/5eg/ D&D Fifth Edition General

Posting my campaign so far from last thread. Looking for opinions and if it's an okay thing to roll with.

Alright

The campaign just started, my players are now heading towards a city that will act as a sort of "hub." They found out from the first town they were in, about the local Lord's daughter who is having relations with a member of someone's court. That person from someone's court is appealing to the daughter with gems, so that she could get her father to do what he says.

The father/local lord found out about this, and is outraged by it. Demanding that they withdraw troops from the hub city, as that was one of the things that he was convinced to be doing.

The players are entering into a "lower quarter", an area for visitors to do their business and leave. I'm thinking about expanding on this a bit to have it be a slight more political or have something underlying beneath the surface, but the main thing(s), I want to do is to have someone feigning an excavation team, who's "hiring" freelancers to go out and map more of the western nation.

Another one, to appeal to engage the cleric, is how one of the places of worship is being controlled by a local gang.

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>>52070187
Saw this picture and I had to do it.

Drow wizard that wants to become a lich like his adoptive pappy.

Took a little bit to persuade the DM though. Surface Drow and friendly lich dad aren't exactly common things found in faerun

>>52070275
>Surface Drow and friendly lich dad aren't exactly common things found in faerun

Well there's this big fuckin fat lich with a ton of living family relatives who helps them make living zombies so they can live forever (your aging is split among all the living zombies)

He's the one with the 100s of phylacteries.

>>52070262
thing about political intrigue in a D&D game is that for your party to care about it, they need to have stakes in it.

like the idea there with your cleric is perfect, adventure hook with personal stakes for that character.

but unless any of your characters have backgrounds that link them to these different lords they're not really going to have much motivation to get involved.

>>52070354
One of the players: the monk actually does have a sort of stake to the first lord they met, as he's IC interested in the daughter and sees her as a valuable asset.

For the other player, who's a merchant wizard I can have some things affect business, or make it harder for him to obtain goods.

>>52070187
My favorite NPC was a guy named Vasili who ran the local shop in the first town. He had a russian accent and had a certain wisdom to him. The odd thing is that Vasili was always somewhere to be found in EVERY city the players went to. He had no knowledge of ever meeting the players, but he looked, sounded, and acted the same. It was fun to bug my players with it the first few times, then it became a game of "new town, let's find Vasili".

Unrelated, but I'm thinking of doing a Rogue / Artificer build for my next character. What would be a good split, and what should I focus on?

>>52070354
has anyone even HEARD of someone running cool "political intrigue" stuff in their D&D campaign?

If i run a adventure path like "curse of strahd" do i have to read the whole pdf beforehand? My Players seem to be eager to play it but i haven't finished on reading it yet.

Do you read the whole adventure before starting?

>>52070778
Absolutely.

>>52070778

Reading the whole thing is helpful, but not really required. Just make sure you're prepared for the immediate session, as well as likely detours the players may make. This is easier in some adventures (like CoS), than others (SKT).

>>52070560
... I'm running one and I think it's pretty good

>>52070560
Wait so is political intrigue difficult to do or something? I've done it before and my players love it.

If I have a reach bonus thanks to Primeval Ranger tree mode, Can I grapple things 10 feet away?

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So can anything be eked out of the ranger's ability to cast self spells on himself and his beast simultaneously?

>>52070975
Darkness from Drow. Ring of Spellstoring shenanigans should you come across one; Greater invisibility, resilient sphere, haste

Thinking of making a setting where all the dead gods from other settings ended up in much weaker then before. The catch is people in the setting went all their history without god ruling over them and instead revere their ancestors who grant them divine magic.

Long story short I want this to end with a bunch of cultist, celestials and fiends fighting armies of pissed off peasants and adventurers. Is this a good idea or a little bit too fedora tier?

>>52070275
I probably placed the phylactery inside of the kid, I mean who's gonna kill a kid right?
>fuckin murder hobos go away

>>52071317
you gotta wonder about all these liches who are so fucking stupid, naive, and trusting, and having such unshakeable faith in goodness that they think their enemies won't kill a kid to stop them

why would liches even know or care about 'goodness' or think that good enemies are so superior to neutral and evil ones that it'd be them who would come to stop him?

>>52070975
sauce

Would the knights of solamnia and the wizards of high sorcery be better used as archetypes paladins and wizards or factions like the order of the gauntlet and the harpers?

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I need to think of 4 magical macguffins with an Undead theme for the party to quest for

>>52071562
>Knights of Solamnia
Factions. The original, AD&D knights actually had normal fighters, paladins and 1e Cavaliers.

>Wizards of High Sorcery
As far as I know they were definitely a way to explain how a dark age world had book wizards, so wizards. They're basically a monastic order.

>>52071571
do the macguffins have to have powers on their own or do they have to have to have some combined effect?

The Lich Kings' Crowns

Four separate crowns owned by four different Lich kings.
1. Crown of Bones
A crown made out of bones with a single eyeball at the front, the eyeball is said to meet eyes with anyone who looked directly at it, even with several people looking at it. The crown is imbued with the magical power of the Lich who once wore it. Any undead that look toward the wearer of the crown must make a DC 16 saving throw or be under the control of the person who wears the crown. If the undead has an INT of 4 or more, it makes this saving throw with advantage and at an INT of 12 or more, it can repeat it's saving throw at the end of each of it's turns. If a creature passes its saving throw against the Crown, it is immune to the effect for 1 hour.

"Lesser undead bow at the sight of the Crown of Bones for the essence of their master still lingers within it's marrow."

2. Crown of Flesh
This crown appears like a ring of stiff, rotting flesh with sharp nails and claws sticking out the top like spikes. Whomever wears the crown feels the flesh adjust itself around their head to make a perfect fit. The wearer of the crown feels an odd, foreign energy fill their body. The first time a person puts on the crown, the must make a DC 12 Constitution saving throw. On a failure, they take 3d10 necrotic damage and the crown slides off their head, falling to the ground. On a successful save, the user takes no damage and gain the following benefits:

>The wearer has immunity to necrotic damage.
>At the start of the wearer's turn, if their hit points is less than their CON modifier+their character level, they restore just enough hit points to reach that threshold. You cannot use this feature if you've taken fire damage or radiant damage within the last minute.
>You have vulnerability to radiant damage.

cont.

What do you guys plan out before DMing a campaign, if anything?

Do you focus on geography? World building? Plot hooks? Is there anything you don't plan and wing later?

I'm playing in a campaign at the moment but want to DM when it ends (partly to show my DM that players shouldn't have to try to beat the DM to have fun) and I console myself with adding tidbits here and there. Not for railroading purposes, just to add piles and piles of plothooks and puzzles and the like.

Just wondering what it might be worthwhile adding in addition. Statblocks?

>>52071693
>do the macguffins have to have powers on their own or do they have to have to have some combined effect?

It don't matter

Does anyone have some level one character sheets for me? I wan to run a combat encounter by myself in preparation for DMing for the first time and I want to use characters I don't know how to play.

Can I get a quick rundown on what makes D&D 5e stand out from other systems and how good combat is?
I've heard that in the lower levels, player characters die super fast

>>52071562

Knights of Solamnia were almost certainly in line with Devotion & Crown.

>>52071632
>The original, AD&D knights actually had normal fighters, paladins and 1e Cavaliers.

Nah, they were their own subclasses.

White and black mages definitely had distinction (abjuration and necromancy), can't really remember what the deal was with the red ones.

>>52071555
Childhood Destruction Hentai, Big Red Riding Hood and the Little Wolf.

>>52071807
It's not as caster-heavy as previous editions. Combat-wise, it's fairly balanced, giving players different options for tackling enemies without having to resort to tried-and-tested mechanics.

Its main draw over other systems is that because it's fairly basic it's not too hard to homebrew bits and pieces - or that it's simple enough to pick up for someone new to the system.

Players don't die to any great extent more than anywhere else, as long as they're not stupid and murderhoboy.

>>52071693
(btw if any of these are too powerful for your party you can nerf them or simply make them neat but useless baubles until they collect all 4 or some shit)

3. Crown of Death
The crown looks like a lower jaw made out of a black metal. Red gems decorate the headpiece, with an especially large one in the front. Whenever the crown is worn, the wearer hears quiet, hushed whispers in their head, telling them to kill. As a bonus action, the wearer can unleash the crown's necrotic power. The wearer takes 5 necrotic damage whenever the crown is activated and at the start of each turn while it's still activated. As an action on each of your turns, you can fire a bolt of pure necrotic energy toward a creature within 60 ft. That creature must make a Dexterity saving throw (DC 19). On a failure, the target takes 6d6+10 necrotic damage, or half as much on a successful one. If this attack kills the creature, the wearer of the crown gains 10 temporary hitpoints. The necrotic power lasts for 1 minute. The crown can't be reactivated until a good-aligned creature's blood is spilled onto the crown at midnight. It must be a different creature's blood each time. Using the same creature's blood again angers the dark energies hidden within the crown. Every creature within 30 ft of the crown must make a DC 19 dexterity saving throw, taking 3d6 necrotic damage on a failed save and half as much on a successful one.

>>52071807
>what makes D&D 5e stand out from other systems and how good combat is?

the main thing is that it works really well with mismatched CRs and you can pit stronger and weaker combatants together comfortably without the math shitting itself, and it has a full nine level spell progression like in older editions but HP is the main way of disabling foes like in 4e

>>52071808
But the Knights were just that, knights, they were fighters, they didn't have divine magic or lay on hands

>>52071807
1st-3rd levels yeah, if they have shit plans and or shit rolls.

>>52071824
They're 5th level they can suck it up or they can die

>>52071807

Combat is fast
Rules are relatively simple
Fairly balanced in the core book, especially compared to older D&D editions. Only a few sinker options.
Easy for new players to pick up
Most players don't end up feeling left out as long as you have a competent DM

>>52071836
>But the Knights were just that, knights, they were fighters, they didn't have divine magic or lay on hands

What? No, what's up with this revisionist bullshit? They were magic paladin types, you would start off with the more mundane Knights of the Crown and upgrade to the spellcasting Knights of the Sword. You could upgrade to the Knights of the Rose later, but I have no idea what their thing was in 1e.

What's a good CN creature that could, hypothetically, hitch a ride with some Slaad through a bend in the planes?

If my players wanna kill eachother should I just let them? I don't really give a shit but it's probably gonna piss someone off irl. True neutral rogue is trying to turn the group against the lawful good paladin which has the group split in half. What do?

>>52071891
I'd just let it happen, but this shit happens for two reasons imo.

1. The DM didn't set up a clear hierarchy of who's in charge and reasons for the PCs to obey a party leader.
2. There aren't clear consequences for imploding into internecine conflict.

>yes, #1 is gonna piss people off here

>>52071789
wasd20 /// search on youtube

>>52071824
4. Crown of Undeath
The Crown of Undeath is made of an unknown material, white as bone with black runes etched into it. As the user puts on the crown, a faint ringing can be heard in their ears, which finally ceases once the crown is firmly upon their head. While wearing the crown, you gain the following benefits:

>You are considered undead while wearing the crown.
>You gain resistance to necrotic, cold, and poison damage. You also are immune to the charmed, exhaustion, paralyzed, and poisoned conditions.

Your appearance also changes to be more undeathly. Your skin may become incredibly pale, look rotted, or you may suddenly age dramatically. The changes are reverted when you take off the crown.

In addition, all undead creatures within 30, including the wearer, have advantage on all saving throws, gain a +2 bonus to AC, deal 2d8 extra necrotic damage whenever they hit with a melee attack, and their hit point maximum increases by 10.

>>52071891
Don't force them not to - any time you remove player agency is you being a poor DM.

However, you should give them significant reasons not to turn on each other. Present them with a problem which requires both paladin and rogue to solve so they have to live in a stalemate.

>>52071909
Nice, though is there a particular reason to not give plain immunity to poison damage? Seems like you may as well.

>>52071909
Thanks. I'm really digging these

>>52071920
I guess you're right. I'm just sort of making these up on the fly.
>>52071922
Thanks! Was just kinda bored and decided to help an anon out.

>>52071900
>>52071917
Oh they have a hierarchy and the paladin is the only one who's not autistic as fuck, making him the leader. I told the rogue he'll probably end up dead and quite possibly make the campaign undoable if he goes through with it but he wants to take his chances.

>>52071934
Yeah but that's you as the DM talking. I'm suggesting something more immediately practicable - like the paladin being the only one able to wield a blade that can kill the BBEG or something.

>>52071941
Huh, I like the idea I'll give it a shot thanks.

>>52071950
Maybe nick the Grey Wardens idea from Dragon Age - only a Grey Warden can kill the Archdemon permanently, but it kills the Warden in the process.

Gives the rogue a reason to let the paladin live, 'cause he knows he both needs him and that the paladin will die taking the BBEG down, and fits into any standard LG Paladin anyway.

Plus amps up the level of grim-epic questing.

Is there any spell or other default process for making an atmosphere breathable?

>>52071853
My only experience with Dragonlance was the books, and I dont ever recall Strum doing anything paladiny except for his code of morals

hey everyone, just wanted to do a little survey,
What's your favorite 5e adventure so far? and why? what do you like/dislike about it as both a gm and player and what kind of things do you wanna see more of in future releases? keen to hear all thoughts

http://www.strawpoll.me/12485925

>>52071994
>PotA
Pretty good and easy to dm. Gets confusing towards the end and could've used a bit more clarity.
>Hoard of the Dragon Queen
Actual garbage. Poorly written, confusing, and a pointless shit story
>Storm King's Thunder
Best so far. Easy to understand. Compelling story. Lots of fucking around in the open world before actually doing anything productive which is always fun.

>>52071983
Ah ok. Suffice to say, they seem to be cavaliers with weaker stat prereqs, 2d10 starting hit dice, and a level cap like monks.

Many knights would probably go straight on through to the more prestigious Rose order without ever getting any interesting spells, but yeah they're their own class.

>>52072024
im running SKT at the moment and i just got to chapter 3 with my group and i have no idea how to run it. they give you 100+ locations but how do I actually implement them? chapter 2 ends with the party getting like 4 or 5 missions, so do i run the encounters while my PCS are on the way to do the chapter 2 missions?
my only other experience GMing was with rise of the runelords and that was hell linear but i liked it for that.
any advice??

>>52072024
>Hoard of the Dragon Queen
This was really disappointing, made all the more baffling by Wolfgang and Kobold Press' pedigree. Guess they too are a spawn of nepotism and not actual talent.

>>52072051
So how I did it was let them run around doing quests and going wherever it takes them while fighting monsters and finding a few magic items along the way. You can do this for like 5 sessions atleast. Once they start getting bored start pushing them north until they get to whatever town they encounter Harshsnag in and that will take them to the main quest.

Alteration: Red only.
Abjuration: White only.
Conjuration/Summoning: Red, white may use conjuration, black may use summoning.
Divination: All.
Enchantment/Charm: White and black.
Evocation/Invocation: White and red.
Illusion/Phantasm: Red and Black.
Necromancy: Black, of course.

So loosely speaking, I'd say -- white would typically map to Abjurer, black to Necromancer, and red to Transmuter.

>>52071891
Let them if it's because of IC motivations, stop them if it's OOC drama messing with the game.

one of my friends is about to DM a game, and i can finally play for the first time

I want to play a low combat utility guy, a detective maybe. I want all the skills

should i roll a rogue or a bard ? why ? how ?

tell me some neat tricks i can do with both pls

>>52072197
Rogue Inquisitive with Investigator background
Variant Human with Skilled feat

>>52072218
inquisitive is UA ? i meant to say, core books only :\

>>52072226
Mastermind, then.

>>52072197
>>52072226
Are you french? Also I'd play a Thief

Has anyone got a source for "Complete Adventures of M.T. Black Vol. I" from dmsguild?

>>52072197
You should be a Diviner wizard, pick Investigation as one of your class skills

>>52072232
no im slovak, the reason for Core books only is all my friends are new-ish to dnd, involving UA would just make their heads spin

>>52072251
Huh I thought the French were the only people who put spaces before question marks. Thief's honestly one of the funnest most classically rogue and skillmonkey types.

>>52072268
> spaces before question marks
sorry, bad habit.. i know

but bard gets +prof bonus to all skills :( yet again not many useful class abilities

>>52072290
Really comes down to if you'd want to be a caster or a martial. Thieves get less versatility but still a ton, even better at focused skills, Sneak Attack which everyone loves and that cool "Who needs magic" vibe. Bard's are like a rip off rogue who needed magic.

Also I'm a sucker for Climb Speeds.

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for my next campaign, i have hashed things out with my dm where my character will be oj simpson who was sent through a portal during court proceedings to the setting where the campaign will take place.

what class should i have him be?

>>52072308
Rogue/Fighter

>>52072308
grapple barbarogue

Is it possible to make a good thrown weapons character?

What class and feats should I be looking at? I kinda want a javelin focused character.

Hello fellows

Do anyone know of a good list of magic items, preferably custom made, with a lot of variety that isn't just "add more damage"?

I am looking for more inspiration for cool shit to throw at my players.

Is Harshnag the best bro?

>>52072530
Without a doubt a 10/10 bro

>>52072500
helm of teleportation

This item teleports to the head of a creature every morning in a 300 ft radius

>>52072557
>List
>One item
>Reading comprehension

>>52072577
have it be cursed to teleport the head of a creature every morning in a 300ft radius

>>52072595
Yeah I understood what you meant dude. But the post you were responding to was asking for _A LIST_ of magic items. Not ideas for single magic items.

>>52072640
ok

a solid gold eclair that can cast charm person if you trick someone into trying to take a bite out of it

a shrunken goblin head that depletes the owner of 1 gold for every day that they possess said shrunken head

bag of molding
like a bag of holding but smells terrible


there's your list

http://www.strawpoll.me/12483412

I'm actually quite happy about how this one's gone. Pretty even spread, lots of diversity in opinion.

Except Protection Domain. People really hate that one, huh?

>>52072530
>>52072541
How so?

>>52072500

Google "Magnificent Magical Items". There's some neat stuff in there, and some more of the same.

>>52071925
Tell them they don't need a DM to be jerks to each other, just roll initiative and the player whose character dies has to leave your gaming group permanently.
Then you leave the room and do something fun instead, like scrub a toilet.

>>52072663
>Geniunely not getting the message in 2016+1

>Necromantic Earring of Eternal Debt
An earring used by a BBEG to enslave an innocent kid to do his bidding.

Comes from a setting where revive spells is out, Wish can allow you to revive once, and then never again, anything else that revives, has a very steep penalty to it.

This was one of them. These can be attached to a dead body, which immediately comes back to life. The target can never make an action of any kind that would directly or indirectly harm the owner of the earring (can be more than 1, changed with a 1 hour ritual as long as no one is wearing the earring. Furthermore, the earring is immune to any attempts at dispelling the magic is contains.

The bearer must remain within 200 meters of 1 of the owners, and going outside will make them unable to use any spells, make them sick, and gradually makes them feel worse and worse, until they are just a bundle of suffering.

The owner can issue Commands as per the spell, but as a free talking action every turn, it has no restrictions, and doesn't allow saves. It works even if the bearer cannot hear the owner.

See, my players are psychopaths, so when they found it, 2 of them (Fighter and a Warlock) immediately attuned to it, because "might come in handy".

Turns out the poor Bard, who was super afraid of the earring, got killed during the fight against the necromancer who originally created the earring. The players found records of how the earring worked, and immediately put them on the Bard.

They have had a lot of fun with it so far. The Bard, not so much. Mostly tormenting her as much as possible, make that poor Lawful Good kill innocents because "lol" and generally make it terrible go be alive again.

>>52072969
>Magic items for evil characters
Reminds me of the Bag of Emptiness my party found. They lost a lot of stuff thinking it was a bag of holding.

Anything dropped into the bag disappears after it is closed. Once opened, it looks like an ordinary bag, just empty.

The thief in the party had ransacked many homes with this. When caught outside, usually because he likes the reaction, they check him out, find nothing, hold him for a day or two, and the let's him leave, because the stolen goods weren't there.

>>52072804
Thank you!

>>52072990
whats the point of stealing if you dont keep any of it?

>>52072663
Here are a few more

>sphere of slope
Can detect an incline on almost any surface when placed on it

>ring of invisibility
Becomes invisible whenever the user wears it

>Mug of unending piss
When you drink frim this mug any liquid you put in it becomes an unending supply of whichever liquid you are thinking of at the moment, it also constantly sends out telepathic pings consisting of just the word "piss"

>The legendary sword, folded over 10,000 times
An asian-looking longsword that bends whenever it strikes another sword

>Circlet of Intellectuallism
While wearing this circlet the user becomes convinced only his views are right and will argue for them regardless of how wrong they actually are

>The Dwarven Rower
A hammer that doubles the user's proficiency bonus when operating rowboats in caves

>Belt of Hill Giant's Stench
Any creature that begins its turn within 10 feet of the wearer must pass a constitution saving throw or move as far away as it can. It makes everyone within 10 feet hostile

>Bracers of Arcery
While wearing these braces the user becomes intuitively aware of when the current story arc's climax is reached

>Cloak of Elven Kindness
While wearing this cloak the user is considered to be charmed by every elf they see, and must treat them all with utmost kindness

>Black Razor
A straight razor with a blade as dark as midnight, while the user holds it they hear whispers in their mind in a friendly jive voice, asking about how the family is doing and generally making pleasant conversation

>Necklace of Fiery Balls
As an action the user may remove a pearl from the necklace and throw it at another creature. Make a ranged spell attack, if successful the creature's pubic hair turns red

>>52073162
>Post of Pedantry
Can provide mild amusement, but loses its effects after two lines. Regains 1 charge when Black Razor is mentioned.

>>52073088
Being a massive asshole.

>>52073244
I was just about to call him a faggot, and now I am just laughing.

Good job sir.

>>52070187
So did the wotc dnd team do a panel recently?

>>52073244
I was just trying to make a joke but I guess that's frowned upon around here

> People in West March campaign think knowledge cleric is one of the weakest domain

Why? Don't they enjoy infomation?

>>52073503
Not frowned upon. Just judged by harsh standards and subject to counter-jokes.

I'm trying to run a few games set on Kaladesh. Has anyone found or created a map of the plane? Google fails me, and if this work has been done before, I'd hate to waste time creating something that I'm sure would be inferior.

>>52073567
MtG's writers refuse to create maps for their planes or timelines for events, because it would mean they'd have to spend a lot of their time fact-checking to see if things make sense, rather than just focusing on the story.

So no, there's no official maps for Kaladesh.

>>52073567
http://mtg.gamepedia.com/Kaladesh_(plane)
http://mtg.gamepedia.com/Ghirapur
http://mtg.gamepedia.com/Lathnu
http://mtg.gamepedia.com/Peema
http://mtg.gamepedia.com/Vahd

That's all we know about Kaladesh's landscape. You'll need to invent lots of shit.

>>52070187
Favourite NPC was Zorbo, the drug addled drow apothecary. Stupid;y powerful, but too strung out on snorting ectoplasm to give a flying fuck about anything but his next score.

>>52073638
Would it have killed them to have even described slightly where these places might be? I've accepted the fact that the published material on the plane amounts to the description of one city on a literal fucking planet, but you can't even tell where the districts are supposed to be in the city.

>>52073774
Yes, it would have.

They have actually stated they're not interested in time-lines or maps because it would limit their creativity. It would mean that they'd have to explain how a character could get from Freejam to Embraal in less than an hour and they're not interested in imposing that sort of restraint on themselves.

So yeah, mapping is something that's totally up to you. Take those locations and try to put them in logical places on a city map.

>>52073841
Except that they actually describe approximate placements of some things, and give absolutely no hints on others. Obviously it didn't kill them. Lathnu is north. Eleven bridges is central.

Maps and timelines don't limit creativity. They help you organize what you've already said in your story.

>>52073922
They don't want to organize it. You make it sound like these worlds are beloved, precious things to them. They're not, they're throwaway themeparks for them to move on from and devote no less effort to than they have to.

They don't feel like they need maps for the minimal-effort design philosophy, so that don't include maps.

Just write down all of the features listed about Ghirapur and try to build a map from that.
>Three major rivers have a confluence somewhere in Ghirapur, where Bomat Port is located.
>There are multiple aetherhubs, distribution centers of aether that academic areas seem to be built around.
>Eleven Bridges is central and features eleven bridges that crisscross the Dukhara Canal. Also has a train station.
>Kujar is the wealthy and protected greenbelt of the city, a protected suburban area.

I'd personally look to a city like London for inspiration, as it's built around a large river and features a pretty massive green belt. The trouble is including three rivers of equal size that meet somewhere in the city, and a central canal system to boot. It sounds like a very complex and convoluted city, written by people who knew they'd never waste time mapping it. I don't envy your task.

>>52074091
Look up Pittsburgh, it has the confluence of the Ohio and two of its tributaries in the middle of the city.

Is it implausible for there to be slums in a city like Silverymoon? There is a police force, so there must still be some amount of crime.

>>52074174
Not bad but it needs canals.

>>52073922
How would that information actually improve the setting for the card game? Not at all so why waste time and effort on it. This is a game that commonly has 'Legendary' creatures with no backstory. If they had the time to care about mapping planes it would be better spent fluffing out the actual cards.

Is a Very Rare, Plot relevant magical item that allows magic users to cast 'Self' range spells on allies too powerful, too weak, or just meh?

>>52074265
Wouldn't say it is too powerful if it is meant to be powerful enough to be plot relevant. A lot of good buffs would still be limited by concentration after all.

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>>52070187
>Malazan Moon's Spawn.jpg

What the fuck is this? Is this actually from anything that has anything to do with D&D? That doesn't look half bad.

>>52072969
I dont see any clause about "preventing harm to yourself", so if I were that bard I'd just commit suicide and roll a new character. That or just leave the table as both you and your players sound insufferable to play with.

>>52074265
Very powerful

You could stack self ranged concentration buff if you have more than one caster

Cone spells originating from someone else.
Contingency on someone else.
Shield, misty step, blink, mirror image on the martials.

>>52074502
Would assume it requires attunement so not seeing how having more casters would help. Only one could throw his buff.

>>52074373
That's some really sexy art, got source?

>>52070560
I've been in one, it was pretty fun.

I was a paladin who decided the prince next in line to the throne was not worthy to be king and got employed as a servant to see who in the royal family is most worthy, then decided none of them were and tried to support the rebels (but accidentally captured one of their castles in the name of the king when we tried to sneak in a castle for diplomacy).
The cleric covertly poisoned imported cattle to make it look like a disease and then used his good standing with the prince to become the (highly corrupt) overseer of all livestock imports.
The ranger infiltrated a drug cartel then betrayed them and stole a boatload of pretty much cocaine.
The monk was the most normal and started doing whatever jobs gave gold (including mafia ones).
The bard just tried to gain clout in the parliament and tag along on jobs.

Unfortunately our DM started to have health issues and stopped before we could finish it.

Does anyone have any good tips for making LMoP a bit more interesting?

It's mostly the actual town of Phandalin that seems a bit like a bore.

>>52074091
It didn't take long to finish, honestly. I just can't draw worth a shit, and I respect my group enough to keep that in mind when I prepare games for them.

If I can steal a map, I steal a map.

What I ended up doing was just organizing the districts by function/criminal activity/capital and drawing crude circles to indicate how far I thought they should spread. I added three rivers and four railroads when I was done. It's going to work, but it definitely looks like trash.

>>52074682
Roaming intellect devourers

>>52074682

Cranium Rat in the basement

>>52074682
Sometimes a nice, sleepy town is nice to have.

>>52074373
>>52074575
I donno, maybe try searching the name of the picture?

>>52074468
The player actually loved it.

The character hated it. It was just the "happy cheerful never take a life" type, so suicide probably wouldn't even cross her mind. Not to mention the player actually finds it super funny.

Had a kidnapping that went completely hilariously, because she kept getting worse and worse, and the kidnappers were freaking out, no idea what was causing her so much agony.

They have also abused it a lot in terms of combat. She cannot be made to harm her allies, which is really good against anyone trying to force the party to damage each other, and where before, where she was reluctant to be too destructive, and held back a lot on her damage potential, she is now being forced to by the party.

It makes for some extremely good roleplaying, even for the Warlock guy who was never into roleplaying before, and just wanted to kill things and be edgy.

>>52070275
Drow undying warlock? Sounds like a reasonable character to me.

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>>52074575
No, sorry, I just picked it up somewhere and threw it into my Character Art folder.

What kind of disappointment will WotC bring to us in the form of next week UA?

>>52075834
Encounters Revisited.

>>52075834
Mystic becomes a Wizard archetype

>>52075834
UA: Crafting
Or a surprise new class which isn't mystic.

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>>52070187
I'm looking for a PDF that will help me make a higher level character. It had quests and things you could use as "backstory" to explain what your character did before whatever you are doing now. Maybe from DM's Guild, but I have no fucking idea what it was called. I'll throw up this unrelated thing written by Chris Perkins as a token of goodwill.

Anyone?

>>52075834
Rangers: revised: revised.

Anybody got any way to do cone spells in roll 20 easily? Is there any 53 degree triangle token I could use?

>>52075901
Actually seems plausible

I'm thinking of buying the actual books and get into dming. What are some things to do/get to prepare for dming via skype or discord?

How would I go about representing a character being grabbed by a giant and thrown overboard? Strength check by giant vs dex save?

Also, should freezing water (water near the Sea of Moving Ice) damage someone? If so, what kind of damage? I saw something online that said something to the effect of 2d6 per round in the water, but it was for 2nd edition.

>>52071808
>can't really remember what the deal was with the red ones
I think they focused on evocation.

>>52076544
Roll20 is pretty good as an interface and is excellent if you're trying to do one of the 5th edition modules.

The most important thing is that players need mics. Webcams are also good. Communication is key to online games. You want to establish ahead of time that in order for this to work, they can't be goofing around online while they're playing.

>>52071754
Before the game starts, I get a vague outline of how the entire campaign will go, loosely. Like the plot synopsis of a story, or even just the theme (island hopping, pest control, robbing pyramids, etc). After that, the planning is mostly on a per-session basis. First session, create a way for the PCs to all meet up based on their backstories and give them some plot hooks, and some content planned for each hook- random encounters on the way over to the dungeon involve picking out stat blocks, drawing a map of a small dungeon and populating it (or finding one) and the rest is improv. The quest giver is happy if the party did what they asked, grumpy if they didn't or did but screwed something else up, then get an idea of what the party wants to do next session then prepare for that.

>>52071836
>>52071853
>>52071983
>>52072049
Knights of the Crown seem to be straight up fighter's, Sword get divine spells, Rose adds turn undead.

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>>52075918
This is what you're looking for, I think. I never put it up on the DM's Guild since I don't think it would pass muster, since it explicitly mentions things like spelljammers and others stuff that isn't Guild-approved, and also is chock full of stolen art.

I'm very proud of it, personally, and hope it helps you even if it wasn't exactly what you were looking for.

>>52076724
Yes! This is exactly what I was looking for. You should be proud of it, it's very cool.

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>>52075922
If it includes an updated spell list, I wouldn't mind.

>>52075148
I don't disagree. I'm playing for almost all new players who are really big into GoT so I'm kind of hoping to dazzle them a bit and keep their interest.

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V. Human Paladin with PAM, is it worth dumping two of dex/wis/int to 8 tyo get chr from 14 to 16?

I'm having difficulty providing my characters with motivation to do things in Storm King's Thunder.

They completed the Bryn Shander portion and now they've been told that there's other interesting stuff or plot-relevant stuff going on elsewhere. But they don't really have a reason to go do any of this stuff.

>>52076545
1. A grab resolved as normal followed by a shove resolved as normal. Or, if the giant is big enough, treat the victim as an improvised weapon with a range of 20/60.

2. If you want to do it as cold damage, consult the DMG's guidelines for how much damage is moderate, serious, or deadly for the party's current level. Alternately, or in addition, make the victim roll a Con save or suffer a level of exhaustion, repeated every few minutes until he gets himself warm and dry.

>>52076937
Oath-dependant, but most of the time you'll want CHA at 20 by the end anyway.
You don't want a negative on DEX or WIS, though.
What other feats do you intend on getting?

>>52077035
See, this is why I'm going to have the entirety of Storm King's Thunder, when I run it, be actually a story being told decades later by the adventurers in a tavern to a bunch of newbie adventurers who are just starting out. The motivation is built right into it.

It's going to be fantastic. I'm probably going to wholesale steal SpyCraft 1.0's Action Dice system, wherein the party gets Action Dice...but so does the Dungeon Master.

>>52076937
Statistically and mechanically, yes. RP-wise, no.

>>52077083
But dumping ''less-important'' (notice quotations) stats to bump what's generally regarded as more vital for you to do your job has its niche RP-wise, too.

On a Paladin, it could signify being a simpleton with poor judgement, or a zealot with a one-track mind.

>Scourge Aasimar is an Undying Light Warlock
>Undying Light Warlocks have the Radiant Soul feature, adds CHA mod damage whenever you deal radiant damage
>Scourge Aasimar get a feature at 3rd level that lets you deal extra radiant damage to a spell or attack while in your transformative state

So while you're in this state with this set-up with a level 3 aasimar with 14 STR 16 CHA, you can attack with an axe and do 1d8+2+3+3 damage?
And say if you had Agonizing Blast(because why wouldn't you if you were a warlock) you could do 1d10+3+3+3? Pardon the possibly redundant bonuses, I'm just trying to break it down properly.

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>>52077061

I'm planning on picking up resilient to get my con from 13 to 14 and to help me with those concentration checks. I'm likely not going to pick up sentinel despite the synergy as I don't think I'd be able to take advantage of it all that much.

I wanted to keep my charisma at 12 to help me with insight and perception but that would mean having to drop dex/int from 10 to 8.

So my players are willing to play their second characters in our Storm King's Thunder run along with their primary ones. I am all for it and they are pretty on point in combat so it won't take too long. Thing is I feel that having 8 characters in one spot will be too busy so I was thinking the characters split so we still have 4 party feel. Also this way they can cover more ground cause really, I am willing to run the SKT content cause they look so damn neat to run.

Been thinking of letting their new set of characters be the ones to do Nightstone chapter (my players haven't done it since they did Lost Mines which got them to Level 5 which brought then to chapter 2) in some flashback which leads to these new characters meet in their current location. That way they can play chapter 1 and cover some ground in places their first characters didn't.

What do you think? It's definitely gonna bloat sessions due to time spending on two parties esp when they decide to slit them to cover ground but I think this might be interesting for them.

>>52077234
Think of it this way: Once you reach level 6 for Aura of Protection, and assuming you picked up Resilient (CON), with a CHA modifier of +3 it'll be nigh-impossible to fail a base DC 10 concentration check (10%~ chance, further lowered if under Bless). CHA is a good fucking choice, and Resilient feeds excellently into the Paladin's strengths.

Now I'm just wondering what you're using for stats. Array? Point-buy? Because if you can help it, you sould just dump INT as hard as you can and keep WIS/DEX at 12/10 each, your choice.

>>52076724
Saving this as a DMin resource.

>>52077164
Use to be paladins required high scores in str, con, wis, and cha (like 17). I still think of them as having good scores in all of those, but I suppose it's not necessarily the case.
Regardless, I view min-maxing as bad rp, because most people aren't that extremely specialized (biologically speaking).

first time playing monk. how do I not fuck this up?
Open Hand btw

>>52077331

I forgot to assign my racial bonuses properly. I can actually hit 16 chr/str, 13 con and 10 in everything but int which is 8.

I may switch the 8 to dex though and play it off as shellshock/ptsd induced shaky hands and such; I'm not a big fan of playing illiterate retards despite being one.

>>52075922
I wouldn't mind a revised revised ranger that added a (weaker) pet at level 1 like druids get wildshape no matter the spec, made the class less front-loaded, and possibly gave them back wilderness-based expertise.

>>52077351
Biologly doesnt have a ton to do with, its more likely nurture than nature.
Someone who is naturaly strong and with a strong force of will probably would gravitate towards paladining, and probably wouldnt focus on being perceptive/smart/agile. Like ivan drago or irl arnold swaznegger. Their both super strong and willful, but the lowered scores are more from neglect than biology.
Also adventurers arent normal people, its okay for them to be outliers.

>>52077390
Always remember to impose those effects from open hand. Remember that stripping reactions without a save is a godsend if there are few strong enemies rather than a horde.

Use the environment to your advantage while using that 10ft push feature, and if there are multiple martials near you, knock the opponent prone. Remember that prone imposes disadvantage to ranged attacks.

That's pretty much it. Don't focus on trying to do damage, focus on helping other people make more damage. Stun enemies often once you can.

>>52077049
Thanks anon!

>>52077390
Take mobile if starting vhuman. Max dex. max wis. Use your mobility and dont try to be a frontliner. At later levels you get to be a stunbot, which isnt a bad thing, itll make your rogue and paladin love you

>>52077179
For the record, this is for ruling.

>>52077393
8 isnt illiterate or retarded, just be a slacker jock cause school is for nerds.

I'm running 5th ed for the first time, we've played every previous edition and are finally trying out 5th, how accurate is the encounter threat calculators in the books?

What levels does it break down at?

I should be able to get a feel for it after a few levels, but I don't want levels 1-3 being a complete push over with spikes of death.

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>>52077393
8 int isn't an illiterate retard, especially if you've got massive charisma. You're still very strong in spirit and presence, but with a bad memory for fine details and trivia. A fine frontline leader, with the right vizier/strategist.

>>52077441
>Biologly doesnt have a ton to do with, its more likely nurture than nature.
Not when it comes to constitution. Strength can be developed but is still largely genetic. The mental stats are probably mostly nurture but there's still a biological component to them.
>Someone who is naturaly strong and with a strong force of will probably would gravitate towards paladining, and probably wouldnt focus on being perceptive/smart/agile.
No, someone who wants to be a knight errant will absolutely work on being agile, because combat (IRL) requires both. And they're going to want to be perceptive, because they spend a lot of time in the wilderness.
If they want to be really good at what they do, they'll also want to have good judgment, but I concede that many wouldn't (it's a basic trope of lawful stupid paladinary).
>Also adventurers arent normal people, its okay for them to be outliers.
You're right, adventurers are exceptional and tend to have across-the-board better stats than normal people. They can have a weakness or two, but two scores of 8 or lower is normal-person-tier.
Obviously exceptions exist and random chance is involved. I guess I just don't like the idea of a paladin who isn't exceptional but instead all muscle and conviction.

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>>52077390
This >>52077448 >>52077466 is some OK advice, but they're just telling you the mechanics of things, not how to style on fools and have fun.

Make sure you're backflipping at every possible opportunity.
If there's an enemy against a wall that you want to punch, don't just walk up to him, make sure you're running along the wall.
If your enemy is only ten feet away, consider running upstairs and leaping off the balcony to flying dragon kick that idiot in the face.
If you've got Mobile or have otherwise denied your enemies a means to attack, don't just move from one target to the next, but literally pinball yourself through the air off your foes to the next target.
Run up walls, dance along the ceiling, and flutterkick your way down to your enemies. Land gracefully without damage on their heads, then stomp them into the ground.
Always remember that when you want to, you weigh five pounds and have the feet and hands of a gecko.

Having 8 int seems scary, mechanically. I don't want my character's brain sucked out.

>>52077245
Could be cool, but a whole mess of work for you and the PCs.

I might have the B team split off, do some neat content, then have them fight the next big bad and die horribly, so the PCs are invested and scared of the next big bad.

>>52077441
By Ivan Drago, do you mean the guy from Rocky? Or his actor, Dolph Lundgren? The guy who has a masters degree in chemical engineering and received a scholarship to MIT?

Schwarzenegger, meanwhile, has a degree in business and economics and had been a self-made millionaire for years due to smart business decisions before he landed his first big movie role in Conan the Barbarian. And oh yeah, he was governor of California and as far as I'm aware is one of the better ones the 7th largest economy in the world has ever had.

Bad examples of "not focusing on their smarts", is what I'm getting at.

>>52077584
A knight errant is a very straight 14s kind of character.

>>52077584
That comes from the breakdown in str/dex abstratction. The agility aspect might be better represented as knowing how to use armor and shield to protect himself but slow on jumping out of the way of a dragon's fire breath. Perception could be more of the perception skill and lower wisdom and in less sherlock holmes esqe, also relieing more on scouts than on his own perception.
But do whatever you want mate

>>52077351
That was also when they were an elite class compared to fighters, and most of the generic NPCs in the MM would probably be fighters.

Not sure if this is the place to ask, but I need information on town building for a West Marches game.

My plan is to have the PCs be part of a new colony in an untamed land, and over time they start making a name for themselves as local heroes. However, I thought it'd also be cool if the town grew alongside them. Like maybe early on it could be little more than a camp, and over time the colonists build permanent structures, attract more settlers, and add more shit to the town.

Obviously this won't be the focus of the game, but I think it'd be more interesting than a static town that just functions as a quest hub. Maybe the PCs can even become leaders and have a say in how the town grows if they feel so inclined.

What I need is information, though. How did real medieval colonies grow? What are the first things they'd build, and what kinds of things wouldn't come until much later?

>>52077393
What >>52077493 and >>52077535 said, mostly: thing is, the penalty isn't pronounced enough to where it would separate you cleanly from able-minded, functional people.

I just play my low-level Paladunce as scatter-brained, on top of being somewhat clumsy and it seems to get the point across.
You also have skill proficiencies to play with, especially the more mentally-focused ones like Insight or Perception: sometimes people forget the INT/WIS divide is there for a reason.
That said, the shellshock shaky hands idea is pretty neat.

>>52076686

I'm just talking Dragonlance Adventures for 1e.

>>52077803
The char not the actor for ivan.
I guess arnold was a bad example tho

>>52077518
Aim for easier encounters than harder encounters especially for levels 1-3. A few bad dice rolls can spell TPK even with a couple goblins.

Those levels are more about roleplay and learning basic mechanics anyway. You don't really need to be challenging players too much at that point anyway.

CR is a very rough estimate in these books and the threat of a creature will vary wildly, especially if you play the creatures optimally as a DM.

I believe the classic example is playing a group of 4 goblins ambushing a band of adventurers at a campfire and they actually use their darkvision and bonus actions to stay hidden while attacking from the dark.

>>52077035
Reason? Like, playing D&D is not enough of a reason?

>>52077179
That does sound right, rules-as-written.

>>52077835
According to 2e, he needs a couple 17s as well. :)

>>52077864
>slow on jumping out of the way of a dragon's fire breath
That doesn't strike you as a problem for a knight errant?

>>52077868
Partially true. The generic NPCs wouldn't even be fighters, because ANY class was considered exceptional, not just the rare/elite classes.

>>52073504

They're right you know, a character based off asking the DM questions is really abhorrent especially since most of the int based skills are already this.

>>52077901
Thanks.

Any advice on magic item distribution rate? I'm used to pathfinder with the welcome to third level have a cloak of resistance philosophy.

>>52077933
>The generic NPCs wouldn't even be fighters

They definitely would be.

> because ANY class was considered exceptional, not just the rare/elite classes.

Eh. Perhaps guards, tribal warriors, and bandits (1 HD critters like orcs, guards, etc. seem to become 2d8 things in 5e, and 2d8 things like gnolls and ghouls become 5d8) would be level 0.
Anything multi HD remotely combat related is going to definitely be a fighter. Level 0 types are marginally more common, but, for example, every city watch squad is going to have a mildly leveled fighter in it and once the PCs get a lot of mercenaries they're going to have a decent sprinkling of fighters too.

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Been picking up the books and running a game? Anything a scrub needs to know before running beyond read the rules?

>>52077982
Again it will depend a bit on your preference.
Myself I try to give out a few significant magical items per tier, with less significant magical items (and magical consumables) given more liberally.

By tier I'm referencing the "adventuring tiers" detailed in the DMG, I believe.

Don't be afraid to give out magical items, but be careful about +1 items, especially those that increase AC. Since 5e is built around the concept of bounded accuracy. You'll be able to make a smart choice based on your adventuring party.

My personal preference is to also give out magic items if they make sense. Say you're fighting a pyromancer? Perhaps he has a cloak of flame resistance, because he doesn't want to set himself on fire. Things like that.

You can run a game with lots of magical items if you like. My biggest advice is try not to overshadow class abilities with what you give out though.

>>52078028
nah. Just prioritize fun and you can't really fuck it up.
But make sure you know what "fun" means to everyone at the table. Have a session zero to determine that.

>>52078093
Okay.

Back to 2nd ed treasure it is.

Thanks for the ac tip

>>52078026
>Level 0 types are marginally more common
From the book: "The great mass of humanity, elf-kind, the dwarven clans, and halflings, are '0-level' (zero-level) characters."

>Monsters
When the MM pages specifically mention that "for every x [monster type] there is y [class type]," it leads me to believe most of them don't have a class - they're just what they are. Also, see next point about fighters.

>every city watch squad is going to have a mildly leveled fighter... mercenaries going to have a decent sprinkling of fighters
From the book: "while there is little difference in ability between the typical foot soldier and a 1st-level fighter... it's rare enough to find 1,000 or so 2nd-level fighters in a single unit. Such units... may be the shock troops of an assault, a special bodyguard, or the reserve of an army held back for pursuit."

The TL;DR of it is that people with classes definitely exist, but are almost always exceptional and set apart. The average mercenary squad isn't going to have a decent sprinkling of fighters, unless they're the high-paid commandos. Otherwise they could find better work elsewhere.
City watches are specifically discussed; fighters can come from their numbers, and are often promoted due to their excellence. A 1st-level fighter is exceptional enough to "become a corporal or a sergeant." Depending on your definition of "mildly leveled," most watch units do not have mildly-leveled fighters. A large city probably would, though; it's likely he'd be in charge.

>>52077906
Well, it's a sandbox style game. So you have to give the players some reason to go places and get involved.

Basically I'm having a difficult time giving my players' characters a reason to be involved in the plot other than "you guys will get gold for doing this."

>>52078026
>>52077933
And of course, to go back to the first iteration of the paladin in Greyhawk (which didn't step on the cleric's toes afaik), they really were just plain better fighters, and in OD&D I'm pretty sure normal people really were just plain old fighting men.

>>52077390
Max Dex and Wis.
Use Ki sparingly on stunning strike.
Stay mobile.

You are there to murderfuck spellcasters and assisst the frontliners by knocking enemies around.

>>52078219


>The great mass

The great mass of people aren't mercenaries, guards, etc. either.

>The average mercenary squad isn't going to have a decent sprinkling of fighters

Don't know how big a "squad" is but the book is pretty cleared at how many leveled 1-5 types a group of mercenaries will have.

>From the book: "while there is little difference in ability between the typical foot soldier and a 1st-level fighter...

Yep.

>it's rare enough to find 1,000 or so 2nd-level fighters in a single unit.

Yep.

>Otherwise they could find better work elsewhere.

I don't know why one would assume that they aren't already at a place of "better work."

>A 1st-level fighter is exceptional enough to "become a corporal or a sergeant."

Right. A corporal or sergeant mercenary or whatever is likewise going to probably be level 1+ (not that I agree with social rank = level but whatever).

>>52078263
My DM came up with a lot of custom background options that were meant to give the characters impetus for A) going to the region in the first place and B) following this plot point along.

There were ten of them, and the party chose:
>you were the first mate on a merchant ship that got buttfucked by a weird squid-looking ship and some pirates set everything on fire with weird magic. you're out to find out what the hell happened and avenge your crew
Our Rogue grabbed this one, but we hadn't quite gotten around to investigating his stuff in earnest. We picked up a few clues, though, and I'm pretty sure it's Aboleth Stuff.
>you're best bros with a sweet dwarven historian and writer who asked you to come over and hear about his latest world-shattering discovery
I took this one. He had a home in Nightstone where we were scheduled to meet (and at least one other PC was there to meet him as well, on a request from their faction), but he was missing. After killing the goblins, orcs, and what I think were Zhentarim, we were on our way out when the Cult of the Dragon showed up with Sweet Dwarf in tow and demanded a chest from his house that we didn't find. A lot of the rest of the adventure was trying to track this guy down, and we eventually recaptured him from a Cult airship at the Eye of the All-Father after the fight with dragonbitch.
>you have a mysterious mage benefactor who occasionally provides you with knowledge, supplies, and points you in the direction of evil threats
Our Wizard/Mystery Novelist took this. Pretty sure it's the Lich from PotA, Renwick Caradoon. Gave us some Pearls of Power (which required the Mage and our Cleric to climb up the tallest building in Waterdeep during a storm and perform a ritual to get zapped by lightning) and a cryptic piece of paper which we figured out was the key configuration to a vault of ioun stones out by Mirabar. Ioun stones were actually a big part of the revised plot.

>>52077390

Stunning Strike is broken as fuck - save the majority of your ki to wreck the biggest things with it. Almost nothing is immune to being stunned in the game. And your ki comes back on short rests, so you can be fairly liberal with it (I usually use it in bursts).

You can knock people over cliffs using your flurry special. Knocking them prone is often difficult, but quite useful. Be sure to knock them prone after stunning someone (they automatically fail).

DEX, then WIS are your most important stats. The only feat you should ever even consider taking, IMO, is mobility as it is fucking awesome on a monk.

>>52078374
>social rank = level
That wasn't my point (and the book discusses this as well); I'm saying that people with classes are rare enough, even within fighting units, that they are almost always recognized as elites.

HOWEVER, upon further perusal of the MM, it seems that small mercenary squads are, indeed, often formed of (or contain) low-level fighters. So I concede that point.

>>52078263
Their motivation should have been part of character creation or the story exposition. Participating in the adventure is assumed to be in the interest of all the characters, in a slightly meta-gamey kind of way (if your character doesn't want to go on this adventure, why did you create her for this adventure?)

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>>52071247
Whoa, I really like this idea! Sounds really neat actually, a sort of pocket universe that's generally been cut off from interdimensional shenanigans, aberrations and shit.

The sentients races have managed to do eke out a living on their own, what with even small villages or (in some cases) families having their own pic related-gods that help them out to the best of their limited abilities.
Some lucky fuckers end up with an old real hero keeping watch over them, large settlements and cities probably have one or two of these, if not more?
(The relationship might be symbioic in some way? Spirits that cling on to the World gain "nourishment" from the remembrance and reverance they recieve from their flock? The souls of people that doesn't make an impact on the world goes back into some ambient "life force" that keeps the world going perhaps?)

But some strange and incredibly powerful outsider beings, dwarfing even dragons (if there are any?), suddenly making an entrance into this world will fuck. Shit. Up!
The greedy, reckless or simply insane will sell their own lives and world to these alien powers, and gain hitherto unseen powers from doing so. The intruders beings will want to claim and ravage an easily dominated world, to make due for being killed in their native planes. They're kinda like if a god became a grumpy lich?

People of this will have to make plans, bury old feuds and start working together, and fully utilize every "guardian spirit" available, to push back these intruder "gods" back!
(They need a menacing name! The concept of gods kinda doesn't exist in this world, these beings are just unfathomable avatars of doom, Sauron-style.)

I'm getting a kind of Darkest Dungeon, with lots more high fantasy, -vibe from this?

>>52078458
>you're friends with Queen Neri of the Storm Giants, and you're travelling to meet her to ask her what the hell this weird storm-in-a-glass-bubble is that you found
Cleric grabbed this one. Don't know what it's about yet.
>you're super arrogant, and occasionally demonstrate incredible bouts of strength that you can't explain. lately you've started feeling unsure of your abilities, and the savage frontier seems to be calling you
Our Ranger grabbed this, but we never learned what it was about until much later because we sacked his dumb ass after he pissed the entire party off repeatedly. We replaced him with a Warlock (same player) and last saw the Ranger being thrown in a Neverwinter jail for crimes against various nobles (impersonating them, being a douche).

Come to find out much later that THE FUCKING DICK RANGER was the son of King Hekaton and the true heir to the throne. Dragonbitch contacted some entity (Far Realm? Elder God?) and did some crazy ritual to erase all knowledge of him from existence, and also polymorphed him into a human. Since everyone forgot who this guy was, but he's still in line for the throne, the Ordning is broken because the succession can't be completed properly and none of the three daughters are valid while this guy is still around. Those "bursts of strength" were his Giant magic and strength coming to the fore, and he was a dick because he only partially remembered he's supposed to be nobility but is trapped in the body of a fucking no one.

We couldn't even learn any of this until we jacked an ioun stone from Dragonbitch, the power of which was the only thing that could allow someone to remember what the contracted entity had wiped from existence. So she kidnapped Sweet Dwarf, whose archeological digs found the ioun stone and also turned up the information about Hekaton's son being erased from existence. Still no idea how the merchant ship fits in, or the storm orb.

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A friend is joining our party with a Beast Conclave Ranger. He's picking a Flying Snake as his pet. He's starting at lv. 6.
Regarding the Bite attack of the snake, do you think it's a good idea to replace the 1 base damage for the snake's DEX modifier?
I was thinking of this because the snake does not increase his damage output from Ability Score Increases, but only from the Ranger's proficiency bonus increases.

I don't know anywhere else I could ask this, but I'm running out of places I could ask that aren't /tg/. So I'm hoping the collective history and knowledge people have, I can fill out my roster.

I'm hunting for unique, singular monsters that aren't part of any power scheme or hierarchy. They also can't be minions or servants of some bigger creature that IS part of a power scheme or hierarchy. Looking at 3.5, the Terrasque would qualify, but Aspect of [X] or even specific Demon Lords wouldn't qualify. They also can't be unique in the sense that they have a couple of templates slapped on. Its one thing to fight a Titanic Paragon Creature of Legend Rhino, than it is to fight THE Terrasque. So far I've got Illurien, Terrasque, Kezef, Adamantine Horror. Pulling from literally every edition there is.

>>52078612
Unless that snake is a Monk, it can't finesse with unarmed attacks.

Its damage comes from the poison that follows. Let that scale off the Ranger's Wis instead.

>>52078624
Did you checked out the Tome of Beasts?

>>52078632
It's clearly already finesse, hence the +6 to hit, instead of -1.

>>52078635
Avoiding making creatures myself, and third party publishers would be in the same vein.

>>52078632
Ok, that seems like a nice way to house rule it. We could say that the ranger trained him to inject poison in better ways, so it's his wisdom to teach the snake.

The damage would be:
X + 3 + 3d4
Being X the Ranger's WIS modifier.

This allows for the snake to increase DEX so it has more AC and hit with the pet's ASI and increasing the damage with wisdom ASIs of the Ranger,, right?

>>52078624
If you want to get really technical, the Tarrasque was unleashed on the prime material by elemental princes, so it's every bit as "part of a hierarchy" as any random demon.

That said, you can declare any monster to be unique. The hydra of Greek mythology was one-of-a-kind, as were Scylla and Charybdis and Pegasus and various other monsters. Just because D&D says something is a species doesn't mean it can't be a one-of-a-kind freak accident in your setting.

>>52078686
Well, the monsters in that book are not that bad. Give them a look.

>>52078624
Do they have to be from D&D? Because you can just throw Monster Hunter enemies in there.
https://youtu.be/MnpNGzNoOY0?t=101

At the end of last session my players opened a book that was blank except for a guest list on the inside of the front cover.
They wrote down their names and the book sucked them inside. They appeared near a fancy manor at night, sound of music and laughter coming from within the manor. That's where we ended.
The book was made by a slightly deranged mage who stored some valuable information withing the book but only those worthy would be able to get it.
I need some fun activities for the players to participate in the mage's party that also test their strength physically and mentally. Please help, next game in on friday.
The player party consists of a paladin, ranger, cleric, bard and a rogue. It would be great to have something tailored to each of their strengths.
The paladin is combat oriented, no social skills and zero patience. Ranger is a halfling hunter, a grumpy loner who hates fancy parties and prefers the peace and quiet of forests.
The cleric is an evil priestess of Lolth and and has an insatiable hunger for knowledge. Bard is a support bitch with no character traits.
Rogue is a swashbuckler with a lot of social oriented skills and prefers partying to fighting.

>>52078219
FWIW a lot of old settings and published adventures had a tendency to not really give a shit and just treaded everyone as having low pc levels.

>>52078836
C'mon you know it's gotta be a murder mystery that turns into ghost hunting. It's the only way.

>>52078836
...sounds you have a group allergic to roleplaying?

Have a manticore or whatever bash through the gala room windows during the evening ball dance, I dunno what else would engage your players.

>>52078986
Yup, in OD&D for example there didn't seem to be a concept of 0 level types, just 1st level fighting men.

Personally I've never understood the need for PCs to be the ebin, the rare, the few, the elite in terms of levels AND stats AND class. Stats, class, or levels will do just fine. I'd go with level.

So I rolled a gnome rouge cause my last character died. I dont really have a gnome accent to use any adive?

>>52079524
Leprechaun voice.

Is the BBEG's prisoner being a secret heir to a lost kingdom too cliche?

How would I go about making his lineage provable?

>>52079744
Campy, but workable. All classic fantasy is kitsch af

There's always some old forgotten geezer in a dusty archive keeping tabs on whomever the nobility bones, going centuries back.

>>52079744
Not one iota. Inheritance doesn't figure into the vast majority of D&D campaigns other than that of raw power (sorcery, half-whatever, etc).

Two easy ways to make it obvious is either a rare appearance trait (hair/skin/eye color) or something like him being a cleric of a deity that only has clerics among the ruling class so that they have a divine right.

>>52079428
AD&D nominally had 0 levels but they were insanely inconsistent about actually giving 0 levels. Levels 1-4 were really common for characters that would have been 0-level commoners going by the book, especially in higher level adventures.

>>52079845
>>52079866
I was thinking of going with blood that reacts uniquely to certain stimuli, though a rare birthmark or trait could work. Probably a very deliberately shaped birthmark that isn't super publicly visible (eg., no Targaryen hair). That, or some sort of super-human characteristic that only comes out under specific/rare conditions, what do you think I could do for that?

>>52079890
I don't have a problem with it, especially given the fact that level 0 warrior types compare very favorable to level 1 fighters unless you use UA (probably better HP and generous stats).

Level 4 aint what it used to be.

My DM decided to give us an absurd amount of gold(8,000g to be exact) to start with at level 1. What are some good magical items I can purchase with the 2,225g I have left? I've already got a Belt of Hill Giant Strength as your typical two-handed weapon fighter. I was thinking an Amulet of Health but I doubt he'd let me buy it for that considering the belt was 5,000g.

How can I make urban combat interesting? I'm a big fan of having environmental changes/effects during combat, but I'm hitting a bit of a wall when it comes to stuff within a city.

What I have so far:
>A fire breaks out: players have to fight the fire/rescue people while fighting bad guys, and avoid getting burnt.
>A moving fight along rooftops, combat involves jumping, climbing, etc.
>Animals get loose during fighting, distracting players (chicken coops upturned, or a penned exotic tiger breaks out of its cage).
>A wagon comes untied and crashes down into the combat.
>Fighting is in a dilapidated building, which starts collapsing during the battle (Sidenote, how do you map multi-floor fights?)
>A dam breaks, street is flooded: fighitng takes place on raised areas, or in knee high water and combatants have to dodge debris.

What else could I do?

>>52077035
How about "giants are trying to take over the fucking world"?

>>52077662
8 int isn't retard level
It's just that guy that you may need to explain things twice to

>>52080140
gangs of irritable and reasonably tough half orcs that are watching and jeering and don't interfere other than to take AoOs and shank people who get too close since this is their territory, and you can use them as a living hazard zone for your enemies but anyone who hits them in an AoE causes them to join the opposing side

anarchocapitalist portapotty dwelling otyughs that maintain toll roads and exact a price in shit from all travelers or else they attack you for violating NAP

>>52077870
>medieval colonies
???

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>>52080132
>starting gold in the thousands
>buying magic items in 5e

>>52080254
Yeah, I don't have high hopes for this.

>>52080217
Not even necessarily meaning the person is dumb, just that they're too rash or ill-tempered to think things through or understand them properly.

>>52080285
I think rash would be more of a low-WIS thing

Why is there little focus on magic items in 5e?

>>52080321
Because you're comparing it to 3.5 and 4e

>>52080321

Because in 5E they're supposed to be rare, extremely powerful items and a source of excitement. Unlike 3.5 where you were expected to have several by the time you hit level 10.

>>52080330
No, I mean in terms of game design and what have you. Is it to better encourage people to do more games since they won't have cool shit they want to hang on to?

>>52080359
there definitely seems to be less emphasis on magic items, which is a shame cause thats part of the fun is in the rewards

>>52080234
>what are Bastidas
>what is Little England in Wales
A lot of kings who wanted to settle low population or unruly border areas would plant subjects there the old school roman way. Honestly the main difference with early modern colonialism is that the central government had a lot more control over the situation.

Planned towns in southern France, northern spain, etc were largely internal colonization efforts meant to fill up emptier regions so that the population would grow since otherwise population growth tended to flatline.

>>52080132
an uncommon magic item is 101-500

get every uncommon item that looks remotely useful

>>52080370

I don't think it's that much less emphasized really. Finding them in 5E is much more exciting (to me) than in other editions where you yawned at half the stuff you found.

Does anyone else ever think their party might be retarded when you're DMing? My players were fighting a group of drow who were wielding very strong weapons that disintegrated in sunlight - which they knew, since they once stole a bunch and they crumbled to dust the day after. The party has what is essentially a Sun Blade and told the Bard (who was attuned to it) to stand back. And he fucking did. To make matters worse, one of them has the ability to shatter stone and earth in an area around them, while most of the enemies were on a bridge, suspended over a fast-running river. The druid didn't wild shape once, the fighter screwed everyone's vision with a smoke bottle and two of the party ended up dying - nearly 3 - before they ran away.

Do I expect too much from my players? I feel like I've given them the tools to get through what I throw at them and they just don't use them.

>>52080321
because 3e and 4e killed the wonder and mystique of magic items by having them just be mandatory things you fall behind without and that ruins your character

5e brings it back to old school

>>52080132
>winged boots, uncommon
>pearl of power if spellcaster, uncommon
>+1 shield
>wand of magic missiles
>Utility shit like immovable rods, bag of holding, alchemy jug

>>52080393
Nah, keep throwing stuff like that at them. If they don't get it, it's their fault for not paying attention. Do it enough and they'll learn.

>>52080393
No, players will without fail find a way to screw either themselves over by accident or you over on purpose.

>>52080393
>expecting PCs to want to destroy loot

Yeah, that's expecting too much.

what is obvious to the DM is rarely obvious to the PCs, and I see this shit all the time.

>DM puts actions that seems to be obvious
>DM gets frustrated
>DM starts killing PCs

I always keep an eye out for the DM's demeanor changing to that of "holy shit you guys are fucking stupid retards IM GONNA START KILLING PCS FFFFFFFFFFF" because that's when the bodies will start hitting the floor. Generally the action of what the DM wants you to do isn't that obvious, but I've found usually its that the DM thinks its obvious you should run away, etc.

>>52080405
I feel like they could have pushed it even further by just removing all +X items.

In AD&D +X was just a "you must be this tall to ride" thing for creatures with resistance, except 5e did away with that (honestly incredibly bullshit) part of the rules entirely. At best maybe have legendary weapons give advantage.

>>52075959
Anybody?

>>52080393
I almost had a TPK today to an adult white dragon because one of the players forgot about their censer of controlling air elementals.

I wouldn't mind if he hadn't used it in literally every session since he got it.

>>52080463
It's loot they know they wouldn't be able to keep anyway, don't be a retard

>>52080217
That part I understand.
I just have a fear of intellect devourers

>>52080479
>I feel like they could have pushed it even further by just removing all +X items.

Terrible idea. Its far better to have a veneer of backwards compatibility, so that it at least feels like its the same game on some level rather than every 5 years some artsy fartsy fuckup changes everything to be unrecognizable. Save the "We gotta be daring! there's no such thing as a mere plus one magic item!" for the shit tier heartbreakers that find their way to the trash quickly.

>In AD&D +X was just a "you must be this tall to ride" thing for creatures with resistance

There's a lot more to it than just that. There were nearly always ways for PCs to harm +X to hit monsters, holy water and acid for example, as well as spells. Fiends and golems tended to shit up the spell portion of that, but there's nothing wrong with many parties not having much they can do about golems -- its a big fucking blob of mindless metal, use your imagination. Not all monsters need to be able to be dealt with in an identical fashion.

>At best maybe have legendary weapons give advantage

Nah. Plusses are honestly pretty rare and valuable in 5e.

>>52080551
>It's loot they know they wouldn't be able to keep anyway

Pretty sure that if they're keeping the sunblade away from it, they are doing so because they think there is a way to keep it (keeping it away from sunlight is harder than in AD&D but still plausible).

>>52080132

Broom of flying. No attunement, no limits on how long you can fly. Shit is fucking awesome. Get a +1 weapon while you're at it.

>>52080540
I want to say that maybe he was just being conscious of the "Concentration broken = hostile elemental" thing, but I don't think mot players are that smart.

>>52080502
well a cone has a angle of 60 degrees in 5e. So there's that.

>>52080686
He wasn't, he even admitted he just forgot he had it

To his credit he was genuinely apologetic, especially since a party member who was absent and being run as an NPC almost died as a result

>>52080696
>60ft long, 60ft wide at the base cone
>60 degrees
That literally does not compute.

>>52080696
There is no way that this is correct.

A warlock of that holy one, forgot what its called but his main gist was he was insane and thought he was a cleric and would run around yelling repent.

>>52080696
No it does not, it has a base angle of 53 degrees. A cone is as wide as it is far out.

>>52080132
tell your DM to google for "Sane Magic Item Prices" and if you're going to have "Ye Olde Magic Item Shoppe" use those prices instead of the retarded shit in the DMG

>>52077035

Do the characters have bonds? motivations? loved ones? aspirations?

if they don't care that giants are running amok potentially threatening and running counter to anything their characters might care about then IDK what to do

Are they faction members? Maybe their faction can get them off their collective asses

>>52080132
Depends how he prices things. If he prices things by actual mechanical value, there's quite a number of things you can still get, but an Amulet of Health is probably off the table. If he's just using static prices based on item rarity, you could grab any four uncommon items. A +1 weapon, Cloak of Protection and Winged Boots would be the best ones off the top of my head.

Adamantine armor is cool, but not actually that good. Mithral armor is cool if you think you need it, but if your feet are free, Boots of Elvenkind might be better. If you don't mind attuning to another item, Cloak of Elvenkind is even better. Periapt of Wound Closure can be a clutch item. Circlet of Blasting and Javelin of Lightning are good if you want some range/magic.

Of course, how much you want to frontload yourself depends on what kind of campaign it'll be. You'll be upset if you stock up on magic items, fill up all three attunement slots, and then the DM immediately throws a cool magic item at you, while simultaneously having NPCs ask absurd prices of you for mundane things.

Thinking of letting Clerics make their own domain spell list to better reflect their god. Of course if I see nothing but the best spells from other classes I'll say no but what are some spells I shouldn't allow at all?

I was thinking things like Swift Quiver and other high level Ranger and Paladin spells would be banned but that's all I can think of.

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Reminder that there is nothing wrong with sleeping your way to the top

>>52081091
Yeah, ban ranger and paladin spells and ban lockdown spells from druid/wizard/sorc.

In general, ban buffs and lockdowns.

>>52081107
I'm sorry, is there some kind of black dragon standing behind her whose sole job is to constantly be grabbing her tits?

>>52081150
Sounds like a great job to have desu

>>52081173
>>52081150
ywn be paid to grab some hot sorc's tits all day long

>>52081173
>"Oh god, it's like sandpaper on my nipples, whose idea was this?"

>>52081124
Yeah any of the best lockdown and buff spells that are only on one classes spell lists. It's a spell that's clearly made for them alone to take. Also I'm thinking of making it so half the spells have to be Cleric ones.

>>52078624
You know what a Beholder is right?

>>52081107
It's like a shitty power metal album cover, I love it

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So our campaign went hilariously right today.

>Start out running to a big capital city
>We find out they've got guards at every outpost looking for us
>We all roll sufficient bluff checks to not seem suspicious
>Except the Wizard
>Been a bit of a bad character ("high" elf, smokes weed all the time)
>But turns himself into the guards
>Says we were bounty hunters and caught him
>Find out later he wanted to stop being a hindrance to the party, so was going to roll up a new character
>But then I ask if we get the bounty
>DM pales, says yeah
>We each get 300 gold
>Everyone goes out, gets ready
>I go to the front desk of the inn
>Ask how much the inn costs to buy
>Innkeeper says 2000 gold
>Manage to get him down to 750 gold with 25% of all future earnings going to him with some lucky persuasion rolls
>Get other party members to chip in
>Party Rogue gets the Thieve's Guild to sponsor a bit of it, in return for making it a safe house for members
>We now own an inn and will keep getting money every time we roll into town


Everything went fucking great.

Traps, Revistited:

Still gay.

>>52081229
I also know they're a species with a bunch of different offshoot cousins, so not at all what I'm after.

>>52081178
>ywn be groped by a big black dragon in the middle of combat

>>52081107
Can you imagine being Rezmir all sexy-such, and getting summoned by Wizards living in a Coastal shantytown, all ready to burn some villages down, and all they say is "alright just stand here and let this dragon molest you while we take some photos and sell them to fat neckbeards" and you just want to rip their fucking throats out but they're like wizards and shit and you can't even lift a finger as you strip and let this disgusting scaly fucker grab your tits because apparently being a half-dragon means you LOVE having dragons grab your shapely titties and OH GOD THERE'S OGRES AND SHIT TOO and you just make these stupid poses that wouldn't even work in combat and you wouldn't be caught dead doing normally and blow a couple of spells while you're at it and they're not even taking photos they're having artists sketch you down and they've taken three fap breaks already, your arm is sore from holding this post for so long, and oh good they're FINALLY done and before you get to say "so how about that town then when do we actually do something" they de-summon you and that's that.

>>52081283
>Traps are gay
It's not gay if he's in a skirt, anon.

>>52081310
My banner right now is that "It's alright - when I'm wearing a skirt, I'm a girl!" image

>>52081107
That dragon may be related to her.

>>52081345
It's probably her dad or something covering her up
>AYYY DON'T LOOK AT MY GIRL'S TITTIES

>>52081344
Told you.

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>>52081310
>>52081344
It's just indisputable fact

>>52080405
Well, if you're not getting at least one +1 weapon by the time you're level 5 more than half of the non-humanoid monsters are going to be resisting if not ignoring all your damage unless you're a fooking mage.

>>52081309
Sounds like my fetish. Particularly being forced by magical means to participate.

>>52081413

Doubtful, but there is something to be said about being a devotion paladin.

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>>52081283
C'mon - if you're revisiting you must have liked it the first time.

>>52081411

>>52081107
muh dik

>>52081413
+0 works
Silver works on some of the most common monster types.
Acid and fire also work.

Personally I've been letting silver fill in for +0 magic a lot, along with more available poisons.

So in 4e, its fully viable to have a bunch of leaders leading around a striker (esp if some of them dabble in other roles) to buff him and give him extra attacks and such, but considering how costly buffs are in 5e, how viable is it to have a THEORETICAL party in which a bunch of people, especially casters, buff one guy?

The main thing that comes to mind is of course a Tunnel Fighter with PAM, though a hunter ranger shooting everybody could also be good.

>>52070560
Depends on your definition of political intrigue. In our current campaign, we're envoys from one city state to another. We arrived at the other to find it had been overtaken by a slave revolt. We ended inciting the slaves to attack the house of the two most powerful nobles then taking advantage of the chaos to sneak in and slay the noble so the other most powerful noble could take power (the second noble is more aligned with us). We negotiated with the slaves to secure peace so that guy could take credit. Next we're going to find a way to get rid of the local high priest, because he wields a lot of power and is opposed to our agenda.

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Hey /tg/,

Running a 5e campaign and just had a player jump in and make a rogue. In my experience playing, I've never had to deal with poisons or crafting. The former because I usually play with newbies who have no idea what half the stuff in the game even is.

Is it just me or is the time it takes to craft something complete bullshit? Just as an example, it would take 30 days of downtime to craft Assassins Blood. I don't know what kind of games everyone else has played, but in any of them (3.5, 4, and 5), there is usually 1 day of downtime AT MOST if the players are waiting for something in particular. Otherwise it's, alright, woke up, get the fuck out of the inn, time to adventure or take care of that random rumor we heard of. Who has that much down time? Is the way I've played really different and others play with tons of crafting?

I was considering house ruling it to be significantly shorter and possibly making a custom list of poisons that exist in my setting to add in to the already exiting list or purely use the homebrew set. If it ends up being too OP, I just make the monsters tougher to balance it out.

Opinions? Suggestions? Past experiences?

>>52081107
>black dragon
>breathing fire
do you even elements tho

>>52081667
I didn't make that sheet, it just tickled my dick

>>52081645
Balancing monsters that way never works, it makes everyone but the rogue worse

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>>52081645
Yeah, crafting unfortunately simply doesn't work in 5e.
The game is centered around classes and their abilities, so a skill- or trade-based gain, not inolving paying goldz for shit, is placed firmly into "don't bother" territory.

I remember seeing some tweaks to crafting stuff that I thought was reasonable, in a /5eg/ thread a few weeks ago, but I can't for the life of me remember what it was.

Just quirks of the game

>>52081645
>>52081681
idk, if he just throws more monsters with poison resistance or immunity it probably won't hurt the rest of the party too much since not a whole lot of people deal tons of poison damage.

i'd say go for it OP.

>>52081645
you know you can let PCs harvest literally as much poison as they want from monsters, right? just a nature check/assassins kit check, taking a few minutes.

if it takes an hour for an incapacitated creature to wake up, and you get perfect rolls you can potentially get 17 doses of poison from one creature, though again its obviously up to the DM how many poison doses you can extract

>>52080600
>(keeping it away from sunlight is harder than in AD&D but still plausible).
They would have to have the bard at least 20ft away from anyone with one of the drow weapons whenever the sunsword is active, and that's assuming the bard spent turns actively lowering the light radius.

>>52081667
>>52081675
Well, you can't really portray black dragon true to the common archetype - the setting has no welfare and no bikes to steal.

When is the next Unearthed Arcana coming out? Have they transitioned back to one a month?

>>52081681
Will remember this. Thanks for the advice.

>>52081768
It sucks. I want all of the players I have to feel that they are super cool and what they chose for race/class/whatever was not a mistake. This guy in particular went Assassin archetype and he really liked the idea of poisons since he couldn't use a blowgun with darts since he wasn't proficient.

I'm leaning towards just homebrewing a list of scaled down poisons and reducing craft time.

>>52081786
I like this train of thought. One of the common enemies in the campaign are feral lizardfolk so I could give a large portion of them resistance and he's just really good at killing everything else.

>>52081825
I do know that. But there aren't 4 billion rattlesnakes or wolf spiders just sitting around for them to just sit and do that to. At least I don't plan on giving them the luxury. Sure there will be some here and there but not enough to consistently get poison from. And who only likes having 2-3 kinds of poisons?

>>52081786
>>52081681
The average campaign has more than enough undead, fiends, and constructs, not to mention oddballs like yuan ti and oozes and elementals and shit, to keep poisoners from dominating.

>>52081865
The 13th. There was none this week due to Emerald City Comic Con.

>>52081890
I don't know what you wanna do with poison in your game anon. In mine, there's probably going to be a lot of casters that PCs need to take down quickly, and a lot of fiends and undead the poison guys can't do much about.

>>52077179
>Undying Light Warlocks have the Radiant Soul feature, adds CHA mod damage whenever you deal radiant damage
Isn't it for spells only.

>>52081890
>I'm leaning towards just homebrewing a list of scaled down poisons and reducing craft time.
This sounds like a good way to handle it. Just simple stuff that give the player a little edge every now and then if he pulls of a good roll or two.

Assassin is a kinda non-optimal archetype anyway, isn't it?

File: dio brando.jpg (28KB, 346x425px) Image search: [Google]

28KB, 346x425px

How do I play Dio?

>>52082157
Literally Time Stop as an at-will quickened power.

>>52082157
By being the GM and modifying the Vampire to having Stingy Eyes.

>>52082136
>Assassin is a kinda non-optimal archetype anyway, isn't it?

Assassins are turbo deadly so long as their party plays ball, and turbo awful otherwise.

A whole party optimized for stealth would be cool, especially since they could consistently get that extra turn. This is also the best time to use Commander's Strike, to let the assassin get two doubled sneak attacks in, and debatably (but flavor-appropriately) doubling poison doses as well.

>>52077179
The bonus radiant damage only applies to spells from the Undying Light feature. I think it may work with eldritch blast while you have the Scourge feature activated, meaning if you have 16 CHA, you'd deal 1d10+3+3+level damage, but i'm probably wrong.
>>52082157
play a revenant for pseudo immortality, buff your dex, con, and cha very high and go archfey warlock for charming abilities. alternatively be a necromancer to raise an undead hoard instead of charming for minions.

>>52082173
sorcerer with quickened time stop maybe?

>>52082118
It is, so the suddenly-radiant Agonizing Eldritch Blast would work, but an axe wouldn't unless you were level 5+ and that attack was made as part of GFB or Booming.

>>52082215
>with quickened time stop
No, as an at will SLA.

>>52082235
SLAs are just spells in 5e, dude.

>>52082235
>SLA
There's no such thing. 5e, a spell is a spell. It'd be an Inherent Spellcasting feature that didn't require material components.

>>52082253
>>52082256
Man I'm behind the fucking times

>>52082235
oh, i was thinking as far as character options go how you could emulate playing dio.
>>52082253
don't some monsters have built in spell abilities that aren't like normal spellcasting? i know pit fiend has at will fireball

Would doing 13th age escalation die but as a flat deal increasing every other round to a max of +5 work out well?

>>52077441
FWIW, all the ability scores are mostly biology, but you can still nurture them with ASI. Your 10 str fighter really can someday train to be as big as Charles Atlas.

>>52082266
Just use his stand from the game
The World Under Heaven lets him stop time indefinitely

>>52082278
>FWIW, all the ability scores are mostly biology
PHB pg. 173.

"Each of a creature's abilities has a score, a number that defines the magnitude of that ability. An ability score is not just a measure of innate capabilities, but also encompasses a creature's training and competence in activities related to that ability."

I need some new reading material, anyone have any /5eg/-approved homebrew PDFs that haven't been added to the pastebin yet?

>>52077803
Real people roll stats instead of using point buy. Real life is unfair.

File: oath free commerce v0-2.pdf (2MB, 1x1px) Image search: [Google]

2MB, 1x1px

>>52082321
There's always the /pol/adins and the commudins.

File: common man paladin.pdf (2MB, 1x1px) Image search: [Google]

2MB, 1x1px

>>52082344

>>52082266
>don't some monsters have built in spell abilities that aren't like normal spellcasting?

they have built in ability to cast spells

still not "spell likes"

they may eschew one or more components

>>52082337
>Real life is unfair.
tfw 16, 16, 16, 13, 15, 12.
Believe in the dice and they won't disappoint you.

But yeah, Point Buy is terrible.

>>52077901
>a group of 4 goblins ambushing a band of adventurers at a campfire and they actually use their darkvision
Let's see, 4 Challenge 1/8 would be 100xp, times 2 for numbers, making this a right on medium encounter for 4 level 1s. Then the get surprise, making this hard. They're also fighting in conditions that heavily favor the goblins, making this deadly. It all checks out.

>>52082337
>real life is unfair
Yeah except playing with a god with 18 STR 18 DEX 17 CON 18 INT 15 WIS 16 CHA is not fun as a peasant with no stat over 13.

>>52077584
>mental stats are nurture
Not INT.
INT is actually more or less immutable by the time you're a teenager and heavily locked by the time you're 3, what you can change is your reasoning and method of thinking. Your actual pattern recognition and all that is genetic and can't be improved by nurture beyond basically memorizing patterns as they come, i.e. learning the test.

>>52082470
>Yeah except playing with a god with 18 STR 18 DEX 17 CON 18 INT 15 WIS 16 CHA is not fun as a peasant with no stat over 13.
That sounds like a preference thing.

>>52082487
When you're basically living the useless brother meme it's not as fun desu
I mean you're outclassed in EVERYTHING. It doesn't matter what you do. The other guy does it better.

>>52081299
>I also know they're a species with a bunch of different offshoot cousins, so not at all what I'm after.


Okay, here me out now, you ready for this? Ok here it goes:
Make them NOT have a bunch of offshoot cousins

Ta da!

>>52082470
>doctors are as smart as a teenager as they are when they're adults
kek

>>52082521
Intelligence is not the same as knowledge, it's a common mistake people make. A set of dictionary volumes with a grammar guide is not the greatest english linguist in the world.

Is Ranger that much weaker than Paladin? They are both 1/2 caster but people always rate Paladin higher than Ranger.

>>52078586
The merchant ship's attackers would be linked to the entity that did the erasing. The storm orb would be a mcguffin necessary to turn him back.