>51635447
Lost Mines of Phandelver is one of the best put together things ever. Simple, effective, fun.

But as >>51635568 said, Strahd is pretty fuckin great.

>>51640127
Intelligence doesn't mean it can't be practical.

>>51640114
Having poison application governed by poisoner kit, in particular, bugs me to no end. I know why it's there, and it's not really a matter of mechanics, it's just a reminder of these weird old school Gygaxian moral hangups (that gave us bits of wisdom like monks wielding warhammers to avoid drawing blood and poison being more evil than bashing someone's skull in)

>>51635269
Holohoax

So are we back to getting UA on Monday's or what?

>>51640195
You go ahead and let your knowledge skills rule the game anon, where you can track people because you read that book, and use Nature(Int) for it.

>>51640222
Should be, now that Mearls is back in the country and Crawford is no longer shitting his ass everywhere.

>>51639584
>muh Versailles
Reminder that Germany got off the lightest of all the central powers AND got off lighter than the peace treaties it imposed to Russia and planned to impose on France.

Germany also got off lighter than the original treaty of Frankfurt they imposed on France, where the germans basically just reupped reparations for shit and giggles.

>>51640238
>strawmanning this hard
I'm saying that Nature not being used for Herbalism or Poisons means it has absolutely no purpose in the game because Survival already does everything it claims to do you fucking moron, not that it should be a standin for Survival. I've been calling Int a nerd masturbation vestigial stat since it came out that only one class even needs int.

>>51640238
Also "reading a book" doesn't give you prof. It might give the character the delusion that they have prof.

>>51640297
Being proficient in any of the "knowledge" skills is ALL about book learning and being taught.

You know how the mountains came to be, the migratory patterns of birds, the depth of that lake, or how to measure it. You know what section of the library will tell you the diet of a Lion, even if you've never seen one. You can tell that dinosaurs are related to birds, while the survival guy says they are dinosaurs and dangerous, lets go hide.

>>51639994
I have the impression that tools are just extra specialized skills. At least for Nature, the skill lets you harvest poison and other things, where the poisoner's kit lets you harvest poison only.

>>51640297
I think the most reasonable solution is devising reach-around mechanics that state in the past before the game started or at some point during the adventure a character learned through his travels/studies that you shouldn't eat those berries unless you want to get sick.

>>51640336
This, it's also why most Tool proficiencies are ribbons, and not equally weighted to skills.

Additionally, you can train in a tool with time and money, training a new skill is more of a DM alternate reward.

question, if the cleric casts daylight on his mace, and is then polymophed by a vampire (strahd to be specific) would the daylight spell be absorbed into the paladins new polymorphed form? if so would it snuff out the daylight spell for good? or is it still shining inside for 1 hour?
OR would the daylight not be absorbed at all?

>>51640327
>Here are examples of proficiencies
>lists things that would be known by someone who isn't proficient at all

>>51635652
dick gone

>>51640377
>>lists things that would be known by someone who isn't proficient at all
No, no they wouldn't. Those are things that we, as a society with mandatory education, may know, although assuming everyone does is pretty silly.

In a world where the vast majority of people are hard laborers or craftsmen, with the occasional soldier/guard, the average person thinks the gods made the mountains, that birds aren't here when its cold and that water is deeper than i can stand in.

>>51640401
The average person is also going to treat a dinosaur as a scary creature to run away from; it doesn't take survival.

You are vastly underestimating medieval peasants.

>>51640452
Not him but for the dinosaur example you should really just follow basic instinct and a knowledge roll would reveal otherwise.

>See giant fucking lizard
Your character would assume its dangerous
Although a knowledge roll in nature might key you in that this particular dinosaur is an herbivore.

>>51640452
It sure doesn't, although it may take survival to know the best place or method of escaping from it, while the average peasant will just run away.

You can't use your own personal knowledge as a metric for what a knowledge skill should or shouldn't cover.

File: 1448925979814.jpg (441KB, 700x928px) Image search: [Google]

441KB, 700x928px

>>51634956
>What makes a villain good
Step 1: Give them a personal connection to him. Ideally, something that makes them want to vigilante him.
Step 2: Make sure that he is active and retaliatory. It's difficult to have much respect/fear for a villain that is just completing his Evil Scheme of Evil™ while the party tries to stop him. Even if the party aren't part of his bigger plans, a real villain isn't just going to ignore the people that are getting in his way. And don't pull your punches.

The villain that the party are currently trying to hunt down is a crimelord-turned-revolutionary who is taking advantage on the chaos of an unpopular succession to attempt to overthrow the government and seize control from the ruling elite. He's far from an idealist, however, and one large part of his previous business was the use of kidnapped children/orphans as thieves. While his drug-dealing is the reason that another member of the party wants him done away with, one was a former pickpocket of his that was beaten and left for dead while another was trying to get back one of the neighbor-kids.

In regards to the second part, the players are currently little more than an annoyance to him as he's engaged in gangland violence primarily with one other crimelord while plotting and preparing for a very significant bombing. Still, he knows that they have an encoded ledger of his, even if he isn't entirely sure of their identities. Attacking them directly hasn't come up yet, but they did just find out that the much-beloved fence that the party had taken a real shining to OOCly was murdered after he helped connect them to someone that could decipher the ledger. Stoke the fires of revenge, but not excessively and never randomly.

>>51640452
>My people call them the Thunder Lords, their every step cries as a bolt from the heavens, crashing down to devastate the ground they walk. As long as we avoid their path, they should leave us be, but beware, should you find young you must run.

>Ah, i read about such beasts once, let me think... ah yes, that's it. Those particular things are known as Triceratops, see the three horns upon the crown? They are known for the great hardness of that bone ridge you see, and able to fend off much larger foes. Oh, don't worry much, they eat naught but plants.

File: 1464694739712.png (9KB, 444x450px) Image search: [Google]

9KB, 444x450px

>>51634956
Is giving a race with sensitive hearing vulnerability to thunder damage a dick move?

>>51640549
Doesn't seem like it would come up often enough to be a true dick move.

>>51636267
Firstly, as I'm running Wild Western Fantasy, you better leave that I use HGWT, the Rifleman, and even fucking Laredo and the like as inspiration sometimes.

And secondly >>51640502 The crimelord is simply one of what will probably end up being 3 BBEGs. There's Gideon himself, the member of the elite who is funding him as part of her own plan to snatch control of the city, and there's the more-or-less Elder God elf/lich/thing whose return was kickstarted by a complete accident during BBEG #2's attempt to retool her initial plan when her patsy developed a spine.

>>51640516
>don't worry much, they'll still flip the fuck out and gore you with their horns or trample you. But they won't eat your flesh!

>>51640549
Giving them disadvantage on stuff for a couple terms seems more reasonable to me.

>>51640578
>I did say "much", didn't I?

>>51640561
Cool

>>51640549
Is it an echolocation type thing?

>Limited Eyesight
>You treat any bright or dim light further than 15 feet away as dim light.
>Echolocation
>You have blindsight 60ft. Whenever you take thunder damage, you lose this feature until the end of your next turn.

How would you stat a coconut gun? One of my players is trying to be Donkey Kong.

>>51637767
Italian sandwiches!!!

>>51640613
>Echolocation. You can perceive your surroundings without relying on sight, gaining blindsight 60 feet. You lose this vision if you are Deafened or otherwise cannot hear.

>>51640666
I just made up some stuff for a race idea, cause i dislike having entirely negative race traits.

Anons? Simple question; if I have a multiclassed (let's say 4/4, just for the hell of it) Warlock/Wizard, and I took the Pact of the Chain for the Warlock, can I then cast Find Familiar using my wizard spells and get a second familiar?

>>51640655
The kind that fires in spurts, or the kind that can make you smile?

>>51640687
No.

File: strahd von stole-ya-bitch.jpg (87KB, 552x343px) Image search: [Google]

87KB, 552x343px

>>51636534

I'm pretty sure Strahd is like 6'1" or 6'2", he's never been described as small, you might be thinking of the Elf.

>>51640655
refluff hand crossbow.

>>51640692
Problem is the guns in the DMG don't fire in spurts.

>>51640549
Here's an extension of my first question:

Is a race with two vulnerabilities (fire, bludgeoning) too much or should it be toned down to one?

>>51640161
I thought drow poison suck in 5e? Pretty much no monster would roll a 8 or lower on its CON saving throw

>>51640707
Yeah no idea where his "Strahd is a manlet" thought came from.

>>51640665
I clicked the wrong image to upload and didn't feel like correcting it.

>>51640722
>>51640655
Why are you trying to reinvent the wheel? If you want a special snowflake mechanic for everything, go back to 3.5e.

>>51640728
Only if you're using the vulnerabilities to justify a bunch of OP/broken shit you're giving the class.

>Yes I can do X/Y/Z but it's cool bro, look at these vulnerabilities!

People can and will abuse your gifts and then find ways to nullify the vulnerabilities.

>>51640759
It isn't exactly great, but even a 5% chance to drop an opponent isn't awful, and not every creature has a +7.

Plus, 200gp compared to 1200/2000gp for the more damaging ones anyway, while Basic only stays applied for 1 minute for 1d4 damage at 100 gold.

It's definitely your best option, unless you are swimming in gold or wyvern/purple wurm corpses.

>>51640772
I never would have thought I'd get such an assblasted response to a question about making Donkey Kong.

>>51640824
you deserve what you got

>>51640759
Just the poisoned condition is pretty strong, but like all poisons, it's really overcosted.

>>51640655
Same thing as the Thunder Gun dealy that artificers get in the UA.

+ cha damage to fire spell damage rolls
1 minute duration
refreshes on a long rest

hmmmmmmmmmmm
really makes me think

>>51636441
I wouldn't say surprise rounds are better.

Use surprise rounds only if the players remain undetected, as the players have every opportunity to disengage and restart combat until initiative suits them otherwise.

Turn delays are just a fuckfest.

>>51640772
If the idea of a custom joke item is too much for you to handle, how do you even play D&D?

>>51640865
Once they roll iniative, the enemy knew that there is a threat nearby.

They would be ready for an ambush and won't be surprise next time. You still get unseen attacker bonus though.

Don't forget that
> The DM determines who might be surprised.
is the general rule here.

>>51640886
The entire party has to be male human fighters.

>>51640930
Male non-variant human champion fighters.

>>51640923
>Completely hidden, invisible, silent, in a bush 500ft away looking at a guard, also possibly have a disguise on so you look like some sort of bum just pissing in a bush or something probably and appear completely non-threatening with a well-concealed ranged weapon
>Roll initiative
>Lose initiative
>All the guards suddenly spot you
>You no longer have surprise
>You leave and decide to try tomorrow
>You come back, try again
>The guards cannot be surprised by you

'The DM determines who might be surprised' is good if that means the DM decides the target is still surprised until the end of the round, but to really, truly stop people wanting to reroll initiative it's much better to say 'Well, okay, nobody has seen you, so you don't roll initiative after you take your actions against the surprised targets'. It just makes much more sense this way.

>>51640982
Standard array. In order.

>>51641006
>Standard array
>in order
Those are still decent stats for a fighter though.

>>51641006
10d1, in order.

>>51640781
So far it's one race with three subraces

They share
>Normal ASI
>Darkvision
>fire vulnerability
>Message at will

Sub races get
>ASI
>Powerful Build
>tool proficiency
>Halfling Nimbleness

>ASI
>+1 to AC
>1d10 horn natural weapon
It's kind of just a Minotaur reskin

>ASI
>flight
>1 tool and 1 skill proficiency

Given how shitty baseline BM is, how bad would it be to let every ranger spec have the pet that the original release Beastmaster got as a general class ability, the same way land druid still gets the gimpy version of wildform?

>>51641124
because I would be a halfling flying a vulture with (actually good) ranged attacks and there'd be nothing you could do to stop me

>>51641005
>>51640923
I think this is more of a DM problem.

> To be surprised, you must be caught off guard, usually because you failed to notice foes being stealthy or you were startled by an enemy with a special ability, such as the gelatinous cube’s Transparent trait, that makes it exceptionally surprising. You can be surprised even if your companions aren’t, and you aren’t surprised if even one of your foes fails to catch you unawares.

If you the rogue hasn't declare to "attack the guard" yet. Combat shouldn't happen yet and you shouldn't call out for initiative roll. The guard isn't surprise (since nothing startle him), and never notice the rogue can leave to try again without any penalty.

>>51641146
This, the "initiative" isn't something that just HAPPENS, something triggers it.

When the enemy is unaware, its almost always something the party does, and if that thing is "attack" then there you go. The idea is that, even when unaware, you have done something to START the combat, and so while they may be unaware of you, if they roll high initiative, they aren't entirely off-guard when you launch a potentially damaging attack.

They still don't know whats going on, but they also are no longer entirely defenseless.

>>51641049
I wasn't aware there was a D1, where can I find this mystical dice?

>>51641146
See, if one of the enemies isn't caught off guard but the rest were that guard might be shouting 'ambush!' or something, and thus rolling initiative as normal is okay because you've been spotted and if you lose initiative, tough luck, but you'll still get a round where most of the enemies are surprised.

>>51641170
>They aren't entirely off-guard when you launch a potentially damaging attack
So don't launch the attack when your turn comes around and wait to re-enter combat later when the enemies will be caught off-guard?
It still makes a lot more sense to, in the 'all enemies are surprised' situation, not roll initiative at all until surprise is deal with, I feel. It's hardly a complex change and it works much better.

>>51641195
>So don't launch the attack when your turn comes around and wait to re-enter combat later when the enemies will be caught off-guard?
I suppose you could try to slink away, but the enemy knows something is up. Think of it like putting the enemy on alert in a stealth game. They won't start randomly shooting, but they probably will up their guard.

And if you can afford to wait indefinitely to attack, the lack of urgency is a story issue, not a mechanical one.

>>51641210
But why?
You completely aced stealth, their passive perception is 5 or something and you've done literally nothing yet.

Why should they be on guard unless one of them spotted you and thus you have to roll initiative and roll fast?

So I agree with what was said before - roll initiative when something triggers it. If an entirety of one side surprises the entirety of the other, that trigger is only at the end of their actions while the group is surprised.

I'm trying to use the form fill-able version of the character sheet, but the stats keep resetting to -5, why is that? I'm using Adobe Acrobat DC to edit them.

>>51641247
Never mind, just realized I was inputting the info into the wrong box.

>>51641240
Whatever you did to trigger initiative is something that inherently negates stealth, at least in the case of an attack. It isn't a case of
>He heard you before you starting loosing an arrow
but
>He noticed something AS you launched your attack.
which is why he is able to defend against a potentially lethal blow.

The NPC didn't notice you sitting there, but noticed the arrow coming at him. It's all an abstraction, so it isn't a perfect reflection, but mechanically it is less of a hassle than
>You get a surprise round, except this guy can act too, and he can't warn his allies for some reason.

File: 1-sided-dice.jpg (90KB, 800x621px) Image search: [Google]

90KB, 800x621px

>>51641179
https://www.awesomedice.com/AWD101

>>51641179
Eh, just use another die to replicate it. Any result that's a whole number is 1

File: Mobius Strip.jpg (9KB, 310x287px) Image search: [Google]

9KB, 310x287px

>>51641179
Mobius band.

File: dd.jpg (56KB, 1280x720px) Image search: [Google]

56KB, 1280x720px

So I'm thinking doing a campaign that's basically Darkest Dungeon +Pools of Radiance. Reclaim a fucked up place from monsters and such for profit and glory etc.

what would be cool places/abominations/quests/NPCs?

>>51641281
I'm working on a similar concept right now, except world wide, the one my friends liked the best so far was a cursed Inn with a giant rat and tiny furniture. I'll post my brief notes for it.

*Dilapidated Inn*
Giant Rat and tiny gear
Bound to the basement of the Innverse
Tables, chairs, barrels, all rat sized, rat is man sized
Pack-Rats Haversack
As an item is attempted to be put into the sack, it shrinks to be appropriately sized for a normal rat. Removing items returns them to normal size.

>>51641268
But you never launched your attack, because it came around to your initiative and you saw them on guard. You never even started to prepare it, in a way.

Yes, sure, the intent isn't to perfectly model it all but it creates something of a paradox, and a paradox is just too much. 'He noticed the arrow' 'But then I didn't fire the arrow' 'Okay, he doesn't notice the arrow' 'But then I fire the arrow.' 'But then he notices it before you fire the arrow-' 'But then I don't fire the arrow.'
It's a very simple fix that solves this problem by saying you get a special surprise round on which any action you wanted to open with can happen.

And assassin's crit is already situational enough, I feel.

>>51641294
The problem with a "surprise" round is the way it functions, it's an all or nothing problem, and only solves the single issue of the assassin feature.

Really, we should just fix the feature to work instead.
Instead of
>You have advantage on attack rolls against any creature that hasn't taken a turn in the combat yet. In addition, any hit you score against a creature that is surprised is a critical hit.
>You have advantage on attack rolls against any creature that hasn't taken a turn in the combat yet. In addition, the first attack you make against a target unaware of you in each combat is a critical hit.

Something that lets you use the feature as long as they don't know you exist, which also works better for you to play a flanker in combat, let your allies lead the way then pick someone off.

>>51641269
But it has two sides, I can see them.
>>51641274
I know, he was being a smartass, I'm returning the favor.
>>51641276
Considering that Mobius strips are theoretical and would have 4 dimensions they are not an object that has only one side, at least not in three dimensions.

>>51641339
>On the first turn of combat, your first hit against a creature becomes a critical hit.

There. Useful, not overpowered, doesn't depend on anything but not being surprised yourself.

>>51641339
>All or nothing
What does that even mean?

The surprise round is no different from the usual 'everybody is surprsied' aside from:
1. Assassin still gets their feature, always.
2. Initiative is unknown.
3. Players can act in whatever order they like.


Even if you fix assassin's feature, it won't stop other non-assassins wanting to reroll initiative until it favours them.

>>51641370
It ONLY allows "everybody is surprised", which isn't the case in 5e, and that's exactly why it was redesigned. The only mechanical problem is the assassin feature.

>>51641356
You already get advantage on attack rolls in every situation, having a stealth stipulation for the auto-crit is fine.

>>51641353
>Considering that Mobius strips are theoretical
Not him, but what the fuck are you talking about?
I can go make one right now.
With a non-standard paper making machine, they'd easily creatable, doubly so for 3D printers.

>>51641399
That's not how it works.

You only get the surprise round IF everyone is surprised.

If not everybody is surprised, it resolves as normal as the player can't back out of combat without being seen because somebody has already seen them.

>>51641353
I, too, was being a smartass.

>>51641404
Maybe he's thinking of Klein bottles, which we can make, sort of, but they aren't true Klein bottles.

>51641419
That is literally what i said.
Using surprise rounds means its all or nothing, there is or isn't a surprise round.
Using the 5e rules, some characters on either side may or may not be surprised, its a more versatile rule.

>>51641404
They are, just because you can make a 3D conceptual object it doesn;t make it any less theoretical than any other object that requires 4 dimensions to exist, I could be confusing it with something else however. I was led to believe by what I've read that Mobius strips were 4 dimensional.
>>51641421
I know.

>>51641440
You're misunderstanding.

The rules are exactly the same, with this following exception:

>IF all of the other party is surprised
>IF
>Then instead you use a surprise round, which basically means you don't roll initiative, nothing more nothing less.

How do DMs manage gear substitution here?

Do you just tell players to suck it up and stick to starting gear? Do you let take something of roughly equal value (e.g. Chain Shirt instead of Scale)? Is Background plus max gold too generous?

>>51641470
Nah man, you can make a mobius strip out of a piece of paper and sticky tape.
They're easily made.
You're probably think of, like >>51641440 said, Klein bottles, which are a dick.
Easy mistake to make, though.

>>51641470
Good. I'm glad.

>>51641488
How does that help anything except the one faulty feature? Why are you changing the rules and making them more complex by adding a new concept, instead of FIXING THE FEATURE.

>>51641498
Because, as I said, ANYBODY would want to reroll initiative until it favours them.


Fixing assassin is just icing on the cake.

>>51641494
Oh, all right, all these scientific concepts get hard to keep straight sometimes.

>>51641502
Ignoring the fact that doing so is ENTIRELY meta-gaming anyway, no DM is going to reroll the initiative, but use the same rolls regardless of WHEN you pull the trigger.

5e is intentionally simplified, especially for the PCs, and easier to get into. Adding extra complexity for absolutely no gain is not a good thing. Fix the feature, save the world.

>>51641528
Don't worry about it, anon.
I'm not even a proper science guy, I just like things that fuck with people just by existing.
I can't tell you why they're (im)possible or why they're important, but I can tell you they mess with stoners.

File: This is how is Wizard.jpg (163KB, 1920x1080px) Image search: [Google]

163KB, 1920x1080px

>>51641528
Hell man, the only reason i knew for sure was because of this crazy ass bastard
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-k3mVnRlQLU

>>51641531
It's hardly any extra complexity to solve an issue that is abusable, could potentially spark confusion or arguments and could easily make more sense if it was simply slightly redefined.
It's about a line of words to fix it -

'If all foes are surprised, you do not roll initiative for the first round and may move in any order you wish.'

You can call it metagaming, but sometimes a DM will allow metagaming to an extent, but they don't want outright metagaming abuse or to have to fuck about with trying to determine when you would roll a new initiative, if it's in a day or week or never.

>>51641528
Also, just to clarify this: even klein bottles are not a 4 dimensional shape. It's a 2-dimensional manifold that can't be embedded in 3-dimensional space. It can still exist in realspace, but is self intersectional. You can make one if you're a skilled glassblower.

File: Persephone.full.852022.jpg (2MB, 2480x2289px) Image search: [Google]

2MB, 2480x2289px

What's her race and class?

>>51641577
It's an option to fix a meta-gaming issue, which promotes meta-gaming the turn order, and is only viable in an allowance for meta-gaming that is otherwise anti-meta-gaming.

Stop. The rules were changed from 3.5 for a reason.

>>51641587
Actual mythological Persephone, or is this a character from some animu that just has that name?

>>51636636
The new sorcs are retarded, only the new favoured soul saves itself, and even that only has 1 class feature - can choose cleric spells.
The old sorc ua was more usable.

>>51641602
>Promotes meta-gaming the turn order
Which you can no longer do. But it makes sense that engaging in a new combat makes a new initiative, and this allows this to happen without people being able to abuse it.

The rules are still different from 3.5, and even then there are rules that are like 3.5. Are you saying we should remove anything even slightly named similar to 3.5? Because attribute scores (STR/DEX/CON/etc) are more 3.5 than this surprise round is, which is unlike the surprise round in 3.5.

>>51641623
>'If all foes are surprised, you do not roll initiative for the first round and may move in any order you wish.'
That statement explicitly tells your party to meta-game the most efficient first turn order.

>>51641587
Either cleric or favored soul of Hades, or applicable setting based death god.

>>51641639
Persephone wasn't mortal, though, she was a full-fledged God.

>>51641654
Sure, but he asked for race/class, and Mistress of the Underworld isn't exactly a player option.

Favorite meme builds?

>>51641639
Yes, and?

They took the time to be prepared and be surprised. It's not metagaming to have an order in which they do things. It's natural.

Once combat starts, it gets more hectic and they can't reliably have the best order of action, but when they have the advantage and spring out from nowhere they can CHOOSE to have the cleric cast their guiding bolt first and then have the rogue attack, because they have the surprise.

>>51641676
You keep ignoring my actual points, talking around them in support of your own, so i think there's little point in discussing it further. Do surprise rounds in your games, i'll play 5e.

>What makes a villain good?

No one thing defines that. Unless you mean something unspecific like "good writing."

Some characters are great as purely evil villains. Some antagonists are great as understandable or sympathetic but wrongly headed "good guys"

Some villains are great because of how their past and motivations have been explored. Some are memorable and fun villains because they are extremely mysterious.

I'd say think of a book with a memorable villain and ape the set up for that character in a way that is at least somewhat disguised for your campaign.

>>51641671
Lucky Diviner Halfling
Abjuration Wizardlock, Armor of Agathys
Fighter Sorlock
Nuclear Ghandi (Tranquility monk version, sounds cooler than nuclear druid but is less effective and only works at later levels).
Dex Barbarogue
Barbarian6/Enlarge/Goliath/Bull's Strength/etc
Barbarian5/Monksomething/Tabaxi/Haste/Artificerspeedpotions/etc

>>51641687
You're the one making points that don't even exist.

You pretty much said
>It's metagaming to be effective
Like.. What?
Do you think an ambush party that has been waiting for you springing out of the bushes is going to be completely unprepared and act completely out of order and have the buffer act last?

>>51641276
>>51641269
you guys are dumb. A one sided die would just be a sphere.

>>51641623
I am only barely able to follow this shitshow, but nothing about this makes my cock hard for 5th edition.

What the fuck is wrong with the Surprise rule(s)? How can something that simple be fucked up after four decades of gaming?

>>51641639
>Okay we're going to meticulously plan out this attack process.
>roll initiative for a surprise round
>Shit I rolled higher than the wizard, our plan is ruined!

I know it's probably not exactly what you were talking about, but I still think it's a funny hypothetical.

>Get all your players to write their first action down on a piece of paper and give it to you, then roll initiative to decide which order those actions play out.

>>51641576
This guy is fucking amazing.

More people need to take this kind of inspiration for making wizards.

>wizard got into magic because he has some kind of bizarre mania
>has all kinds of dumb shit in his tower
>isn't going on adventures to save the world or make money, but because he needs parts for his dumb obsession
>will ramble about bottle economics for hours when prompted but has no idea who the current king is or why he can't solve his problems with judicious applications of fireball

>>51641664
True, but then if you're going to make a pc based on Persephone, take her full power suite into account. She wasn't just Queen of the Underworld, she was also the Princess of Spring, Goddess of Vegetation, and enactor of curses *against* the dead.

I'd say there's a strong argument to be made that a Persephonic character would be better suited as a Twilight Druid.

>>51641707
I thought technically a sphere had infinite sides.

>>51641733
A sphere has a single face and no boundaries, and as such, no sides.

>>51641714
The main issue is that you can easily metagame initiative. And you can say 'Well, okay, don't metagame intiative', but it's kind of stupid when instead you could easily, without any difficulty, fix it.

Also, it only makes sense the players choose who attacks first out of the players, because the first attack is essentially the attack that starts the combat.

Also it fixes the deal with assassin's feature.

>>51641719
Holding an action is a 5e mechanic, although I admit the lack of movement kinda fucks things up. Usually my play group lets you keep half your remaining move to be used as part of your readied action to accommodate things.

>>51641731
I could see druid too, but i didn't mean Death domain, so much as worshiping Kelemvor, for example, in FR. Clerics have a fair bit of lifegiving things too.

Any tips/suggestions on a sandbox module? I haven't DM'd one before but i wanted to give it a try to see how it goes. We'll be playing over Roll20 and the idea was that it was just going to be a fun, simple setting where most things are in the players favor.

The early idea i got for a plot would be that they needed to establish some kind of housing in the new town they just arrived to so getting gold and such could be a task in itself.

>>51641714
There isn't really an issue at all, its some people wanting to remove an extra layer of abstraction, gaining complexity in the process, some people wanting to change to 3.5 surprise rounds, losing versatility, and some people wanting it to stay like it is, which fucks up the Assassin rogue feature.

>>51641733
and since infinity doesn't really exist in any meaningful way, you could also say that a sphere has no sides. Since it clearly has a surface, but no discernible edges, its all technically one "side"

You paint a one on a ball, and throw it on the ground. Bam, a d1. The most useless of dice.

>>51641693
Whats the pros of fighter sorlock?

>>51641771
>Hey Jim, how long do we have to wait for it to stop rolling? And how do we know what it landed on.

>>51641707
A mobius strip has exactly one side, all of its surface is a single side.

>>51641770
>3.5 surprise rounds

I don't think anyone wants to go back to that, though I don't remember quite how it worked.
The term 'surprise round' here is a term only, it doesn't reflect mechanical similarity to anything in the past except by coincidence and it being a special first round (Which creatures with surprise is kind of anyway because surprise isn't even a condition and there are 'before creatures have acted effects and such).

>>51641765
All my settings are sandbox.

I basically just throw little sideplot hooks all over the place and the party can choose to bite them or not.

GOAT fixtures in sandbox settings :

- Colosseum where the PC can go and fight stuff for money and fame
- Museum/University that wants to catalog monster gibbets and will pay the party to bring them living/dead monsters
- Thieves' Guild who will pay the party for missions
- Town Guard who will pay the party for policin'
- Local Tavern where all kinds of shit can go down
- Magic Shop run by an absolute madman; if the players try to kill or rob him, feel free to have him go OVERBOARD. (He's not an adventurer because he's a TOTAL DICK and the shop is his hobby. He doesn't even need money. The shop is like a monkey paw)

>>51641777
its a one sided die. It doesn't need to stop rolling, the result is One.

And how did you know my name is Jim?
>>51641788
Yes, but when whatever stupid rule calls for a d1 shows up, which do you think you'll be able to find faster? A ball or a mobius strip?

>>51641810
I was having similar ideas myself with tossing around sideplots and such to see if they grab onto it, just incase they get lost what to do. The group i got are beginners to RPing but they want to give it a try so i figured they just need to get used to each other and stuff.

>>51641775
You're essentially a ranged fighter except you have crazy pushback and spellcasting if you need it. And also more attacks, but no sharpshooter, and you can't get archery but you could potentially get the +1 to hit no disadvantage in close quarters UA fighting style if your DM allows bullshit.

>>51641810
how would you define "overboard"?

>>51641825
Considering i always have paper, i can make a mobius strip far faster than trying to find a ball in my house, or any house without children for that matter.

>>51641744
Or it has infinite sides that are infinitesimally small.
>>51641771
I know I'm just pointing out that both of our points are both true and false, technically speaking, either that or I'm being pedantic and contrary.

>>51635470
cf. Revan in the original Old Republic timeline.

He used the war to turn the neutral Jedi forces into powerful Sith warriors in order to defend against an extra-universal threat.

>>51641825
>I think it's cocked Jim, i need to reroll it.

>>51641839
so your household has a distinct lack of balls huh? Shame.

>>51641836
- Killing and reincarnating the PCs as new races/classes that now need to purchase new gear from him because none of theirs applies
- Cursing the party ala Beauty and the Beast; whatever their critical flaw was, now they have to overcome it, with disadvantages stacked against them
- Judicious application of the fireball spell

>>51641855
Yes, but you brought it up, not me.

>>51641843
For something to have sides it requires boundaries to its faces.

>>51641851
George, this better not be you.

>>51641861
Look man, the fact that you're on a board full of nerds and don't recognize a Star Trek meme is not an excuse to start blaming your friends.

>>51641845
Wasn't that also kinda a matter of turning an order of "almost-pacifists", into soldier, warriors, and generals? It wasn't about "force unity to combat a greater threat.", it was "Cause corruption to create soldiers who are willing to fight the way is necessary."

>>51641858
>Cursing the party ala Beauty and the Beast; They are now a set of animated furniture
FTFY

>>51641860
And a sphere technically has infinite boundaries, i can keep doing this.

>>51641861
>Do you want me to try it in your dice tower, Jim? It might be more random that way anyway.
>>51641870
It does crack me up, though.

>>51641873
Fuck that; animated furniture are strong as fuck.

>>51641770
>>51641748
So, surprise, stealth and sneak attacks are all fucked up in 5e. Got it.

>>51641870
The meme strikes a little close to home since my name is both Jim, and dice being cocked is a running harassment at my games.

>>51641883
>The party is now an animated tea set

>>51641887
Sneak attacks are 100% great, the best they've ever been, and entirely not confusing.

Stealth is equally good, most of the time... except for when it leads to surprise, which is an awkward thing that mostly works, except when it doesn't, and is better than it was, most of the time.

>>51634956
The same thing that makes anything 'good'. It needs to be a good character. Believable, engaging, etc.

Someone compared the PF ranger to the 5e ranger and said the 5e ranger is inflexible and rigid in what it does and the PF ranger offers a breadth of choice.


5e
Ch: Race+Subrace (No real difference from more races)
Ch: Class
Ch: 3 Skills
Ch: Background
Ch: Favored Enemy
Ch: Greater Favored Enemy
Natural Explorer
Ch: Fighting Style: of 4
Ch: Conclave (from 5) (Lets choose beast for the example)
Ch: 5 Spells Known
Ch: 7 Spells Per Day
Ch: 2x Feats OR ASIs
Primeval Awareness
Fleet of Foot
Conclave: Animal Companion
Conclave: Coordinated Attack
Conclave: Beast's Defense

Total Choices: 3 skills, Race/Subrace, Class, Background 2x FE, Combat Style, 1x Archetype, 5 Spells Known, 7 Spells Per Day, 2 Feat or ASI, Animal Companion, 1 Bonus Language

Ability Count: 5 Skills, Basic Combat, Natural Explorer, Beast Companion, 5 Spells Known / 7 Spells per Day, Detect FE, Talk to Beasts, Travel Unhindered w Party, Fleet of Foot, Improved Tracking

PF
Ch: Race
Ch: Class
0-~4 Archetypes (From 36)
Ch: 6-8 Skills at Full, or 12-16 at Half, or any combination in between.
Ch: 2x Traits
Ch: 2x Favored Enemy (one of which scales up)
Track
Wild Empathy
Ch: Combat Style: (of 7) (Scaling)
Endurance
Ch: 2x Favored Terrain (one of which scales up)
Ch: Hunter's Bond (Share FE w Allies, OR Animal Companion)
Woodland Stride
Swift Tracker
2 Spells Per day, changeable each day.
4 Feats, 2 ASIs.

Every class feature has archetypes that you can take which will alter or replace it, meaning every class feature can be replaced, even if they can't all be replaced 1 by 1.

Total Choices: 6-16 Skills between Full & Half Progression, 2 Traits, 2x FE, Combat Style, X Spells Per Day (Full List), 4 Feats, 2 ASIs, 2x Favored Terrain, Beast Companion, 0-4ish Archetypes Which act as a sort of multiplier to choice count.

Ability Count: 6-16 Skills, Basic Combat, Charm Animals, Improved Tracking, Travel Unhindered (Alone), Beast Companion, 2 Spells per Day (Exchangeable)

>>51641887
It's perfectly fine and pretty great, you just need to add in an extra line so that you don't create paradoxes whenever you want to attack an unaware guardsman or something.

Most people misunderstand stealth rules as new DMs though.

>>51641911
I didn't bother reading all this shit but Rangers are garbage and all of their key abilities are easily made redundant by free/low level spells or simply any other martial.

>>51641932
>Rangers are garbage
PHB rangers sure, but the Revised class is decent.

>>51641898
It sounds like utter bullshit. If the guard with his back to you who has utterly failed to detect you can win the initiative roll and cave in your head with a pike while you are still concealed beyond his capacity to detect, it's all bullshit.

>>51641922
It sounds just like the PF stealth debacle. More fun from the miniature wank editions.

Did Hades score the best waifu of all the Greek Pantheon?

>>51641920
I don't really care, I'm just having fun.

>>51641973
>If the guard with his back to you who has utterly failed to detect you can win the initiative roll and cave in your head with a pike while you are still concealed beyond his capacity to detect, it's all bullshit.
I literally can't decipher this, are you implying that after surprising someone you kill yourself with a pike?