/5eg/ Fifth Edition General

>>53976871
Guns are neat but they can't be well balanced with everything else unless they're just reskinned crossbows.

I have another good topic of discussion. What are your most creative uses of cantrips? Bonus points for combos.

>>53976920
>What are your most creative uses of cantrips?

My players were sneaking through a goblin compound and were rummaging through a room full of loot when a goblin came by and noticed them from inside the doorway. The goblin screams, pulls its sword, and takes a half-step into the room when the Cleric uses thaumaturgy to "instantaneously cause an unlocked door...to...slam shut" right on the goblin's face.

Everything lined up so perfectly that I let it knock the goblin back in a daze, and since the door got slammed shut, the players barricaded themselves inside to formulate a plan now that they had been caught.

Why haven't you banned variant humans from your games, /5eg/?

>>53976991
Because I want people to actually play humans, and I don't play with people who only play D&D for combat so it's still not taken that often.

>>53976991
Because my players aren't massive faggots.

>>53976991

Because no one would ever play humans otherwise.

Also, a human needs something to accommodate for literally zero racial feats. Cool, an extra language. Thanks.

Half-elves are the busted ones, if you ask me.

>>53976991
this is why i'm reworking all races in my campaign so everyone gets a feat

I've given the paladin player in my game a +1 longsword. I haven't told him what it does just yet. I be only described the sword nearly jumping to unsheath itself whenever anyone insults him or gives him attitude .

What sort of effect do you think would fit this?
I was thinking of giving it the effect of tying with enemies who roll higher initiative than him. Does that seem too strong?
I was initially going to make it a +2 magic weapon whenever he made a successful wisdom saving throw but the level 7 devotion feature makes me hestitate

How to handle area-of-effect when doing theatre-of-the-mind? It feels cheap to just arbitrarily say it catches this many enemies, or to say those players get caught, I guess

Hey guys, I'm currently setting up a campaign for my first time as a DM, and I was hoping I could get some help on something specific.

I'm pretty alright at creative writing so I'm working to create a really interesting narrative, have created my own world with a thorough background etc etc.

To engage the players even more, I had this idea about having personal goals/quests/objectives for each character. Just a single side-plot for each individual that they can undertake during the campaign, ignore completely if they want, or convince the party to help them do it. They've all given me their player backgrounds/bios ahead of time so I can tailor these personal quests. To add an extra dynamic, I wanted to set it up in a way where the objective would be revealed to the player in a way that the other players wouldn't realise anything has happened.

Something along the lines of an NPC mentioning a place/person who exists only in a certain character's background. That way, the player would be aware that it is something for their character, and then have the option of telling the party about it.

As incentive for keeping it a secret, I imagined something like, only the player would receive a reward if nobody else knew about it, but it would be more difficult to achieve without informing the party. I'm still really in love with the idea, but really struggling as to how I'd actually implement it in a way that isn't horribly shoehorned into the middle of a campaign - especially when each player will have their own personal quest.

Anybody got any experience with this sort of thing, or just general tips for making it a smoother plot point?

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>>53976920
>What are your most creative uses of cantrips?
It's a tie
Either
>Be me, first level halfling sorcerer
>Be sneaking through goblin caves, disguised as a gobbo to 18 CHARISMA my way out if need be
>Crude map I had led me to McGuffin chamber
>Heroically burst door open to reveal the throne room of gobbo warboss
>Without missing a beat, I declare myself as "Glargnazz, Magical Muffin Salesman"
>Incredulous room, incredulous warboss
>Not to be deterred, I pull a muffin I had previously looted and cast light on it
>Warboss is stunned and enthralled, offers me anything for that fucking muffin
>I stroll out with the McGuffin and a new false identity (which would end up being very recurrent)

or

>be me, low level human druid
>be trying to distract some villagers in a stable so we can sneak by them
>I send my raven familiar in to talk to them
>"Hey, you guys wanna see something cool?"
>One of them passes both the perception and wisdom checks to understand him
>"Wha-at?"
>"I said, do you guys wanna see something... Cool?"
>The braver of the two nods enthusiastically
>My raven hops over to a sack of barley, and tears a hole in it, causing some to spill out
>Cast druidcraft
>Bam, barley shoots
>Slight applause
>Raven backs up and waves wing over torn sack
>Cast Mending
>Louder applause
>Druidcraft to snuff out the lanterns in the stable
>Cast Produce Flame through my familiar
>He juggles the orb, before throwing it into the air where it produced a small firework
>Loud applause, we didn't even have to roll stealth

>>53977064
They make pretty good paladins and sorcerers, in my experience. Their apartment nobility lends well to those roles and forms easily-adaptable backgrounds.

>>53977144
Sounds like an eager sword to me. Maybe he has a bonus to hit on people with less initiative than him and can be called into his hand even if its across the room.

>>53976920
Minor illusion to create the sound of riders approaching, and pretending it's reinforcements
One of my fave combos in recent memory is our swashbuckler fiendlock. She uses mage hand to move around a rock she had cast darkness on during a fight.

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>>53976871
requesting best v.human wizard cantrip
im creating an astrologer divination wizard who claims to "see into the future"
have been told lucky is good but arcanist and alert also seem like strong contenders

>>53977372
>v.human
>div wiz

Wew.

>>53977372
>cantrip
Do you mean feat?

Also, ditch v. human and go halfling for the full luck meme build.

>>53976920
Prestidigition gets a lot of love here, but I think it is still underrated.
It basically makes you Jesus.
>find a regular guy in town
>use Prestidigitation to give him an uneasy feeling and a black mark on his skin
>approach him later within the hour, tell him that he has been cursed
>offer to end the curse, wave your hand across him, make your hand glow and make a magical sound, snuff out a nearby fire for additional effect
>end your 'curses' on him, give him a warm, comfortable feeling and a pleasant odor, re-ignite the nearby fire
>you now have a religion based on you

>>53976920
>using create water to make a pool to summon a watery fist
>using minor illusion to distract a monster so our ranger could get out of melee range
>combining mage hand and a bag of holding to vacuum up a room full of loot

>>53977462
yes i ment feat, sorry was thinking about the cantrip the arcanist feat gives you

>>53976871
I use guns in my homebrew world. They're just the guns from the dmg. They're not spectacular or overpowered like most of what /tg/ says. I don't know where they get that idea from

>>53976920
I signed a contract with Mage Hand.
When I later broke that contract, the arbiter found that I hadn't truly signed, and therefore was never beholden to the contract.
Not guilty, y'all got to feel me.

>>53977610
Ah the Violet Baudelaire defense

What's the best character for murdering spellcasters? I was thinking of a Fighter/Thief with the Mage Slayer feat.

>>53977610
It's your will controlling a hand, and by extension pen, to sign, in your name.

How is it not binding just because it wasn't a physical hand signing?

Can someone point me to where the erotic homebrew provided a few weeks ago is stored?

No, you can't use ensnaring strike and swing with it.

>>53977664
anything with counterspell, really

>>53977664
An Oath of the Ancients has Aura of Protection (add charisma to saving throws) and Warding (resistance to spell damage) while an Abjurer has Spell Resistance (advantage on spell saving throws and resistance to spell damage). Monk's Stunning Strike will ruin anyone's day and Diamond Soul grants proficiency in all saving throws. Bards, Clerics, and Rangers can cast Silence while Bards, Eldritch Knights, Arcane Tricksters, Warlocks, Sorcerers, and Wizards can cast Counterspell. Clerics and Wizards can cast Antimagic Field. Every spellcaster, except the Ranger, can cast Dispel Magic.

I'm playing a V.Human Arcana Cleric melee meme build with Magic Initiate Druid for Shillelagh in an upcoming game, starting at level 3.

At what point should I pick up Warcaster for OA Booming Blades?

>>53977866
How often can you force OA?

>>53976920
If you don't have any of the items yet and run into a vampire/vampire spawn in CoS, dousing said vampire in water and animating it as a mobius strip around said vampire is an auto 20 damage / regen cancel every turn.

>>53978075
Command is a first level Cleric spell that can do it.

>>53977830
Chink flavor Mystic can spam counterspell all day erry day.

>>53978080
Depends on what your DM qualifies as running water. I would definitely let it count just for fun, but I know a saddeningly large number of DMs that wouldn't.

>>53976991

Because I like giving people the option to take a level 1 feat if they want one while also giving people the option to pass on said feat for a basket of racial goodies.

>>53977149

When we're running gridless I use Mike Shea's system: http://slyflourish.com/guide_to_narrative_combat.html http://s3.amazonaws.com/slyflourish_content/5e_guide_to_narrative_combat.pdf

I think it hits the sweet spot between not being so crunchy that I might as well have gotten grid out, but not so fluff that it feels like nothing matters except for damage dice.

>>53977334

It seems like both humans are designed to fill game niches: normal humans are a solid choice for MAD characters and variants for feat-heavy characters.

>>53977664

Depends on if you're going in for a solo kill or if you're just trying to tangle them up so other people can lay the actual hurt.

>>53977699

Laws hinge on weirder things.

>>53977372
Lucky, obviously.

Hey /5eg/, I was thinking of homebrewing a sort of Mana-vampire race for a setting I'm working on. I figure giving them Counterspell as a racial would be flavorful but a little too strong. But here are the traits I've thought up so far.

+2 Con, +1 Wis

Manavore: You know the Resistance cantrip. Once you reach 3rd level you can cast Absorb Elements. Once you reach 5th level you can cast Counterspell as a 3rd level spell using Wisdom as your spellcasting modifier; you must finish a short or long rest in order to cast these spells again using this trait.

Manavoid: Due to your mutant physiology you cannot cast spells through any means except your racial traits.

Arcane Absorption: As a reaction, when you succeed on a spell save, you may regain 1d4+Con hitpoints

---------------------------------

The background is that the setting is based around this Lich who built an empire and has been effectively ruling the world unchallenged for millenia, the whole planet is shrouded in perpetual darkness and the living are forced to work underground. After a few hundred generations of getting kicked around by Evil spellcasters mutant anti-magic freaks have started multiplying in the lowest barrows. So these guys would be like, magic eating morlocks or something. Should I give them Sunlight Sensitivity? That would make sense. Not sure how the balance is, these are just flavorful traits really.

>>53978497
wait shit I fucked up editing that. It's supposed to be short or long just for Absorb Elements, Counterspell is just long rest. That's what I get for trying to make it neater.

>>53978111
But then you are using your spell slot resource to cast a cantrip. Don't you see what's wrong with that? You need something like Dissonance Whisper to make it worthwhile.

Parry is such a stupid reaction.

Does anybody have a great noble's mansion as a map for roll20 at hand?

>>53978497
Alright.

So they have stats that align them as a WIS frontline caster like Cleric, but they can't cast spells. They will be worse then anyone with +1 STR or DEX at every class they can play. So they're gonna be behind everyone.

They're locked into 4 classes.

They can have unlimited healing just by haivng an ally spam something like light on you.

Honestly this race is just badly made. 5e only ever gives very minor penalties, only being able to play 4 classes where you'll suck at all of them is silly.

Personally I'd go for Yuan-ti Magic Resistance, once per long rest Absorb Elements and something like Stones Endurance from the Goliath but only for spells. Remove the no spellcaster thing and instead just don't give them a +1 modifier to any spellcasting stats making them worse then other races at it.

Are we getting any new races with XGtE?

>>53978871
Probably just revamped UA ones if anything.

>>53976920
>Guns are neat but they can't be well balanced with everything else unless they're just reskinned crossbows.
...So then make them reskinned crossbows. As someone who lives in a rural area and fucks around with guns regularly, let me dispel this idea that they are magic death sticks. Taking a crossbow bolt to the lung will fuck you up as hard as taking a 9mm to the lung. As long as someone slashing a greatsword into your meaty bits only deals 2d6 + Strength damage, there's no reason for guns to be hilariously absurd. I've been running 5E with "custom" guns basically since it came out, and never experienced any real issue with it. And my most recent group included a doomsday prepper from work which led to us playing in a room with a half-dozen pistols, carbines, ARs, and shotguns.

Well holy shit is Strahd a little bitch in a fight.

All it took was 2 rounds, 5 Stunning Strikes, 1 Turn Undead and a Daylight spell to have him dead.

How is Tempest Cleric?

Looks like a weird mix of blaster and martial, everything about it looks fun.

I would try and get booming blade somehow, that would be pretty amazing on a level 6 tempest cleric.

I just want to play a cleric who isn't a healbot, and tempest looks like the way to go

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>>53978876
Minotaurs when?

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>>53979094
>He thinks Strahd is actually dead.

>>53977469
That works IRL, not in a world with dragons and everything else.

>>53979248
Oh for fuck's sake. Is there some bullshit beyond killing the prick in sunlight, running water or his coffin?

Hopefully he can give a better fight next time though.

>>53977469
I feel like in a world where every two bit conjurer can pull this sort of bullshit, people are a lot more skeptical.

>>53979258
>>53979272
You're right. This was a fairly low magic campaign. Perhaps distant magic would be a better term.
It's a style of setting that I like: where magic and the like is real and people know about it, but it's not usually a part of their everyday lives.

>>53977610
That's some fucked logic, real world contracts are valid regardless of what you "sign" or how you sign it. You could sign "NOT VALID" with a pen in your butt, and its still binding.

>>53977306
anybody?

>>53979321
>You could sign "NOT VALID" with a pen in your butt, and its still binding

Uh, does that actually count as acceptance? Because it looks like you wiped your ass with the contract.

>>53979341
>>53977306
Make sure the players like keeping secrets at the table. Some don't.

>>53979391
>Uh, does that actually count as acceptance? Because it looks like you wiped your ass with the contract.
People have tried to use fake names, sometimes as obviously as Mickey Mouse, to nullify contracts, but its always shot down as a defense. The act of signing is all that matters, it doesn't matter how you did it, or what you wrote. The only real defense is if you were coerced, or the contract is illegal in some way to begin with.

>>53979321
>expecting perfect logic from a medieval inspired society
>expecting perfect logic from a medieval inspired society that also has lol magic

I could feasibly see the specific wording of the contract law of a town as something to the effect of 'a person who signs a contract is bound to the terms of said contract'.
A person didn't actually sign that contract, a spectral hand did. With that in mind, I could see a cunning wizard weaselling his way out of conviction, especially considering that wizards are generally a great deal more intelligent than regular people.

>>53979418
Contracts don't function as a system if you allow for loopholes like that. You don't get points for being clever, you get shut the fuck down for being a lawbreaker.

I want to build a hex map of my world. What the simplest way of doing that in a way that won't be super ugly (blank hex grid + bucket fill)?

>>53979438
Draw map, transparent hex overlay.

>>53979321
Not entirely true. Some forms of contract in Germany for example require a certain style of contract or even signature (some require you to sign with your full name.

>>53979391
Yeah I've told them it's what I want to do and they all seem keen, my issue right now is just.. how to do it.

>>53979435
>allow for loopholes
Isn't that a bit of a contradiction?

>You don't get points for being clever
But that happens all the time.

>>53979474
>Isn't that a bit of a contradiction?
No, because its the act of not allowing it to fly that shuts it off.

It's not a functional loophole if the result is "no, fuck you".

>>53979484
I think that any judge would fear for his career if he is sentencing unilaterally based on "no, fuck you" instead of the law.

>>53979321
Again, you're not entirely correct. Formal flaws of a contract can without a doubt nullify the contract ex tunc.

>>53979494
There was a case in which a company was sued for the cost of a Harrier fighter jet, as they had listed it in a commercial as a potential reward. The case was ruled in the companies favor, essentially because "no, fuck you, you don't get a harrier for buying soda".

>>53979508
Flaws within a contract can nullify it, intentionally mis-signing a contract is not a way to do that.

>>53979511
>anecdote
>an entirely different situation

>>53979524
We don't know that. The law of the land in the world might be that it's a formality that you HAVE to sign it yourself. Physically.

The logic behind that could be that a Mage Hand cannot clearly be attributed to the person signing. Somebody might as well just act like its the hand of the supposed signer.

So, what they did to counter that is simply prohibiting signing shit with something not detached to your body entirely.

>>53979538
That's called legal precedence, it's what matters in court when making a ruling.

>>53979547
>Allow us to craft this legal system, in which we intentionally allow for loopholes, simply to fuck over the non-magical people of the realm.

Unless you are going for "letter of the law, upheld by magic and not man" or intentional corruption, this makes no sense.

>>53979567
The person having the mage sign could've known this. Should've known this.

This may have been widely known and long established law to counter mages fucking over non-mages by using mage hand to sign contracts and then saying the non-mage did it.


>>53979555
lol, common law and precedence judgement doesn't mean shit in most of the world, so why would it in the fantasy world?

>>53979567
Or they had just not even conceived of such an occurrence while writing the law.

>>53977306
>Anybody got any experience with this sort of thing, or just general tips for making it a smoother plot point?

Have you ever played or ran Paranoia? It's not quite what you're talking about (The sidequest stuff usually gets so out of hand it ends up replacing the main plot), but there's lots of good material/ideas there.

>>53979590
If that were the case, they wouldn't have specified that contracts are only valid when sighed physically, because what's the alternative? Even stamping is a physical act.

Hell, even if it were something strangely archaic arbitrarily, such as "your name, written by your own hand" mage hand is still your hand.

Where is the distinction, and why is that specifically written.

Now, if we are in a mage centric society, that flaunts its power over the downtrodden, then sure, fuck it. In a world attempting to operate fairly via contracts, this is asinine.

>>53979616
They could live in a society, maybe, where mage hand is in fact not recognized as your hand?

What's so hard about understanding that?

>>53979555
not in any country that isn't burgerland

>>53979632
So what, it's up to each individual judge to make decisions independently?
That makes who rules on a case even more of a big deal than it is here.

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>when Americans think that their legal system is, by any means, the most influential one and should be used in Fantasy worlds

Blue - Civil law
Red - Anglo law.

>>53979623
then why wasn't the dude called out instantly? Imagine you going somewhere to make a contract and you have your dog sign, people wouldn't bbe fine with it.

>>53979623
The fact that, in the history of this fantasy world, either no one has done this before, or it has happened before and not been fixed.

>>53979638
>That makes who rules on a case even more of a big deal than it is here.
No, other countries usually got a functioning legal system.

>>53979640
Then what the fuck is brown

>>53979612
I'll take a look, thanks!

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has anyone ever taken Strahd out of Barovia to use as a higher level villain?

>>53979649
What a non-answer. Laws must be interpreted by someone, they aren't math, but written word.

>>53979638
>So what, it's up to each individual judge to make decisions independently?
>That makes who rules on a case even more of a big deal than it is here.

No, it literally does the opposite. Do you have any idea what civil law does?

>>53979647
It IS fixed if they say that mage hand is not a valid way to sign a contract, the contract partner had a good chance to know this and still failed knowing it.

For example, if I go out and give a person the proxy authority to sign a contract in a name, but don't do it with all formalities attached and that individual goes out and signs a contract in my name, that contract is null and void and the property exchanged needs to be returned to their respective owners.

All because a legal contract formality was not viewed as valid.

Now, you could try to prove bad intent in this, which would essentially enable the person that had the supposed proxy sign the contract to sue for compensation of his damages, but that's a whole different legal matter. The contract is not valid.

>>53979655
Bijuridical

>/5eg/ - Law

>>53979678
>No, it literally does the opposite. Do you have any idea what civil law does?
No, which is why i asked. I know the legal system of my country, i have, generally, little need to know any other.

>>53979670
You can always appeal to a higher court.
But this way law isn't bound set by a single dude from the judiciary, but actually gets set by the legislature as it should be.
And a well formulated law leaves needs no interpretation.

>>53979682
I, for one, am enjoying it.
I had no idea about the common law/civil law dichotomy.

>>53979682
>complaining about law discussion
>being a chaotic fag
look at him and laugh.

>>53979678
When contracts are inherently able to be abused, without good faith, they fail as a system. Maybe i'd buy it in a new country, or a magocracy, or one with laws written before magic became more common. As a DM, i'd have told the player to fuck off, and as a player i'd have been pissed.

>>53979698
>And a well formulated law leaves needs no interpretation
I can't see this ever being true, at least with modern languages. Words are inherently not precise, especially in english. Sure, you can make it so that intent is irrelevant, and that laws as written apply, but that calls for constant rewriting of laws for new situations.

>>53979690
Codified law is more comprehensive in civil law systems and cases are analyzed independently of precedent, so it's not shackled to the 40 year old ruling of the first judge who happened to deal with a vaguely similar situation.

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>>53979714
What if I'm actually Lawful Evil and I'd simply prefer that only I can know the intricacies of the law to better screw people over?

>>53979724
>Sure, you can make it so that intent is irrelevant, and that laws as written apply, but that calls for constant rewriting of laws for new situations.
Yes? What else is your congress doing all day?

>>53979690

Wikipedia:

Unlike common law systems, civil law jurisdictions deal with case law apart from any precedent value. Civil law courts generally decide cases using codal provisions on a case-by-case basis, without reference to other (or even superior) judicial decisions.[10] In actual practice, an increasing degree of precedent is creeping into civil law jurisprudence, and is generally seen in many nations' highest courts.[10] While the typical French-speaking supreme court decision is short, concise and devoid of explanation or justification, in Germanic Europe, the supreme courts can and do tend to write more verbose opinions supported by legal reasoning.[10] A line of similar case decisions, while not precedent per se, constitute jurisprudence constante.[10]

The judges make decisions based on the general laws made by the legislative as no decision is justified thanks to the nature of the state as a "state of the rule of law", which makes precedent irrelevant.
That doesn't mean there is no individual judgement possible.
For example, for murder, the legislative set out a certain length of prison sentence. 5 years to lifelong imprisonment.
The judge can decide case-by-case which sentence is appropriate.

>>53979724
This is not abuse though.
It states clearly under which circumstances a contract is valid (assuming the DM solved it like suggested in one of the above posts) and under which circumstances is invalid.

For example, you can't buy a house without going through the formalities, no matter how often you've shaken the hands of the person selling the house to you.

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I have an idea to have a land split by a time curse made by a mad warlock of time.

Half the kingdom was locked from the outside from the world for over 3000 years to them, while the rest the land experienced less than an hour and now coexist at the same rate again, but now 500 years later from the day of curse on the uncursed half they still cannot freely travel to either half from the other.

However, a party had defeated the Warlock and all the equipment owned by them could allow its processor to cross this border.

The new land now has one race of all race combined into one and no longer speak common but speak a creole mix language of common, elven, dwarven, and so own so rhat players in the new land can pick out every so ever words if they new more or less of these languages.

Is this interesting?

>>53979743
Stomping their feet, shouting no-no-no, pissing in one another's porridge, tit for tat.

>>53979750
* as no decision is justified **without a law to derive the decision from**

>>53979670
That's the difference
Did X do what the law says not to?
If no, stop
If yes, guilty, judge applies punishment withign the pre-determined frame.

Only judgement call is severity of crime and maximum/minimum punishment.

>>53979734
So what happens when something happens that isn't directly within the specifics of any given law?
Are new concepts under no regulation inherently?

Under US law, when something is brand new, the closest thing is applied, and unless that is ruling is overturned, or a new law is made, it will be the basis for future rulings. Sometimes this has bad results, but most of the time, it keeps things working as intended.


What about legal issues in which judgement calls must be made? US Copyright law, especially regarding section 107, has a great deal of interpretation, because art is hard to quantify.

>>53979763
That only works if laws are absolute truths. Words are bad at this. Paradoxes, double meanings, homonyms, the oxford comma.

>>53979781
Germany regulated the allowed usage of "Big Data" in 1983.

1983!

If you have a functioning legal system (this includes all three branches of the state) it's not that hard to tackle upcoming issues.

And when it comes to judgement calls:
What is "art" for example gets interpreted by the legislative and the judges can, again, work within that interpretation.

The US obviously have very vague law considering that the judges are meant to interpret it in their own ways to a way greater degree, but civil law countries tend to have very abstract and well-thought out laws that make a discussion in the courtroom irrelevant.

>>53979814
You can't assume that any government can always predict the future, even in a world with magic.

Advances in technology can be planned for, but some innovations/inventions are seemingly random. Anti-biotics, for example.

>>53979796
Which is why a statement in legalese is four to eight times as long and as in common and comes with a legaleese dictionary that specifies the one true meaning of each word used.

Also yes, in terms of linguistic accuracy; English a shit, murcan a thin and runny shit.

>>53979781
>specifics
Theft
Fraud/Abuse of confidence
Assault
Cover crimes pretty well.

>>53979814
Please, quantify art. Define it, and the limitations of its definition.

>>53979859
Not that anon, but can't you take one of those "know it when you see it" sort of approaches? Like, the average person of the community in question would identify this X as art, ergo its art? If it works for obscenity, is it an insufficient argument for art?

>>53979846
That's when you simply make a new law?

I don't see the issue as long as the legislative and judiciary are working well.

Also, the Big Data thing was in no way considering actual technological data. That's the point. They weren't making a case specific law here. They had no idea that Big Data as a technological concept was coming.
It was simply a law on the topic of information as such. How to gather, save and work with it. What is legal and what isn't.

That law framework works for everything, regardless of advancing technology.

if it doesn't, we'll just look at it and advance it so that it does.

>>53979859
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sch%C3%B6pfungsh%C3%B6he

I know you can't read this, but you can't seriously expect me to explain an in-depth legal concept to you in a 4chan post, right?

That's the point of having an abstract concept like this. You can have it simply and muddy or you do a proper job, but it's also long.

>>53979856
>Theft
>Fraud/Abuse of confidence
>Assault
None of those inherently covers copyright infringement, illegal/controlled substances of any sort, distribution of copied digital media, or whatever else i can't think of, but certainly exist.

>>53979859
"Art is the conscious use of the human creativity and imagination to produce works intended to affect or challenge the recipient aesthetically, emotionally or intellectually."

>>53979887
No, that would be insufficient as a definition if law is absolute, and needs no interpretation.

>>53979900
You must interpret intent of the creator, and under that definition, our current discussion challenges, at least, intellectually, and is thus art. inb4 insult

>>53979893
I can read some basic german, but i'm not even going to attempt reading foreign legalese. Just as a comparison, while this isn't a definition of "art", this is the section regarding fair use of the US copyright act. It calls for judgement and interpretation to function, but the intent is what matters here.

Notwithstanding the provisions of sections 106 and 106A, the fair use of a copyrighted work, including such use by reproduction in copies or phonorecords or by any other means specified by that section, for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright. In determining whether the use made of a work in any particular case is a fair use the factors to be considered shall include—
(1) the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes;
(2) the nature of the copyrighted work;
(3) the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and
(4) the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.
The fact that a work is unpublished shall not itself bar a finding of fair use if such finding is made upon consideration of all the above factors.

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I need a good manor map. boys!

Anybody got one?

>>53979966
Cluedo

>>53979938
>You must interpret intent of the creator, and under that definition, our current discussion challenges, at least, intellectually, and is thus art.

Is this a haiku?
Do you also need to interpret the intent of a wall?

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>>53979985
Anon, I love you.

>>53979994
> works intended to affect or challenge
That bit relies on the interpretation of the ruling official on the intent of the creator. Interpretation is needed to differentiate art and commercial product under that definition.

Anyone know if the Mega Trove is gonna get the rest of AL Season 5 and Season 6 added to it?

Does the reroll on Great Weapon Fighting apply to smite damage?

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>>53980127
Nope.

Mearls flip flops his answer, but Crawfords is what matters anyway

>>53980127
Nope, only applies to weapon damage dice and since Smite is "extra damage" and not "weapon damage" it doesn't apply.

>>53980011
:3

>>53980158
>>53980170

alright good, I think this character does enough damage and don't need to piss off the other players and DM with him

>>53980232
On topic, note that Savage Attacker works the same way and that's why it's a trash feat.

Mage sits in the library reading about spells for around two days.

What does he get?

>>53980596
A funky BO

>>53980596

nothing because no one leaves magic spells at a library for some fuckwad to find.

>>53980596
Advantage in arcana checks, maybe

>>53980596
Hungry.

>>53980596
Death.

The Healing Elixir spell breaks anything? Specifically, if I let a Warlock player choose it.

>>53980596
If he's a wizard, randomly roll for a couple spell formulas he finds, the level of which depending on how good/exclusive the library is.

If he's another class, advantage on Arcana checks for a while would be cool.

So why does nobody talk about Greenfather's Gift?

I'm playing a Bladelock (I know, fuck me, right?) and it's saved my life so many times now. But, we also have a Life domain Cleric in our party, so maybe I'm just in a synergistic situation?

>>53980993
They updated that, it's now going to be a Chainlock only option.

Now Celestial Warlocks effectively get an extra 6+6xWarlock Level HP if they take it.

Chainlock now has a reason!

>>53979655
both
notice that every brown area was a continental European colony later conquered by Anglos. Their Civil Law codes were incorporated into Anglo common law

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>>53981023
>using that awful UA
Yeah, no thanks. My DM has no idea it exists and I'm gonna keep it that way. It's hard enough for me to keep up with the PAMadin and Barbearian at my table.

I'm just praying that I can get my character to the end of his arc and quickshift to Bard or something before I really begin feeling fucking useless.

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How do I play him in 5e?

I'm thinking of playing a Drow Shadow Sorcerer, seems like a good combo to keep myself and my enemies in the Darkness.

Any advice for playing this? Feats or spells I should look at?

For personality I'm thinking a noble male who fled because he considered himself too important to spend his life serving the matriarchy. Probably somewhere Chaotic Good and Chaotic Neutral, trying to help himself but has a nagging conscious to help he tries to hide.

>>53981232
Arcane Trickster, expertise in cooking, use your mage hand ledgermain to provide your own applause and use stealth to steal the electoral college for a come from behind landslide victory.

Half my group just quit because I almost killed them last night. I'm in awe right now.

>>53981547
Tells us the story, that we may pass judgement on either you or them

>>53981547
>almost
Did any of them die? I feel like we need context here

>>53981275
Definitely a good way to counteract sunlight sensitivity. I'd also recommend checking out Warlock 2/3, Shadow Monk 18/17. Devil's Sight Invocation and 2 ki darkness plus great martial potential. But I'm guessing you wanna be a caster, so really full on Shadow Sorcerer is a great idea.

>>53981547
Were you a dick about it or were they just being babies?

>>53980993
Because the only healing that matters is 1 HP off of 0 HP in normal games. Also it's very easy to heal in normal games with spells like prayer of healing and aura of vitality and just taking a short rest.

>>53981547
I would to if it was some bullshit like 'you attack X' 'X is secretly bahamut and almost instagibs you but lets you live because otherwise the plot wouldn't continue'

>>53981625
>The only thing that matters is 1hp off of 0hp in normal games.
Except it isn't. The lower your HP, the easier it is for you to get gibbed by massive damage on a bad crit or something.

>It's also very easy to heal
True, but it's also very easy to take damage as a bladelock.

>>53981547
>>53981594
>>53981603
>>53981622
>>53981644
I might have been dickish but half of the players thought it was hilarious

So we are playing Lost mines, and they had a rough battle with the flameskull but pulled through. After the fight one of the players puts the skull in his backpack.

So they keep going through the mine and after a while it rejuvenates. A few more fights happen where it could have easily wiped the party but I didn't want that.

They went to take a long rest with some pretty good hp left in one of the smaller secure rooms. As they went to lay down I told them that they begin to hear chattering from one of their packs, which then exploded with a fireball.

3 of them got destroyed off the start and after some very clutch plays, our rogue used an invisibility potion and healed everyone.

I thought it was one of the best moment's i've had in D&D and I just woke up to a bunch of texts about how i'm trying to kill them and having to much fun with them almost dying. Maybe I did play him too aggressively. I don't know.

>>53981686
>Except it isn't. The lower your HP, the easier it is for you to get gibbed by massive damage on a bad crit or something.
That's only really likely to happen at lower levels and the DM could just have a monster autofail your death saves if they wanted to kill you, regardless of how much HP your healer could potentially heal after the fact.

>>53981686
>True, but it's also very easy to take damage as a bladelock.
The solution to this is to avoid getting damaged rather than stronger in-combat healing.

>>53981715
Oh, it's another idiot who put a flameskull in their backpack.

>>53981715
To add on I feel like i've been pretty giving, when every things get close most the mobs will attack the barb who literally never dies. I've tried telling them i'm not trying to kill them but enemies are are smart they don't want to just bend over and take it.

>>53979094
>a Daylight spell
Daylight isn't sunlight, your DM is a faggot

>>53981715
They did something fucking stupid and kinda deserved it. Why would anyone think that's a good idea? Tell them to suck it up. Well don't actually because they'll just get angry and whine more.

>>53981715
I'm gonna call that their fault. They kept the skull with them, they took a long rest with it with them, plus they survived so they don't have to much to bitch about.

>>53979094
DM probably played them like an idiot unless you had a lot of trouble getting to fight him like that.

His strength is as with all good bosses in that he isn't super powerful but instead fucks you over out of the fight.

My group is entering Cragmaw Castle tomorrow at level 3 and for some reason I feel like that's too low level...

sup /5eg/! how do i make a professor of law at the university? was thinking wizard but i don't know what school.

>>53981785
>>53981785
After explaining it's not me vs them and i'm not trying to kill them. I told them some enemies are smart and wont just bend over and take it from the tank while everyone rolls over everything they kept arguing.

I told them that they were being pussies and ruining a great memory because they almost died. The other part of the group is shocked at their reaction to so I guess it is just them.

I even replied with what happened to vax in critical role and got "That's their game" as a reply. They just want a no risk campaign which is just boring.

I thought it was a great moment.

>>53981913
If this is a character, a wizard is fine but I would personally play a Knowledge Cleric for that idea.

If it's an NPC that won't be in combat, you don't really need to make anything

>>53981952
it's for a PC and I was kinda set on wizard, i rolled high int and kinda low wis so...

Are flameskulls as much of a jobber as they were in previous editions? Fuck those fucking things.

>>53977074
So what do variant humans get then?

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Wew lads my group currently encountered a werewolf at 3rd level and only one or two of us can really hurt it. What are some good actions I can do to help the fight as someone who has no way of hurting the werewolf? I'm a deep stalker revised ranger, the only thing that comes to mind is grappling it and holding it back from the magic folk.

>>53982015
Gotcha, then I'd be between Enchantment, Divinination, and Lore. They all fit the theme to some degree, so the question would then be the setting.

I'd also consider Theurgy and using the knowledge domain, but that's more of my own flavor preference.

>>53982059
Take it down Goku v Raditz style, hold it still while the spellcasters blow you both up. It's the only way.

>>53982059
Trip it up, knock it prone, push it off a cliff? Try to get a spell caster to make your weapon magical with magic weapon?

>>53982087
That's pretty much my only thought, I'm gonna have to hold it back. Though upon reading through some sageadvice, Crawford says Hunter's Mark is magical damage.

>>53982099
No cliffs around, we're in a basement. We only have one true spellcaster, and he didn't pick up any utility spells.

>>53982069
alright thx for the advice!
no UA allowed so I'm probably gonna go with divination. also i guess abjuration would fit but i dunno... I was thinking a noble background for history and persuasion since i have decent cha

Which UA stuff are obvious avoids? My players suck at optimization so anything that needs to jump hoops in order to break is probably fine.

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My GM is a drawfag so he drew the races how they looked in his setting for us. Want me to post them all?

>>53982242
go for it

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>>53982255
you got it.

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>>53982258

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>>53982274

>>53980596
A swarm of mimic books

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>>53982285

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>>53982292

Please stop posting shitty drawings.

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>>53982310

>>53982318
fuck you

keep 'em coming anon

>>53982345
that was the last actually. He never cared for gnomes.

>>53977034
+1

My players use it for shit like fluff and utility spells with magic initiate, Keen mind on a non-INT based class, Ritual Caster for a Shaman-type Barbarian, and other super suboptimal options.

Not even because they suck at optimising, but because "We get a free feat for a background, so it shouldn't be something like great weapon MASTER, which makes no sense at level 1.

>>53979754
No.

>>53982292
lol, will consider that

>>53979966
Killing floor 2- Volter mansion

>>53982039
>this is why i'm reworking all races in my campaign so everyone gets a feat
A feat, presumably.

>>53982407
So they're getting an extra bonus feat?

Give me the item that the thieves in my group should go on a heist for.

What is it and what does it do?

Accepting memes.

>>53982310
So tieflings are ottomans?

Would you watch someone streaming DnD with a relatively large group, but only having the streamer on camera? I use my laptop for Roll20 when we play and my info is on there, but I roll with real dice. I was thinking about streaming our session tomorrow but I dunno if it's worth it.

>>53982488
Deck of Many Things.

>>53982635
Are you fat and ugly?

>>53982488
>>53982644
The Deck of Many Memes

Each card has a meme on it with different magical effects

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>>53982484
basically, every race gets a level 1 feat, there is no human variant. Every race also has a triton spread, as in +1/1/1. I like my races and class options for me and my players to be open, so the more spread you have, the more classes you can at least start out half-decent in. This also keeps any player from starting with an 18 in any stat, though he can get a 17 if they take a feat that bumps the stat up another 1.

>But anon, how are your humans
they are +1/1 in any 2 just like variants, their strength comes in their versatility. I'll gives them another ability/trait to make up for it, not sure what yet, maybe 1 extra save proficiency of their choice, just a thought.

Reminder that there is nothing wrong with interrupting a villain's monologue.

>>53982488
The Mask of Bane
A mask that lets the user cast Bane once per long rest, but the mask attaches itself to the user. Attempting to remove it without remove curse or dispel magic proves to be extremely painful.

im looking for a dungeon module that I can run for one night for four level three characters

any suggestions?

>>53982691
Slightly, nope.

>It's another 'let's give every race a feat and ban variant human' episode

Sure, that's not a bad idea, it's the easiest fix.

But it's not the best fix.

The best fix is to fix the problem feats - the ones that martials inevitably have to go for if they want to do their role as a martial.
So give all martials a free part of those feats instead and thus if they choose one of the feats they're only getting the other half of the feat and it's like 'specializing' in sentinel or GWM or whatever. You no longer need to do it, but it's an option.

>>53982741
>Here let me give you some really important info
>Lol no we just want to kill you so stop trying to give us important info
Murder hoboing at its finest.

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>>53982791
>I'm going to give you a speech justifying my genocide-tier ambitions
>just stand there and listen even though I'm clearly irredeemable and evil
Nah. I'm not waiting around for some anime villain levels of exposition from an evil wizard/vampire whatever. If you have to have the villain explain everything to you then you just suck at telling a compelling story.

>>53981913
Mastermind Rogue

>>53982791
>villain speeches is how you know you're playing with that DM.

>>53982741

>Party goes to a beholder's lair
>Me and another guy say fuck it, we're straight up here to kill you, let's throw down bitch
>DM gets salty, as apparently it had something to say
>That guy literal-retard gets mad and throws a tiny tantrum as he usually does

Fuck 'em, kicked that beholder's ass. Don't give a fuck what he had to say.

>>53982791
But flapping jaws make great crossbow targets.

>>53982832
It's not about story.
The guy is giving you information, and if you deny that information you might not learn that the main city is about to be destroyed by his evil plot or something.

Sure, it might mean the DM sucks at telling a story, but the important thing is regardless of the DM ignoring a monologue is denying yourself potentially important information.

>>53976991
We actually give humans two feats to start in our games to encourage people to play them. Stops all the monster race nonsense.

>>53982550
Fitting, is it not?

>>53982884
Players did this to me too. Didn't really care though, them knowing his plan wouldn't really have changed much.

>>53982884
Yeah! Fuck the GM! Why should he have any fun? What did he ever do for us?!

>>53983124

Was a premade adventure and the info it was gonna give us didn't matter. That being said, you're still a retard.

>>53977571
The weakest weapon among the modern guns has the same damage dice as a fucking greatsword except you can use it from 150 feet away

>>53983148
So how did you know that?

>>53983215

How do you think, retard? I read the book after we finished the campaign. Jesus fuck, go be stupid somewhere else.

>>53983267
Not him, but stop being a cunt online.
What's the point?

>>53983267
See, here I was thinking that you didn't know reading the module while playing it was a faux pas and that was what you had done, with a sort of speedrun mentality of cutting the chaff, now I see you're just an obnoxious, overly-agressive faggot

>>53983124
Speaking from experience as a DM you should just expect the players to fuck everything up and roll with it.

>>53983281

That douche was being a cunt to me, so I'm being a cunt back. What's the point in letting people walk over you?

>>53983307

Just giving you your own shit, faggot.

>>53983319
I'm not whoever you were sperging out about you schizophrenic cunt

>>53983319
>What's the point in letting people walk over you?
This is the internet.

You're taking it a bit too serious.

>>53982884
>Players too stupid to catch on to the super obvious plot to blow up the capitol of the country they are trying to defend.
>Literally told them about his company shipping thousands of crates and barrels into the city
>they don't give a shit, just wants to kill him
>Decide to have him give a short monologue about his plan
>They attack him as soon as I start, with the "lolol no monologue" reasoning
>Gets pissed when they "didn't know" he was about to blow up the city.
>Gets annoyed that I didn't tell them straight up what he was plotting, OOC

If any of them had at least had more than 10 intelligence, I might have nudged them a bit more about the painfully obvious plot.

>>53976920
Our party was being set upon by a pack of creatures that saw only through tremor-sense, so our cleric quickly cast thaumaturgy to cause tremors in the ground away from the party to distract the worms. Then the warlock flew up a bit and one by one shot eldritch blast into the ground leading away from the party while we all stood still. Once the worms were far away we booked it.

We're on a railroad quest to ressurect a dead PC, the thing is, we got into combat and the DM only rewarded XP to the 3 alive PCs, now the dead PC is behind in XP, even though that dead PC had to watch us playing the entire session without him.

How do I convince the DM that not dividing xp between everyone is bad?
I know being a level/session behind will suck for both him and us, but is there anything else to add to this argument?

>>53982764
You could reasonably make it cast Bane at will. Sure one enemy will suck every encounter, but this is easily solved by having more enemies. Besides, it'll only get weaker as the campaign goes by because it eats your action

How do I build me a Stone Sorcerer?

Mega folder isnt opening for me. its in an infinite loop.

>>53983801
need an account then

>>53982059

You got shackles?

Else I see you guys have yourselves an old-fashioned chase sequence.

>>53983715
Have whoever died write a story of what their soul was doing in the mean time, and have whatever that be worth xp as well. Also make it enjoyable to read.

>>53979724
I personally think this is pretty creative, if not exactly sane.
I'd rule it as a risky defense that will certainly delay the trial and give the player more time to prepare, if that's what he or she needs, but it will probably make the PC's case worse. (I can't see the court allowing it: it shows bad faith AND would let wizards easily exploit loopholes in the future. Unless the PCs have favors in high place and pull some strings...)

>>53979754
Is what interesting?
I like the concept of two chronologically isolated halves of a kingdom. The idea of a retroactive "fusion" between those halves after the curse is lifted seems pretty dumb though.

>>53979260

Well, he's dead as far as the campaign goes.

The epilogue reveals that the curse on him is more potent than that, and that he eventually is forced to come back, and Barovia eventually sinks into the same gothic horror it always was.

I guess that'd fit in the genre, but I think it's kind of stupid.

>>53980596
Cramps.
But really, depends on the library.

If it's located in a large city with some spellcasters, the mage probably won't find anything that's not already on his spell list. If he's a Wizard he already has an in-depth magic education. Maybe he'll notice a single spell that was not in his grimoire already. Maybe a couple spells that his education didn't brush up on since they're of dubious, very situational usefulness. Maybe a book about forgotten or mythical spells that serves as a plot hook (renowned scholar Fancyname Smartpants details the legend of a powerful spell which was lost with the fall of an ancient empire, and hey, look, here are a couple possible locations...).

If it's in the library of another mage's tower he may find a bunch of useful stuff, potentially spells of that mage's own creation (maybe they were still being written, and are unfinished?). There could definitely be a couple books about powerful hidden spells in there, and a journal detailing the owner's attempt to find them. Or he could find a book about poorly known magical lore from distant region X, giving him advantage to Arcana checks in that region if he takes the time to pull out said book.

If our mage finds his way into the Restricted area of the Silent Library on the Magocracy's Floating Continent at the Edge of the World, he may find a lot of exotic and rare spells, maybe a few forbidden or controversial ones.

And if it's the Secret Keep of Knowledge in the Ancient City Below the Earth, there's no telling what wonders and horrors he may find.

>>53981715
Did you give them an opportunity to throw the backpack away ("...what do you do")? If it happened instantly, I'd pin the fault on both you and them. Otherwise they fucked up.

But hey some players DO want a no death campaign, and that's fine. Gently let them know it's not what you're looking to run.

>>53984362
Looking back on it I should have given them more time to react but none of them took any initiative when I told them their friends backpack began chattering like bones. They were also barricaded inside a small room.

I've also tried to let them know that death is a possibility, and that it's not me vs them but it may happen.

It honestly just seemed like the two people trying to isolate themselves more from our group (we are all good friends).

It just sucks to wake up after what you think is one of the best times you've had playing D&D to a text trying to say that I'm trying to kill the party and cause a TPK, which I have never even given reason to think that.

Should a morningstar do bludgeoning or piercing damage.

>>53976991
Because I love giving my players more options. That includes allowing homebrew classes with approval, and UA material.

My players attempted to murder a part of a nomadic tribe last night in our first session.
I wanted the tribe to be helpful in a rather hostile world.

Now, they'll either have to beg for pardon or conquer the shit out of the nomadic clans.

Honestly, the best part about DnD truly is when your players fuck up your story ideas

>>53983920
We do but our redemption paladin is upstairs PTSDing about a full moon(his brother was turned into a werewolf). And our alchemist trapped the door behind the paladin after he left in case someone else came in, so we're shit outta luck. Just gonna have to Hunter's Mark the werewolf while our sorcerer tries to wound it.

>>53984241
Thank you!
So should there be no border that can't be crossed?
I was thinking that it would make the PCs unique that they could cross in the land that was locked.

I was just thinking of quest lives and thought maybe it wasn't as interesting as I thought

So what are some fun spells to quicken as sorcerer?
My first sorcerer never took quicken spell, so i want my next one to abuse the fuck out of it

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>>53982242
> that armored dragonborn

Reminds me of this armor I saw at the Polish Museum in Chicago

>>53984987
I wonder why ...

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>>53983538
They deserved that.

>>53984933
Does it really matter? Either way, you can only cast one spell per turn, so all quicken spell does is let you dodge/cast a cantrip/dash or whatever the fuck.

I suppose quickening Eldritch Blast or Green Flame Blade is notable, though. Booming Blade can be twinned, though you could quicken that too.

Who here has played an Oath of Conquest Paladin? How did it feel RP and combat wise?

>>53984545

I'd personally say both, like the grimlock's spiked club, but I prefer piercing alone just for simplicity's sake

>>53983715
>even though that dead PC had to watch us playing the entire session without him
What the fuck? Just have them roll up a new character.

>>53985322
This, really. Have him play a new character even if it's only temporary. I'd be fucking annoyed if I was just sitting there doing nothing.

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What's the best Fighter subtype? I'm about to play one for the first time.

>>53985495
Battle Master or Knight

>>53985495
>best
At what?

Overall though Battlemaster.

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How do cones work on a grid /5eg/? How wide are they?

>>53985495
Monster Hunter

>>53985678
Read the book, m8.
page 204

>>53985678
>A cone extends in a direction you choose from its point of origin. A cone’s width at a given point along its length is equal to that point’s distance from the point of origin. A cone’s area of effect specifies its maximum length. (PHB 204)

How do you guys play your paladins, Offensively or defensively? I'm about to make my first pally and I'm having a hard time deciding how I want to set him up ( equipment and fighting style etc) so far I'm the only Martial so I'm thinking of trying to "tank" and be our frontline damage guy

How do you feel about combat light sessions?

Situation: the pc's were hired to find a murderer, but the guy who was murdered was a horrible person and it is probably better for everyone that he's dead.

There will probably be no or very little combat because the killer isn't a badguy and I'm a bit nervous about this because we've never really had a session like this. I'm not sure they'll like it.

>>53986329
My players are fine with no combat sessions most of the time

>>53982741
Yeah. If the PCs have no reason not to hit the villain right now, and the villain is within hitting distance (and not, y'know, speaking from a distance through magic, sending a written message, speaking through a lieutenant, etc.) it's unreasonable and counterintuitive to expect them to stand around for five minutes until they can pick the breadcrumbs of plot from the insane ramblings. You're basically asking them to metagame.

Also, if you deliver your vital plot points using only one source of info, the source is missable in ways that aren't counterintuitive, and you don't introduce another soon, then that's a GMing failure.

>>53986329
Can be really nice.

If the NPCs and the world are well designed, you'll have a session that opens up even the most introverted player to roleplaying.

>>53986329
>the killer isn't a badguy
I mean murder is usually bad.

>>53986329
It's great, though if there is a social encounter or such, consider possible satisfying (bad ones count) endings. A roleplaying session with no combat and an open ending that goes nowhere feels like a waste. A bad ending should have a ray of the light as the cliffhanger, when ending the session. If it ends on a low note, it overall feels like shit.

But, personally, going through an entire session and ending it with a "I didn't get to use any of my abilities" sucks just a little, if you end up making a character very combat-oriented.

>>53986426
The killer is a revenant come back to life to kill the ones responsible for his unjust execution

>>53986426
>I'm lawful dumb
>I don't even kill tyrants because they're people but I smash orc babies as a passtime

Stop eating meat if murder's bad

>>53986451
Senpai, I'm seeing this backfiring on you.

What if they don't approve of this and go berserk on everybody approving the murder?

>>53982884
Whoah there Terry Redneck

>>53986451
Ah, that seems reasonable. RAW shouldn't the revenant just die now that the guy is dead?
>>53986453
The only information given was "a horrible person" that's a pretty broad statement anon. Stop being such a sperg.

>>53982318
>>53982353
>>53982345
No the drawings are actually shitty and pretty obviously traced

>>53986511
No that just means he was a horrible person. Pretty fucking simple. Are you retarded

>>53985495
Samurai

>>53986511
>RAW shouldn't the revenant just die now that the guy is dead?

No no the corruption goes much deeper than that. The first victim was just the executioner.

Bladesinger, Hexblade, or Stone Sorcerer?

>>53986523
Right, so there are people who consider Trump a horrible person. Guess he should be killed.
Oh but people also consider Hillary a horrible person, guess she's gone too.
"Horrible" isn't a universal measurement for how bad someone is, its a descriptor of how someone feels about said person.

>>53986582
The *GM* made him a horrible person

>>53986542
Why would you kill the executioner
He's just doing his job

>>53976991
Because it's retarded and you're a moron.

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>>53986542
Depends on the alignment of your party I guess. if they're mostly good aligned and not autistic about the undead then it should be fine. Did you make a stat block for him in case your players try to fight him?

>>53986659
Because he had no qualms about executing an innocent man

>>53986689
So he knew that the dude was innocent?

>>53986689
That's still only his job

Even if personally I'd kill him

But just for keks

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>DM designs an evil cult for a sub-plot
>eventually make it to their compound
>The cultists seem rather nice, no reports of missing people from the surrounding area
>we all fail our insight rolls
>move on because we have no qualms with the seemingly nice cult
>DM is mad we ignored his plothook
>DM is mad that a mostly LG party didn't go storming a religious commune for no reason

>>53986744
He could have been a smith like his father, but the executioner chose his job.
And when he's not hanging criminals and the innocent on the job, he enjoys strangling wenches in his spare time.

>>53986551
Stone sorcerer.

Bladesinger is an AC-stacking meme, hexblade is a meme and stone sorcerer is an actually decent sorcerer. Even if the teleporting thing is an out of place ability that implies you can at-will teleport.

>>53986689
>Getting so incredibly mad at someone for just doing their job that you become a demigod who can't be stopped except by wish
Nah

>>53986774
Meanwhile in my group

>Nobody is above 10 INT
>They somehow immediately go for the (correct) assumption that the lady is hiding something and that it's a werewolf
>Pushy as fuck about it too

Hm.

>>53986824
>Getting so incredibly mad at someone for just doing their job that you become a demigod who can't be stopped except by wish
It's obviously not that simple, you dump fucking retart.

>>53986816
If he didn't chose the job, someone else would do it.

He also likely does other jobs.

Do you hate the blade that cuts you for cutting you?

>>53981715

Personally, I think you were too kind. To me that falls very, very firmly into "play stupid games, win stupid prizes" territory.

>>53986816
So what, me too

Dude's got a hobby

>>53982059

Study the Help action. It's tragically underused.

>>53986838
Gut instinct.

INT is a trash stat anyway, it's better for your sanity to pretend it doesn't exist.

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>text-only game
>4 players counting me, one is absent
>we get information that the city's lord may try to kill us if we answer his request for an audience (we had killed a monster who was rampaging through the city the previous session). One of our players (player 2) is a yuan-ti pureblood warlock.

Just before we actually get out, this conversation (less paraphrased than you'd think) happens

>Player 1: is there anything you're supposed to be doing?
>Player 2: what if we free my snake god so he can devour the sun
>Player 1: ok
>Player 2: what about you anon are you in
>my character is a cleric who worships a sun god.

At this point, the DM thinks they're taking the piss and laughs, but players 1 and 2 are stone serious. I go through a minute-long version of pic related. I settle for my character telling them he'll stay with the group until we're out of the city

>Player 1: it's ok bro we're just going to free it what it does after is its own responsiblity
>Player 1: so what should we do to start our quest
>Player 2: we have to join a cult
>Player 1: do you think they'll let me in
>The very confused DM: I think this is a good point to end the session

They talked him off from ending it there and he just got back from his bathroom break. I have no idea how this happened so quickly

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Me and my friends are gonna play D&D for the first time in the coming weeks. One of them wants to be the DM, and he proposed that the players do an arena session using disposable characters with maximum levels and equipment just to get the hang of the mechanics. Then we do a couple of brainstorming sessions to help build up the world and then he'll add in his flavor, like unique NPCs, quests, etc.

Is this a good idea? Should we run the official adventures first?

>>53985495

All 3 PHB are fine but play very differently. Battle Masters have the most versatility and have the opportunity to add damage to key rolls, but you go in knowing what Maneuvers you want and how you plan to spend your Superiority Dice.

Champions have the best average round damage because almost all their class features are just stat boosts to their basic attacks and skills. Whether you like having fewer buttons to press or not is up to you: I like it but I understand people who don't.

Eldritch Knights's are a lot of fun but it's easy to play them badly: if you're trying to play them as sometimes-I'm-a-Fighter-sometimes-I'm-a-Wizard you're going to have a bad time. Instead, look for spells that make you a better fighter, including obvious ones like Shield and not so obvious ones like Fireball. It's even more involved than Battle Master, though, so grab a guide like http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?479532-Bellator-Arcana-The-Eldritch-Knight-s-guide to help you get your feet under you.

Welcome to team Fighter. It's a lot of fun here.

>>53986774

>DM is shit.

>>53987264
You'll either have to change the "main quest", roll a new character who shares the common goal of the others, or leave

Im having the big twist of my campaign he that the BBEG of my campaign is the PCs from an alternate timeline. Basically, in the original timeline, the spellplague was catacalysmic. But my BBEG basically sold his soul to cyric to travel back in time and make it survivable. But now hes stranded in this new timeline, and resentful of his alternate self and his friends.

/tg/, is this a good idea or a shit one?

>>53987264
What is this, roll20?

>>53976920
The druid in our party used thorn whip to drag a guy behind a carriage for like 200 feet until he died

DM basically just let her cast it as concentration for that specific case

>>53986311
Anyone?

>>53987385
Yeah, and I know that it doesn't exactly help the memes
>>53987376
I figured as much. The party needs a support character so that maybe I'll just roll a cleric of a different domain

>>53987458
Just say your current character expresses his grievances with the others and heads his own way. Introduce a new cleric who could be a part of that cult they're looking to join.

>>53987335
What does he mean by MAD?

>>53987570
multiple attribute dependency

it means your character needs more than one stat (not counting constitution) to function well

>>53986838
Insight is WIS

>>53987236
More like metagaming out the ass.

>>53987236
I always make sure I've got at least 12 int just so I don't get accused of metagaming when I come up with a good plan.

How do you settle on a character?
It's been years since I last played as player and with all the time before our first session I've now half a dozen character concepts.

>>53987333

I'd describe it as an easy mistake to make.

First of all, "max level" in DnD doesn't mean what it does in other games. It's DnD tradition to write a system that allows characters to become powerful beyond what the system is actually designed for, but it's not intended for actual play: the core books go to 20 but all but one of the Adventure boos stop at 10-12, and the one that goes past that only goes to 15. Max level characters are excessively complicated, game-breakingly powerful, and are nearly unsupported by the materials.

My recommendation is to grab the adventure Lost Mines of Phandelver, which was written for and available in the Starter Set although it does have a tendency to fall off the back of trucks a lot. Despite being specially designed to teach new players and DMs how-to-5e, it's still regarded as one of the best Adventures written for 5e. It runs from level 1 to level 5 but there's a lot of material: some dedicated groups can drop enough material to run it in 1 sitting but if you're group wants to take their time and see everything you can easily spend 12 sessions on it.

Once you've played through LMOP, you'll be in a much better position to switch to another Adventure (most of them are designed for this) or build your own.

(As a side-line, I'm also an arena play junkie. I whole-heartedly recommend level 5 and level 10 as the best power levels and 3v3/3vE for the best "modes.")

>>53987684
>me barb me just got out of tribe me know what werewolf is
Yeah lol no lol

>>53987845
Tribals are more likely to have folklore on relevant monsters than people that spend 20 year learning to pronounce "leviosaah".

How would you rule spells that have a somatic component when wielding a sword/shield? What if it's a Paladin whose shield is also his Holy Symbol?

Was thinking about putting 1 in to Warlock until I realized I'd be unable to cast any of the spells while wielding S/B

>>53987845

Do you eat paint chips as a snack? Who's more likely to know about a werewolves, an urban socialite or a guy who lives out in the sticks where this RURAL, FERAL creature dwells?

>>53987929
That's why the warcaster feat exists.

>>53987929
I believe RAI (maybe also RAW) is if you have a holy symbol on your shield you can use your shield hand for somatic components if the spell also uses a material component.

>>53986838
Never, ever try to force your players to pretend not to understand something that is critical to their characters' survival. DMs trying to control their players minds never ends well.

>>53987946
But it's fucking garbo.

I feel like I need PAM/GWM if I want to not suck as a martial

>>53987975
But not if it doesn't have a material component?

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Why aren't lamiae a playable race yet?

>>53987991
>worrying about sucking on a fucking PALADIN because your weapon feat is delayed a few levels

>>53987991
If it doesn't have a material component, you're not using your shield as a focus and thus you can't use a somatic component along with the material component.

I think the idea is that if you use a material component you use the same hand for a somatic component, so holding a staff that can be used as an arcane focus doesn't require a second hand free as well.

Also you're a paladin and so you only need PAM, not PAM and GWM. Though GWM is good before level 11.

>>53988027
Doesn't Volo's have a guide for Yuan-Ti PCs?

>>53987991
>I don't actually want to cast somatic spells with S&B
Ok then.

>>53987936
As if. How many times do you run into werewolves and live? Rural =/= 'I've been around all the countrysides of the world'. Rural = 'This is my shitty village and I've never been beyond it until now'.

It was just "yeah we're D&D players seen this done that". There was no justification to not believe it was wolves instead.

>>53987916
There are other books than "Levitation Spells And How To Pick Up Chicks With Them"

In fact someone who's spent more time in a full library knows more about werewolves than people that spend 20 years swinging an axe as practice.

Libraries are where you regroup the reports of people who explore the world and take notes as a living.

>>53987989
That it's more than a wolf? Sure. That the lady is hiding something? Sure. That they directly got to suspect it's a werewolf while they're not even done questionning her? Yeah they've handled so many similar cases at Lvl 1 alright.

>>53988128
You know what werewolves IRL are folklore, right? Why do you find it so hard to believe that a similar myth would spread among the population in a world where it is ACTUALLY FUCKING TRUE?

And since when are barbarians dirt-eating ignorant peasants by default, anyway?

>>53982285
do all the male halfings look like jack black

>>53988186
When INT masterrace superiority is threatened by inferior mental stats.

>>53988186
>And since when are barbarians dirt-eating ignorant peasants by default, anyway?
Since they're...

...

...Barbarians?

They
Cannot
Read
As a
Class
Feature

>>53988218
What? Where the hell does it say that?

>>53988218
Not in this game. You're fucking retarded.

>>53988191
I hope they do.

>>53988162
If you're going to decide what the characters are allowed to think, why invite the players around at all? It's never a good look for a session. At best, they sheepishly hedge and find excuses to avoid risk while not outright stating it until the DM-approved Clue™ pops up that tips them off to the thing they all already knew, at worst you're mind-controlling the entire party.

>>53988209
>INT is useless!
>Let's make it so that it keeps being useless by removing the need for education in recognizing abnormal and rare shit that happens in the world!

Well okay.

This isn't even about the INT stat. It's that you get character that aren't surprised by shit and don't actually 'explore' shit because they're PCs.

Yeah WIS is aaaall about insight except that you're not using insight cause you're directly thinking "ackshually, I remember from the other campaign, that this is how werewolves do"

At that point, you don't really play anymore.

>>53988218
Conan ≠ Bob the Turnip Farmer, anon. Do you think that tribal peoples are completely and absolutely clueless about the wilderness, or that they have no culture or mythology?

>>53988218
Go play pathfinder and get ass raped by a Gnoll woman.

>>53986816
Hey better pick a guy who doesn't mind it rather than someone who has nightmares about it. Someone's gotta strangle these wenches.

>>53987236
In my games INT pretty much stands for formal education, and the ability to read, research, calculate, or investigate. The 8 INT Barbarian can be smart as fuck even if he can't read, write or count. Similarly CHA isn't how good you are at coming up with appealing arguments or compliments, it's the force and subtlety with which you can present them, and how much people listen when you open your mouth. It's about letting my players be crafty and creative without going "nuh uh your character can't do that" and it's also a good cure for "uhhh, can I make an intelligence check to solve the puzzle"

>>53988074
>Only need PAM
Why is that, isn't the extra +10 from GWM a huge boost?

>>53988218
maybe you should stop playing 3,5

And oral history is where most folklore exists.

>>53988242
Name me one fucking reason why Conan should know more than axe-swinging and dirt-eating from living in a dirt-eating awe-swinging tribe when they just got out.

One.

Barbarians are LITERALLY peasants, they're people of the land.

>>53988280
Dude, barbs outside their lands, are outside their lands. They're foreigners, it's like you go to Asia and you shit bricks because you see a sabertooth deer.

Which is normal there.

But not where you lived all your life. This isn't about being clueless or even dumb, it's about how much you actually know for facts. No education means you think the Earth is flat or some shit, even as smart as you can be, it's just not gonna help that your whole expertise is skinning things, and the closest you ever got to mainstream knowledge is some merchant that knows jackshit and tells you a very, very ambiguous thing about redheads.