/5eg/ Fifth Edition General:

How important is it to adhere to Challenge Rating when constructing encounters, or is it just better to eyeball it?

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Second for SPACE MONKS.

>>51690966
It's just a guideline. Sometime your party can over perform or under perform.

Al-Qadim WHEN

W H E N

If we whine about no official Al-Qadim enough will they cater to our demands?

I seem to have remembered some place in some book on how to run monsters in groups as a single unit to control, am I crazy or is this true?

how do you make a planaboo character ?

>>51690950
>What are the memest builds 5e has to offer?
Bad OP

>>51690966
Adhere but shoot slightly lower than recommended as you figure out what your party can handle.

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how would you go about making Seinfeld into a character? apart from the obvious, like him being a human bard, what skills, spells, etc would you pick?

>>51690997
They launched a "favorite setting" poll around the time 5e came out. So far they've been basing their releases on that poll with a special preference for FR as an olive branch for ruining the setting for 4e. So it'll probably be one of the FR supplements if they decide to keep cranking them out, but people have been whining about the FR-centric releases so maybe not.

>>51690966
from my experience the number categorising of CRs needs to increase. There are some CR2s that will get one shotted and there are some CR2s that are way tougher. They need a CR2,5 or something, like for the ones below 1

>>51691056
Should be in DMG. I remember that too. Swarm rules

>>51691201
Seems more like a rogue with an entertainer background to be. The show ended with him going to jail ffs.

are there any aquatic undead out there?

I need something for a bit with a lighthouse.

>>51691323
Undead don't need to breathe dude.

>>51691288
I found it, "Handling mobs" on page 250 of DMG.

>>51691342
I meant undead that work better in that environment.

or should I just slap a template on a few shawagain or kuo-toa group?

>>51691363
There was that one 3.x drowning undead that was fucking horrific. You could update that.

>>51691375
I'll look that up if I can get a name for it to search.

>>51691384
I think just the Drowned. Mainly awful in that they were very good at hiding and:
>Drowning Aura (Su): A drowned gives off a 30-foot-radius emanation of suffocating drowning, imbuing its surroundings with a watery glint and deadly threat for creatures that breathe. All breathing creatures within 30 feet of a drowned are treated as if beneath water in terms of being able to breathe. The drowning aura accelerates the process of drowning. Normally a creature can hold its breath for a number of rounds equal to twice its constitution score before it begins to drown. Within the drowning aura, a creature can only hold its breath if it makes a DC 10 Constitution check every round. Each round, the DC increases by 1. When the character fails its constitution check, it begins to drown. In the first round, it falls unconscious (0 hit points). In the following round, it drops to -1 hit points and is dying. In the third round if still in the drowning aura, it drowns.

>>51691363
Could work, which tells you how little difference there is between most monsters. Most of them don't have much going on past the basic requirements, i.e. AC, HP, and some number of physical attacks per turn.

I was going to say "If you want to make a really terrifying aquatic undead, give them a grapple attack and have them try to drown the PCs.", a la Drowners in the Witcher series, but I just looked it up and 5e doesn't have rules for drowning. So much for that one, then.

I wonder about homebrewing it as a form of exhaustion.

Got 1 sugesstion but posting on this thread for visibility:
How to make Apple Bobbing into a mini game/ Skill Challenge?

Thinking of doing a "how many can you get in 25 seconds?" type of thing and do 4 rounds of die rolling.

Or should I come up with another sort of thing like maybe a piñata?

>>51691447
you might see>>51691428 and use those rules
grapple and drown might be the way to go because the Drowning aura looks very nearly too frightening to spring on my players too soon.

>players walk into cave
>ROLL CON
>roll fails
>"something is wrong in this part of the cave and as you reflexively stagger back you cough up a few pints of seawater"

>>51691484
>piñata
>roll to hit vs Piñata AC
>while having the Blind condition
>after sustaining X amount of damage, piñata is defeated and bursts, providing lots and lots of tasty sweets

>>51691493
What's the sitch with the lighthouse? What level are your players?

>>51691507
party level should be about 7 or 8 when they discover the lighthouse issue(i am inexperienced DM is this low or high? or should I be more concerned with tailoring the encounter to the party)

party has irritated a very clever...I'm going to use the term "death fabricator"...

that was a month or three ago.

the lighthouse is on a rocky outcrop in some recently acquired territory for the party.

the undead are there to observe the party and left in the charge of a lesser subservient spirit.

the lighthouse keeper might or might not be complicit in the sense of...
>"think of it this way, my associates will man your lighthouse and keep the beacon burning bright so you don't have to do the work and in exchange we will be renting your (basement/small nearby cave). you will not tell anyone coming [to this isolated rocky outcropping] to deliver supplies, nor will you report any of our activities. do this, or die and do it anyway, there is no option three"

>>51691627
7/8 is enough to be willing to fuck the players up. Some stuff that jumps out as ideas to me:
>undead jellyfish, like those huge jellyfish that can spread their stingers out hundreds of feet in water - don't fall in
>undead boat - literally a boat made out of fused together corpses (covered in nails for the ship norse mythology ref). Tons of and mouths that clutch at you if you're boarding, probably a single head on board that has to be destroyed to kill it
>the lighthouse 'light' is a horrible flesh machine (maybe made out of a beholder or something) that resurrects any corpses it shines upon, it spotlights the PCs as they journey across the island which is covered in corpses ofc
>network of tunnels under the island which act as a prison for an undead or just starving giant. PCs will have to fight the limbs of this before they encounter it properly
>flocks of undead seabirds harass the PCs (including tearing the sails of their boat)

It depends how gruesome you want to get and how long the necro has had time to set up.

>>51691375
>>51691384

Fifth edition foes from Necromancer games has that one I think
Should be in the mega.
I know I saw it between there or Tome of Beasts.

I'm about to spend 100€ buying 600 dice of various colors (50 for each type).

I need someone to tell me if this is a good idea.

>>51691735
Why do you need 600 dice...

>>51691751
600 players in his group?
Or one guy running 600 characters

>>51691735
are you supplying a group or play area of sufficient size to need that many?

if yes then yes.
if no then no.

>>51691694
that shit sounds horrifying, is that what 7s or 8s have the capability of dealing with?
they have no cleric. ranger and a druid, but no other casters. 3-man party.

>>51691769
nah, someone running 50 characters by the look of it...

>>51691109
Anyone that can cast Planeshift?

Currently Rogue 3 (Swashbuckler)/Warlock 1 (going Bladelock, focusing on melee combat over spells).

Dex is 17, CHA is 14 (DM forced the multiclass but I'm quite enjoying it).

Planning to go R3/W2 for invocations, then R4/W2 for the ASI, then Warlock onwards.

For the first ASI I'm going to bump Dex and CHA both up by one to get the Dex modifier up, but I'm not sure where I should go from there.

I could go Dex to 20 at level 8, and then CHA to 17 at 12, but I feel like having a stat on odd numbers is unoptimised. Likewise applies to putting Dex to 19 and CHA to 16 at level 8.

Should I go with one of these routes, or should I leave them when they hit evens and put a point in something else?

If the dual wielder feat also added 1 Dex my life would be a lot better.

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>>51691323
Zombie sharks with legs.

>>51691842
There is very, very few functional differences between an even stat and an odd one. Every ASI your modifier still goes up, that's all that really matters.

Post character concepts

I have an idea for a Warlock who has to adventure in order to pay off his Patron, an elder dragon from the lower levels who just wants to expand it's hoard and has several such agents.

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How useful can I be in a Circle of the Land(Sea) Druid when we are travlling on land?

>>51691765
Yeah, that's why I advocate for 'pushback against a creature a size larger is halved for every size larger it is'
It's not realistic, realistic would be 'quartered for every size larger and an increasing flat resistance is applied', but the realistic version is no-fun-allowed and the RAW completely unrealistic version is just stupid.

>>51690966
Depends. Are you playing a 'YOU MUST KILL EVERYTHING' campaign or 'monsters are exp'? Then yes.

>>51691911
If it's anything like a coast druid, it'll be just fine. You'll still have occasions with water, sometimes, and even then the extra spells are simply just extra spells.

As for being a land druid at all, moon druids are better at the low levels and land druids are better at the higher levels.

>>51691918
Well I'd rather make potentially interesting encounters that isn't necessarily limited by needing a must-have limit of how many monsters you supply.

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>>51691901
What?

>>51691938
>Oh no, I can't pushback literally fucking everything as effectively as a fairy
Agonizing blast + repelling blast is already fucking brilliant. The problem is that it honestly kind of lacks weaknesses. It's fine to give it a weakness in that it can't stunlock a fucking god in a corner.

Warlocks are already good if you're not playing them wrong, they're just not tier 1, and them not being tier 1 doesn't justify letting them do batshit stupid things.

Also, warlock multiclasses can reach tier 1 material sometimes.

>>51691277
CR around 5 is pretty wonky too with some being anal rape in monster form and others fodder that your group could kill 20 of without a rest.

>>51691959
Both a 16 and a 17 are a +3 mod. If you go from 16 to 18 or 17 to 19, your modifier still only increases by 1 to a +4.

>>51691956
There's a route you can take with game planning where every encounter could possibly be fought, avoided, talked out, planned by the players for an ambush or something so the players get an advantage, possibly foiled if the enemies have a plan to stop them getting the advantage, having the enemies often run away, that sort of thing. If you opt for more dynamic combat in those terms then CR means even less as it kind of depends on what the monsters do, and some very well organised low CR monsters could be a nightmare if they all shoot projectiles at you from trenches.
If you want to be extremely loose on CR, you should probably remind the players that the encounters are not carefully tailored to them and thus the players should avoid combat with or escape really hard encounters.

Of course, if you just want a 'make a balanced walk-up-and-smash-everything adventure quick' thing then CR is good for building encounters that doesn't end up with 4 dire wolves with nightivison at night attacking a half-blind low level party.

>>51691201
>Bard
>Not Swarm Druid
Sounds like you're not Thinking Bee, anon.

>>51691954
Yeah coast druid

What are some good motivations for a Yuan-Ti Pureblood to go adventuring?

>>51692050
To give as many bitches the Snake Dick as possible

>>51691751
>>51691807

I could be supplying the entire group with additional dice. However, we really don't need that many.

I'm considering doing this more for the fact that I will never have to buy dice ever again, and for the coolness factor of rolling 20 something dice all together in the rare situation the game calls for it (I'm the DM).

>>51692016
Yes, that's MY point. Nigger you tryin reverse psychology on me?

My question is, I could go:

1/3 ASI
>DEX 17->18
>CHA 14->15

2/3 ASI
>DEX 18->20

3/3 ASI
>CHA 15->16
>??? -> ???+1

Or:

1/3 ASI
>DEX 17->18
>CHA 14->15

2/3 ASI
>DEX 18->19
>CHA 15->16

3/3 ASI
>DEX 19->20
>??? -> ???+1

Looking at the numbers, I'll probably go with the former option because that gives me the CHA boost at the same time as I get Lifedrinker and I'll get more use out of DEX for longer, though it does mean I have to follow my current course of sticking to no-save spells most of the time.

But on top of that, what ??? should I put a point into at 3/3 ASI?

>Additionally, when you gain a level in this class, you can choose one of the warlock spells you know and replace it with another spell from the warlock spell list, which also must be of a level for which you have spell slots.

If I'm reading this right, that means a level 3 Warlock could have 2 level 1 spells and 2 level 2 spells, right?

Is playing full Swashbuckler any good? Is multiclassing required?

>>51692166
> Is multiclassing required
In 5e, multiclassing is never required. Unless you're a warlock, in which case the best multiclass is warlock 1/literally anything else instead 19.

>>51692141
Correct. But remember that
>a) they'll be cast at 2nd level
>b) you can only cast 2 before needing a rest

>>51692166
Swashbuckler is the best-tier Rogue archetype. It makes it hard not to get sneak attacks, you get a boost to initiative, and at later levels you can control the battlefield.

You may wish to take a dip in something with Two Weapon Fighting to make full use of the Swashbuckler's free Disengage/two weapon fighting advantage, but it's not needed.

>>51692131
I might suggest you go halfsies on that 600 is far more than any person needs(usually) I have far fewer than that in a decorative salad bowl on my coffee table mixed with some acrylic battle-map tokens and glass marker-beads

>>51691868
might be a bit much...but then this isnt a nautical game it just has a bit by the sea.
I want them to get that fishy taste in their mouths by the time they're done there...
and I never want it to leave them

>>51692185
> Warlock 2/ 18 anything else
FTFY

>>51692050
It gathers information for the higher castes.
It wishes to escape discrimination of being looked down upon by other yuan-ti.
It searches for a method of permanently transforming itself and ascending from the caste it was born into.
It doesn't believe in the changes that have been wrought on its people and wishes to find permanent transformation back into human form.

>>51692185
>Implying warlock1 to 5 isn't good for various multiclasses
>Implying warlock isn't actually okay, just not as good as a wizard, much like sorcerer

>>51692166
5 levels of barbarian will probably make you better, but I wouldn't say it's necessary, definitely if you want to focus on skill monkeying.

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>>51691986
>Also, warlock multiclasses can reach tier 1 material sometimes.

Oh? Which ones?

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If I made a houserule that sorcerers can swap out their metamagic choices on a long rest, would you want to play a sorcerer more now? Nice buff to sorcs or too much?

>>51692132
DEX 20 ASAP

>>51692247
Fighter 2/Warlock 2/Sorcerer comes to mind.

Can an Unseen Servant carry a liquid?

>>51692247
Tier 1-ish Warlock Multiclasses
Tomelock3/PaladinX (Though at higher levels I'd probably say bard6/paladinX is better, maybe)
Warlock2/AbjurationWizardX
Fighter2/Warlock2/SorcererX (Not quite as good without close combat shooting UA fighting style or in a party that doesn't benefit from the excessive pushback)
Tier 1.5 Warlock Multiclasses
Warlock2/SorcererX
Tier 2 Warlock Multiclasses
Bladelock5RogueX

>>51692321
Are you trying to fuck it

>>51692291
>>51692334
moving the convo to this thread since it seems everyone migrated here

I also think Knight could be a decent archetype for the mark. If I roll good stats maybe knight so I can grab Shield

>>51692247
>Oh? Which ones?

sorlock. EB-quickened EB, with font of magic and warlock slots you get sorc point or 6+ level slots on short rest.

paladin/warlock. short rest high level smite, EB.

>>51692200
But TWF will compete witg cunning action for the bonus action

>>51692321
>>51692364
No, I'm trying to gather water sans bucket.

>>51692289
>fighter 2
big mistake there

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>>51692440
y tho?
>Armor prof
>Second Wind (Though it isn't much at higher levels)
>Close Quarters Shooter style for EBs (If your DM allows UA stuff)
>Action Surge (this is the important bit)
>Your EB levels based on your total character level, not your Warlock level

>Turn 1- Hex, EB
>Turn 2- Quickened EB, EB, Action Surge EB
>If you took Repelling Blast watch as the enemy gets sent into the distance Team Rocket style

>>51692440
>Big mistake
Why?
An action surge every short rest, +1 AC fighting style (Or +1 to hit, no disadvantage within 5ft if yourDM allows that fighting style), plate armour for 18 AC, shield for +2 AC to total out at 20 or 21 AC, then also getting +6 HP over a non-draconic sorcerer (+2 starting HP compared to warlock, +2 hp/level compared to sorcerer) and starting with con saves for concentration (Because you would probably start warlock for 8 starting HP otherwise which doesn't get con saves) and also strength saves as their 'weak' save (strength being the strongest 'weak' save).


You delay spell progression by 2 and definitely get less metamagic points, but the action surge for a combo like hex->eldritch blast->eldritch blast seems like it'd be worth it, or simply having the ability to go limit break and eldritch blast the target three times in a row and push it to the moon.

Yes, you won't get level 9 spells at level 19 or 20 like warlock2/sorcerer17 or 18, but who the fuck plays long enough for that to matter? And if you go that far, you might as well just play a wizard.

What do you call long rest that gets interrupted halfway through because the wizard is a moron and decided to take a nap in a dungeon?

A short rest

>>51692527
Long rests can withstand an interruption of 1 hour, IIRC.

>>51692420
Only for Dash or Hide, or if you get stuck in a crowd. Swashbuckler makes Disengage unnecessary in a 1v1.

>>51692574
Dash has some great synergy with disengaging-attacking, though, as you can move out of the enemy's move-and-attack range after attacking.

Playing a Long Death Monk with 17 CON. Would picking up Tavern Brawler be worth it for the grapples and to bump CON to 18 or is it better to just always use the bonus Unarmed Attack?

>>51692592
All the same, with the various abilities rogues have for avoiding damage already, I'd pick the dual weapons (with increased chances of sneak attack success) over disengage.

How much overlap should there be between Druid and Ranger noncombat utility and skillsets? I'm rolling a druid and want to make sure I don't step on the party ranger's feet.

>>51692605
You're a fucking monk. Focus on getting your dex and wis to 20 before anything else. The only feat I can think of that's actually worth it before then is mobile.
Instead, it's probably better to go +1 con +1 dex/wis if either dex or wis is odd, or +1dex +1wis if both dex and wis are odd, or +2 dex or wis if neither is odd, or if you've finally maxed both dex and wis and have mobile, then...
I don't know. Dual wielder is a possibility, tough is a possibility, polearm master is a possibility, maybe even magic initiate or dungeon delver or alert or-
But, really, tavern brawler doesn't sound like it has any way to make itself worth it. If you want to grapple a creature, replace one of your normal attacks with a grapple and use your bonus action to attack instead, or does long death prevent that?

>>51692632
I'd have dual weapons and booming blade / green flame blade and weigh the value of dashing away after an attack against the bonus attack, then either use the bonus attack if dashing away won't help much and you're not confident you'll definitely hit or use booming blade / GFB otherwise.

'I'm tanky, I can take hits' is a bad strategy unless you're planning to make reaction sneak attacks (not a bad idea, especially for a swashbuckler having easy sneak attacks on reactions) if enemies head towards your allies. If you're out of range of your enemies, they can't even attack you in the first place, and then you don't even need uncanny dodge because your team will take no damage.
Of course, if the enemies would just then move in to attack your allies then you might as well stay at the front lines if it doesn't cause any problems.

Whats the best way to use Searing Arc Strike? Fire at a mob and hope they fail they dex saves?

>>51692050
I'm playing a light hearted game online, focused around stopping someone summoning an evil goddess and during the child destined to destroy the world, and one of the players is a Yuan-ti sorcerer with amnesia. Whatever fave him his powers also resulted in memory loss, so he has no idea that there even are other Yuan-ti, the people who found him figured it was sorcerer stuff that made him have fangs and shit.
Pretty fun campaign, all in all.

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>>51692289
>>51692479
>GOOlock + Sea Sorc
>become Cthulhu Knight, Master of Pushbacks
Remind me, does Repelling Blast count for each individual EB hit or for a single instance of EB being cast?

>>51692755
It would have to be for each blast, because you can have the blasts hit different targets. Doesn't make sense otherwise.

>>51692769
EB also procs per hit for abilities like Hex.

Man you'd be able to send people into fucking space with that, and as a Sorc you could take Lightning Lure too. Become the master of battlefield control.

>>51692755
>Cthulu Knight
>Not spooky undead pirate man (Sea Sorc/Undying Warlock/Any Fighter)

>>51692769
So at level 5 with Curse of the Sea that would be what, 75 feet total?

>>51692755
Repelling blast should be able to curse and then move a target on the same turn, causing up to 15ft of extra movement on every turn, including if you somehow eldritch blast using war caster.

>35ft movement at level 5, 55ft with bonus, 75ft with bonus and action surge
>45ft movement at level 11, 75ft with bonus, 105ft with bonus and action surge
>55ft movement at level 17, 95ft with bonus, 135ft with bonus and action surge

>>51692845
Oh, and
>level 5, 110ft if you do all of that AND someone gives you a warcaster reaction attack (Say, the enemy is scared by a teammate)
>level 11, that's 150ft
>level 17, that's 190ft

You could also use your action to store your casting of eldritch blast and then cast it as a reaction on someone else's turn to get +15ft of pushback without using warcaster.

>>51692325
Warlock2/Shadow monk6/Assassin Rogue 12

>tfw the more you look at the skill list the more you feel it was conceived to punish skill monkeys

What's the point of splitting Nature and Burglary in a million subskills again? Did people sincerely whine that Rogue and Ranger were overpowered and how do these people remember how to breathe?

>>51692893
I think teleporting counts as moving, but if you were a solo player that wouldn't be a bad idea if you were a bugbear or something.

What would I play if I wanted to be Tanky cast support spells and be ranged?
I would rather power-up my allies and enable them to do cool shit, rather than just straight up healing.

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>>51692880
>AND someone gives you a warcaster reaction attack (Say, the enemy is scared by a teammate)
>variant human, pick warcaster
>get PAM at lvl 8
>push them miles the fuck away right as they enter your reach

>>51693010
I believe it was said that RAI is that PAM's attack MUST use the weapon that was granted PAM's reaction.

However, that suggests you can use booming blade, yet months ago whenever I suggested that some autist kept telling me 'Uhh, no, you can't do that' without providing me any proper proof why you can't. Maybe I should just give up and find a way to use twitter so I can ask if that specific combo works.

>>51692479
Wish spell

>>51693044
That'd be no fun.

>>51693008
Cleric or warlock with a fighter or cleric dip.

Though I'm kind of against the idea of 'multiclassing just for a load of extra AC' myself.

>>51692487
see >>51693049

>>51693008
War cleric in medium armor, with a longbow, possibly doing a 2 level dip into Fighter.

>>51693078
>>51693069
I guess there's no way to be a tanky bard?
Just cause there's already a Cleric in the group, and I worry about stepping on his toes.
I mean...if Paladin stuff worked with Ranged Attacks I would be all for that, but i guess they need to be in the front to be "courageous"

What are your favorite homebrews, and which do you actually allow into your game?

>>51693008
Take a look through the cleric lists, if not then try paladin.
Clerics get a few support spells in addition to heals (they're concentration most of the time)
Paladins also have a small amount of healing that I believe also cures diseases in addition to enough auras to make a certain Buddhist space monk blush a little bit.

It's a bit harder to be a ranged paladin than a ranged cleric, but with medium armor mastery and high dex you will have a legendary AC. War Caster is your bestest friend ever, don't forget that.

So I'll be making love to my shy monk girlfriend what crazt positions can she do?

>>51693008
Valor bard, friend. Valor bard. You'll have to choose your magical secret spells carefully, but you will be a decent ranged tank with more support than you could possibly imagine.

>>51693164
she can punch your balls and 10 days later you die

>>51693070
>muh wish
Yes, congrats, blowing a significant class feature for a spell with 4 lifetime casts on average.

>>51693164
Well for one thing, when she fucks you right off a cliff she probably won't take any falling damage.

>>51693130
Valor bard is tanky enough, but if you use a crossbow you won't have a shield.

The thing is, there's less point to being tanky if you're ranged and supportive because 'ranged and supportive' is naturally 'you don't need to be attacked in the first place'

You could be a wizard and take a level dip of fighter for armour, or play a dwarf wizard. Personally I wouldn't allow 'wizard with a one level dip of fighter for heavy armour' in my campaign, but would allow 'dwarf with a feat for heavy armour' or suchlike wizard.

Your DM might allow ranged attacks to work with paladin's DS and IDS on the grounds that you don't use crossbow mastery (or maybe they'd let you use crossbow mastery), but you, again, won't have a shield and won't get the archery fighting style.

New GM questions. Sneak attack works on a "distracted" target. So, someone writing at a desk with their back turned would count as distracted, but what else? If player 1 attacks a goblin, and the goblin's attention is on them, then would an attack from the Rogue count for the purpose of sneak attack?

My group seems to want to stick to Grid-based combat, but I'd like to do more of a description thing. What are the pros and cons?

>>51693130
Lore bard : variant human with moderately armored. 16 CHA 14 DEX, scale mail gives you 15 AC

Valor bard : half elf 16 CHA 16 DEX pick medium armor master for your first ASI

Valor bard : any race with at least +1CHA, 16 CHA 14 STR, pick Heavily armored as your first ASI.

>>51693290
Sneak attacks works against any target your attack has advantage against.
Like proned targets, for example.

>>51693181
read the book pls

>>51693290
That's the descriptive portion of the ability.

The mechanics are as follow:
>Once per turn, you can deal an extra 1d6 damage to one creature you hit with an attack if you have advantage on the attack roll. The attack must use a finesse or a ranged weapon.
>You don't need advantage on the attack roll if another enemy of the target is within 5 feet of it, that enemy isn't incapacitated, and you don't have disadvantage on the attack roll.
>The amount of the extra damage increases as you gain levels in this class, as shown in the Sneak Attack column of the Rogue table.

So whenever you think your rogue is launching an attack in a situation where you believe you should have advantage, ask the GM if you do. They ultimately get the final say but you can present an argument as to why you think you should have advantage. Such as:
>I'm attacking him while he's sat down at his desk with his back to me. Would that be enough to give my attack roll advantage?

>>51693320
>>51693130
Moderately armoured gives shield proficiency as well, so that's up to 19 AC with half-plate.

Honestly probably a better idea than going valor bard unless you really want that extra attack.

>>51693201
>The thing is, there's less point to being tanky if you're ranged and supportive because 'ranged and supportive' is naturally 'you don't need to be attacked in the first place'

The enemies in my DMs campaign are smart enough to avoid the front line fighters. Of which we have 4 in our 7 person group.

My wizard, while fun to play, gets rekt. I usually get to cast fireball and use Portent once before the enemies focus me down in 1 turn and then our cleric casts Spare the Dying on me, then runs off to use Spiritual Weapon and shoot Sacred Flame.

Kinda sucks to be out of the battle for more than half of it, even if I did some sick damage.

I figure my Wizard won't last long if this keeps up, so I am planning ahead and thinking of something to play.

>>51693328
>>51693385
Easy enough. Thanks.

>>51693070
see >>51692487

Where I've already stated
>Playing any significant length of time at level 19+ without already starting at a high level thus knowing you'll probably want to play a wizard or something that'll end up with wish

>>51693392
Is the DM putting you in confined rooms all the time or something?

Either you should be able to keep your distance from the enemies or if the enemies are attacking at range you can drop prone / use cover.

You can also use abilities such as mirror image before combat, try to develop vantage points where enemies can't melee you in the first place, fly, et cetera.

If the enemies are all low intellect metagaming bastards that see a wizard and all beeline for you in perfect formation to avoid fireballs and and avoid opportunity attacks and then take you out before they even see what you're capable of then tell the DM to fuck off.

>>51693443
>>51693392
Also, if you're front-liners are any good, they should be all getting reaction attacks as all the enemies get past. Some of them should hopefully have sentinel or something, some of them should get stuff like sneak attack on reaction attacks or have warcaster, or... Maybe even tunnel fighter or something.
I don't know, but it sounds like it's either
A) Your front-liners need to do better
B) Your DM needs to stop fucking metagaming 3 int creatures as gods of war
C) You need to learn to defend yourself
D) The DM needs to stop making combats all tiny room brawls where wizards get fucked up

>>51693390
thanks anon, I glanced over the feat

Lore bard is the best support 17 AC lvl 1 and 19 AC later, it has all OP asked for.

So I just started DM'ing and one of my players has come up with an idea but I'm not entirely sure how to implement it.

He wants to tie a rope around his spear so he can harpoon enemies and then pull them into range so he can hit them with his sword. I like the idea I just don't know what rolls I should be making him do and how many turns this would take.

Any suggestions?

>>51690966
It's not a bad indicator at low levels.
I rolled up a medium encounter for 5 level ones (1 apprentice wizard and 5 bandits) and it nearly wiped the party though. Granted 4 of them have never played before.

>>51690966
If you're new to it, stick to the recommended CR. I ended up throwing two giant apes and a level 7 drow sorcerer at my party of 4 level 7s. Though them standing in a ring of fire and not even trying to leave it was the main killer, funnily enough.

>>51693486
Athletics to pull. Maybe make it constested.
Keep in mind that the enemy can simply cut the rope if they want to/intelligent enough to do so. On their turn the enemy can try and maybe break free using an athletics check as well.
I'm planning on doing the same thing desu.

>>51693486
Base it off Lightning Lure.

LIGHTNING LURE
Evocation cantrip
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: 15 feet
Components: V
Duration: Instantaneous
You create a lash of lightning energy that strikes at one
creature of your choice that you can see within range.
The target must succeed on a Strength saving throw
or be pulled up to 10 feet in a straight line toward you
and then take 1d8 lightning damage if it is within 5
feet of you.
This spell's damage increases by 1d8 when you reach
5th level (2d8), 11th level (3d8), and 17th level (4d8).

Add in a ranged attack roll at the start, have a grapple contest to follow, but then have the enemy end up prone as compensation for the extra requirements. Maybe do 2d6 damage, one for the spear hit (like a javelin) then one for the pull.

>>51693486
This probably needs to be part of a custom feature, such as an archetype or fighting style choice, or a feat or a downtime bonus or something because otherwise everybody could do this, unless the player only ever uses this in specific situations. And 5e doesn't really plan on weirdly unrealistic tactics. I mean, okay, this would be realistic if you were fighting maybe a small whale and you had a harpoon gun or something.

Tell them to go battlemaster and allow them to use the attack that pushes to instead pull enemies on a spear hit.

Just noticed the disclaimers at the beginning of the rulebooks.
>Disclaimer: Wizards of the Coast does not officially endorse the following tactics, which are guaranteed to maximize your enjoyment as a Dungeon Master. First, always keep a straight face and say OK no matter how ludicrous or doomed the players’ plan of action is. Second, no matter what happens, pretend that you intended all along for everything to unfold the way it did. Third, if you’re not sure what to do next, feign illness, end the session early, and plot your next move. When all else fails, roll a bunch of dice behind your screen, study them for a moment with a look of deep concern mixed with regret, let loose a heavy sign, and announce that Tiamat swoops from the sky and attacks.

>>51693486
Here's how I'd break it down, personally:
>ranged attack with the spear
>maybe include some kind of additional check of some sort to see how securely the spear gets lodged in: if it fails, the attack still hits but the target isn't properly "skewered."
>contested athletics check to pull the guy closer
>another attack to hit him with the sword
That seems roughly fair to me.
>>51693541
>but then have the enemy end up prone as compensation for the extra requirements
Wait, are you saying that knocking the enemy prone and giving the attacker advantage is BAD for the attacker? I don't follow.

>>51693443
>>51693468

The DM homebrewed some races, one of which was his own Aarakocra. Which he gave a +Int
So i decided to make a wizard bird-man.

After some flying shennanigans, basically we were in a church and i fly up to the rafters and shot firebolts at the enemies, he said "all rooms are 10 feet high unless otherwise stated".

We've never fought anything outside of a defined structure. Sometimes the rooms are large, but other times they can be quite small.

Most of the time we don't find low int things, they tend to be things like beholders, driders, enemy spellcasters.

Not sure on the quality of our front-line fighters, sometimes the rolls just arent with you.

>>51691275
The Sorcerer archetypes from this last week's UA go a ways towards Al-Qadim's flavor for them. Wouldn't take much to turn them into Sha'ir.

>>51693553
>Tell them to go battlemaster and allow them to use the attack that pushes to instead pull enemies on a spear hit.
This seems like it would be the simplest and easiest way to do it.

>>51693593
>Wait, are you saying that knocking the enemy prone and giving the attacker advantage is BAD for the attacker? I don't follow.

Well, Lightning Lure doesn't require an attack roll, just a Strength save. But I'm suggesting giving it an attack roll and reducing the damage (to fit with non-magical combat standards) - which makes it a lot worse than Lightning Lure.

So I'm saying, to compensate for how much worse it is, add in the spear making the enemy prone (and thus giving the attacker advantage).

>>51693603
Even if a room is small, try to make your attack then back off, then.
If it's large, you can try to find cover or keep away.

I hope you actually have spells like absorb elements and shield and mage armour and all that for emergencies.

You can use illusions for cover sometimes, use spells that make cover (I believe there's a few) or even simply try to set up cover by having your stronger guys bring stuff like benches along to make you harder to get to, and then you can focus on spells that make it harder for the enemies to reach you due to various things.

It should take enemies at least one turn dashing to get up to you, and then they can't attack.

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Is Swashbuckler/Treachery any good?

Kind of want to make a beefy pirate.

>>51693656
Oh! I hadn't thought of that.

Actually, here's a relevant question: what's the range of this thing going to be? The spear itself has a certain range, but pulling a bugbear at you from 20ft is going to be harder than if he's only 10 feet away, which is the max pulling range of Lightning Lure.

>>51693537
We're up against goblins at the moment so they aren't that smart
>>51693541
That might be a good idea to base it off of
>>51693553
This seems pretty decent too since he'd just have to take a feat to get the maneuver
>>51693593
Although this is probably how I'll go about it unless it turns out being too good. Maybe if he rolls high enough in his strength roll the enemy will end up prone.

Thanks guys.

>>51692527
>wizard
>not casting leomund's

git gud

>>51693706
>swashbuckler
Good design, works well.
>treachery
Bad design, kinda works anyway except at level 20, so eh.
>swashbuckler and treachery together
Actually a pretty neat idea for a character, 6 levels of paladin, rest of levels in rogue, shield and rapier, 15 strength, dex and charisma being next highest stats with decent con...
Though honestly arcane trickster sounds like it'd work better, and then once you have arcane trickster you don't really need extra attack so much, and...

Well, as long as you're not being an idiot it should work pretty effectively. It won't be some stunningly crazy powerful combo build but if you have a character in mind it shouldn't be underpowered at all and should be fun.

>>51693747
>Take a feat
Oh, no, that's terrrible
Martial adept is a pretty bad feat, I'd say.
I'd buff up martial adept and give a +1 to a stat with martial adept or give two uses of it a short rest or something, maybe allow it to be used for other things like a sort of grapple hook or the spear stays in until the end of their next turn so they can still try pulling again as a bonus action and a contested athletics check.

>>51693700
>I hope you actually have spells like absorb elements and shield and mage armour and all that for emergencies.

Look man, i can only prepare 9 spells per-day

1 Magic Missile
2 Identify
3 Detect Magic
4 Alarm
5 Comprehend Languages
6 Rope Trick
7 Leomund's Tiny Hut
8 Snilloc's Snowball Swarm
9 Mirror Image

I'm the party's information gatherer. I don't even have Shield or Absorb Elements in my spellbook.
I just got my own Mage Tower, and I am glad I took Unseen Servant, because now i have an invisible butler.

>>51693861
You do understand how rituals work, right?

Identify, detect magic, alarm, comprehend languages and leomund's tiny hut don't need to be prepared. You can cast them as a ritual without preparing them, and you need shield much more than you need to cast leomund's tiny hut in 1 minute instead of 11.

>>51693358
>muh level 1-8 contingency spell

Is it just me or is dueling a significantly better melee option than twf for ranger?

Best use for contingency that isn't a concentration spell?

>>51693941
Yes, it's just you.

>>51693941
Just you, especially when Hunter's Mark is involved.

>>51693941
but twf means more hunters mark

>>51693941
Archery is by far the better option.

>>51694012
But hunter's mark uses a bonus action and TWF uses a bonus action and transferring hunter's mark uses a bonus action.

>>51693720
Make it 30/120 like the javelin. Then have him able to pull it 10 feet every turn as an action if it fails a Strength check. Every time it fails, he does an additional 1d6 damage (because it's being janked along by a big spike in it) and it's knocked prone again.

>>51693912
> don't need to be prepared. You can cast them as a ritual without preparing them

You know...i thought i was doing something wrong. And i remember reading something like that and I think i just forgot.
Good to know.

Also my DM rewards us like...no money and merchants are super scarce. So i am level 5 and for the first time last night I encountered a spell scroll. But i do not have enough gold to copy it into my spellbook.

>>51694037
Pulling a rope as an action seems VERY weak to me, especially if we're comparing this to Lightning Lure. Bonus action for pulling the rope (which should obviously still be at hand because he just threw the spear) means he can pull a guy 10ft away closer and hit him all in one turn, or do the whole maneuver in one turn if he has multiattack effectively uses his whole turn to do so. That doesn't seam unreasonable to me if LL is a cantrip that a Wizard can use as a mere action.

>>51694045
Well, hopefully you'll do a bit better now by having more spells on hand if you were only casting them as rituals anyway.

The shield spell feels kind of like a staple for wizard, so if you somehow don't feel you need more level 3 spells it might be worth picking it up as one of your two additional spells at level 6.

If you think you might get attacked and you only plan on casting a cantrip or something that might not do much damage anyway, you could consider using the dodge action or something.
Also, don't forget as I said earlier, if no creature is in range that it could melee you and thus get advantage and you don't think you'll need the extra movement next turn you can drop prone without it costing any movement at the end of your turn.

>>51694114
Awesome, this is gonna make things alot better. Thanks for the help!

>>51694082
Yeah, that seems reasonable too, now you put it into words. Bonus action makes sense.

Could even have some fun with the rope lying around. Every time someone crosses over it, they have to roll for Dexterity or trip and go prone.

I'm thinking of making a klutz wizard, because hell yeah.

I know, >rolling for stats and all that, but that's how my GM wanted to play, and I'm actually quite pleased with it.

I rolled fairly well, but there was a nice little surprise there:
16, 14, 14, 13, 10, 5

The stats are actually just one point shy of the average of 73, so not bad, considering.

Got the idea of making a klutz wizard after seeing that 5. Putting it on Dex is basically a death sentence though, because yeah, we're also starting from 1st level.

Gonna try to have a nice time though. Tried to optimize otherwise to, you know, not die. Such as taking feather fall (because not gonna make any acrobatics checks with this dexterity), and Alert feat to not get surprise attacked and actually have some initiative (which I fluffed as being a gotdamn scaredy cat).

Although, knowing that my AC is fucking 7 (or 12 with Shield spell), chances are that I'm going to die anyway. I could theoretically go for a super-low wisdom for some sanity loss or super-low charisma for being awkward as fuck, but the AC 7 instantly became a joke and I kind of want to take it just to spite other people.

>>51693861
>>51694114
>wizard
>no mage armor
>no shield
>no misty step
>Oh boy I sure go down a lot, don't I.

>>51694250
>Every time someone crosses over it, they have to roll for Dexterity or trip and go prone.
Ha! That's funny but it seems a bit much just as a passive thing. Maybe the Fighter can use his reaction while a faraway enemy is "skewered" to do that to an enemy between them: that way you could leave a guy skewered from far away and still get an effect from it, even without using multiattack to spear-pull-slash.

>>51694261
If you know what you're doing and your DM doesn't dick you over with surprise no-preparation encounters or puts you in lots of small rooms, you'll probably get yourself fucked up.

Otherwise, it's a great, fun handicap to put on your character while still being a great, powerful class.
I like the 'great at all these things, but is squishy and vulnerable' ideas for wizards and the like, rather than stupid shit like bladesinger and single level dips of fighter.

Unfortunately not even dodging and granting disadvantage to enemies will help you much. Mirror image will have similarly low AC, but at least they'll take some hits for you.

If you're a new or fairly new player I'd definitely not recommend it, though.

Also
>rolling for stats

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>>51694298
>fighter skewers goblin at range
>immediately runs to his left, smacking the rope into three more goblins
>they all fall over
>pulls on the harpoon
>goblin gets a 1
>goblin goes flying over fighter's shoulder
>smacks into goblin behind, knocks him over

>fighter and wizard's faces when

>>51694261
Just tell your GM that you have an interesting character idea that you're excited to play and always have [HUMAN] [FIGHTER] at the ready in case it doesn't work out.

Is Artificer as a dip for a Swashbuckler any good?

>>51694385
>>51694298
>>51694250
>>51694082
>>51694037
This is getting to a level of complexity where I'd make it a martial or ranger archetype, devoted to harpooning big beasties.

Stop multiclassing guys. Feats are the only acceptable custom rule

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>>51694535

>>51693861
Always prepare a contingency spell. Some to consider:
>expeditious retreat, fog cloud, mage armor, shield
>blur, darkness, mirror image, misty step
>gaseous form, haste, wall of sand, wall of water
Something you can pop if you're backed into a corner and the fighter can't come rescue you. Ideally something that doesn't depend on a saving throw and which buys you enough time to get to safety.

So what's the most useful Wizard cantrip to pick on Arcana Cleric?


Because I'm doing Warcaster, (I want to help the Battlemaster in the frontline) and so I already grabbed Booming Blade, but I guess there's no reason to have two ranged damage cantrips.

Minor Illusion gets a lot of praise, but I haven't heard stellar examples of why either.

Just started working on a campaign today, I want to do like a Cthulhu, old gods rising kind of story.

I'm toying with the idea of time travel and have the players exist in a world where the they themselves went back in time to stop the old gods from rising a few thousand years ago, but due to the time traveling magic became immune to time and the battle with the old god has warped their minds.

So in the present the characters that fought the old god still exist and I'd like to do some kind of twist where one of the characters that went back in time is the living with a golden dragon or something and is considered a prophet. he would send the players on this long quest that appears to be heroic on the surface but is actually a setup to wake the old god again.

I'm worried about a couple things, such as if the players catch on before the pay off, or how to handle player death. I'd like to have the heroes that went back in time also be strategic bosses that slowly unravel what is actually going.

I'm a little stumped on the whole progression and I'm not sure if this is a good idea or not, thoughts?

>>51694655
This is way too convoluted for 90% of players to even care.

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>>51694510
>3.5e player here
is Use Rope still a thing?

perhaps call it the "binder"
proficiency in all flexible "thrown" weapons or just flexible weapons in general

>"throw"
>topic specific definition; BDSM
>verb; to deliver a strike with a whip or lash
>topic specific definition; Sailing
>verb; to shake a line(rope) in such a way as to intentionally move it

so, bolas, spiked chain, meteor hammer, lassos, whips, thrown weapons tied to ropes, ROCK ON A FUCKING ROPE, grapnel-grappling, harpoons, cast-nets, etc.

class specific synergies to skills based on level
>pic is the sexiest whip I ever braided.
>so sexy that it was stolen from the customer and they had to buy another one...

>>51694377
Actually, that is a fair point. Mirror Image and Misty Step should be my top priority when / if I get to level 3, an excellent point.

I'm pretty experienced in various games, and I'm usually pretty good at working around my character's weaknesses. Hell, I like playing characters with serious disadvantages because it requires me to figure out ways to do stuff.

I play a character that is basically just brain-in-a-jar in another game. Still am the most useful player in the game most of the time.

>>51694451
Yeah, I could actually roll the stats for my backup character just in case. Would probably be a Half-Elf Rogue.

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Alright /5eg/

You are given:
>Race of your choice
>standard 27 point stat buy
>fifteen levels to use however you want
>three magical items of your choice, one may be an artifact if you choose

Make the most broken character you possibly can

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>started DMing when I was brand new and so were all my players
>nobody very good at the roleplaying element, but everyone tried nonetheless
>fast forward around 2 years later
>they're visiting our Tiefling Cleric's hometown that she hasn't been to in 7 years
>when they arrive, its fucking totaled from some unknown source, buried in sand
>one Chaotic Stupid player begins looting the whole place right in front of her
>she gets incredibly angry and starts freaking out at him about desecrating her place
>he starts screaming back about how they need this stuff to keep moving through the terrain, fuck the dead
>they're in their faces yelling
>but they're yelling in character, swearing to their guards
>want to defuse the situation because I couldn't tell if they were actually freaking out at each other

Anybody have something like this happen?

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>>51694746
>>>/b/

>>51692251
I think that's good and fair, but it doesn't make much sense to me thematically
I kind of understood the metamagics as the Sorcerer's implicit impact/natural specialty on the spells

>>51694786
Nuclear Druid. You can get in plenty of damage before hitting level 20.

Be party Wizard. Make live for the first time with Barb. Barb dies. Find out I'm pregnant.

>>51694826
not random, it pertains to the indicated comment regarding potential for a class centered around the cunning use of rope tied to things.

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>>51694786
Just dump everything in charisma, go rogue, mastermind, mind domination magical items

viola I'm fucking Yuri

Does swashbuckler need to max CHA?

>>51694832

What build is Nuclear Druid?

>>51692552
Follow up, if you're in the last few hours of a long rest should the party get anything back or no?

>>51694786
specify the rarity of the items

>>51694894
>Yuri
>not a mystic

>>51694510
Honestly, I don't think so. It's just a bunch of ability checks that any old yokle with high enough stats ought to be able to do. The strength of D&D and the fun of it is in the improvisation of shit like this. Fighters shouldn't have to take an archetype to do something a bit weird. Let them be.

>tfw your players find out that the dungeon has been cleared, that all that's left is the corpses of the monsters, and that NPC adventurers got their reward because the wizard decided to piss and moan about his fucking long rests after going nova.

>>51694510
At worst it would be a battlemaster manoeuver, at best it's just a spear throw with an athletics check to grapple, maybe at a disadvantage.

>>51694579
It may seem dumb to you, but 3rd edition essentially killed the main reason for multiclassing in AD&D (namely: hybrid classes being only playable by humans, half elves, and half-orcs in 1 (plus elves for ranger))

>>51695011
The DM should give everything back but then impose a small penalty, such as not healing a few HP or gaining back a few spell slots. Probably give the player a choice 'Don't heal HP, only get half your spell slots or don't get your long rest ability back' or something.

>>51695148
>DM sacrificing all of their hard dungeonbuilding work, unless it was improvized
>Adventurers looted EVERYTHING
>the chances of anyone even coming across the dungeon, yet alone deciding to clear it out within 8 hours

I still prefer gatekeeper regulated dungeons.

>>51693164
Ask Cadderly Bonaduce

Shame

Is doing a 2/18 sorlock with Draconic and Undying Light a good idea if you're going full fire? I don't want to use EB.

>>51695277
It's a very well known ruin that they were sent to because they were obviously green would-be heroes that wanted to brave the place.

It became a quest hook for what became their real level 2-3 adventure.

>>51690950
Anyone know any good mass combat homebrews?

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>>51694983

I'm going with a sailor-themed (strength focused) ValorBard. Here's the rub I'm running into, however: power wise, I should probably go full plate, but I'm concerned that this may not make as much sense as medium armor for someone on a ship. thoughts?

Also, he has double proficiency in athletics through class and background, and expertise on top of that, and high strength.

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>>51694983
+scaling.

>>51695367
If it's a well-known ruin, how come it wasn't already looted but the time the players showed up there was nobody there and by the time they'd rested everything had been done?

It'd be less of a dick move if the players actually saw other adventurers in the area before they slept. From what I'm hearing though, it just sounds like 'Lol stop being a dick wizard, look, I took away all your fun now'. If they actually knew there were other adventurers in the area right then and there it's more of a 'well, what did you expect would happen?'

>>51694983
>>51695382
Don't forget having a level 5 grave cleric on hand who uses their channel divinity and then uses an action to prepare a reaction to use channel divinity again after the first load of magical missiles

It doubles the damage.

>>51690950
BUGBEAR WHIP-ROGUE

>>51695177
Past editions are past editions though. Multiclassing in 5e is a great way to expand player options and explore character development. Don't get me wrong, the DM should have final approval on each instance of a character branching out, but banning multiclassing outright is just needlessly depriving yourself of a useful tool.

What would be better allow for stat rolling or giving players an ASI or Feat at level 1?

>>51695382
You can't cast a second (non-cantrip) spell in the same turn, even with action surge

>>51695542
That only applies if you cast a spell with a bonus action, brahj.

>>51695536
Personally, I like rolling for stats, but in /5eg/ that will get you branded a heretic and your fun will be labeled as "wrong."

So the real answer is whatever you and your players like

>>51695560
So it does. I stand corrected. ty

>>51690966
It really depends on your party size. If you are new and your party consists of 3 to 5 players: stick to the CR system and modify here and there. If your party is bigger it will utterly fail. My party consists of 8 players and in the beginning it was hard to scale enemies for them. Here it is better to adjust the Encounter by adding multiple foes rather then putting stronger ones.

While this is quite obvious, I had to learn that even a pretty mean motherfucker can be dealt a lot of damage during the actions of 8 characters.

>>51695536
I prefer stat rolling because point buying produces generic characters. Obviously, characters can become clearly over- or underpowered, but thats some of the fun. If the dice were too mean i usually allow for a new roll (cumulated attribute bonus below 3).

The Barbarian of my group is simply overpowered, the worst attribute is 14. However, the player isn't someone who will push this in a way it will break the game for others.

>>51695536
>What would be better, unbalancing the game for no good reason other than to arbitarily make some people roll high numbers than other players with no say in what they get and possibly preventing them from effectively playing certain classes, or to give players more options to have fun with?

Give players a feat at level 1.


If you really want to do stat rolling because you like character variation, insist players roll in order.

Are there any races particularly good for a Circle of the Moon druid? You don't keep your humanoid form advantages of any kind while wild shaped, right? Ergo, you wouldn't keep yuan ti magic resistance, elf charm resistance, aasimar necrotic/radiant resistance, etc.?

So I'm guess not much really matters race wise. Firbolg seems obvious but they look incurably ridiculous. Protector aasimar seems workable, especially for a quick retreat.

>>51695795
We usually roll a pool of 6 attribute scores and distribute those to the attributes. I know, it is not common. It worked quite well though.

>>51695807
>You retain the benefit of any features from your class, race, or other source and can use them if the new form is physically capable of doing so. However, you can't use any of your special senses, such as darkvision, unless your new form also has that sense.

>>51695840
>>51695795
Something I've always wanted to try was stat rolling in a group. Basically, you start out with some normal system of rolling, but then you trade your stats with your fellow players.

So, let's say you want to play a sorcerer, and your buddy wants to play a fighter. If you roll a 16 STR and 7 CHA, while he rolls 4 STR and 17 CHA, you guys could swap your STR and CHA stats with each other. So, with a group of four, everybody would trade off their best stats to each other in exchange for whichever stats they wanted, and eventually they would come up with a relatively well balanced group with individual characters that would still work for whatever class each player wanted to play. I've never heard of anybody doing it like this before that I can remember, but I do think that it would at least be neat to try.

>>51694261
Play a variant human if you can. Dex 6 is still shit and is still a fucking clumsy person, but it's better than a -3.

Meet cute virginal fighter.
Can take all sorts of damage like a champ.
Has many scars to show for it.
Have sex with her.
"Argh, it hurts! Go slower!"

......

>>51694510
It honestly reminds me of Nox's Fire Knights. They could PvP against that game's wizards and summoners with just five abilities.
>Charge and hit something real hard.
>Look real closely and spot invisible things.
>Step real carefully and not trigger traps.
>Shout and perform obscene gestures that totally disrupt spellcasting, and frighten small creatures, for a few seconds.
>And throw a harpoon that pulls the victim towards you just a little faster than they can run away.

You could probably make that a martial archetype.

>>51695011
As long as they are capable of returning to a long rest I would say no for simplicity. If you break it off entirely maybe give them like half of everything.

>>51696033
>Having survived pain on the battlefield means she should just shut up and enjoy intense vaginal pain during sex
full retard, anon

Can Bend Luck deny a critical hit?

>>51696033
just because someone can take pain doesn't mean they have to enjoy it

File: 1480893771459.jpg (213KB, 337x368px) Image search: [Google]

213KB, 337x368px

>Shitter insists on rolling stats
>DM says Sure go for it, since I'm feeling generous you can even roll twice per stat.
>3d6 (x2) in order
>Shitter thinks this is great
>mfw

Now not a single party member has an average above 10 or anything higher than 14 in a stat (before racials).

File: Critical.png (35KB, 597x271px) Image search: [Google]

35KB, 597x271px

>>51696113
Nope.

>>51695945
This is probably one of the better stat rolling ideas I've heard of.
If you take on a lot of bad scores, you're helping everyone else out.

And, essentially, everyone's scores are sort of communal in that if everyone rolls low X it'll just be the 'party theme'
Considering there aren't things like 'You need Y in a stat to be a Z' anymore, I'd actually recommend this over rolling in order standardly.

>>51695408
>>51695382

>+8d10 damage per missile

But that's not how the feature works at all. Even if you purposely ignore context of the feature to talk your way out of this bullshit, you still only have 17 d10s to use, not 168d10s.

Do you think its a good idea to have characters level up mid-session? Cause they're about 100 xp away from level 3 so just about any encounter will push them over the hump.

>>51696269
For the 115th time: magic missile is a single damage roll.

http://www.sageadvice.eu/2016/10/17/magic-missile-do-you-roll-the-same-d4-for-all-darts/

Making NPCs W/stats. How do you guys do?

End of MM has for example Guard stat block. If I want an Elf guard do I just add Dex+2 and whatever their sub race bonus is. Fey Ancestry, Trance feats.

And that's it?

>>51696278

Which means you still only add 8d10s once.

>>51696315
Yup.

>>51696315
I tend to just use the given stat blocks because I'm lazy. If they have stronger racials, like kobolds or goblins, I'll keep that in mind (especially pack tactics and bonus action disengage/hide).

But yes, your method is the long and short of how it's done. There's a table in the DMG on page 270- or 280-something with racial traits for common NPC races.

>>51696336
That's not how magic missile works. The d10s are added to the roll, and all darts deal damage equal to the total rolled.

>>51696187
If my mathematics is correct for four people this is the average highest average bunch of scores in a group of 4 players:
http://anydice.com/program/ab3f

If you have four players, the chances of what you've just said is about 0.01%
How do you fuck up this badly?

Yo /5eg/ I need a name for a group of mutated Sahaguins.
I cant think of anything thats not to cliche.

First character, 5th lvl cleric. 2 build questions, 2 gameplay
1. Good way to do super high single target damage, just one spell
2. Good way to do multi target damage
3. My fighter breaks character (LN) and almost got us in a fight with a local ranger captain and his minions in order to give an item to an evil character because he's loot crazy.
Is it railroading to remind him of his alignment?
Is there a good way to deal with these situations?
4. If I see a new creature to my character, but I know what might work to counter it IRL, am I metagaming to use its weakness? should I roll knowledge? Is it common knowledge that frost would hurt a fire elemental?

>>51696315
Follow up question. That elven guard I have is 1/8 CR. How do I upgrade/lvl up?

I want to make a CR2 one. And if I need that specific NPC to level up?

MM has Knight CR5 but too strong for what I need right now.

>>51696376
Street Sharks

>>51696278
And the PHB source for this:
If a spell ar other effect deals damage to more than
one target at the same time, roll the damage once for
ali of them. For example, when a wizard casts firebaJl or
a cleric casts liame strike, the spell's damage is rolled
once for ali creatures caught in the blast.

The MM ruling is clearly RAI BS to make Evoker Magic Missile a thing, and not RAW and certainly will be considered for careful wording before any full release of Circle of Sparkle Druid.
Obligatory.
>Multiclassing UA material.

>>51696388
>Good way to do super high single target damage, just one spell
Scorching ray if you're light. Otherwise, Harm.
> Good way to do multi target damage
Spiritual guardians.

>>51696306
Taking two rolls for each stat, instead of two complete stat-lines, makes the average 12.18 instead of 10.5. However, actually rolling those stats still comes out with crap a lot.

>output 1: 13, 13, 11, 10, 9, 12
>output 1: 15, 13, 15, 13, 9, 13
>output 1: 12, 11, 16, 18, 15, 8
>output 1: 13, 17, 16, 11, 9, 7
>output 1: 13, 12, 14, 8, 14, 14
>output 1: 14, 13, 17, 15, 12, 12

Okay, maybe it'd just suck to be that first guy.

>>51696306
Maybe RNGsus decided to fist us then, because every single one of us has an average of 9.

>>51696356

Still doesn't work that way. It is objectively wrong.

>>51696364
Also, for what it's worth, the independent (not reliant on players rolling super-shit average scores) chance of not rolling higher than a 14 is 0.94%.

>>51696388
Don't know much about Cleric.

3. Don't pout but say something. In or out of character. Everyone has a different play style they prefer, let him have his but don't let him get you killed; or get ALL the spotlight always.

3,1. Let the DM handle that, imo.

4. Ask your DM. If it's a basic everyday knowledge think like "Oh there's fire on this mythical creature, I could use water to put it out." it's not metagameing

I've never seen a wild bear irl, or like a big mountain wolf etc. I still have some idea what I should be doing in a situation like that.

IF the creature is very rare, then the DM will ask for a knowledge roll, even better propose the roll yourself.

>>51696395
Give them 78 HP (13 hit dice), two attacks, up their Strength to 16. That will bump them up to CR 2.

https://5egmegaanon.github.io/5etools/crcalculator.html#2,78,16,14,5,false,Medium,13,12,false,0,false,0,traits:

>>51696423
thank you!

>>51696417
How about just
>Multiclassing

>>51696485
I dunno, it's hardly scientific but just dicking around on the roll20 dice I'm only getting a 15 about one in every 10 or 12 3d6 rolls.

Maybe Roll20 just has loaded dice?

>>51696388
1. Depends on cleric archetype, but I wouldn't rely on doing a lot of this.
2. Spiritual guardians.
3. The DM shouldn't say 'your character can't do that' but should say 'I think your character's more of a true neutral' or 'evil' or whatever. Alignments are more of a guideline and don't actually affect characters for the most part, don't force players to do things because of it, but do encourage players to label their characters appropriately.
Also, being loot crazy sounds pretty CE or NE.
The best way to deal with those situations is to tell the people to not be an idiot and get in fights with authority because their character should know that messing with authority will get their ass kicked later.
4. Depends on the DM. Some would like you to seperate knowledge, some are pretty grey on the issue and some consider it part of the fun to essentially 'guardian angel' over your character to direct your character to do things YOU think are right. The 'just because your 8 int character is dumb doesn't mean you're not allowed to have fun' idea. It's definitely metagaming to read through the monster manual or the DM's notes in any case, and rolling knowledge is good, but otherwise you can try to apply logic in-character to justify it rather than 'I read the MM, lol'. Though I do promote the DM coming up with reasonable monsters themselves if they have the experience.

>>51696568
If you just roll 3d6 once, then your chance to get a 15 is less than 5%. If those dice are loaded, they're rolling high. These folks are talking about rolling effectively 12 times per character though, for four or more PCs that's a lot of dice.

Portent is the only real reason to go divination as a wizard, right? It seems really fun in a way the Lucky feat isn't, but the rest of the features seem pretty irrelevant, especially with how few divination spells there actually are.

>>51696568
17.66% chance of getting a 15 or higher if you roll 3d6 twice and take highest. 9.26% normally.
This post >>51696485
assumes that 4 players roll stats with the roll 3d6 twice take highest rule and that none of those players roll higher than 14.

So it's pretty much rolling 3d6 48 times and not a single one of those ~10% chances happening.

>>51696461
Here's my results.

>10, 11, 14, 10, 11, 13
>10, 7, 11, 12, 11, 13
>9, 14, 13, 13, 11, 11
>12, 14, 12, 11, 10, 10
>14, 12, 14, 9, 14, 12

Not a single over 14 but also not a "bad" stat distribution I guess.

My GM decided that, since any race but Variant Human doesn't get a feat, everybody gets a free feat.

So the Variant Human Bard I made suddenly has another feat.

What feats should I look into for a supportive bard already at level 1?

Or should I just go for something stupid like Crossbow Expert, and put that Hand Crossbow to good use?

>>51696641
Rolling 3d6 a million times doesn't make it any more likely that the next roll is going to be above 14.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gambler's_fallacy

>>51696539
>>51696417
It also still works if the druid obtains a wand of magic missile and doesn't multiclass. Just they can't action surge and they can only cast magic missiles up to level 7.

I don't see how >>51696417
doesn't show that it's RAW though, because magic missile deals damage to more than one target at the same time (unless you focus it all on one target, but then everybody would shoot one magic missile at one other creature and all the rest at the same creature)

I'm trying to build an UA Ranger and I can't make up my mind on the final skill
- I get Perception from being a Wood Elf, along with advantage on stealth checks in the wild
- I get Athletics and Survival from a background
- I'm pretty sure I'll take Insight
- This leaves 2 out of Animal Handling, Nature, and Stealth. I'm not entirely sure which one to drop.

>>51696694
Rolling 3d6 a million times makes it more likely that by the next roll you will have rolled higher than 14 at least once, thus meaning the original 'nobody in the party rolled higher than 14' would then no longer hold true.

>>51695382
Does have to be Arcana Cleric? Am I missing something or couldn't you just go Sorc or something? Or do you want armor proficiencies?

>>51696742
Arcana Cleric learns Magic Missile as a WIS spell?

>>51696480
>stating things are objectively wrong
>without any sort of evidence

>>51696736
I'd drop stealth.

You get advantage in the wilds were it thematically fits. You are a ranger, not having Nature or Animal Handling makes 0 sense.

>>51696489
What's the methodology behind this? As in, you take a stat block, how do you know what to tweak to put the CR up?

>>51696818
>constantly replying to bait posts
Just ignore him and stop shitting up the thread, holy fuck

>>51696685
magic initiate + ritual caster

heavily armored + heavy armor master

crossbow expert + sharpshooter

resilient CON + warcaster

skilled + lucky

alert + observant

INSPIRING LEADER

>>51696621
Pretty much, but it is a really great feature.

>>51696588
1. Party has known for a while we're coming up on a dragon soon, I'm a cleric of life and generally prep almost all healing and a few support spells, so it's all about dodge / heal but I want some teeth, even just one spell's worth if this dragon decides to get in my face.
3. The loot crazy bit came from the fact that we've sort of played "finders keepers" if it fits you even a bit. If we survive the start of the next session I think this will change since it got us in some trouble.
4. All players are first timers, the DM has played a bunch but first time DM. I have no one else to judge by, but I think he's doing great.
Sets up personalized loot, personalized side quest for each character based on their backstory, made up a full scale model out of foam and stuff for a battle we had.
My one complaint is that a creature ran up and attacked his gf's char (16 AC) 6 times all misses, then ran over and slammed me twice in a row (19). Not impossible but longish odds methinks.

>>51696696
>Druid spell
Unquestionably fixed. Cut me a check.

So if a stand is a 10 man unit, should, say, a unit of death knights on nightmares or half dragons on dragons be 5+5 or 10+10?

>>51696882
Seems like the new DM is doing an awesome job.

If the Gf missing thing happens a couple times, get suspicious but otherwise it could totally be legit. Don't assume yet.

Lke fumbling with advantage or crit hitting with disadvantage, these things happen.

>>51696882
I'm not really a fan of personalised loot.
It's kinda lame from a storytelling perspective and kills the fun of 'Okay, we can't really use this loot effectively, so what ways can we use it?'
Though I don't like a lot of the DMG magical item stuff. Too much power creep.

>>51696865
>INSPIRING LEADER
It looks so fitting, but it just looks so fucking lackluster.

Even at level 20, that is at most 25 hit points.

At level 1, it is 4 or 5 or something. That just seems useless.

Magic initiate doesn't seem like a bad idea on a lore bard, actually. More tools is always good. Might go with that.

>>51696952
If the unit normally functions seperately, not riding each other, 5+5.
If the unit normally functions by riding, 10+10.

>>51696989

>power creep
>in a core book

What?

>>51691275
>with a special preference for FR as an olive branch for ruining the setting for 4e
That's not why they've been releasing FR stuff. FR is just the default detailed setting for D&D, and has been since third edition.
D&D has an implied setting, a framework to use as the beginning of your own homebrew. In third edition this was a stripped down greyhawk, in 4E it was the nentir vale/points of light (which still had a lot of greyhawk DNA,) and in 5E it's the D&D multiverse. That's what's in the corebook.
Then, you have FR. FR is intended as a detailed but still sort of generic D&D setting for people who don't want to do any homebrew. It's also sort of the face of D&D. An implied setting is good for the game but from a marketing perspective a detailed setting is necessary. FR has been chosen to be that. Which is why it kept getting changed to match the latest edition.
FR being the setting with most releases has nothing to do with any olive branches and everything to do with it being the closest thing 5E has to a default setting.

>>51696998
Inspiring leader is great if your party doesn't already have other ways to get that HP, and especially if you have a party of 6.

At level 1, you could give a lot of people maybe 50% more health at a level where a crit could instantly kill them normally, and sometimes even a normal hit could bring them to 0.
At level 20, it's only 25, but everybody gets it and you get it after every short rest.

You can even use inspiring leader before a short rest, and then everyone will come out of the short rest not only having temporary HP but also you can then use inspiring leader again before a short rest.

It's X hp to Y players Z number of times a day.

At level 10, that might be 15 HP with 20 cha.
With a group of 6, that's obviously 6.
If you have two short rests in a day, but you take a short rest before the day even begins, that's a potential 4 uses of it.

That's (15)*(6)*(4) HP granted to your entire team because of one single feat you picked up. Literally 360 HP saved for your party in a day at level 10.
Of course, you probably won't use all of that temporay HP, you might not get so many rests, you might not get a short rest at the start of the day or someone might want their own temporary HP if they were an idiot and picked fiendlock despite what your feat choice or you might not even have 6 players or 20 charisma.

But, for a feat, it has amazing potential.

Or you could get tough and get an extra 20 HP for yourself at level 10, what do we care.

>>51696989
I think he did just one each for "babby's first item" to get everyone hooked.
He also gave one item to the most quiet player which has worked as sort of a lure to pull him into the spotlight on occasion, much to the mirth of everyone.
Last bit to share before I go hit the gym.
>Guy who got us all together invites his gf for the first session. She's true Neutral
>They break up around session 2
>Still get along perfectly, no drama at all
>Also she's the perfect True Neutral, but sort of in the same way that a deer or rabbit would be neutral.

DM told us he'd be glad to do his own campaign after our premade ends, but wonders if anyone else would like to DM. I could do the encounters and the work, but am garbage when it comes to thinking on my feet or dialogue... may try anyway.

>>51697014
Magic items are pretty optional and DM's territory, and for the most part are barely required at all. I think it assumes level 15+ characters will probably have at least one power boost from a magical item and it also assumes martials will get magic weapons to overcome resistances, but it's only as core as fightersorlock multiclass is core.

Also, there aren't enough items like Alchemy Jug, and too many items that are just combat boosts like 'enemies have disadvantage to hit you now'.

I got a very weird idea today. I need someone to chime in to see if I'm going over my head.

The group finished LMoP and I thought I'd connect it to HotDQ with a caravan etc whatever.

The conversation here points toward not doing a full time skip but introduce some mini encounters with smallish but several time skips.

They are guarding several caravans. I thought I would make some drows attack and try to steal some loot. There is a drow PC though.

Now the idea is this:

A) If they beat the Drows, they go on to Greenest to play HotDQ. I've already prepared it. Everyone knows we will be playing Hotdq and then Rise of Tiamat.

B) If they get heavily beat down by the drows, a new wave arrives and kidnaps them and we start Out of Abyss. This would be a huge surprise to the group. By the time they come out of Underdark the events of HotDQ would have happened and we would start RoT. The book already has suggestions for skipping HotDQ and starting from RoT.

Is this too ambitious? Am I going over my head? Is OoA even good? Haven't read it yet. If you guys decide this is a cool idea I'll prepare the first couple chapters for it.

>>51697169
Yeah, they are as core as feats and multiclassing.
Either way, calling it "power creep" is retarded.

>>51690997
Just start a twitter war about WotC being Islamaphobic and probably Neo-Nazi Trump voters for not having Al Qadim

>>51697160
You'll get used to the game by the premede campaign ends. At the very least, you can run a hack'n'slash dungeon crawler.

Give some time for the DM so he doesn't burnout fast.

Also, cool that they are not bringing their drama to the table.

I have a bf-gf at the table as well. Time will tell what'll happen if they break up.

>>51697160
Well, sounds pretty good, then.

It's the
>You beat the archlich and turns out he was santa all along and has exactly what you wanted!
and
>You beat up the goblin and turns out he had an ancient sacred magical item sword on him for some reason because I rolled random loot! But he didn't feel like using it because, uhh, I only rolled loot after you killed him!

That gets annoying.
Also stuff like

>Yeah, here's a +1 item. Have fun. I'll give you +2 items later.
and
>I'll give the wizard this cloak. Oh, fuck, the wizard is now tankier than all the martials. Oh well, not like they needed to be special anyway.

>>51697169
Uhh I wish there were more situational/ utility/ quality of life items like Alch Jug.

I don't want to exclusively drop weaponry.

>>51697196
It's power creep because there's a lot of ways to just do more damage.

>Here, have a wand that lets you cast this level 3 spell you already have five times as often.
>Here, have a +2 weapon.
>Here, have more AC.
>Here, have resistance to physical damage.
There are fun items, but I feel the DMG should have focused on fun magical items and left 'powercreep' items up to the DMs.

It's not wrong to call it powercreep when a lot of those items are essentially permanent upgrades that the players don't get to choose, which can sometimes arbitrarily raise the party's power level which then means the monsters have to get harder and then the players want better loot form the harder monsters to make themselves more powerful and...

I don't want all this shit, I just want to pour mayonnaise over people with my alchemy jug, fuck.

>>51697196
Also the example of multiclassing I gave was an example of a multiclass a DM might not allow. Many other multiclasses are generally more accepted.

Also feats aren't a fucking optional rule, get your head out of the fucking gutter, Wizards.

If I was going a Variant Human Rogue/Fighter multiclass built around wielding 2 rapiers, which archetypes should I go for each one? I don't want to be an Eldritch Knight or Arcane trickster, just a guy with 2 swords. Starting at level 2 because Adventurer's League game, including non-UA stuff.

>>51697276
>It's power creep because there's a lot of ways to just do more damage.

The DMG isn't a splat, so core can't have power creep, just like its retarded for a 100% new series to release a pilot episode and go "Wow this show has really went into decline these days!"

>but I feel the DMG should have focused on fun magical items and left 'powercreep' items up to the DMs.

By your retarded definition of powercreep levelups are "power creep," especially spell levels.

Actually, I think you're wrong -- nothing about magic items imply they're optional. Buying or making them is optional. So yeah, you're an autist who hates one of the most beloved and traditional elements of D&D.

>>51697015
>and has been since third edition.
It was still Greyhawk, it's just that Greyhawk was default in a "so default it doesn't really exist as a setting" way. The core gods all the way to the 3.5 PHB were entirely Greyhawk (with Moradin and Corellon being there only because they were basically the universal elf and dwarf overgods).

Totally unrelated, but would house ruling Expertise down to just advantage be too much of a nerf? I feel like double proficiency bonus just lets rogues and bards walk all over the various classes on their own turf (esp. Athletics for Monk and nature-related shit for Druid and Ranger)

>>51697297
>feats aren't an variant rule, despite it clearly stating they are
>magic items are a variant rule, despite it not having the "variant rule" flag that all other variant rules have

God, old school D&D must throw shitters like you into analphylactic shock.

>>51697345
Either Battlermaster for Riposte for reaction attack crits if you're going to be a swashbuckler (since they get easier sneak attacks on reaction attacks) or champion simply for more crit sneak attacks.

From a metagame standpoint dual wielder sucks, even if you plan to use dual wielder instead of a shield+weapon because you want to drop a weapon and grapple and still be able to attack because in that case shortswords aren't much worse, even if you do get the extra attack feature
and also from a metagame standpoint barbarian is probably generally better than fighter for multiclassing into rogue unless you can really make that riposte or champion feature go the extra mile.

>>51697389
he said default "detailed edition" and Greyhawk was the default edition

>>51697297
Feats are optional to the same extent that NWP were in 2e and late 1e.

>>51697137
The healer feat is cool too on the other end.

>>51697373
Levelups aren't powercreep because they give players options and can also increase their non-combat power or give them access to non-combat things.

Power creep is simply shit like back in 4e where everything eventually got to the point where everyone had at least +20 to everything and probably +30 to most things and +40 to other things when there's no need for the numbers to be that high. +X magic items tend to do that a lot because they're common as fuck for DMs to hand out, sometimes come with things that add on even more damage and soon you have a barbarian doing 1d12+5+3+2+1d6+1d6 or something stupid.

Everything about it implies they're optional - there is very little in the PHB about magic items, very little in the way of magic item synergy and magic items are contained within an entirely seperate book. In fact, a number of abilities become void if you have magical items, such as 'magic weapon' which only works on nonmagical weapons, and would be redundant otherwise anyway if everybody in the party had a magical weapon.

Magical weapons are left dubious because the creators of 5e wanted DMs to decide for themself how many magical items they want to give everyone.

DMG page 38 even says that normal and low magic campaigns, up to level 10, players do not even start with any magical items.

>>51697414
Are NWPs required for a good few classes to be viable like feats are?

>>51696783
Does it matter it's WIS? No save, not atk roll. Even RS dice don't care about the WIS part?

>>51697211
>They release a MAGA setting instead out of spite

>>51697397
I know.

But I just want to be using TWO RAPIERS MAN

THAT'S TWICE THE ACTION.

Yeah, was thinking either Champion or Battlemaster. As for Rogue, it was totally going to be Swashbuckler.

Why is Barbarian better to multiclass into for rogue than Fighter? Is it the thing where you get more defense and stuff when wearing no armour?

>>51697392
>Feats
>A variant rule
>When if you say 'I ban feats' you might as well say 'I ban fighters'

To tell the truth magic items aren't even a variant rule, they're just completely disregarded for the sake of the PHB, but will probably show up in setting specifics. But there's nothing saying 'you must make a setting that has magical items in it that players will probably get'.

>>51697494
Power creep is later supplements eclipsing earlier supplements.

Power creep is definitely not "core, non variant features of the game."

>Everything about it implies they're optional

Variant stuff: Variant humans, feats, multiclassing
Non variant stuff: Stuff that doesn't mention "variant stuff"

>there is very little in the PHB about magic items

Welcome to D&D, newfriend!

>In fact, a number of abilities become void if you have magical items, such as 'magic weapon'

Welcome to D&D, newfriend! The number of things that are the norm since time immemorial that you consider an aberration truly amaze me.

>and would be redundant otherwise anyway if everybody in the party had a magical weapon.

Such is D&D. You are not even remotely guaranteed to have everyone get a magic item ever, or anything of a remotely helpful sort.

>players do not even start with any magical items.

Why should they? If you get a magic weapon at all that functions along with your class/feat/etc., you should be grateful as fuck.

>>51697516
Barbarian has better synergy for grappling since it has advantage on strength checks (rage) and more reason to use strength (+rage damage) than fighter, which only really would use strength for either heavy armour (+1 AC) or shield master (But that uses a bonus action).

Barbarian also gets more health, +10ft speed, if you take bear barbarian you get resistance to all damage while raging (except psychic), and this stacks with uncanny dodge, you get danger sense, you get reckless attack to auto-grant-self-addvantage...

Fighter does have some good points, but action surge kinda lacks synergy as you can't sneak attack more than once a turn and your weapons aren't going to do a lot of damage.
Fighter's fighting style does give you the potential +DEX to a TWF attack, though it's a bit awkward because you might still want that bonus action for other things and you also have access to shields if you want to go shield+rapier without having to expend all your bonus actions, and that lets you use duelling which is +2 to two attacks and would give you almost the same damage as 20 dex TWF's fighting style. But TWF is good for grappling because it's harder to throw away your shield to grapple with an open hand and then attack with a weapon in the other hand.
Fighter also has second wind, then either crits on 19 or riposte for 4x a short rest instead of uncanny dodge that round potentially getting another sneak attack.

Both are viable, but I find barbarian better myself.

>>51697512
Americana Adventures (mostly as far as guns are concerned on the player end of the spectrum) would be pretty cool, although due to the artificer I view it as less essential.

Somewhere around Revolutionary War to WW1 is how I like the tech level for D&Dland -- dungeoneers are going to still be wanting to use quiet weapons and armor, but it would mean your average soldier largely fights similarly to a wizard.

I played Pathfinder at an event recently. I enjoyed it OK I much prefer 5th but I really like the Swashbuckler class.

Is there a similar Swashbuckler class in 5th?

>>51697389
Expertise is supposed to make it so you don't suck at skills you don't have the stats for, or make you amazing at class-related skills. You could take that away, but then the nearly impossible would stay nearly impossible. You'd have to use magic to reach those DCs more often.

>PDK
Don't suck at persuasion.
>Rogue
Amazing with thieves' tools.
>Knowledge Domain
Don't suck at knowledge
>PHB Rangers
Don't suck in your terrain.
>Bards
Don't suck at whatever you want to do, or be amazing face.

>>51697517
Here's a helpful guide:

Feats: Are a variant rule.
Magic items: Are not labeled as a variant rule.

>When if you say 'I ban feats' you might as well say 'I ban fighters'

We were only talking about variant vs nonvariant rules, not how "good" or "bad" they are.

>To tell the truth magic items aren't even a variant rule

Okay then.

>>51697170
Someone please advise,

I'll need to prep accordingly.

Is this a good idea?

Sorcerer Fix Idea:

You know all Metamagic options. You can only prepare 1 per long rest. At levels you'd normally learn an additional metamagic option, you instead increase the number you can prepare by 1.

Fluff: You spend time while resting realigning your innate magic into different pathways, or something.

What's the lowest level it is conceivable to kill a CR 12 with, if the party has 4 members.

>>51697712
Honestly? Do it. It sounds like it could be a hell of a ride. OotA is fantastic.

>>51697748
with enough of the right magical items, probably level three

>>51697748
Any, depending on party composition and how ruthless/clever they are.

>>51697777
Well, quadbro, they're three 7th levels and one 6th. They have a few choice magic items here or there, like a +1 weapon or something, but nothing stellar.

>>51697793
But there's more of them than the enemy. Numerical advantage is a big deal.

>>51697808
I'm very aware, which is why I'm asking how far out of their weight class they can get away with punching. It'll be a stellar session if that fight actually does come to pass.

>>51697625
Well, maybe I have the definition wrong, but the intent was for it to be
'When the players, the monsters, and everything is buffed, resulting in no real change aside from higher numbers'
Probably because that's what the given definition of power creep here results in, usually - players get new power, but then the challenge has to be upped to meet it. And, honestly, if you remove the 'new content' premise and change it to 'introducing content that your base character doesn't get but there's no point in not using it' then it still kinda works, I guess.

>Variant stuff
>Feats
This, again, is an example of reading the book and just spewing out what the book states, as if the book gets everything exactly right. Putting feats as optional is a mistake made by Wizards because they probably didn't know how it would turn out. And as it turns out, a good few martial classes are kind of half-assed and not worth playing if you don't have feats.

>You are not even remotely gauranteed to have everyone get a magic item ever
And that's the point. The game isn't balanced for everyone having crazy loads of magical items, but it's not balanced so that magical items will completely destroy the entire PHB. The fact that some players won't have some means they have to be able to play fine without magic items.
Yes, it's still a good idea to have magic items, no, you don't NEED them aside from the problems with 'non-magical weapon resistances'.

>>51697793
It'd be a "deadly" encounter but if you let the PCs have surprise or some other advantage they should be fine.

>>51697793
What are their classes, what are they up against, and how much of this do they know?

>>51697854
If they can set up surprise and favorable conditions, deadly can become normal.

>>51697705
Magic items aren't even a rule, or a variant rule.


Calling them a 'variant rule' is just to say 'magical items are optional - you can't rely on getting them, but you might get them, it all depends on the DM'.

And feats being written as a variant rule is a case of Wizards getting things wrong, because apparently they aren't 100% perfect.

>>51697842
>And as it turns out, a good few martial classes are kind of half-assed and not worth playing if you don't have feats.
But they'd be fine with the right magic items.

>>51697897
I mean, yeah, if the DM just says 'Okay, these characters need an upgrade. Here, have some magic items to upgrade your characters.' you can fix any character that otherwise wouldn't work.

Peasant that doesn't get any abilities at all? Suddenly they'll be fine if you give them enough magic items.

>>51697876
Spoiled because most of my group browses /tg/, or at least used to.
>What are their classes
Cleric, Wizard, Fighter, Rogue
>What are they up against
Archdruid
>How much of this do they know
They know that they're up against a significant threat. They don't know that they're very likely going to be ambushed by it.

What's the best adventure to use for a new DM (other than LMOP) ?

>Storm King's Thunder
>Out of the Abyss
>Princes of the Apocalypse

>>51697962
If you play the archdruid intelligently, like you should, they'll almost gauranteeably win stealth (pass without trace), get an ambush on everybody and then fuck over pretty much the entire party and wipe them all if he feels like it.

He'll hopefully have already cast several things on himself beforehand, too. They could turn themselves into a dragon and fuck everyone up like that, or something have 'freedom of movement'...

The party definitely has a chance if they manage to avoid having cheap tricks and ambushes pulled on them, but if you play the druid as they should be the druid should just win.

>>51697842
>'When the players, the monsters, and everything is buffed, resulting in no real change aside from higher numbers'

Okay. That's
1) not power creep (which pertains to power level becoming increasingly malformed over a series of options, and this is a term that hasn't just been used for D&D but other RPGs, CCGs, video games, etc for a very long time)
2) not applicable.

Without a magic sword, the melee guy has to defer to the caster to deal with phys resistant foes and especially werebeasts.
With a magic sword, he is not left twiddling his thumbs against them.
A holy avenger, similarly, isn't just a nice plussed item but something that makes the paladin even more likely to focus on undead and fiends, but also makes party members think differently about how they want to spread out, whether they want to stick close to him, etc.
Obviously there is already this element with the paladin's existing protective aura, but that the holy avenger is specifically protective against *spells*, and protects against them by encouraging you to cluster up -- which is normally a liability -- still changes the game.

>as if the book gets everything exactly right.

Well you don't know what common terms like "power creep" mean so who should I defer to?

> And as it turns out, a good few martial classes are kind of half-assed and not worth playing if you don't have feats.

Some variant rules are good, some variant rules are acquired tastes.

>>51698058
As a side note I am very, very bad at not spoiling things relating to things in spoilers, it turns out.

>>51697879
At this point your argument has degenerated into my tastes > your tastes so I'm not sure why you're still talking.

>Magic items aren't even a rule

How existentialist. I guess they are a set of rules.