/5eg/ Fifth Edition General:

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Is there such thing as preparing too much as a dm? Planning a campaign and I'm trying to set up the initial area the party will hopefully crash at, villages, towns, the occasional dungeon and things that reside in these areas and they haven't even set up their characters yet.

How do you keep a hireling from just being a DMPC?

>>53193165
By giving someone absolute control.

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So I'm toying with a avenging angle Aasimar

I'm thinking of going Kensai monk with a dip into cleric. I just want radiant damage with attacks

my other ideas were for a Sorcerer favored soul. I'm pretty sure they get melee somehow or is that just bladelock?

failing all else I'll just make the logical leap to paladin or zealot barbarian seems cool

>>53193132
There is absolutely such a thing as preparing too much, especially if it causes you to become inflexible, railroady or means you're unable to go with the flow and you can't or won't abandon campaign progression ideas and come up with new ones.
Improv is actually a good skill to have.

>>53193205
Is he obtuse or acute?

>>53193132
Not really, so long as you don't try and force them to go into each thing and keep things open.

>>53193165
Make them mute

>>53193132
prepare the areas they absolutly need to go and just keep an outline for the cool stuff you wanna do. bait them down the path and if they follo then flesh it out. otherwise an outline will do just fine.

also trial and error. don't use your favorite place first use a place your meh on and see how it goes

>>53193231
Beat me to it
>>53193205
Pretty sure Aasimar have been statted before for the DMG.
As for Avenging, wouldn't, I dunno, a Vengeance Paly make more sense?

>>53193132
There is no harm in a bit of improv, and preparing too much can lead to railroading if you aren't careful. It is also wasted effort because there is no point in preparing a bunch of shit if the players won't get the time to interact with even half of it once they've bitten into a quest hook. You'll end up with a setting where most the non-adventurer population is composed of quantum ogres

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>>53193231
I fucking knew that was coming

>>53193253
Regardless of what RAW says no one is going to allow that, so don't worry too much

>>53193051
I was looking for pitfalls of the Hexblade patron really. I've never played a Bladelock before, but I've heard that it had more than a few issues with it, and I was concerned if the Hexblade addressed those issues

>>53193165
Be wary of making them as strong as a party member. A hireling should be an assistant to the party, but not an equal

>>53193265
I think he's talking about Volo's Guide to Monsters Aasimar.

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>>53193253
Look at him, look at him and laugh

>>53193265
yeah but i feel like they're trying to make me go that way I sort of wanted the whole wielder of unfathomable cosmic power so sorc was my initial reaction. kind of a tranquil fury, I kinda wanted melee too. maybe a paly/sorc? I swear there's a way to get your sorc magic blades. idk if it's a bloodline or what

>>53193347
I am

>>53193368
Be an original Favored Soul and go Forge Domain. Gives you Elemental Weapon, Haste, armour, extra attack, a kinda shitty smite spell and you can also use quickened Booming Blade/Greenflame Blade for more melee hits.

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>>53193368
>>53193387
Sorry, it's late, my brain fell apart

What are the 3 most game altering house rules at your table?

>>53193213
>>53193261
It was mostly important places and several 'just in cases' but I don't plan on railroading them anywhere. If they somehow take control of the crashing airship I'll have something planned for that as well.

>>53193256
>>53193276
I'm familiar with wasted effort, and I'm trying to not make the same mistakes as last time. My only hope is that with things being a bit more serious, like actual deaths/big injuries and weapon durability based on number of battles they'll be a bit more invested in things.

>>53193368
The best way mechanically would be a stone sorcerer.

>>53193132

Preparing locations in a town is good because you never know when the players are going to throw you a curveball. "I want to break into that house!" says the chaotic neutral rogue. You'll be glad that you mapped that house.

Planning NPCs is good too, because then you can have something ready to go whenever the players talk to a random passerby.

But there's definitely a danger of getting married to your work. If your players never break into that house or talk to that guy, or go to your dungeon that you painstakingly mapped, don't force them to do so. And make sure you're capable of knowing what to do in that event.

But still, the cool thing about preparing is that even if they don't go to that particular dungeon, so long as they don't know that that's what that particular dungeon is, you can turn that dungeon into a different one and use it later.

>>53193520
Well you can always recycle things and simply place them later on in the adventure.

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I have a female half-orc that I need help naming.

She's a crotchety old lady who lives in a dismal swamp with her pet hog. Snappy and trashy but treats those she cares about with motherly kindness. Has a fierce temper and holds grudges. Can make a dozen different delicious meals from a dead opossum.

Really similar in temperament to Mama Boucher from Waterboy, now that I think about it. Probably gonna look like a crusty, half-orc Kathy Bates, too.

>>53193490
Each of our games has had some sort of resurrection restriction, we've tried several, but the point is there. Make death more meaningful.

Not strictly a house rule, but we use flanking. At first, it was because we had 3 players and wanted combat to be more dynamic with 2 martials and a war cleric, but its stuck around past its welcome imo.

We also altered cover slightly. Line based attacks don't let creatures grant half cover unless there is a size difference, and if a creature rolls a 1 against a creature with cover from creatures with a ranged attack, you make an attack roll against the first person in line and can hit them. It's usually detrimental, but it also tends to have ranged characters try and attack into crowds of enemies, which i like.

>>53193603
Madam Sugarsmacks

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>>53193603
Momma Sugarjugs

>>53193603
>She's a crotchety old lady who lives in a dismal swamp with her pet hog
Grandma Woolie

>>53193603
Grannie Pearl-Tusk

>>53193603
meghan

I'm gonna play my first time the 21st.

I read the players handbook.

I know what module we are playing but I haven't spoiled anything, Hoard of the Dragon Queen.

I am the only new player and it's a new DM.

I am going early with a couple mostly complete character sheets to finish character with DM..

I'm bringing a bottle of whiskey and a quarter ounce of dabs.

Any character ideas for a first timer, i have my ideas but open to interesting stuff that will be easy for me to play. I want to try to avoid meta gaming which might be hard as I know a ton about fantasy d and d stuff.

>>53193802
I'd recommend getting the DM to run Lost Mine of Phandelver instead. HotDQ is kind of a mess.

How do you guys handle a player heavily diverging from or outright ignoring their classes' description in their roleplay?

I got a new guy that rolled up a ranger and desperately wants to be a 'stealth archer.' Chose a criminal background, and wrote up a backstory where he was a scout in a war before turning to crime at its end. Looking at his character sheet, he just wants to be a thief under the ranger's class.

>>53193834
Refluffing is not only a thing, it should be encouraged in some cases. I would just talk to him about getting some nature fluff in there to explain the magical abilities he gets--but that's not necessarily required.

>>53193802
>Any character ideas for a first timer

If it's your first time, I recommend barbarian. As far as classes go, it's exceptionally straightforward and easy to understand, but you still get to do some cool shit.

>>53193834

If he wants to be a stealthy criminal ranger, let him be a stealthy criminal ranger. If the backstory and background check out, why not?

People can enjoy playing as a ranger for their abilities and mechanics without making their character Legolas.

I am going to home brew oath and pact of dragon what should I worry about?

>>53193802
>I'm bringing a bottle of whiskey and a quarter ounce of dabs.

Unless the whole table is up for this, don't be that fucking guy. I'm currently dealing with a not!Keyleth because the player decides to get drunk, doesn't help he made a tribal kid with a fuck high wisdom score, no charisma but still talks and even worse is he's a natural rambler.

>>53193834
If he's a PHB ranger, all you need to do is let him use Urban for his favored terrain. If it's UA, you don't even need that much, since Humanoid is a valid option.

>>53193834
Explain to him what a thief gets and what a ranger gets. If he really wants to be a ranger after knowing what each does, let him. I think there's an urban ranger archtype floating around in one of the UAs he could pick.

>>53193925
Unless you're good at home brewing then that's what you should worry about.

>>53193945
Nothing worse than a player who can't even play to the stats s/he has on her character sheet

That's the easiest part of roleplaying in D&D and some people just can't do it

>>53193945
the whole table is down for this and it's a six hour session so i don't know what to expect there.

>>53193982
I wouldn't mind if it weren't for the whole gets drunk then even when the rest of party says "hey don't say x" or "you know you shouldn't trust everyone" then he immediately ignores that advice. With a high wisdom I would figure he'd be able to put two and two together and figure out why but I finally had to spell it out for him because he complained.

With charisma I get trying to talk and he wants to eventually be the leader of his tribe but he decides if he trusts someone he's just gonna to tell them what ever they want. As far as they know it hasn't gone bad for them so far, but there was a couple instances where he almost got them in very hot water.

>>53194019
Ok then, I just wanted to make sure because I'm personally dealing with a group where most people are having fun and it being rp heavy. Then there's tribal boy who drinks a bit too much and pretty much is Marisha after a glass of wine too many on CR.

>>53193830
lol, what do i tell him, that someone random person on a message board told me to tell him to run a different module?

He's probably customized it quite a bit, in fact, knowing him, he probably picked it because it fit other ideas he had.

Are there any good dieties a tempest cleric can worship?

>>53193849
Yeah, this is the approach I took. I don't have an issue with it in principle, he just hand-waved how/why he became a ranger and spent a better part of time talking about thievery, worshiped a thief God, etc. Basically, you could switch his class to rogue and it'd be acceptable.

>>53193922
I'm genuinely fine with it, he's just putting piss-poor effort into the backstory+background. I don't think my expectations are too high, I just want to know things like
>How did you become a ranger?
>What is your connection to nature?
>Why did you return to crime upon entering the city?
>Why didn't you leave?
All valid questions, I think.

>>53193950
>>53193960
I'll look into this, thanks guys.

>>53194065
>Where do you think you are?

That's exactly what this site believes, welcome and remember you're here forever.

>>53193902
that's what i was leaning towards. I like playing them in nethack because i suck at that game.

is d and d anything like dwarf fortress adventure mode where grappling can often be the most reliable form of combat?

>>53194075
>I'm genuinely fine with it, he's just putting piss-poor effort into the backstory+background. I don't think my expectations are too high, I just want to know things like

That would be my biggest issue, if you want to play a class but fluff it differently that's fine, but you have to actually put the work into doing that.

>>53193132
Mostly just because chances are you're wasting your time. I find that wordlbuilding is the best way to go. If you know that this is a logging town then it's much easier to improv interestimg things in random house x than if it is just village 213-5 and it's the same as they've seen a million times.

During my last encounter I forgot to even draw up a town I knew the party was going to enter and didn't really have the hook fully fleshed out. Most I had was the main enemy half finished. I drew a map in 2 minutes in front of them in roll20 and we had one of the best nights of the campaign

>>53188617
There's a billion and one other ways to get sneak attack twice a round on rogue reliably anyway, and I just thought it was interesting you could use war magic this way.

>>53193132
Yes. You can plan so much that you become scared to improvize and add ideas on the fly that're more interesting than 'No, you don't find X even if it would've made a great experience because it's on the other side of the world.'

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>first 10 minutes of critical role
>Matt Mercer's GF literally kills herself by jumping off a cliff "for funsies" and taking 300+ bludgeoning damage

Jesus I thought you guys were exaggerating about this girl being stupid.

>>53194084
i'll e-mail him. I'll post his response when i get it.

>>53194069
Good aligned, there's Valkur, Aerdrie Faenya, Deep Sashelas, Sheela Peryroyl.
Otherwise there's Akadi and Istishia.

>>53194099
Grappling is crap in 5e

>>53194143
Fall damage maxes out at 20d6, so that'd be like 120 if every single dice was a 6.

>>53194147
Oh shit Valkur is perfect for my character. Is he in the PHB/SCAG?

>>53194065
HotDQ is horribly imbalanced. It is highly likely to kill you all on the first few chapters.

>>53193830
What's so bad about HoTDQ? I haven't played or run it.

>>53194143
What's worse is I think Mercer was actually going to hand wave her hitting the water as doing nothing from the way he talked at the end.

Keep in mind she had:
>Easily hit terminal velocity
>Had been told it was a 1000ft cliff
>Can turn into a fucking dragon
>Instead went with a goldfish

I'm not sure if it's just that she's stupid but also gets a little tipsy and or high before the show an during the break. It's really bad during stressful fights like Thordak or the last part of her whatever for her village.

Worse is everyone treats her like the leader since Scanlen left, and you can see it kills Travis to listen to them not because he's bored but because he is smart and has a plan but sticks to RPing Grog.

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>>53194184
>he thinks player should survive terminal velocity falls just because they have enough HP

>>53193834
Ask him why he wants to be a Ranger. Fighter/Rogue combo is a way better stealth archer because of extra attacks and expertise. 3 levels of Assassin will get you all the sneakiness you need. All you need is to give him survival as part of his background to cover his tracking ability and you are set.

>>53194195
That's probably what's supposed to happen then. It's really only a test session for the group and his first DM session.

>>53194226
She didn't though. they used revivify on her to bring her back.

>>53194185
Yep, he's in the SCAG.

>>53194075

I've never even met this guy but lemme take a shot, using the limited backstory you've provided already.

How did you become a ranger?
>Was drafted into a war he didn't believe in and assigned to an archery division. He was good at it, but couldn't stand for it. When shit went south during an ambush on his unit, he took the first chance he saw and deserted. Fleeing into the wilderness, he was forced to fend for himself and live off the land until he could find his way back to society...after all, it's not like he could have gone back to his unit.

What is your connection to nature?
>While in the wilderness, he was forced by necessity to develop keen senses and survival skills. He stalked and hunted game for sustenance, and in living off the land, he came to appreciate it and its bounty. But he was no druid—this wasn't the place for him. He had to get back to his life before the war, and once he heard the war was over, he thought it safe to go home.

Why did you return to crime upon entering the city?
>Turns out that his side won, and also turns out that the captain of the unit he deserted rose up the ranks as a military hero. When he heard that not only the traitor who abandoned his unit was still alive, but trying to return to a life of freedom, he used his political influence to smear his name, ruin his reputation, and condemn him to the gutters like the cowardly trash he was. With no other options, the ranger had to turn to crime—becoming the riffraff that the captain painted him to be after all.

Why didn't you leave?
>What would be the difference? The captain has fingers in every city in the region, thanks to his military fame. It'd be no different. And perhaps the ranger is too destitute to travel. His only companions are the stray animals and swarms of rats that patrol the streets at night.

>>53194143
>>53194184
I figure it maxes out at 20d6 because that would massively overkill any ordinary human, and that a non-ordinary-human could still survive this sort of thing somehow.
So taking more than 20d6 damage is some sort of 'gritty reality' game homebrew.

>>53194099
Grappling is actually pretty okay, but it can be situational. Unless you, say, shield master and no bonus actions which encourages just shoving every turn, I'd use grappling depending on the situation, and some classes are better at it that others. Barbarogue is probably the best grappler.
1. Note that you need a hand free, which can be awkward depending on your weapons. In barbarogues case, if they're using two-weapon-fighting, they can drop a sword and still attack and deal almost all of their damage.
2. Note you have 'grapple' (Enemy's speed becomes 0, takes action or forced movement to end. Also you can drag the enemy.), 'shove' (Enemy is slowed, their attacks become weaker and your close range attacks are more likely to hit on them, but they can end it easily if they're not grappled on their turn), disarm (DMG, removes a weapon from an enemy. Note that unarmed strikes only deal 1 damage instead of 1dX) and.. Improvised actions might sometimes be allowed.


I probably wouldn't recommend a grappler for a first-timer because it gets a bit mechanical unless you get extreme imrpovisation, but it can be great, especially if a DM has interesting encounters that need to you, say, stop an enemy's escape.

>>53194184
>>53194226

Ordinary humans have survived incredible falls before, like those skydivers whose parachutes fail but they miraculously have no injuries when they land.

>>53194149
It's only crap if your DM is crap, plays monsters as 'you walk up and attack it', expects you to walk up and attack monsters as well with +X weapons and they don't allow things you absolutely should be able to do like disarming.

So for the mystic, would the bonus Disciplines for every subclass but soulknife count against the maximum disciplines at higher levels? So if im level 5 and can have 3 disciplines, do i ALSO get the 2 disciplines from the subclass?

>>53194226
> He thinks Goblins are real
> He thinks nobody has survived a fall at terminal velocity

>>53194226
Not him, but I can see it. A high level player is basically a demigod, able to survive being bitten by Elder Dragons or magically disintegrated. I don't think it's that unreasonable to say a high level fighter could walk away from a terminal velocity drop, especially since real world people can survive it

>>53194257
Do you know what page by any chance? Playing AL so I need to make sure it's legal.

>>53194265
>I figure it maxes out at 20d6 because that would massively overkill any ordinary human, and that a non-ordinary-human could still survive this sort of thing somehow.

More likely because they figured that's all they needed since games hardly go past 10, according to WotC numbers.

>So taking more than 20d6 damage is some sort of 'gritty reality' game homebrew.

Yeah no CR is definitely not that

>>53194283
Oh alright, gotcha.

Grappling is crap in 5e unless your DM changes how 5e works

>>53194287
She's a druid and the game runs on numbers

>>53194285
show me one report of anyone hitting water at terminal and surviving.

>>53194308
Hitting water at terminal velocity would turn your organs into mush.

Just look up what happens when people jump off bridges.

>>53194307
I was just saying in general. The guy I was talking to was making it sound like it's ridiculous anyone in Fantasy Land could possibly survive jumping out an airplane

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>>53194308
Even better jagged rocks from 1000ft up because she didn't hit water at all.

>>53194299
>Changes how 5e works
>When there are disarm rules in the book
>When it encourages you to allow improvised actions
>When the 'all monsters are brainless W+M1 machines that know nothing aside from fighting to the death' concept is shit and you should feel shit for uspporting it

The only real change of how 5e works is the way of thinking with regards to monsters.
Despite being a game that seems to have so much room for improvisation and without interesting combats combat becomes stale, it seems to still be saying that monsters should be boring and not try to run away when their life is in danger and gather friends or be prone to intimidation and surrender if pinned to the floor and not have any second thoughts about killing their allies if they were used as meatshields.

>>53194331
True I can see your point, along with the fact that Grog could've raged and lived even with all that damage.

What I think the main issue is Keyleth once again did a borderline retarded thing even with information, warning and perfectly acceptable ways out of it.

>>53193132
Of course there is. It's a waste of your time, so you're preparing too much.

>>53194299
Actually grapple isn't weak if you have two or more attacks. Shove then grapple means the target is trapped prone until they beat your grapple. This gives them disadvantage. It works very well if paired with Expertise or Barbarian's rage athletics advantage

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Would animals that can glide count as having a fly speed for the purposes of Druid Wildshape?

>>53194262
Nicely done. If he gave that to me, I'd have no issue approving it. Instead I got:

>Rando was once part of a flourishing great Wood Elf Tribe before joining the war. His once plentiful home had been burned to the ground by evil gods. Before the war he was a simple hunter that could split an arrow in half from 100 yards. After the war he was beaten and brusied(sic). He made his way to nearby town where he found it difficult to make a living. He began stealing to survive...

And then it transitions into a jewel heist. He wasn't happy when I asked for re-writes.

>>53194184
The only acceptable thing to do is remove the cap of 20d6. If they drop 2000 feet, they should take 200d6 damage.

>>53194385
Kinda, it'd be a you have a "flying speed" but it's in a downward ark in my opinion.

>>53194394
Yeah, but now you've made a world without wind resistance. It caps out at 20d6 because physics, not because of any balancing

>>53194385
If it has a fly speed in the MM then yes. If it is homebrewed then you're already homebrewing so you decide. I'd say no since they don't control their fleight

>>53194415
Except the current model uses an acceleration of 0, so its fucked anyway, its "supposed" to be escalating, 1d6+1d6per previous 10 feet.

>>53194433
That sounds about right, probably what Mercer used to hit the ~300 damage. If I did the math right and it's 100d6 for 1000ft.

>>53194354
>>53194299
Oh, also, grapple+shove is pretty good as an at-will restrain ability. Enemy can't move, enemy has disadvantage on all attacks, you have advantage on all attacks within 5ft on it and you can drag the enemy whereever, such as into a trap.

This is strong because a barbarogue focusing on strength could end up with a +17 grapple modifier with advantage by level 20, or +10 at level 5 with advantage, against an enemy's athletics or acrobatics. And how many enemies have good athletics/acrobatics?

>>53194294
Page 21. He doesn't get to have a mini entry.

Any chance someone may turn 5etools into an Android or Windows app?

>>53194481
Thanks!

>>53194481
There's also something about him on page 68. He's a hero-god this edition and embodies the following qualities: fierceness, cunning, courage, strength and sailing skill.

I'm DMing a war and mercenary campaign with emphasis on wilderness, starting from lvl 1. Since the group's cleric seems to have trouble making it to the sessions for now I'm pushing variant rules for the heal skill and alchemy.

I'm still looking for ideas for medicine/poison and potions. Currently I already have some minor healing, disinfectant, camouflage, animal repellant effects etc but I'd appreciate your input.

>>53194648
Just cover anything you think the party would need from the spells a cleric could use. Alternatively just put a dmpc cleric there to provide that utility anyway.

>>53193605

I am curious about your resurrection restrictions, as i struggle to find a balance on the same subject.

Would you guys say the Fantasy Grounds license at $149 is worth the cost? When I say worth the cost, I mean that I don't have irl buddies to play with, and a ton of online buddies that would be down to play and are into it.

I see that in the pasta, you guys list Roll20. I have used it and like it, but having a permanent solution is always nice. I don't know. It's just nice knowing if later on I'm unable to pay the sub fee for whatever reason, I can fall back on my perm license. Another thing that bugs me is that I can't seem to find good comparisons on the two. I saw a couple of youtube vids, but most seem skewed, as the user doesn't have enough experience with both pieces of software to give a thorough opinion.

Also, I noticed that the resource pastebin's first link has another link taking you to Campaign Cartographer. I know you don't NEED the software, as the only necessities are your creativity, some friends, and pen and paper, but I was wondering how useful you guys found the software vs something like hexographer, and hexographer's other cousins under the same brand.

Thanks in advance for those of you who read all this shit and take the time to answer. I really appreciate it.

>>53194694
We've tried a few, 3 strikes and your gone, requiring the sacrifice of a significant item, needing to hit a dc based on times died with a positive modifier from spell level of the cast, requiring divine favor as a cost.
currently, were still using 3 strikes for simplicity.

>>53194782
By the way, by sub fee I mean the Roll20 sub fee. I have friends who are used to Roll20, and I like how both present themselves, but basically, I was trying to make a point that while I like Roll20, if I ever CAN'T pay my fee, it would be nice to have the full features of FG from a perm license.

>>53194782
You're spending 149 to get online friends, up to you if that's worth it.

>>53194804
>Get online friends?

No no I have a bunch of peeps who play already. I'd just like to use the features from the full version of FG. But I was wondering what you all think of it vs Roll20.

Logically, every single skill check should be done privately by the DM so that the players can't see what they rolled.

If a player rolls their own skill check and fails because they rolled low, they'll know that that's the only reason why their character may not have been able to do something. If they fail a perception check, for example, they may start acting very cautiously even though their character would have no reason to doubt their surroundings. By failing a strength check, they'll know that they should just try again.

Give me ONE (1) good reason why players should be allowed to roll their own skill checks.

>>53194933
Because I trust them not to meta game

>>53194782
The thing is, roll20 feels like it's going to be round forever, and will be updated every once in a while.

I can't say teh same for Fantasy Grounds.

>>53194933
>Give me ONE (1) good reason why players should be allowed to roll their own skill checks.
Doing something with your hands, like rolling dice, increases the interactivity of the game.

>>53194933
It's kinda boring if the GM has to roll every time. The GM also needs to know everything the characters can do. (like if they have advantage on certain tests, and their exact stats).

The GM already has enough to worry about.

>failed strength check to do something
>okay it takes a long time (wandering monsters, you fail to stop the ritual, they get to set traps) or you damage something etc.

>fail perception test
>you don't notice anything
>can I roll again, take a double check?
If there's a hiding enemy, the enemy attacks them. If they missed a treasure or something, just tell them no.

>>53194782
$150? Out of your own pocket all at once, probably not. However, if you get everyone in your group to chip in $2 each a month over Paypal or something, or get them all to chip in $30 or so each for you to get the license up-front, it can be worth it.

FG Pros:
- Not dependent on centralized servers
- Can use images local to your machine, including drag-and-drop support
- Robust handout support and item linking that makes using it for DM prepwork actually worthwhile
- Is a stand-alone app, less prone to the hiccups of a web-based app
- Automation of conditions, effects, damage and healing applications and more means play overall can be faster once you use it for a bit
- System support is handcrafted and thus far more robust, including automated drag-and-drop support for items, races, classes, backgrounds, spells, and so on
- You can use third-party modules and extensions to increase its capabilities to a degree
- Built-in links to documentation Wiki

FG Cons:
- No dynamic lighting*
- No ad-hoc map building support*
- Very poor map support overall, honestly*
- Very intensive on the DM's Internet connection when sending files (not a huge problem honestly)
- Steep learning curve with poor tutorials
- Functionality often hidden behind holding down Ctrl/Alt/Shift with no mention of these functions
- Cost, especially adding rules expansions to the list (though that's no different from Roll20 in that regard).
- Current codebase and interface is old and it shows*
- Lack of built-in cloud backup option in case of local data loss (you can use something like Mega backup to solve this easily, though).
- No built-in VOIP, video, or jukebox alternative

* these are for sure being fixed in the upcoming huge Unity port, which should be in beta in the next few months. It will also include some really radical extra features like applying weather or lighting effects to maps.

>>53194965
they'll have to convince people to turn around buy another license(how idk) or figure out another way to make money at some point or they will end quick

>>53195058
Roll20 is all about the profits, take that how you will.

Any ideas/comments for a backstory or build options for a Archfey Blade Warlock 5/ Wu Jen Mystic 15.

Idea is Archfey Bladelock 5 for all the juicy goodies -
MoonBow, Thirsting Blade, Pact Weapon +1. Also 3rd level spell slots that come back on a short rest, Fly and a few other concentration spells.

Wu Jen Mystic for ability to create spell slots (which can then be used to cast the MoonBow smite).

Then Mastery of Air and Mastery of Weather for flying and AoE respectively. Also Nomad's Arrow for more bow damage and basically swift quiver.

Then Celerity and Nomadic step for GTFOing if something goes south, Intellect Fortress for saves, Psionic Weapon for help vs high AC, and then Bestial Form for concentration free flight and Mantle of Joy for ability to make everyone repeat a saving throw.

For race, Half Elf is probably the best for skills, but Winged Feral Tiefling gives optimal stats AND concentration free flying...

For story, I feel like there's something there with illusion magic from Archfey and the whole "see the world as it really is" from Mystic.

>>53195119
Why does any of that matter at all

Just play the game and have fun. We all get caught up with this building characters shit despite this edition arguabky being the least reliant on any sort of thing like that. You could sit around and cast magic stone with a sling and occassionally cast a spell and you'd still be a dope adventurer

>>53194965
What about FG makes you feel that way?

>>53195021
Hey I appreciate you taking the time to write all this up. As far as VOIP and jukebox, I suppose I could just use software like Discord and a music bot, though it might be a little primitive with the bot.

I wouldn't mind putting in the $150 myself, as I like knowing I'd keep ownership down the line. The money wouldn't be an issue, provided the offerings of the software itself are good enough. The code revamp gives me hope, though it being a beta would worry me a bit. I feel as though anything involving testing has gotten a negative spin to it in my mind (used to vidya game devs putting out unfinished work and leaving it as is). I guess I'll have to do some research on what they're promising first.

>>53194965
>>53195058
>>53195101
I'd like to know more. Whatcha guys mean? I'm kinda lost in all this. Would be neat to know before throwing down monies.

>>53195227
>it being a beta would worry me a bit.
Here's the basics of it:

- The port has been in development since mid-2015 behind the scenes to get a more solid codebase they can actively add features on to
- They've shown videos of dynamic lighting and the new map-building features already
- They plan on having a Kickstarter to fund Fantasy Grounds Unity as a separate product before its release
- The Unity version will be their development focus moving forward
- People with permanent licenses for "Fantasy Grounds Classic" can move to Unity licenses on a pay-what-you-want basis
- All game material people have bought or made before will be usable on the Unity version, though a one-time conversion process may be needed for it

I'm hoping that they open up FG to make it more accessible as well like Roll20 is (like a usable demo for DMs trying to get into online play), but I won't hold my breath since there's no real way to enable that with how the system works right now.

Because my party's small I want to run a quick training session to get them to level 2 before starting whatever adventure I decide to run.

Anyone have recommendations on something good to run for 3 level 1's? I was thinking "Giant Rats in the basement" but that seems way too cheesy.

>>53195312
So after reading this, I took a look at some videos showing some of the new features, and I'm pretty intrigued. Seems like a solid update to their software. I guess it'll be a waiting game.

I'll definitely keep my eyes peeled on the KS though. It'll be interesting to see what they offer there, since I'm a sucker for perks and stuff.

>>53195312
and that's one thing I like about Roll20. I can kinda hop in and test the general idea of it with friends and buy in with a sub.

>>53195312
One last thing: FG has official module support. That's neat. I own the hardcover versions of a lot of material though. I'm guessing there's currently no way for owners of these versions of the material to slap it on there?

I mean I suppose I can just refer back to my physical materials or just go on the OP and grab all the PDFs off the trove. But I was curious about that. I don't feel like rebuying it all just to use what I already own with the software.

>>53195347
You could run Colville's Tomb of the Delian Order, and swap out the plus 1 sword for some other big non-permanent reward. Or just leave it in if it wont fuck with your game

>>53195561
Is it odd that I find Matt Colville to be a bland as fuck DM and boring as all hell? It's honestly a chore watching his game streams. Practice what you preach, man.

>>53195347

Giant bats in the attic.

>>53195347
>Giant Rats in the Basement
>way too cheesy
Ah fuck!

>>53193603

Mama squishy

>>53195592
Got a link to a game where he's bland as fuck? Just finished his Running the Game series. Seems alright so far.

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Alright guys, here's a quandary for you. My character is likely going to get challenged to a fight by another PC's character, and it may be to the death.

He is playing an Aasimar Monk/Cleric who is all about inner peace and outward wrath to evil, and he thinks that the only way to save my character is to kill him with cleansing fists or whatever.

I am playing a Half-Orc Fighter/Warlock who mostly just wants to chill and work for gold, but the demon who he is pacting with is a little more lust for fighting and killing. He's got it well in hand, but Assimonk thinks if I get too strong I'll destroy a city or something I dunno.

How to I beat him soundly enough that he doesn't try again, but not kill him? Level 4 at the moment, Fighter 2/Warlock 2. He is Monk 3/Cleric 1 (Light Cleric I think, with Shield and such).

I can put out a respectable amount of damage per round, but won't really start hitting my stride until 6 with the two Archetypes kicking in.

What do, /5eg/?

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The party (five level 3's) have found themselves in Arcton, a floating city ruled by an Archmage. It is a time of a week long festival for the town, where they celebrate all walks of magic from Druidic to Pacts from Patrons.

Currently, they have entered themselves into a tournament where adventurers from nearby regions compete. They are in the grand finals.

What sort of stuff could the players end up running into in this place? I have lots of stuff written out for if they leave immediately after the tournament, but what other hooks could I throw at them here?

Any good homebrewed Necromancers out there? I could be a wizard but the Animate Dead spell is total booty and I'd like to bring undead shenanigans to the party I'll be joining soon.

>>53195593
...This I can work with. I might actually make a mini dungeon at the inn the players a heading to at the beginning of the game, they're going to meet a lady who's contracted them.

I'll have the inn closed waiting for exterminators and the party has to try and clear out various over sized animals to be able to spend the night.

Maybe I'll throw a wand of Enlarge or something in there. A dead wizard in the basement who's causing all this.

>>53195811
>Animate Dead spell is total booty
I don't really know what you mean with that, but Necromancer's are situational but can be the most retardedly broken thing in the PHB.

First of all remember everyone's going to groan whenever you use your skeletons for something. No one likes the fact the Wizard gets a shitton of turns each combat.

Second remember that it takes for fucking ever to have skeleons with you and that you shouldn't be going for more then 3-4 at a time unless you're in a dungeon or something. In a dungeon then you can raise more and use them as suicide chargers and guards.

Third of all don't be a dick. Necromancy's frowned upon but not "Mwahaha I'm taking over the world" bullshit.

Fourth if you really have to play your annoying type of character either be a Necromancer or a Death Cleric. Sure as hell don't be the kind of guy who demands to play a homebrew class for a type of character everyone hates to play with.

Played my first session of D&D recently and wow I had no idea until now that XCOM combat is literally D&D with ayylmaos and guns

>>53195887

Didn't really consider the multiple turns the undead would have to take. I've been a permaDM for a while so I should be able to run through their attacks pretty quickly.

The campaign's going to be mostly in the countryside from what I understand, but if we do hit a dungeon I'll make sure to keep the numbers down.

Yeah, I don't like blatantly evil characters either. No problem there, I'm just ressurecting for convinience mostly.

Didn't see Death Cleric in the PHB. Is it in the DM guide? If the party's getting bored with my shit I can tone it down. I'm not completely socially inept.

>>53195609
The in office game was bland as fuck.

>>53195609
The Avarak Sul game, it's awkward and bland.

>>53195779
A drunken mage has knocked over a shelf in the alchemists shop, and been bathed in the resultant mess. He's now high as a kite, naked, wreathed in flame, and producing tiny oozes whenever he opens his mouth.

A charm-seller accosts the party, trying to get them to test out his newest invention: a carved piece of antler, ensorceled to completely negate all damage from bear bites. Bears can be found a few miles walk from the city, probably. The charm works perfectly against bites, but not at all against being clawed.

A cleric and a wizard are arguing theology, and it looks like it's going to come to blows. What do?

A prominent tavern owner's rival has hired mages to enchant his rival's cups to make anything in them taste like pee. The tavern owner's gone through heaps of cups, and it's getting pricy. He needs help gathering evidence/kicking the shit out of the rival.

>>53195935
Alright, just needed to make sure because a whole lotta Necromancers are edgy autists, they can be good though.

Death Cleric does Necromancer etter in my opinion because it covers more then "Skeleton Army". It's a weapon Cleric that works best with a DEX build, gets the ability to twincast Necromancy spells, the Channel Divinity is basically super necromancy punch and it gets to ignore Necrotic resistance.

In the end it makes Skeletons a bit slower then a Wizard and they're weaker, but it gets much more use from other Necromancy spells that deal damage and curse. Plus they can team up with their undead and get them to shove people to give you advantage.

>>53195896
Yeah, the devs are big fans.

It's even more explicit with 4e.

Less true for the editions before 3rd, though, so you may want to give those a try sometime.

>>53194358
Why is that an issue? The guys do stupid shit all the time.

>>53194933
There are lots of types of rolls. What you say is doable in a game with a handful of different rolls per character, but with all the kinds of rolls a character can make in D&D 5 I would rather the DM spend his time making a story rather than roll dice the whole session

>>53195961
These are really good actually.

Did you make them on the spot?

>>53195896
>>53195981
How is 5e's combat? Are the melee classes boring in a combat situation?

>>53196076
Martials have less to do than in 4e, but they arent 3.pf levels of fucking nothing.

It's pretty simplistic so the combat is sort of up to your imagination really, there's less grounded rules on every single thing and a lot general rules that have guidelines.

>>53196076
I find it a bit boring. Your best option is usually very obvious, even when you have more options than "I attack". Loads better than 3.pf, however.

>>53196108
>>53196120
Could you please elaborate further? The 3.x combats were all I full attack, or I charge and full attack.

What's changed in 5e? The fact you can move, action and possible action and possible reaction and possible action surge and then move again, is a godsend.

>>53196134
possible bonus* action.

>>53195212
It matters because I enjoy character optimisation . I know it's not as effective as 3.PF, but there's still some fun combos.

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>>53196022
Thanks! Yeah, spent a couple minutes, but mostly out of my ass. I find that giving players open-ended problems is always entertaining, because if you have a very specific solution in mind, the players won't figure it out. Plus, floating-mage-city is rife with adventure hooks/sidequests/people looking to take advantage of credulous adventurers. I'd advise any and all DM's to poke around the OSR threads, lots of useful stuff even if you don't wanna play Chainmail.

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>>53196134
>The fact you can move, action and possible action and possible reaction and possible action surge and then move again

This is the very reason it is more fun than 3.pf.

Also, 5e's combat isn't

>I go to mo-
>attack of opportunity
>I stand u-
>attack of opportunity
>I cast th-
>attack of opportunity
>I roll an-
>attack of opportunity
>i sneeze in the wrong di-
>attack of opportunity

>>53196155
I'll give that a look. I'm always bad at creating hooks that don't seem like blatant SIDE QUEST HERE with a giant red arrow pointing at it.

>>53196134

There's a whole bunch of improvised actions in the DMG.

Grappling and shoving is no longer a convoluted mess,

Battlemaster manoeuvres are something every martial class should have IMO as they are just so fun and give so many options.

Feats such as GWM and sentinel give extra options and tactics in combat.

Fighters are still relevant at higher levels with 4 attacks with GWM doing huge amounts of damage. Wizard still outscales them in utility, sorc in burst, fighters are king of sustained DPR who can just keep going and going.

>>53196134
The game basically says now that "You may attemp other actions then those listed here and you DM should figure out how they work".

Basically if you want to do a cool action scene that there's no rules for the DM figures out the check and how it works. If you wanted to charge someone for instance the DM could tell you to make an Athletics vs. Athletics check after running at them and give you advantage. People do seem to ignore that though.

Even without you have tripping, grappling, shoving, disarming, tumbling, overrunning, climbing on big monsters and etc. in the PHB and DMG without going into class specific abilities.

>>53196134
>What's changed in 5e?

Compared to 3.pf...

Classes are just better designed, and have more options in general. It's just that it often boils down to doing the same option over and over again being the best option. All my combats as a rogue consisted of "use bonus action to get sneak attack guaranteed, sneak attack"... when I tried to improvise I could simply not get anything more impactful than just making an attack, but the rogue is an edge case.

Compared to 4e... a lot of the simplifications came with removing a bunch of tactical options. For example:

>>53196175
While I agree with the sentiment, removing AoOs from ranged attacks/spells into melee and general movement makes it a lot less tactical.

>>53196201
>more options
kek

>>53196214
Compared to 3.5e core martials have way more real options.

>>53196214
More meaningful options.

You don't get smacked in the head for trying to trip/push/grapple someone without spending 2 feats on it.

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I'm gonna need help, /5eg/, because I've peered too keep into the rabbit hole.

>get a player for a new campaign that definitely wants to play an unrestrained, no-compromise paladin
>we both agree the Oathbreaker is a shit, conceptually and thematically, what with the undead and the fiends
>Google a bit, Anti-paladin
>first result is https://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/Antipaladin_(5e_Archetype)
>mfw danddwiki, AKA here_we_go.gif
>read tenets, actually amazing
>most of the mechanics are the Oathbreaker's with the serials filed off
>Shit, I can fix this

So shit, bear with me, I think this actually is fixable.

The most egregious item on the list is the 'Invoke Agony' element doing continued damage on top of its denial of bonus and reaction actions of a target. Remove the damage, make the save a CON save because wracking pain, and suddenly this 'Invoke Agony' is more or less in line with the other Paladin Oaths' similar abilities: Vengeance's 'Abjure Enemy,' Ancients' 'Nature's Wrath.'

That a good start?

I'm actually liking most of the spells offered as Oath spells, besides. Vampiric Touch might be a tad too strong on a Paladin, mind. Thoughts on that?

>>53196241
Just use Treachery or remove the tenets from Vengeance and call it Antipaladin man.

>>53196175
>>53196185
>>53196191
>>53196201
>>53196221
>>53196224
Thanks for your informative posts, bros. Much appreciated.

>>53196241
Why not just oath of vengeance?

Or maybe one of the UA paladins, like Oath of Treachery or... whatever that other one was called.

>>53196201
If you get within 5ft of a ranged attacker, they either have to use melee attacks (Which are probably weaker) or suffer an opportunity attack to get outside of 5ft to avoid disadvantage. Though save-based spells kinda ignore that.

But, you can disarm a ranged person or restrain a caster's casting ability somewhat (Disarm from DMG, and it's reasonable to expect to be able to limit a caster if you grapple them a bit and take some extra thing). If you disarm them, they usually can do jack shit because without strength you can't really do any damage without a suitable weapon. If they pull out a rapier, they won't get to pull out a shield, too, and they probably don't have specialization for rapiers (Probably archery for +2 to hit). ... Though then, crossbow mastery exists to ignore disadvantage within 5ft and that all goes out the window.

But also, ranged units have piss-all for reaction attacks so you can move around them freely, ignore them and go straight for concentrating casters.

Or, even, quite often it's advantageous for ranged attackers to drop prone at the end of every turn to avoid ranged counterattacks. This means if you get close to them they either can't go prone or they're taking attacks with you having advantage on them. And attacking them in melee means they can't use cover.

But once you deal with the weapon feats problem crossbow mastery isn't an issue unless a player wanted to specialize like that.

There's still a bit of tactics to all of it.

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>>53196241
Here's some official-looking homebrew that isn't dandwiki
Oath of the Purge / Oath of Supremacy

>>53196254
>>53196261
>Why not Oath of Treachery?

I guess because the Paladin in question, by the blurb sent for an off-the-cuff background, was rather that the Paladin was betrayed himself, and would rather turn to use the darkness against the focus of his ire.

That, and having the Aura of Malice be a buff for all allies in range is pretty good.

I'll consider your suggestions all the same, though.

>>53196277
>Though save-based spells kinda ignore that.

My point, yeah. I just prefer the consistency 4e had for spells with other types of ranged attacks.

Also, HP scaling kinda makes AoOs shit in general as levels go up, except for the rogue (but as a rogue you basically always have your reactions taken anyway), because your damage scaling comes mostly from your extra attacks, so it's not like stickyness really exists without some work put in.

>>53195811
I'm not really familiar with homebrewing, but maybe design a Warlock pact associated with Tenebrous, the Shadow that Was.

Focus on the shadowy, incorporeal form of undeath.

Involve a spelllist that's more like:
1st - false life, ray of sickness
2nd - blindness/deafness, phantasmal force
3rd - bestow curse, spirit guardians (using the evil form)
4th - conjure shadow demon, phantasmal killer
5th - antilife shell, planar binding

Design the class features to allow you to create shadows, spectres, etc. as you increase in levels.

>>53196315
Having to use a save instead of making a normal attack is still a tactical disadvantage as it gives you less options.

But, the DM can easily decide 'Oh, since they're so close in an awkward position, I'm also going to make it easier for them to succeed on save throws if you cast it from within 5ft of them' or you can simply make an enemy that has that as an ability, like a mage-slayer feat sort of thing.

Or if they try to cast fireball, 'You're casting it right in front of an enemy. There's a chance they might intercept it and it'll blow up in your face.'

Of course, there's no rules for any of this by default, but the framework is left there. A reaction could feasibly be used for an improvised reaction under certain circumstances. Obviously it'd be subject somewhat to the DM's judgement, but it's easy to say 'Yes, you can use your reaction to try to jump 5ft into that fireball without having readied an action' or 'No, you can't try to jump 5ft away from the enemy as a reaction to walking up to you.'

And the sentinel feat makes opportunity attacks actually kind of a thing for non-rogues (Fighters get extra feats, so they could easily take it where a rogue couldn't at level 6, perhaps) or a fighter with booming blade could take war magic for a pretty powerful opportunity attack.

Or, often, you might have multiple allies up against a monster and they'll take an opportunity attack from each and every one.

A DM could even give extra opportunity attacks sometimes.

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>>53195811
Diabolist from Touch of Class is a summoner with early access (lvl3) to Shadows, Specters, and Ghouls.
You can get Wights, Wraiths, and other stronger undead as you level up.
No animate dead tho, but you do get an unlimited touch spell that can heal your summon

>>53196298
What makes you think this looks official?
It reeks of ENworld.

>>53196379
True enough it looks atrocious
Still better than dandwiki amirite

>>53196386
That's not an achievement, Anon.
That's what the homebrewery is for.
Making your shit look official.

>>53196379
What's wrong with enworld?

>>53196351
>Having to use a save instead of making a normal attack is still a tactical disadvantage as it gives you less options.

Most of the good spells are save only anyway. I can't even think of any that are attack roll, as they tend to be boring damage spells. Maybe some cantrips, but at that point you'd just use a melee one.

>Of course, there's no rules for any of this by default, but the framework is left there.

And I'm saying that this is bullshit. This is an important and commonly happening part of the game, if there's rules for making a bow attack next to someone, why the fuck isn't there for throwing a fireball?

>A DM could even give extra opportunity attacks sometimes.

And the DM could just rewrite the entire combat section. FFS, I KNOW you can houserule stuff. I'm annoyed that apparently the designers didn't think to do it for me, and casters get what is essentially a free fucking pass on account of being casters.

>feats to cover for shit missing from the system

Not only are those optional, they only matter for the players. Monsters usually don't have feats.

>>53196402
idk man I don't usually homebrew

What's happening with the GitP forums? They've been disabled.

>>53196407
Not exactly something wrong, but they have a really distinctive aesthetic on their publications.

Also, they tend to go full on freeform tier of edge, even if the mechanics aren't as broken as dandwiki.

>>53196410
>Why the fuck isn't there for throwing a fireball?
You'd then have to start distinguishing between saves that originate within 5ft and are supposed to and saves that are supposed to be from ranged shots like disintegrate.

They probably should have tried to make something, but it's very easy for a DM to just say 'Oh, he's firing disintegrate at 5ft, I'll give your target effectively three-thirds cover against the dex save due to their positioning' yet also say 'Actually, as a short ranged verbal spell that mostly relies on the target hearing it, I won't put any penalties on using vicious mockery within 5ft'.

You could very easily categorize it as 'Spells that require line of sight to a target, the target has advantage on the save if it's within 5ft of you, unless the DM says otherwise' and/or 'If an enemy is within 5ft of you and you try to use an AoE dex save spell on them but not hit yourself as well, they have (+2? +5? Advantage?)'

I'd say each of those aren't really hardcore nerfs to anything and they kind of make sense. Sure, there're some spells that might still work like thunderwave, but thunderwave is supposed to be coming from the caster and probably be used at close ranges anyway.

>>53196501
>>53196410
Oh, and
>Monsters don't usually have feats
>Optional, feats

Feats are barely optional for martials. A lot of them are quite important for them being good at what they're supposed to be good at. Sure, a player can not take it, but they'd feel stupid for doing that.
But that's a whole different argument which ends in 'actually, we shouldn't have these weapon feats' and starts with 'but you're probably getting GWM/Sharpshooter/etc before sentinel or some people want to start on focusing attack instead of better opportunity attacks'
... But at the very least, if players wanted good opportunity attacks, sentinel is a thing that exists, as well as warcaster.

Monsters on the other hand, it's pretty reasonable to have maybe humanoids who're clearly trained anti-mages who just so happen to have anti-mage related abilities such as making attacks on casters casting within 5ft and potentiall disrupting the spell.

>>53196501
My problem is that 4e kinda already did it, but they went back to saves over defenses, which fucked it all up again.

Even then, I could easily see any ranged somatic attack spell just have the DC lowered by five/enemies get advantage on saving throw just by the fact that there's a guy in your face so you can't just wave your arms around (unless you are targeting him and waving your arm at him, like with a sword or something). This is an easily enforceable blanket clause with no need for making smaller rulings for each spell.

>>53196521
Yeah, feats are a whole other can of worms that I don't want to get into, and that I honestly think were handled very poorly exactly because of the reasons you say.

>Monsters on the other hand, it's pretty reasonable to have maybe humanoids who're clearly trained anti-mages who just so happen to have anti-mage related abilities such as making attacks on casters casting within 5ft and potentiall disrupting the spell.

Right, for specific enemies, but having those always on makes very little sense.

Why would the goblin minons or the bandits have anti-mage training? And they need to, to actually stop a caster from casting even if they get swarm/surround him.

>>53195811
Yup.

Open your PHB. Okay? You feeling me?

Turn to the Wizard.

Concentrate real hard. You'll find a class. Its called... Necromancer, can you believe it? Its to let you play a Necromancer!

Holy shit!

>>53196581
Use Mage Slayer, that simulates the advantage you have close up versus people.

>>53195764
Hex his Dex or Str, whichever is higher. Then Grapple, shove, hit him repeatedly while he's perma-prone. Presuming your Str is decent from being an Orc and Fighter.

>>53196581
>And they need to, to actually stop a caster from casting even if they get swarm/surround him.

Same way you would a martial, by killing him.

Mages are massively depowered, in exchange for them being only semi-fucked in hand to hand. I don't think I understand the massive hate boner /tg/ has for mages, is it just leftover trauma from 3e?

What happens if you make short rests last only 10 minutes?

>>53196581
>Saves over defences
Yeah, that does confuse things, which is a bit odd. There's the advantage that you can seperate 'saves' from 'AC', which is kind of nice and means you can seperate 'advantage on attack rolls' from 'enemies have disadvantage on saves', but it has made things a lot more complicated and means you have to ask 'okay, can you make a save, guy is attacking you' instead of 'Okay, I've rolled this, tell me your defence' .. But it does make it feel like surviving the attack is more in the player's hands, especially if they have reroll abilities.

I'm not sure how I feel about it overall right now.

I think if somebody wanted to stop a mage from targetting everyone, they shouldn't get it for free just by standing within 5ft of them. Maybe it's fair to grant them a bit of resistance, but it's reasonable to say 'Okay, I want to grapple the mage, but specifically grapple them to make their casting more difficult' and then the DM can come up with one of several possible improvised solutions such as 'You can make an attack which deals no damage but breaks their spell if they try to cast' or 'Everybody has advantage against saves from them' or 'The wizard's spell DC is lowered' or something like that.

Might've been good if they had this in the DMG as an alternate rule, though.
Needs less of the 'You need X feat to do this' and more 'Oh, you can try it anyway, though you won't be doing as much damage as if you were just attacking'

>>53196410
>I'm annoyed that apparently the designers didn't think to do it for me, and casters get what is essentially a free fucking pass on account of being casters.

How would they know that there's a guy who is triggered by spellcasters not being fucked over arbitrarily? Since your hatred and position is totally arbitrary, how would they know exactly what could please you, besides?

>>53196659
Then you, the anon who has asked this question for fucking WEEKS, would stop asking.

>>53196649
>Same way you would a martial, by killing him.

A Ranged Martial is already quite inconvenienced by not being able to use his ranged attack.

Meanwhile, evocation wizard (who is traditionally a ranged artillery type) just fireballs himself (shaped hole in the middle).

I'm not upset about balanced. I understand that the balance is good. I'm upset that it removes an important part with tactics, i.e. get your melee dudes next to their ranged dudes (which the wizard mostly was).

>>53196672
>How would they know that there's a guy who is triggered by spellcasters not being fucked over arbitrarily?

How the fuck is it arbitrary to expect the wizard to not be as good at casting fireballs while being poisoned and grappled to the ground?

>>53194143
video link?

>>53196667
>>53196581
(Cont..)
And once you've allowed players to try to grapple to make magic casting harder (But don't reduce the mage's speed to 0, reduce mage's speed by half but the fighter follows their movement, as if the mage was dragging the fighter) then the monsters could do it to players, too.

Basically, if you feel there isn't enough tactics in, you can homebrew a couple of things in or just be more encouraging about improvised actions providing they make sense and you can come up with reasonable models for each.


Though the thing is instead of having good model examples like the above they put in shit like flanking, 'You get advantage if there's an enemy standing on the other side!' ... Fuck that.

So it's really the alternate rules that're fucked.

>>53196688
This is the first time I've asked this thread actually, but all the more power to you to autistically screech. Screech, screech away. Please.

>>53194933
Because a lot of these rolls are ones you can just roll again for auto success if you're willing to spend the time on it, or the GM was just wasting time and effort by making you roll for something trivial, or you cant try again anyway so there's no harm in knowing what you rolled.

>>53196728
To be fair, it's come up a lot of times.

>>53196659
Warlocks would cast armor of agathys and then rest 10 minutes, or warlocks multiclassed into other classes might find silly combinations they can spam.
As long as you're careful about those it's fine, but all it means is basically you're saying 'Unless you get into combat right away again, assume you have a short rest between every combat'

However, really, you should have a short rest every two combats, apparently. Probably. So it might be a bit imbalanced and players will always use their short rest powers in a combat. That can be okay, though, that's also part of the intention.


An alternative is just saying 'After an hour, you get short rest things back'. Not even having to say 'an hour of rest', just 'an hour' as if it's a cooldown. Though players might still need to rest in a dungeon.

I could go on and on, but the big question is:

What's the campaign?

The length and style of rests depends highly on the campaign style. Sometimes you don't want six encounters every day, so you make short rests a whole day and long rests a whole week. Some people go 'OH NO YOU'RE NERFING WIZARDS' but literally all you're doing is maintaining the balance of encounters to combats.

>>53196694

>A Ranged Martial is already quite inconvenienced by not being able to use his ranged attack.

Not at all. He can either move away, and has plenty of opportunities to do so, or switch to a dex weapon for... almost the same damage. The caster, as far as I can tell, suffers the same penalties if he uses a ranged spell.

>evocation wizard

He does one thing in a dreadfully half assed fashion. Let him have it. Are you going to complain about life clerics next? Besides, if casters have a role beyond concentration, its in cleaning up the garbage fodder types. Let him have his one thing.

>I'm upset that it removes an important part with tactics,

It doesn't, in any way. The lifeblood of casters are his concentration spells. Additionally, different save categories are a pretty big deal.

Lets also remember there's a whole category of enemy (legendaries) which you have to basically sit out.

>>53194308
Not water but...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=45VtzmtA_C0

anyone else lose control of their game?

players went completely off the wall after they completed a big quest, gave them a manor and everything. They encountered before a mindflayer with 2 guards acting as its servants. So they decide to bait it out, especially because they were seen by one party member.

mindflayers waltz up to the bait player after 3 bandits, who die in one hit and run off, distract the party. The players see the mind flayers but fuck around with the bandits, killing off a player because they didn't actually try to save him. Then another party member gets really messed up, then killed the next round because they are still fucking around.

So two player deaths, then three after I ad lib a ring into a ring of three wishes so that they can bring back their friends, I liked their characters and didn't want them to die so suddenly.

Well, first one player doesn't want his character, so they use two wishes on getting an army and reviving one player. Then he wishes to be the emperor. The players don't know any lore about the emperor or just passing knowledge that their is one. Well, I modeled it after 40k, so the player becomes half dead but ultimately completes his character goals.

feel like I completely fucked up my world

>>53196775
Yeah, assume we're all the same person. Maybe it's a common tweak to the core rules.

>>53193065

R8 my magic items i planned for my players:

For the Open Hand Monk who's a medic
>Serpent's Essence Gloves
>Once per turn add 1d4 poison damage to unarmed strike.
>Once per short rest cast Cure Wounds at a level equal to half of the players proficiency bonus.

For the Paladin who's our frontliner
>Sunwheel Edge (Greatsword)
>Instead of slashing damage this weapon deals Radiant damage at day and Cold damage at night.
>+1 bonus to damage rolls
>Once per long rest cast Daylight or Darkness.

For the Spear-Master Stone Sorcerrer
>Spear of the Earth Drake
>As a bonus action you can shift spear into a shovel or other digging tool to gain a digging speed of 25 ft. To transform the spear back you only need to use a free voice command.
>+1 to damage rolls.
>The spear is indestructable unless destroyed with a wish spell.

For the Kensai Monk
>12 Returning Stars (12 darts and a quiver for them, silvered)
>After making an attack roll these darts teleport back to the quiver in case of a miss and after the damage roll in case of a hit.
>Once per long rest an an action you may fire of a number of darts equal to your Wisdom Modifier against a single target using a command word in which case they automatically fly out of the quiver towards their target. Do a separate attack roll for each dart. On a hit the darts deal MA+Dex mod+proficency bonus in magical piercing damage.

>>53196877
>making custom magical items for your party members suited to their class and playstyle
>not rollingly randomly on loot tables that don't even contain weapons the party uses and letting them fight over which character gets the items (of which there are one fewer than party members)

>>53183274
Only let players with proficiency roll for certain things.

Instead of everybody rolling history, only those proficient in history roll it. You might also allow someone with sufficient intelligence to roll, say 'You must have at least 15 intelligence to roll for this without proficiency'

However, everybody could try to kick down a door without proficieny in door-kicking.

>>53196937
As much as I agree with this
>Fuck these guys who think you should have a santa list of free items to give to players without any real meaning to it rather than giving them, what, a free customizable feat that would allow them to choose their playstyle instead of you forcing a playerstyle on them?

I don't agree with random loot. Loot should make sense for where it is. In an ancient dwarf fortress, you would expect to find a magical hammer, not a magical [random weapon].

>>53196964
The important thing to note about this is that if you're going to have everyone in the party roll to kick down a door, it'll be because the guy with 18 strength got a shit roll and the group is in a situation where everyone can line up and have a go.

In that kind of environment, there is no reason for the guy with 18 Strength to fail in the first place. If you are going to allow success for a 10 Str Gnome Wizard in kicking down this door because the DC is just 18 or some shit, just fucking G I V E I T to the beefy guy.

>>53196985
i was actually making fun of people like you
also dwarves invented swords

>>53196877
>Shovel spear
But why
A shovel doesn't make sense, there is no way you could shovel 25ft every 6 seconds unless you obliterate your body
Instead, it should be a drill. A drill-spear.
You did say 'other digging implement' but just don't suggest shovel.

>Paladin
>Greatsword
I see someone hasn't had a visit from OptimizationGrandpa yet. Instead of a greatsword, give them the gift of munchkinning.

A digging speed of 25ft is vastly stronger than everything else as far as I'm aware, unless you make all your dungeons out of adamantium.

And... While everybody else gets +damage, why is the kensai the one that gets screwed over with only 'you get returning darts!' which only makes up for the fact they're using ammo and have limited ammo unlike everyone else? Is the kensai too powerful compared to everyone else?

>>53197000
I don't know, 'Magic items are where you expect them to be' is completely different to 'Santa dropped off all the magic items where you needed them to be'

>>53197040
To be a shovel knight, duh.

>>53196991
Pretty much. I'd probably say a similar thing for knocking down a door, actually:
'You must have X strength to even attempt to kick this down, assuming you're of a medium size'
But don't have any strict written guidelines. Just peer over and think 'Huh, you have 10 strength. You're not kicking it down no matter what you try, you can always try something else'. rather than literally stating what strength you need.

>>53197045
What the fuck does this even mean?

>>53197054
DOES THIS LOOK LIKE A GAME TO YOU?

>>53197064
You're playing a roleplaying game, autist.

>>53197075
Stop spouting your nihilistic nonsense about us being trapped in some simulation and let's hurry up and save the princess already, elf.

Is a Kensai X/ War Cleric 1 for Divine Favor and the bonus action attack sometimes worth it?

Is there something better to mix Kensai with?

>>53197093
After you, stunty legs.

>>53193005

The reason for this is that most people on /tg/ aren't playing a game or have never played one and the onls thing left to them at first is creating new characters, and then minmaxing the shit out of them when even that gets boring.

>>53196937
They need to work for an artificer to get them.
They work as part of a plot hook.

>>53197040
>>53197040
>>Shovel spear
>But why
>A shovel doesn't make sense, there is no way you could shovel 25ft every 6 seconds unless you obliterate your body
>Instead, it should be a drill. A drill-spear.
>You did say 'other digging implement' but just don't suggest shovel.

>>Paladin
>>Greatsword
>I see someone hasn't had a visit from OptimizationGrandpa yet. Instead of a greatsword, give them the gift of munchkinning.

Why do you dislike a knight in shining armour getting a nice shiny sword?

>A digging speed of 25ft is vastly stronger than everything else as far as I'm aware, unless you make all your dungeons out of adamantium.

Read up on digging speed.
Through normal loose earth it's 25ft.
Anything denser slows you down as far as i'm aware of.

>And... While everybody else gets +damage, why is the kensai the one that gets screwed over with only 'you get returning darts!' which only makes up for the fact they're using ammo and have limited ammo unlike everyone else? Is the kensai too powerful compared to everyone else?

Kensai also gets a burst attack that's usable with the lvl 6 feature that grants a 1d4 damage bonus onto each dart.
And as you said infinite magic ammo is something any ranged martial would want.

>>53197139
Kensai 6/Battlemaster Fighter with Sharpshooter.

Throw arround some darts.

>>53197205
I'm more feeling Kensai 6, Assassin X for that right now. The idea of jumping out with a 4d6+2d4+Sneak Attack Critical+DEX dart sounds fun as fuck.

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What the fuck is pic related?

>>53197235
an Eldrazi, I think.

From Magic the Gathering.

>>53197235
That would be a lesser eldrazi drone draining the life-sustaining mana from an elvish resistance warrior.

>>53197192
>Why do you dislike a knight in shining armour getting a nice shiny sword?
Because a mundane polearm would be better for combat than that greatsword if they 'did things right'
Read: Munchkinned.
Read: I've been on /5eg/ so long that all I have left is to be angry at people who decided on using a sword instead of a halberd because 'it's cooler' and fun isn't allowed anymore.

>Digging speed
"A monster that has a burrowing speed can use that
speed to move through sand, earth, mud, or ice. A
monster can't burrow through solid rock unless it has a
special trait that allows it to do so. "
So, not specifically loose earth, but anything that isn't solid rock. Pretty much what you said.

It's mostly that, with this, you could in theory just hide underground and be impervious to almost everything, then pop up from beneath people, attack, then hide away again if you have appropriate things such as the mobile feat to avoid reaction attacks.
At least, it feels like it needs some sort of restriction such as not being able to use it in combat for crazy shit, but allowing it for doing stuff like tunneling under a house or through a thin rock wall or.. Something.
Eh.
Feels like it'd be hard to use in combat without becoming cheesy.

>Infinite magic ammo
Not if the magic is a once-an-X ability. Otherwise they can just use mundane ammo (It's cheap) and only use the magic ammo when they want to use a 'once every whenever' ability only sometimes and pick up the ammo after the fight

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>>53197235
>>53197244
>>53197250
How would I fuck up my players with it?
Chuul with legendary resistance and legendary actions?

Ok /5eg/. I'm a big slut for Archfey shit on account of playing an elderly high elf warlock woman who's trying to find the Archfey man she's spent her whole life with until catastrophic events happened and her connection to him was severed because he lost his physical body.

Has anyone bothered putting out homebrew spells for Archfey warlocks that don't suck for the DM and don't suck for me as the player? Existing spell list is nice but I want extra shit if it exists and it's good. Bonus points if it's got to do with ravens or birds in general, because that's what her Archfey is the lord of.

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>>53196805
bump for shitty advice and how I'm a horrible dm

>>53197192
>>53197261
.. But, yes, I suppose the 1d4 feature works, though aside from that burst it's weird they get no persistent +Damage while everybody else gets it. But that's probably fine anyway. I'm not too keen on kensai as an archetype, it's too much in the realms of 'Monk is too hard for me to understand, I don't want more abilities, I just want to deal more damage'

>>53197262
You could do that, yeah.

Basically any Eldrazi is pretty damn deadly to most, so legendary res/actions are fitting.

Maybe make the tentacle move on the chuul some kind of stat drain instead of poison+paralysis?

>>53197235
An Eldrazi, they make pretty good villains if you want the party to end up loosing because happy endings suck.

If you're ever in mood for a running a campaign about these things I highly recommend picking up the Art of Zendikar. It's basically a setting book for the thing with no hard rules, but the Planeshift Zendikar article gives races and monsters for it.

It's a very cool setting.

>>53197262
I mentioned that was a Lesser Drone, right?

If there's one of them nearby, there's an entire army of them not far behind.

>>53197262
https://media.wizards.com/2016/downloads/magic/Plane%20Shift%20Zendikar.pdf

Page 38.

>>53196805
>>53197275
Sounds like enormous fun to me.

Now make him deal with invasions from an outside threat, since he's the emperor and obliged to manage his kingdom.

>>53197282
>>53197283
>>53197285
>>53197295
Ah, good stuff, good stuff. Cheers heaps bros.
What exactly are the eldrazi anyway? eldritch horrors from beyond all known realities? demons in a sense from another dimension? Our evolved and perfected selves come to cleanse and uplift?

>>53197326
>eldritch horrors from beyond all known realities?
This except even more incomprehensible. Like they deplete everything and don't even exist in the world kinda for some reason no one can even understand. Their desires aren't something you could even begin to learn.

Only solution is to kill or imprison them.

>>53196805
My party has two revivify casters + 1 rod of resurrection (only one player knows about it), so I think I'm going to start having ultra hard battles that risk killing off the whole party every time.

>>53197326
Ageless, timeless beings who move from plane to plane consuming all life force there.

Powerful mage-equivalents bound them to a physical form to trap them in one plane where they could deal minimal damage, which is why they now have drones and lesser beings hovering around them rather than just being evil titanic clouds of magical potential.

Closest analogue would be something like Cthulhu but with a Darth Nihilus-style hunger.

>>53197326
Eldrazi are basically extensions of various god-like beings from the gulf outside reality.

They went around eating worlds, only for three planeswalkers (godlike beings at the time, able to shift worlds at whim) binding them inside one world to protect all the myriad worlds.

Only some idiots let them out.

>>53197326
Add to what the previous anons are saying, it's also been vaguely hinted at that they serve as part of some greater inter-planar renewal cycle.

Make no mistake though, they consume entire planes, whole. The physical bodies that actually manifest are just like 3d shadows of whatever the fuck they actually are, some crazy ass conceptual being that exists in the void between planes.

>>53196877
I'd have the spear be able to make the Stone Aegis' teleporting opportunity attack without teleporting, ie they thrust the spear into the ground and it emerges attacking the target - and if they do teleport, or otherwise make that attack at 5ft range, the attack is then made at advantage. Aside from that, just a +1 spear with a steel haft and a tip that's hard as diamond but looks like polished marble.

I'd also make the gloves act as a +1 weapon for the purpose of magical whatever and attack/damage, and the same for the darts unless the Kensei's Sharpen the Blade feature spreads to all twelve darts rather than just the one they touched (which it obviously should, for the sake of simplicity in implementation, but as a property of a magical item it ties it to their class more).

Alternately, to get around the weird issue of Sharpen the Blade affecting the darts individually, make it a single dart that flies back to the monk after the attack but allows them to use their Flurry of Blows to attack multiple times within their range, including against separate targets - ie, spend a ki point to make two additional attacks with the dart instead of their unarmed attacks. Without a +1 that'd still be strong (maybe make that a one/short rest feature or something). It's Yondu's arrow. Give him Yondu's fucking arrow.

>>53197192
>Kensai also gets a burst attack that's usable with the lvl 6 feature that grants a 1d4 damage bonus onto each dart.
I don't know what the fuck this Kensei dart meme build is but it doesn't seem like it actually needs darts: a Kensei can use a Longbow per either version (new specifically states it, old only states "martial weapon") which has every benefit of darts but a better damage die without the level investment, and doesn't have shit interaction with the 11th level feature RAW if you take it there.

If you want meme potential your choices should be whip and blowgun anyway.

>>53197405
In some respects the D&D monster they're most similar to are the Draedens.

Will I break my game if I remove one time material costs for spells?

Laughed my ass off last night

>Intellect devourer replaces artificer's brain
>alright guys, I'm sure he is still in there, we can heal him
>character does poltergeist voice shit, he's dead jim
>tie him up and pour a keg of ale and 3 fine wines down his throat, he is/was a drunkard
>player vomits violently, then the intellect devourer hops out and proceeds to phase puke out the players brain before dying to alcohol poisoning
>sorcerer has worst arcana checks, and tries to use a helm of teleportation to teleport the brain into his body
>he manages to get half of the brain in the dead players body,using all 3 charges
>barbarian pulls out his carpenter tools and takes the top part of the artificers skull off
>proceeds to put both halves of the brain in, a potion of vitality and a healing potion, putting the skull on backwards and shaking it like a martini
>rolls a nat20 on medicine
>I allow the player to come back to life for 2-3 seconds with -20 int modifier
>dead player groans, dying again
the players have 40k gold and could easily resurrect him

>>53197463
Yes, because you make reviving spells free this way. If you account for that and have some countermeasure, it shouldn't be too bad. In 5e material components are usually not consumed after casting.

>>53197442
Draeden?

>>53197499
>I allow the player to come back to life for 2-3 seconds with -20 int modifier
Sounds hilarious, though I think you should have let him live as essentially a living zombie.

>>53197499
Thank you for not letting a nat20 reverse life and death anon.

>wizard gets disintegrated into dust
>I draw a smily face in the dust
"you're beginning to look like your old self again master!"
>nat20 heal
>he's saved
>EBIN FUGGIN WIN :DDD

>>53197499
good stuff
frankenstein him

>>53197518
Its a jewish toy monster from the infamous Gold Box, they are a spinny thing with a bunch of tentacles that can sunder worlds.

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>>53197342
>>53197353
>>53197363
>>53197405
>>53197442
Thanks bros, it's all very enlightening. I've been reading up on them and attendant drones and all the other eldritch abominations as well. They're savage as fuck motherfuckers.

Found someone's stats for Emrakul, the Aeons Torn, goddamn that appellation is amazing. What do you think of it?

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So right now my character wants to buy an inner city tavern. To do so she needs at least 5K gold deposit for a mortgage. I only have about 1K gold on me.

I'm not 100% sure on dnd 5e banking rules but can I:
1. go to a bank, deposit that 1K gold to start a credit account
2. withdraw 5 K gold from that credit account
3. go to another bank to have a mortage and down payment for a tavern

Would this work? Or would dnd banks have stuff precautions against this kind of thing? Or is thing up to the DM?

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>>53197518
>>53197518
Obscure as fuck monsters that dislike all matter.

They're generally found only in basic D&D but one ended up in the Abyss when it formed around him. It's now mistaken for a layer. Lolth occasionally goes to trade information with it.

>>53197552
I dig it. She's one of those things where at the end of the game it should be "Well we might be able to stop her but likely not".

I would recommend using them for an inter-planes campaign. Hopping through them trying to hunt down Eldrazi before luring them into a trap like they originally did to them.

The adventures of Sorin, Nahiri and Ugin would make a pretty cool thing to rip an adventure out of.

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>>53197552
Kozilek

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>>53197552
And Ulamog

>>53197552
Seems about right. Players shouldn't really be able to defeat them, they're less enemies and more forces of nature. Like trying to fight a plane.

If incorporating them as the end-game, you could probably work with replicating the MtG story and having the players work to bind them to somewhere they'll do minimum damage until released in the distant future, rather than straight up defeating them.

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>>53197564
if' youre going to bank, the only way is the dragon bank.

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>>53197606
>>53197643
I would absolutely want to run or play in a game like pic related. Holy shit would it be great.

And will definitely take on your advice on board.

>>53196154
If character optimisation is your thing, just stay at home, make optimised characters all day and play solo against encounters from the MM.
You fucking tool.

>>53197677
>We've worked out how to trap the Eldrazi
>We can bind them to a single plane, and they'll destroy everything on it, but once they're sated, they won't be able to leave by themselves
>The rest of reality will be safe, but...
>The only plane we can bind them to... Is our own.

>>53196154
You realize what game you're playing, right? It's an actual rpg not a spreadsheet simulator.

Does anybody have experience with the flanking rule? Players want a more tactical experience. For those who don't know the exact rules:

If two enemies of a creature are on opposite sides, they both gain advantage on attack rolls against the creature.

The party is new and wants the challenge but I'm used to non flanking and enemies having advantage when I outmaneuver them seems like I'm going to kill them.

I've already TPK'd them and am trying to lighten up so they don't have to keep making characters.

>>53197677
The Planeshift Innistrad pdf gives some tips on that as well.

(That being a plane where one of the Eldrazi titans was invited, the one in your picture. "She" turned up alone and so instead of making the linages of Eldrazi seen in other planes. She took over other creatures around, turning them into hybrid creatures, and part of her.)

>>53197795
Have the enemies do it one or two times to your toughest player so that hopefully it sinks in to your players that getting flanked sucks really hard.

Make sure you say out loud "the enemy attacks with flanking advantage because they're surrounding you" every single fucking time you roll the dice so that hopefully one of your players realizes they can do the same to the bad guys.

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>>53197655
first time I've read this, thanks for posting

>>53197795
Not all enemies are likely to flank, so it can be a nice variation to switch between enemies that just rush and enemies that are tactical or simply so many that they can easily surround. Makes hordes of weak enemies more scary as well.

>>53196154
Very heavy levels of anti RAI multiclass optimizaiton for stuff that's not supposed to be multiclassed is pretty distasteful dude.

>>53196201
>While I agree with the sentiment, removing AoOs from ranged attacks/spells into melee and general movement makes it a lot less tactical.

Spells don't trigger AoOs in 3e except in the obscenely rare situation that they don't put skill points into concentration for some stupid reason. Even if they don't, they can 5' step out of combat.

Ranged combat is largely useless in 3e as a main schtick, mostly just a sideshow.

>>53197795
Flanking isn't tactical at all. Its simply permanent advantage when 2+ people are in melee.

Remember that you can do almost nothing to protect yourself from being flanked. You can't do AoOs for people maneuvering around you and you only get one so it would do very little even if you could.

>>53197628
>>53197616
>>53197552
What would be needed to defeat these? They don't look much tougher than Tiamat.

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What do you guys think about putting Vargouilles in sacks and using them as improvised stun grenades?

>>53197795
Basically >>53198064
This.

Players just need to play smarter and understand there are rules for cover, being prone, concentration, AoE attacks, whatever.

If you want more tactics involved, encourage improvisation and make battle environments interesting.
A fight over a long rope bridge has a key element for anyone trying to fight in melee, along with the fact the bridge might not be entirely stable. The players might even notice a lever that operates something about the bridge. Or the players might be able to not disarm a trap and use it against their enemies.

Sometimes there are ways you can use actions such as dodge or ready-an-action.

Sometimes there are logical improvisations you could do that would encourage tactical play, such as 'I want to restrain this guy's X by grappling them', and you might be able to have a fair rule on how that works (Obviously not 'it's a grapple check but they're under the restrained condition instead', that's just stupid)

>>53197505
What if I also get rid of ressurection spells? I plan on making death a permanent kind of thing.

>>53197795
It works fine but I don't like it. It works better in a system with bonuses like +1 for x and +2 for y.
Giving advantage for two people standing next to an enemy just trivialises gaining it because its so easy

>>53198181
The wording for its abilities is fucking awful.

Also, go nuts.

>>53198201
>>53197463
It will break the setting as there's no reason casters can't run around putting permanent everything down, such as permanent flames, permanent magic circles, whatever. They can just make them everywhere in theory.

As for how it affects the players, well..
They can stack glyphs ad infinitum to murderize everything, they can summon elementals as a ritual no problem, and so forth.

It's not really a good idea.

>>53197463
What are you giving the martials?

>>53198234
What else do you expect from Volo
thanks mang, guess prisoners won't be a problem no mas

>>53198201
>>53197463
The point of them is they are for powerful spells so you can't cast them everyday. If you didn't have material components, Bard, druids and wizards could have a constant elemental pet starting from level 9 for the cost of a spell slot, and it will get better as they level

Teleportation cancel out the fall damage right?

>>53198430
Depends on the DM and how much they like you

>>53198326
Quality, is that too much to ask?

check these results

>best 5E adventure
https://strawpoll.com/d5ygf11

>worst 5E adventure
https://strawpoll.com/z6wx4x4

>>53198503
What's Storm King's Thunder about? I'm a fan of giants.

>>53197273
Look no further than the Warlock UA that included the... Shadowblade I think it was called, and the Raven Queen.

Either call the latter straight up the Lord-in-question's favour, or see if you can mix and match a bit with the Archfey patron chassis.

Phoneposting so no link, sorry.

>>53198556
Hexblade

>>53198544
Giants rebelling against the divinely mandated caste system, waging war against the little folk and dragons, a missing king, a vanished queen, the usurpation of throne and crown, the Wyrmskull Throne, dragons in disguise manipulating everything, the Kraken Society's machinations

>>53198544
Giants are causing mayhem across the sword coast, hill Giants raising villages for food, fire giant scouts ruining all who stand in there way, and cloud giant castles are on the move. It is up to the adventurers to put an end to the atrocities and solve why the Giants are causing havoc.

>>53198544
somewhere ive read is basically Macbeth with giants.

Does lightly obscured actually do anything? The only thing I can find for it is sometimes characters/monsters can hide in it if they have an ability.

5eg, help me to cheese the shit out my game.

Right now, a lot of things depend on one of our party members making an untrained skill check. We're not in a hurry, but he must do it successfully, and he's the only one who can do it.
What are some ways to help him beyond help action and guidance? We need to guarantee his success, no matter what he rolls.

>>53198665
pull a gun on your dm?

>>53198503
>these results
As expected, it's either a toss up between CoS and SKT as best adventures. So far. The next one could be great though.
Apart from OotA and possibly ToEE, stay away from 3pp-partened shit.

>>53198707
Good suggestion, but we play online.

>>53198665
Bardic Inspiration might help. If you've got a Diviner Wizard, that'd be ideal, but I'm presuming you don't.

Beyond that, not much you can do. If you've got a Mystic, I think Nomadic Mind might do something, I forget.

>>53193603
gruhmk

>>53198665
Get a divination wizard on your party, nigga.

>>53198556
>>53198563
Link in question:
http://media.wizards.com/2017/dnd/downloads/20170213_Wizrd_Wrlck_UAv2_i48nf.pdf

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>>53198719
I don't see the problem

>>53198716
>apart from cos, skt, oota and toee
Well there is only Tyranny of Dragons left.

>>53195347
Make up a little adventure.

>settlement with large sewers (maybe the settlement has dwarven roots or something)
>ratfolk have emerged from the sewers, this has never happened before
>small groups of ratmen take over a building each and hide in it, using it as a base of operation for nighttime theft / raiding
>ratmen kidnap somebody important (to the players or the settlement, like a visiting noble)
>ratmen were driven by the sewers by a water monster that moved in
>players probably has to deal with that one too. Use the sewers to make this encounter cool. Certain passages have portcullises / drains that can be activated to change the battlefield.
>Old ratmen lair with odd trinkets (some valuable) as the final treasure.

>>53198879
Add the option to dipomacy with ratmen. They will return to their home if you deal with the monster in the sewers. And they give you a map of the sewers with traps revealed.

>>53198805
Depends on how much you can stomach it, ToEE is a convulted mess, the main story start begins in chapter 5 or some shit. OotA too is a jumble of a mess but it has good ideas.
SKT and CoS are the only legitimately good modules.

>>53198665
Well tell us what you have to work with cock juggler.

>>53198636
When someone makes a check to find you they have disadvantage if you are lightly obscured from them. Passive perception is -5.

>>53197564
Afraid it depends on the setting (or the DM), buddy.

What do you guys think of Yawning Portal? Spoiler free of course.

>>53197795
I let my players and monsters focus on one direction and anyone who attacks from the opposite direction gains advantage.

>>53198929
>>53198879
Yeah. If you do it well enough, ratmen agree to work as garbage men for the settlement.

My players want to hire on the skills of a sorcerer they rescued in a dungeon.

How much would a level 3 Sorcerer (The players are level 5) charge daily for their services?

>>53199175
Depends on what they ask him to do. Just tag along and help in all adventures? How about 1gp per day and an equal share of treasure.

>>53199016
It's the only adventure book I bought for 5E after the Tiamat disaster. I like it. The modules are classics. So it's basically an adaptation. I will run the Sunless Citadel soon.

I always prefer these kind of smaller modules to giant campaign books because we never have the time to finish them and it's just a massive work for the DM to read a 300 pages beast tome and then run it. I am so glad I sold my PF's Rise of Runelords anniversary edition book.

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Thoughts on this homebrew? I am thinking it would be a CR 1/8.

Tabby Phase Cat
Tiny monstrosity, unaligned

Armor Class 12
Hit Points 2 (1d4)
Speed 40 ft., climb 30 ft.

STR:DEX:CON:INT:WIS:CHA
3(-4):15(+2):10(+0):3(-4):12(+1):7(-2)

Skills Perception +3, Stealth +4
Senses passive Perception 13
Languages –

Avoidance.
If the tabby phase cat is subjected to an effect that allows it to make a saving throw to take only half damage, it instead takes no damage if it succeeds on the saving throw, and only half damage if it fails.
Displacement.
The tabby phase cat projects a magical illusion that makes it appear to be standing near its actual location, causing attack rolls against it to have disadvantage. If it is hit by an attack, this trait is disrupted until the end of its next turn. This trait is also disrupted while the displacer beast is incapacitated or has a speed of 0.
Keen Smell.
The tabby phase cat has advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on smell.

ACTIONS
Claws.
Melee Weapon Attack: +3 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 1 slashing damage.

>>53194782
I own Campaign Cartographer, and while the program is pretty flexible, it's also a bit obtuse and not exactly user friendly at first. Buy the base version if u wanna try it before you dump the money on all the other bells and whistles. It's a stupid high investment on something you may not like or even use in the end.

>>53199016
Currently running a White Plume Mountain game.

It is pretty fun, and I am happy with how dangerous the dungeon is. A bunch of hirelings are already dead, and they are only 1/3 of the way through.

>>53199337
missed edited out displacer beast in the third sentence of displacement.

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>>53198503
>No Starter Set / LMoP

So l've run Lost Mines of Phandelver and decided to make and adventure in a homebrew setting for my new group.
How do l make an interesting setting? lt doesn't need to be too gimmicky and it can even use the gods of forgotten realm, but l want it to last. How do you guys do it?

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I keep bouncing back and forth between French aristocracy and Black Adam isolationism when trying to conceive where my Oath of the Crown paladin is from and what he's like. Any ideas or advice on where I should go with it?

>>53198033
>Spells don't trigger AoOs in 3e except in the obscenely rare situation that they don't put skill points into concentration for some stupid reason.

I don't give a fuck about 3e, in 4e you didn't have that option, and that is my benchmark for tactical combat.

>>53199529
Think about what you think is cool. Think about how it came to be, how those reasons influenced everything else.

Viola you have yourself a setting.

Gonna be running a dungeon with 7 floors. Is this considered a Mega Dungeon? What should I watch out for / be worried about as a DM?

Tips? Recommendations?

inb4
>Don't run a megadungeon

l need ideas for a magical helm to give my PCs (and by that l mean the battlemaster fighter) right now quick give me something good

>>53199622
Sombrero of Disguise

>>53199529
Let the players come up with setting information.

That Wizard? Ask where he learned his craft.

The Rogue's player gets to design his own thieve's guild.

Keep some things, like history, a secret, so there is a sense of discovery when the players do find out.

Don't draw too many maps. Unless the players can use them to travel, no one really cares outside of talking about what country they are from.
>My fighter is from a chivalrous land to the east

>>53199601
Give this a listen.

https://dungeonmasterblock.podbean.com/e/119-mega-mega-dungeons-feat-mike-mearls/

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I need your help, /5eg/.

There's a high chance my DM might not be able to make it to our session, but everyone else already put out the time and we are getting together regardless of the outcome.

I'm considering running a one-shot for them instead of our current campaign. So my question is, does anyone has or knows of easy to prepare one shots or overall short stories that could be resolved ins a 4~ hour session?

Our group is familiar with 5e, we are on our 4th campaign, but chargen might take a while for them.

I own tales of the yawning portal and was considering something from there, but I also have all of the PDFs for everything else, if something like death house or the 1st chapter from SKT could work. I haven't gotten around reading any of those, though.