/5eg/ Fifth Edition General:

What are your favorite D&D monsters /5eg/?

[Reposted from the end of the last thread]

What's the least bullshitty way to have a powerful enemy take an item away from my players?

It's a plot item that allows them to open a portal to the source code of the plane they're on, and it has towers which support the structure of the main plane. Each tower culminates in a powerful weapon, but when they take it away, they damage the structure of the plane, and once they're all taken, the whole plane falls apart (and the "main" quest of the sandbox goes into the endgame).

So far they've done 1 tower and we stopped the session halfway through the next one, and there are five in total. Once they get back to the main plane after this one, I want a dragon (in human form) who guards the plane to take the item away, and prompt a questline where they have to track him down to get it back, but I don't want them to feel cheated out of the item mechanically.

Any ideas?

Have you played a Chaotic Evil character before?

>>54013703
Humanoids

>>54013720
>Have you played a Chaotic Evil character before?
No, but I went full retard once and almost killed two party members, which is almost the same thing

>>54013577
yes, it became the most beloved character of the party

It was an slavic bard that was cowardly, treacherous, alcoholic, misogynist, racist, overconfident, honorless and basically a Saturday morning cartoon villain with bad russian accent.
He didn't give a shit about anyone else but because he was a boisterous douche he felt pretty comfortable being the center of attention and wanting everyone to own him favors. He did things like kill by himself the entire crew of a mumakil because he wanted to steal it for himself and, upon realising too late that he was too stupid to know how to ride it, he proceeded to kill the giant beast claiming "if I can't have it, no one can", thus being considered the hero of the kingdom for preventing the destruction of the wall during the siege with the act.

>>54013703
monster girls, of course

>>54013706
if you were that dragon, how would you take the item from the party?

>>54013706
Not sure to be honest.

I once had a plothook made for the Rogue Thief in the party. Basically an old flame of his who wanted his help, but didn't eant to ask for it, so she stole something, with the intent of tricking him into helping her. Basically just using the character as I invisioned her based on the background story he gave me.

The entire group got super mad when they didn't spot her with their bullshit passive perception. He had said she was a thief similar to him, and that they started their Roguish training together. So I assumed she would be his level (setting it up as a potential useful ally or a foil/rival of some kind), and with expertise in sneaking, and a random roll of 18, she was just significantly better at sneaking, than they were at spotting her.

I haven't dared to do that kind of thing again, because everyone, including the Rogue, was super pissed about not spotting her. No idea how they want this done then.

Or maybe they just dont. The worst part is, I had perfect plans for all scenarios (stealing it without getting noticed, or spotted and getting away, or just getting caught.), so I didn't need her to be super sneaky about it. The dice just determined that she was able to avoid their detection, which was apparently not allowed to happen.

>>54013757
>if you were that dragon, how would you take the item from the party?

Beat the shit out of them (but leave them alive because they spared one of his kobold servants and its eggs who put in a good word for them). But doesn't giving them a battle they can't win come across as bad DMing?

How would you guys run a festival type event? I want some downtime for my players and I want them to interact with some NPCs and maybe participate in some events like weight lifting, archery and so on. I'm guessing doing some rolls for the events and giving out gold rewards or maybe trinkets would be fine?
My main issue is length, I don't want it all to be over quickly. This has been a problem for me as a DM, I always rely too much on combat so the content ends up being too fight-heavy.

>>54013800

Consider offering interesting non-cash prizes as well. Winning at archery might grant you a trained pet falcon, for example.

I would play some sort of modified dice poker instead of doing standard rolls for the competition. That way players can even play against each other with the chance to beat each other even if their stats might not support it.

I ran something similar as a one-shot, and had them arrive the night before (allowing them to mingle with competitors, find out about the competition, or just have the PC's go find some alcohol and kick back) and then have the tournament/festival the next day.

>>54013781
no if you put in paper beforehand what the stats of the dragon are and you act logically (the dragon waited for an opportunity to get them by surprise and without spells to fuck them up)

If by miracles the party manages to beat the creature you have no choice but to concede defeat to your players and throw into the trash that campaign, because they have legitimately won with all the odds against them.

Putting the players in bullshit situations isn't bad GMing, bad GMing is denying the players to act and not giving them choices. Railroading is not making a linear dungeon, it's not letting the players act

>the dragon is fucking pissed, roll initiative
>cue 20 minutes of the party trying their hardest but still getting defeated because he has shown to be powerful as fuck
vs
>the dragon is ducking pissed
>in a narration the party is defeated, not because the dragon was powerful as fuck but because the GM said so
in a summary, always let the players play, never control their characters, control only the environment and NPCs in logical manners

>>54013757
>Be Dragon
>Walk up to party
>Introduce myself as MAGNIFICENT DRAGON-LORD KING BIGGUS DICKUS, and I am here to- HOLY SHIT WHAT'S THAT (Point in the other direction)
>When they turn around to look grab the item and dash away
>Play https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MK6TXMsvgQg

>>54013781
The dragon must know these guys are tough. Why would he risk direct conflict?

>>54013890
10/10

>>54013703
Rust monsters. Enjoy your lower AC, faggots.

>>54013894
It's his job. The entire demiplane is a prison built to hold what is essentially an Eldrazi out of the MtG universe, and he was assigned there in order to prevent it from falling apart.

He succeeded for a long time, until an accident with a kraken destroyed one of the towers and allowed normal people to break into the leylines of the place and sneak themselves into the source code.

If he doesn't stop the party from robbing the towers, something approximating Tarrasque stats is going to be let loose on the real world.

Plus, all he knows of them is that they've managed to break into the towers, and they're competent enough to have dealt with a nest of kobolds. Beyond that, they haven't made much of a name for themselves.

>>54013933
Have a kobold nail "massive mounds of gold for artifact!" up on some town boards or something.

>>54013703
Humans

>>54013971
Ha! I actually kind of like that. Or something approximating it.

Maybe I'll overwhelm them with people suddenly looking for them. Bounty hunters, thieves, assassins, and then build up to the dragon.

Do you allow the Skywrite spell to create images in the sky? What are your favourite emoji's to skywrite?

So I just started my first ever campaign and was told that arrows, rations and torches are busywork and won't be counted in the campaign. What the hell gives? What's the point of my darkvision and wanderer background? I feel like my character is gimped from the start.

Is this normal?

>>54014037
Depends on the DM. I told my players to manage their ammo, but I can tell they're not - that's alright with me, if they're not enjoying something, there's no sense in enforcing it.

Torches is a bit shifty, because darkness can be a real problem for some characters and it nerfs characters like Drow who get Dancing Lights and Darkvision.

Rations is a salt to taste. My previous DM didn't bother, but she was awful anyway. I make the players reduce their rations by one each long rest or take a health reduction.

>>54014037
Players without darkvision will still need torches; you just don't need to keep track of how many you have. Not lighting a torch can still have a definite strategic advantage.

As for the rations, talk to your DM and see if you can switch your background a bit.

>>54014068
thanks, I'll try that

>>54013930
>party saves up their cumulative gold for 6 levels to buy plate armor for the fighter
>next encounter is ten rust monsters out of nowhere
>maintain that this is just a medium encounter for the party and that they just need to find a way around it

I am the law, motherfuckers.

>>54014019
>the sky around local mage's college is filled with 4chan-style shitposts written in the clouds

Has there been any teasers, previews or leaks about the new Chult book?

>>54014244
>One of them reads "STOP RECLOUDING REEEEEE"

Would a coven of 3 Green Hags be too much for a party of 6 4th level players? Planning for my campaign's first boss fight and I want it to be hard but manageable for the players with the possibility of one or two players dying

I know this is the wrong place to ask, but it's still DnD so whatever.

I'm starting an ADnD campaign soon but some of my players are new and would get fucked and annoyed with millions of sheets since this group is mainly using laptops and digital shit to for character sheets.
Is there a good character generator, excell character sheet or something like PCgen for ADnD?

>>54014319
>allowing electronics at the table

>>54014396
Electronics make shit a lot faster in modern games, just got to turn off wifi, that's it.

>>54013694
That's fucking kawaii.

>death effects nerfed
>basilisk doesn't do shit
>everything is damage damage damage
>game is pretty much a matter of who has the highest hp
>char op is a dps contest

All in the name of (((((((((fun)))))))))

>>54014504
?

>>54014421
It can be permissable for the DM to keep copies of maps and campaign notes on a tablet or something. Otherwise, use pens and paper or fuck off.

>>54014532
Is this bait?

>>54014532
I'm using Roll20 for games where everyone is in the same room and there's nothing you can do to stop me

>>54014550
yes

>bitching at electronics
>not bitching at people who willingly go to RPG to cheat

>>54014037
I generally do it binary which is very similar. So you have torches, rations, arrows etc. and don't need to keep track of exact amounts. But if a beast comes in the night and steals someone's food, they don't have rations anymore, if they have to swim across a lake they could be at risk of making their torches useless, and if they get captured those arrows are gone.


>>54014206
While they should have more than enough gold for it by that level, it probably wasn't the best decision anyway to invest so much in plate when splint is almost as good and real cheap.

How well do the chase mechanics from the DMG work?

And what's the best way for a bounty hunter to capture party members other than just a straight up fight?

Ok so normally I play pathfinder, but I recently got invited to a 5e game. What would be the best way to build a rapier/foil wielding musketeer type character? I'm thinking Rogue Swashbuckler or Fighter Duelist, but I can't decide which one. Any suggestions?

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>>54014504
>save or die spells either toned down or removed
>this is bad
kys yourself

Is the half-elf the objectively and mechanically best race?

>>54014735
Unlike in Pathfinder, what you build in 5e actually plays well and you actually have something else to do apart from full attacking.

>>54014763
Miscegenation is a sin.

>>54014763
Mechanically it's half-elf or variant human. In terms of fluff it's lizardfolk

>>54014550
No, it isn't

>>54014557
Sad

>>54014630
Electronics are cheating

>>54014738
It IS bad because SoDs are a perfectly fair and fun part of the game but wizards decided to pussify the game to attract the normies and roasties who watch shit like critical roll and would cry if their precious skyrim ripoff character dies.

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How do you handle travelling along the Sword Coast, /tg/? Or similar large maps in general.

I have DM'd a couple of homebrew campaigns on smaller, self contained islands or landmasses, where I had an intimate knowledge of most of everything, having placed it myself.

Through sheer luck, there was no logical reason I could keep my current party from "heading ashore" to the Sword Coast after my first story arc ended. It allowed us to look at things like travel and food more seriously, which is neat, but I am overwhelmed with the number of cities, areas, etc. And naturally the first thing they do is try to get a map of the area from a trading caravan, as they themselves are used to smaller regions to work with and want to explore.

How do I flesh out the regions and cities enough so that they don't feel like everything is the same? I was able to stall a bit by rolling some encounters while they headed to daggerford and end the session, but they're already talking about doing a trading road trip and hitting up some settlements while trying to complete the main goal of the campaign.

Any advice on how to handle travelling on a larger scale like this as well? Obviously there is the DMG which I'll read through today, but any suggestions you guys have I'll naturally take at a higher face value.

>>54014776
Pathfinder and 5e need to have a unholy love child so I can have my perfect d&d game.

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>>54014845
>save or die is fair and fun
>normies and roasties
>skyrim
Not even trying lmao

>>54014855
This is why my campaign is called "Abduction: Isle of Mystery" and is set in a demiplane prison.

Best suggestion, take two-line notes on every city in the nearby area, just things like:

>Mining town, run by a local duke, subject to Waterdeep authorities, quite poor
>Port city, has trade links with overseas pirate coves, local guards are corrupt

I'd say if you have that for most places they come across, you should be able to wing it relatively effectively.

If you want to slow them down, put together hordes of caves, fellow travellers, and small towns unmarked on the map to divert their attention.

>>54014845
>months of playing with a single character
>built rapport with the party, in-jokes, have history together
>go up against a fairly unimportant monster as part of a side quest
>roll a 1
>level 10 from full health to death

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>>54014868
>the same people who faked election polls can now be trusted for approval polls

>>54014889

That's essentially what I did before, it made everything much more believable and I enjoyed making my own geography and similar.

Sparknotes of the towns is probably the best way to do it, out of curiosity how do you handle travel and resting? They want to plan a month long voyage hitting up a few settlements along the way, but I'm worried when they can just technically long rest after every encounter they will have no issue using every resource to end anything I throw at them relatively easily. In addition, my autism prevents me from throwing a deadly encounter at them while they're on established trade routes and are already of a moderate level.

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>>54014916
>>54014868
Go back to /pol/ ya cucks

>>54014735
>Fighter Duelist
?

>>54014037
I do this although I do track ammo.

>Light sources
I don't track how long torches and lanterns have left, but if you've got Darkvision you're certainly getting to see things the players can't notice, and if e.g. water puts the light out you get to save the day.

>Rations
No clue, definitely ask your DM for a way to compensate.

>>54014962
I'm not the one posting political images in /5eg/

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>>54014845
/r9k/ go home

>>54014916
>faked election polls
Confirmed for knowing nothing about how polling works. Daily reminder that Clinton won the popular vote, by about the margin the polls predicted.

>>54013694
I want to make money at dms guild but I have no idea what would sell and be fun to produce

All political posters FUCK OFF.

>>54015033
Well you're not going to make any money. >>54015033

>>54013800
Look up the adventure "tournament at scornubel" its a murder-case set during a tournament

>>54015044
I'll be swimming in cents, you'll see

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>>54015033
Whale fishin'

>>54015070
Sounds like you're about to get tetanus.

>>54015007
>baiting this hard

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>>54015081
>>54015070
As long as you hire your nephew for 10 cents a day.

>>54015102
Is there a way to swim in money in 5e?

>>54015114
>depends on your DM
But really, after some levels money doesnt mean shit anymore, so you might as well use it to build a giant safe and swim there with your party bros.

>>54014958
>prevents me from throwing a deadly encounter at them while they're on established trade routes and are already of a moderate level

If it's a trade route, bandits make sense to start with. But you can use bandits to divert them off the road - they'll go and check out bandit camps if you leave a trail leading to them (because loot), and if the bandits have a mine, they'll check out the mine, and if the mine happens to have a deadly monster infestation...

As for travelling and resting, I always say they can only long rest once per day, because otherwise they can't fall asleep. Elves can obviously trance, but unless the whole party doesn't need to sleep, they'll usually force the elves to roll with the rest of them.

I also reduce my party's rations by one every time they long rest, with the option to expend 10cp instead if they're in a non-hostile city. They'll have to stop in settlements to buy food, which will slow them down, which is where you can throw more hooks at them to keep them down.

>we stop in a settlement to buy food
>you find the local populace ravaged by plague of some sort, or so you think. Their eyes are bulging and their lips bulbous. No one is willing to talk to you, save for an old beggar, who talks of fish-like creatures from the deep, and how everything changed when they came...

>we stop in a settlement to pick up rations
>you find the town empty, but it looks like people were there only moments prior. You hear footsteps and laughter in the distance, but when you turn, you see nobody there...

And so on.

You can always put something in their path, wherever they go. And when they stop to rest, wild animals, thieves, bounty hunters, assassins, anything could cause problems for them if they're getting too much rest.

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>>54015033
Be that guy from critical roll and sell his overhyped bullshit... you will make a lot of money.
If you are not him, well, good luck.

>>54015132
No i meant like physically swim in a non liquid

>>54015152
Oh, sure its considered Dificult terrain, half walking speed.

>>54013706
The dragon hires a thief of appropriate Challenge Rating who steals it. Give the thief Expertise in Sleight of Hand or whatever.

>>54015152
>>54015166
yeah, unless your dm is a beagle boy, that would be it.

>>54015174
Ha, I actually have the perfect character for this. The party's favourite NPC, who is an amoral, no-attachments Master Thief.

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Alright, so two of my friends and I are planning on starting up a campaign in which we will be rotating DMs. Each player makes a character, and each player always plays their character, even while DMing. We have decided on this as our playspace. I get the Eastern Highlands, one friend gets the Ashlands, and the other gets the southern area. Of course, we'll allow each other to enter each other's lands, with permission. Our characters will be natives from the lands we will DM, so they'll work well as guides to those areas. Gonna end each mini-campaign with a hook for the next DM's campaign. The DM's character will basically be a support character; unless the other players are completely lost or stuck, they won't be affecting the actual story at all. Just combat, and support. It lets us keep a consistent party and make sure everyone is still developing and enjoying their character.
That's all our "rules" and ideas so far. Anything we should know or watch out for? Anyone done this before? What should we be careful about with rotating DMs?

>>54015196
There we go. Then the thief just picks the right time to try and steal it. If the party can't make the Perception checks, well, that's not your fault.

Just make sure the thief isn't, like, impossibly good. So if your party is, say, an average level of 10, then the thief should probably have a Sleight of Hand modifier of +13 - (4x2) + 5, accounting for a Dexterity of 20 and Expertise.

+13 is nothing to laugh at, but it's conceivable that the party might make good enough Perception checks.

>>54015220
So, not really a campaign, but a series of one shots?

>>54013703

Nothics and demons/devils.

Never really "got" yugoloths; I guess neutral evil is just boring to me compared to devils and demons.

>the light created by the Daylight spell doesn't count as sunlight
What's the point?

>>54015033
Maybe one shot low-level adventures?

>>54015236
Kind of. But with the same characters each time, and world building and such. We won't be swapping DMs every week, it'll be at the end of each person's story arch for that part. So it could be two weeks, three, maybe four. It depends on how much they wanna make for that time. And if someone loves DMing, we might make them the main DM and slow down the rotations.

>>54015234
To be honest, half the party would probably let him take it. Two of them slept with him already. They love him, because I made him maximum ham. They went after him because he'd already stolen their stuff previously.

This is a great idea.

>>54015234
>then the thief should probably have a Sleight of Hand modifier of +13 - (4x2) + 5, accounting for a Dexterity of 20 and Expertise.

Christ I formatted this poorly.

+13, from (4x2) + 5, accounting for a Dexterity of 20 and Expertise.

There we go.

>>54015272
Hey, if he charms it away that's cool to. Just have him make up some kind of story. Expertise works just as fine with Bluff checks.

>>54014868
>Day 69

nice

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Goliaths are banned from my games so I was thinking of giving their Stone's Endurance ability to dwarves. Was also thinking of buffing Stone's Endurance to 2d12 at 8th level and 3d12 at 16th level.

Thoughts? Too OP?

So I ran LMoP for randoms on roll20, it wasn't half bad.
The story of one of my players is that he's searching for his father, a powerful warrior who disappeared a couple of years ago, and Gundren, the story's Damsel in Distress, told him he knew someone who had info on his father's whereabouts.
Now, the first part is easy. I just have to say his father and his team passed through Phandalin a couple of years ago and they were the ones who cleared Wyvern Tor, so the party just have to go there, kill the Orcs inhabiting it now and find some clues. But from then on, I'm at a loss. Anybody has some ideas?

>>54013781
A battle they can't win isn't bad dm'ing if it's simply a battle they can't win head on

A way I'd do it is the ol' Simulacrum switcheroo. Have them Role-play as usual, then one day, after the party splits up, they run across the bound and gagged body of one of the pcs back at camp, at which point you reveal that he's the actual PC who last thing he remembers is getting boinked in the head while the PC they have been playing with all session was actually Dracodax shapechanged into one of their forms, and he hasn't in fact just gone down to town to buy some cigarettes but in fact, absconded with the magical item

>>54015327
Dwarfs are too loaded already.

>>54015327

I feel like dwarves have too many racial traits as it is. They're all good and are mostly fluff but Stone's Endurance might be too much.

>>54015347
>>54015352

>>54015347

What if I pruned Dwarven Resilience, Tool Proficiency, and Dwarven Combat Training?

>>54015378
>prune Dwarven Resilience
>Dwarves Ability to withstand superhuman amounts of mead

Die.

>>54015419

>implying that kind of stuff isnt handwaved already by GM fiat

>>54015378
Then they aren't the classical dwarf anymore, desu. At this point, I think you should just remake them entirely. What about this:

Ability Score Increase +2STR, +1CON
>dwarfs are strong and hardy
Size: Medium
>they aren't that small
Speed: 30ft
>fuck 25ft, it really, really sucks for grid-users
Proficiency in Athletics
>dwarfs know how to use their strength well
Stone's Endurance
>what you originally wanted
Powerful Build
>did I already say dwarfs are strong?
Acclimatized to high altitudes and cold climates
>I know that with this I'm invalidating hill dwarfs, but it's just fluff realm really

>>54015472
>fuck 25ft, it really, really sucks
It's a minor inconvenience

>>54015540
A Dwarf fights a Goblin.
Goblin Disengages as a Bonus Action and runs away, then fires his bow.
Dwarf runs up to him, but has to Dash or use a Reach weapon to get in range.
But if he dashes, he can't attack and the Goblin will just Disengage next turn, rinse and repeat.
If he uses a Reach weapon, then he dishonours his ancestors, because even his surname is Hammer-something.
Either way, Dwarfs are fucked.

>>54015220
Both DMs sharing a character is an option. Worked well in a game I was in.

>>54015607
woosh

MINOR, like miner

>>54015689
A bit too late to save the joke, but still made me smile a bit.

>>54015607
>f he uses a Reach weapon, then he dishonours his ancestors, because even his surname is Hammer-something.
What messed up setting are you even playing?

Trying to come up with a first small plot arc for my six-man party, currently level 3, though it'd be reasonable to say they'd fight the thing at level 4.

Any ideas for someone/something I can make them fight which would be controlling / manipulating the senate of a big trading city?

>>54015753
Forgotten Realms

>>54015795
A Lamia is CR4 and has Charm, Suggestion and Geas
Put it up with some mind-controlled minions and you're good to go.

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>>54014855
Old Volo's Guides and Several Sword coast pdfs from older editions will give you plenty to work with.
Give them a mission to go somewhere specific (delivery, caravan, etc) so that you know what to prep first. Waterdeep to Silverymoon is a good example. Let them choose which route to take so they make the decisions. After that let them be more sandboxy if they prefer.

>>54015834
Urghoshes are not a urghosh family thing!
REEEEE

>>54015607
>throw a javelin
>goblin dies

>>54014839
How are electronics intrinsically cheating?

>>54015795
Remarkably civilised werewolf.

>>54015875
>>54015607
Look kid, Im a seasoned player, some might even say that Im one of the best, if not the best, gamer this board has to offer. Dont believe me? I have over 400 hundred board games at my house, over a 20 at my arms reach right now. Card games? I got a deck for every possible combination of cards of M:tg, I even go to tournments and shit. No biggie. D&D? I'm proud to say that as a player I'm always the party leader, maxed as I can be and I'm not afraid of taking that extra edge that puts me ahead of enemies and allies alike. Hell, I got to get paid for having sex with hot girls and killing dragons with my expert builds. I like to shit on the GM one-directional adventures, by solving it with brains and brawl instead of one or the other, wether the party likes it or not. When Im the GM, Im proud to say that NO PARTY ever finished one of my adventures. Think you're gonna face some lazy sleepy goblins? Think again, they are fully trained comandos, that will attack and take full cover before you can do shit. Dont hate the player, hate the game. WH40K? My Ultramarines will anihilate you (each one of them have at least 5 page background that I wrote to enhace the fluff), so don't even get me started, kiddo, shit would blow your weaklings mind on how real it gets.
So, you listen, kiddo, and you listen good, because this will be a freebie.
Dorfs are indeed a shitty race, hell, When Im dming I just love to fuck with the players that are crippled fucks that cant walk like a fucking normal person. I'll even add custom monsters that can teleport and ninja those manlets ass hard.
Never play a fucking dwarf in 5e, if your DM is wort his salt, like I am, he will cut your suffering short by killing your character in a humiliating way. Variant human is the way to go.
So, yeah... if you play any race that has low mobility you are basicly asking to get fucked in the ass with a dragon dildo (old mem, newfags, lurk more if you didnt get it).

>>54014839
>autism

>>54015795
Hags are good with that sort of thing
If you think that hags are too weak, just add those steroid buffs from volos guide.

>>54015137

Thanks! I think I now have some ideas how to make this work.

>>54016042
Whew man, thanks a lot. If you didn't put that disclaimer I think everybody would take this post seriously.

>>54013694
WH40K ultramanon here.
So, a guy asked me if I wanted to play this game, but I was looking at the races and they are all watered down versions of my warhammer races, how can I play a real fucking eldar or a human version of a space marine? All the races are manlets compared to what I am used to.

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>>54016042

Virt?

>>54015834
>>54016031
>>54016076

I think a reskinned Lamia (since this is not exactly a city in a desert) will be quite nice, possibly with a few minions. I can imagine a lamia being very manipulative, taking the form of a politician, for example.

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>>54016153

>>54016163
yeah, that could work

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Are your players brainded too?
>paladin gets a tiara
>it snaps and transform into a helm during combat and grants nightvision
>he later gets a halberd
>it has 1d4 energy damage bonus
>it talks
>make a point of the fact, that the tiara always transforms into a helm when the halber starts talking
>it's silent when other people use it
>only talks when the tiara is transformed into a helmet
Ok, here's the real kicker
>dwarf ranger - "I cast detec magic on halberd"
>DM - "you don't find any traces of magic"
>Ranger - "wtf, that's not how it works"
>DM - "the spell works as intended"
>Ranger - "but how does it talk?"
>DM - "no fucking idea"
>Ranger - "but I don't see any magic item that works like that"
>he and another player continue to bother me with it for a day and demand that I would show them how could a magic item be immune from Detect Maagic.

>>54016171
>>54016153
>>54016042
The pasta is gaining self cosncience... or is it virts spirit haunting us for banishing him?

>>54016211
for what purpose?
Was there a tiny fey inside or the item was an bioweapon like the ones those expanded universe outter aliens from star wars used?

>>54016211
Note: the only person to figure out that the tiara is a piece of power armor and a halber has an AI built in was a guy, who was playing a retard-paladin who talks to his halberds.

>>54016211
Are those items in love?

>>54015249
I'm about to use the Nothic in my next session of LMOP. Any tips on how to do it well and make it memorable? So far "voice in your head cackling, mumbling gibberish, and requesting treasure/flesh" doesn't seem very interesting...

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>>54016211
>detect magic doesnt detect advanced technology

>>54016295
why would it?

>>54016211
>braindead
yeah, not everyone expects sci-fy in their D&D game. Whitout proper context its hard to say if they are indeed dumb, or you just like to hamfist sci-fy stuff in your games and not figuring it out immeadtly is dumb.
Fun idea, tho.

>>54016328
If pic didnt made the joke clear
1:21
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIBrY_hQAI4

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>>54016376
Nah, I get it, it's just not funny. It's not bad, but kinda like "eh".

>>54016211
>'lmao my players are so dumb, they can't figure out that the thing I added that acts like X which is normally in the game is actually Y which is never in the game

>>54015331
The guy's father went looking for Wave Echo Cave with some treasure hunters. They had a map and they got in. None of them got out.

>>54015255
>muh vampire can't be defeated that easily
basically

>>54015795
A succubus with her cambion children.

>>54015472
Powerful build is a way to have large races that aren't Large, dwarves are already of smaller stature but count as medium so it doesn't seem too needed either.

Are PAM and GWM best used in tandem with each other or is PAM fine by itself?

>>54016211
One in particular is and I think I'll give the whole party a hard time because of them.

Definitely not braindead, but sometimes they don't think the consequences of their actions through.

>need to kidnap someone and impersonate them
>they ask around to see what hiring a merc group would cost to kidnap someone
>the merc group informs them that based on their target (high profile), and the short notice of the job, it would be difficult, and as such would cost a significant amount of currency. About two-thirds of what the players own right now.
>players think this is ridiculous pricing, they'll just do it themselves
>they come up with a plan
>their plan is to just show up outside the victim's place of business in a rented carriage, and claim they're here to pick him up.

>make a spoony bard
>DM says we have to roll things like background for our character for whatever reason
>Also have to roll our appearance
>Roll the worst one, look like some sort of disfigured monstrosity covered in scars and warts.
kill me

>>54016676
PAM is ok by itself, especially if you don't have a use for bonus actions

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>>54014504

Glad to hear your 3.5 build is porting over as well as you hoped.

Stay mad, kiddo.

this might be a really strange question and not really belonging to this thread, but im planning on making an ex-pirate bard, and i want to sing sea-shanties in person while in combat

but i also kinda want something to """"play"""" while im singing, just to keep the rythm, i was thinking of tapping the table, but i fear it might be annoying for the others (if i tap too hard and/or it starts shaking) and rude

what are some simple instrument that i use to roughly the same effect? just clap?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOfC1PEKt1U

Stat this guy.

We are making a campy Lupin inspired game, and I want to make a character based on him. Starting level 5 if it matters.

I can't quite decide between Rogue or Bard. Bard is mostly because he is kind of stupidly food at everything, and especially because I want the spell that allows you to enter dreams.

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>>54016887
Aaaand it failed to attach. Good job me.

>>54016812
>I want to sing in person

On behalf of everyone in your session, please do not do that.

>>54016887
>Natural Spellcasting
>Spells Available: Invisibility

>>54016746
So it's fine for a paladin?

>>54016896
Seconded.

I want to make a magic item called "Ring of Misspell Storing" inspired off the misspell book every once in a while pops in this thread

So here comes the challenge to help me compile the list, the idea being a spell that you store in the ring comes out with a letter missing, replaced, or switched around somewhere the in name of the spell

>Alter Shelf
>Paste
>Blow
>Laura of Vitality
>Firebell
>Hunter's Lark
>Misty Stop
>Fish

>>54016894
That guy just screams Arcane Trickster to me. Though straight thief also gets you the good at everything part. You could even, and you're gonna have to trust me on this, Trickery Domain Cleric

I had one of them in a Thieves Guild campaign with two rogues, a rogue/fighter multiclass and a Warlock and it was incredibly fun. You get an interesting spell list.

>>54013706
Why are you being a faggot and removing player agency like that?

If you want a dragon or whatever to try to steal from the players by all means do it but it has to be done within the parameters of the rules of the game you are playing.

So the dragon could openly threaten the players and demand they hand it to them. But if they say fuck you then he needs to fight them, or follow through on his threats in dorm manner such as burning down a village and the players need to be able to react how they wish.

The dragon can send minions to get it in the night , who you make stealth rolls and thievery rolls for against the players perception values. If it fails however it fails and no doubt the players will do more to protect it.

Just don't railroad. Your players will hate you for it and if you have any self respect you'll hate yourself for it .

>>54016967
>Why are you being a faggot and removing player agency like that?
>ignoring the entire point of the question, which was "how do I accomplish something without removing player agency"

>>54016676
They are both already very strong.

PAM boosts your damage per round by about 5-6, every round, plus the occasional extra opportunity attack.

GWM boosts your damage per round by about the same after factoring in the increased miss chance.

So both really work fine seperately, but better together since the damage boost applies to the extra attack as well.

>>54016909
Makes it so you can smite 3 times in one turn, unless I'm missing something with smite

>>54016964
Damn I hadn't thought of that.

That's actually not bad. It is not like he is particularly good at fighting anyway. My issue with AT is the lack of good spells - especially since I would love to have some of the mind altering shit you get at higher levels.

Only issue would be the God. Igor feels more like a Patron (despite literally being a God), so I would need something else, preferably something that fits at least somewhat into forgotten realms, as that is still the setting we are using.

I'm DMing HotDQ and RoT. What happens if the party removes tiamat spell immunity, burns her legendary saves, and then casts banishment on her? It seems like a super cheese way to end the entire story.

>>54016995
If you have a predetermined outcome in mind as to what will happen then you're already removing player agency in acting upon that predetermined outcome while ignoring the game and rules.

The question asked was 'How do I remove the players agency whilst tricking them into believing I'm not' Rather than 'How do I have my npc attempt to do this thing whilst respecting my players agency.'

>>54016961
>stone to flash
You make rocks explode.
>godberry
???

>>54016894
Warlock man.

Igor is his patron as you said.

Chain for that cat familiar.

And for the ability to enslave demons. And alter self for his sudden appearance changes.

This is literally a Warlock through and through. And it let's you delve into dreams too, so it is pretty much a perfect match all around.

Fuck sneak, you get the ability to go invis.

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>>54016576
You dense nigga

>>54014958
They don't have to have combat every day that they're traveling, and the big secret is that they don't have to have an adventure every time they do have combat.

Now, when you do want them to have an adventure, or they want to go off on an adventure, it's easy to make one random event set off a chain reaction that leads to something looking like an adventure. For example

>Random wild animals problem (fight)
>Bandits that've been watching the caravan take advantage of the previous fight (may or may not fight)
>PCs track down bandit's lair
>Two or three fights at lair with: Guards/pets; Leader; another returning bandit force if they take too long.
>Last encounter after or before returning to caravan of any remaining bandits coming for revenge

That's an easy three to six fights depending on how it all gets handled. If you need to stretch it out, the bandit lord can keep his loot guarded in a separate vault. If they suck at tracking, that wandering patrol can attack before they find the lair and be their lead in.

Basically, the adventure goes accident > opportunist > obstacle > goal > mastermind and throw in some retaliation and escalation if you feel the situation needs it.

>>54017249
>Godberry
GOD! BERRY! GODBERRY!
KING OF THE JUICE.

>>54017362
I got that it was really similar at the end but didn't remember the athletics prof so I thought it wasn't literally goliath. my bad famalam.

>>54017240
Isn't the goal to stop Tiamat being summoned?

>>54014958
Use the lingering injury rules in the dmg for everytime a player goes down.

Combats become unsurprisingly much scarier when players know with some bad luck they can lose an eye or leg without being able to sleep for 8 hours on some dirt and magically heal all their injuries.

>>54016961
>Misty Stop
Up to 3 allies you see within 30ft have advantage when attacking any aquatic creatures (duration: 1 minute. requires concentration)

Also:
>Guiding Belt (touch)
You enchant a belt. For 8 hours, anybody wearing it will know which direction is North and have advantage on skill checks relating to navigation

>>54016961
Grue Strike
You have advantage when attacking any beast or monstrosity when in total darkness.

Countersmell
Your are able to eliminate any Stench that would otherwise cause harm

False Fife
You create a fife that is unplayable. It disappears at the next dawn.

>>54017252
>made a Warlock with the charlatan background
>his backstory was that he had caused a lot of issues, and was currently in prison, his introduction was through a Paladin who needed his help (and he did ping good, he was just framed for a crime by a noble)
>He hides his true self through disguise and alter self because his patron won't allow him to commit crimes (including simple fighting, trespassing etc) while looking like himself.
>He is a Bladelock though, and likes using stealth and subterfuge
>His best plot moment was when he managed to trick someone into thinking he was dead, by having them kill a clone he had made (longbow sneak kill, they were sure it was him)
>tfw I accidentally made the persona 5 protagonist
God damnit man.

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Does anyone have some good ideas of rituals for players to find on a witch's spellbook? They should be pretty useless unless the players come up with creative, role-play intensive, uses for them. For instance:

Black Womb Curse
>by performing this ritual using a lock from your target woman's hair and a plagueful bog leech, you guarantee that every child this woman gestates will be stillborn

There can also be some powerful shit with ridiculously hard ingredients

Potion of Ultimate Death
>Use this ritual to brew this with a beating heart from one of each ancient chromatic dragon
Okay, maybe not this, but you get the idea

You know, fun stuff

>>54013703
Gnolls. They cute.

>>54013694
My ridiculous party nears level 8 and I have the feeling that I should shape the campaign a bit more. I need an idea for the endgame.

My party consists of two clerics and six paladins. Although I was afraid at first, this group is fantastic. Absolutely crazy and frustrating, but fantastic nonetheless.

I think about leading them to a crusade to the abyss. I'm pretty sure that they would love this, despite the fact that it is absolutely cliché. However, I wanted to ask whether someone got a better idea for a group of kind harted zealots.

What's the appropriate level for a party of 5 to fight a vampire?

Why is CR so shit? i find my players punch above their weigth against groups of enemies that are above party's lvl by 2 or 3

>>54017855
10

>>54017756
Some of them should be traps. Performing the ritual causes you and anybody near you damage. Players can make an arcana check to notice that something is fishy.

>>54015352
Dwarves having a lot is balanced by them being dwarves and thus inherently unplayable.

>>54017915
Isn't that a bit much? Party's paladin would probably just delete him with all the radiant damage.

>>54017800
Complete special missions sent directly by the Pope to recover ancient legendary weapons and equipment used by Archangels and Saints in the days of old.
Use this gear while leading a glorious Crusade to reclaim the Holy Land and send the Demons back to where they belong.
I think crusade into the Abyss might be a tad too much.

>>54017855
According to Kobold Club, it starts being a Hard encounter at lv8. Depends a lot on your party comp, though. And also if it's just a straight fight against the Vampire. If he spends some time fucking with them before, appearing for quick raids and exhausting their resources, you're looking at 10+.

>>54017907
>Why is CR so shit?
Because you don't understand how it works.

>>54017953
Well, depends on whether there are ads or not.

For a single encounter, 5v1 I wouldn't go lower than 8.

I need adventures, preferably about exploring the great wheel. Is there anything out there similar to tales of the outer planes?

>>54016280
My DM asked each player before the session for a secret their character has that they wouldn't want the party to know. The nothic made us all roll a wisdom save and he found the secrets of those who failed, and threatened to share them if those people didn't convince the nothic to help. If you think the players will RP that and not just shrug it off, it's a thing you could do.

>>54017973
>>54017968
What about a party with this comp
>PAM paladin
>cleric
>ranger
>fighter
>sorc

At what level it would be doable for them to fight a vampire?

>>54017756
The hags in Curse of Strahd grind children's bones into a fine powder and then bake cakes with them.
The cakes put you into a happy trance for a few hours and you're high as fuck. They're also highly addictive.
When people can't pay for the cakes with money anymore, the hags let them pay with one of their children instead.

Also, the gypsies in Curse of Strahd have a few powerful curses, you could build them into hag curses.

>>54017756
Going through deluded supernatural tumblrs is good inspiration. I think I'm going to use some of this for my setting.

Infestation of Joy
>Dunk a lock of the target's hair in honey that has been buried overnight, then leave it in a windowsill and chant the words. Whenever the target feels genuine happiness, a swarm of biting flies will attack them.

>going frenzy on a single zombie
Why would anyone do this?

>>54018209
they got bored and wanted to through a bunch of d20s. Some people just get bored in dnd and have a compulsion to burn or break shit.

>>54017907
CR is calculated assuming you will be running 6-8 combats per day with two short rests and 1 long rest after that.

These encounters are meant to be a mix of easy, medium and hard.

So a hard encounter isn't meant to destroy the players, it's meant to just be a bit more difficult than a medium encounter. It's the cumulative weight of encounters and the subsequent resource management in terms of XP.

It can arguably be difficult to shoehorn this many encounters into a day. In which case five hard encounters is appropriate.

It can likewise be difficult to prevent long rest spamming. In which case you can either outright tell players they can't rest in a certain area or penalise them via random encounters with a high chance that interrupt the rest and prevent the benefits.

Note that they can only attempt one long rest in a 24 hour period.

Further note the players are meant to be heroes who win the vast majority of encounters they face. If you want to make things much harder you need to use the injury table in the dmg, random encounters with deadly spikes ,the alternate rules for healing , below average stat arrays or a mixture of above.

Please read the rulebook before you assume things about the rules that aren't true.

>>54017409
>>54015137

Just out of curiosity, how would you handle a "Long haul" distance, say about 3 weeks travel time? Multiple instances of these mini-adventures, or just one with some smaller slice of life events?

Not even let them make such a huge trek from A to B in the first place?

I guess I would also like to know what you fine folks think is an appropriate amount of table time for a long voyage, say from Daggerford to Tilverton or similar. Maybe a few of these with some stops and intrigue along the way at mapped settlements? I'm just worried they will feel either

>wow that was too easy now we're 1000 miles away
>wow that took forever just to get from A to B

Is there a sweet-spot?

>>54018249
They only rolled once, and then asked if they could attack again during the zombies turn. I think this is a little beyond boredom.

On that note if players forget shit do you guys retcon things that happened inbetween that time do you say fuck it and hope they remember better next time?

>>54014037
It's not like light sources matter a lot in this edition, due to how exploration and combat are handled (both are much quicker than in the editions where they were relevant parts of resource management). A caster can pick up Light and cast it on something like a ring or necklace, which is even more effective and trivializes any possible lighting issue unless you come across an anti-magic field, and in that case, you probably have more pressing issues. Someone without natural darkvision can still get it via the Darkvision spell, goggles of night, or a certain warlock invocation.

Even then you can whip your torch/lantern out. In the case that you're in a dungeon where fire and magic don't work, literally ALL RACES except humans and halflings get natural darkvision. Not to mention a dungeon like that would be kind of garbage.

>>54018082
8 is enough. The Vampire is fucked.

>>54016211
So, the idea is the tiara projects a magic effect onto the halberd?

>>54018082
They could reliably take out a vampire at 5. They could probably manage it before that level, however.

>>54018392
Only if it's the first few sessions and they're getting used to the character, or if it's something really forgettable and not so important.

>>54018720
That was what I first thought reading it, too. But Detect Magic is range self, so the guy would see the tiara as magical. It would never cross my mind that there's an AI helm and energized polearm in ye olde fantasy. It was either bait or a stupid ass GM.

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>tfw want to make a campaign but don't like to talk for long periods of time

>>54017968
I'm just thinking about the real end game. I always avoided developing a real campaign plot because I was afraid the players would lose interest in the glory holy bandwagon. But they didn't. The actual ambush into the abyss would be above levels 17.

I like your ideas. Those might be an ideal plot hook for escalation between forces of good and evil. At first I was afraid that my players would be bored by fiends and demons. Therefore, I added some adventures with bandits and intrigue. But their sparkling eyes when there are fiends to smite is telling me all I need to know.

There ultimate mission will most likely be rescuing a demi god from the abyss. Maybe fighting Orcus or some other giant Fiend on this occasion.

>>54013933
so literally oots?

>>54018796
They should already know the tiara is magical, though.

If the tiara isn't magical, it's some weird 'technically this isn't magic!' bullshit.

>>54018813
What the fuck man, it's a full holy man party. What do you think they were expecting?

>>54018820
I thought the plot sounded familiar

>>54018249
Or their character has a severe problem regarding undead. Maybe it is just in character. I really hate when my players meta game because they know which enemy is a real threat and which not. Especially when their characters are outright agressive.

>>54018796
The zombie in question wasn't important, just the thing it got distracted by. I don't think anyone will go searching for it now.

>>54018854
Nope, considering I had to make their background for them. Unless the character they're copying hates undead but as far as I know they're just a mindless wanna-be killing machine.

>>54018837
the tiara isn't magical either, though. It was establsihed.
They literally said
>fucking dwarves, man

>>54018837
Psionic stuff isn't affected by Detect Magic (or Dispel), right? It's not like non magic, but still preternatural effects are unprecedented in DnD.

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>None of my friends have played the witcher 3
>Steal a bunch of side quests from it to use
>Everyone keeps saying the stuff I've come up with is great

>>54018839
Yeah, I know. We all weren't sure how this would work out. We were all quite inebriated when this decision was made. Therefore, I had to feel around what they do like, and what not. Just because you put up a cliché troupe doesn't mean you want to be within a cliché all the time.

Nonetheless, you are right. They want it, they'll get it. It's not like it is making things easier for me anyway. My second adventure was torn apart already because I've had a plot with a wizard, a summoned devil and an intrigue were the wizard threatened to unleash the devil. Which was answered by my glory bastards freeing the devil by attacking him. Little did I know, that the CR is ab absolutely broken if nearly all of your PCs are able to smite and deal radiant damage.

>>54018903
It was? Well shit.

It's stupid ass shit then because if you're going to inject future technology where it doesn't belong with out putting some sense to it other than just 'it's basically magic but technology'

For example, why the fuck would you have a talking halberd? You'd get an automatically aiming machinegun that only says stuff such as 'target aquired' or that generic nonsense. Why would you get a tiara-helmet? You'd get a portable/comfortable helmet instead.

>>54018975
I'm pretty sure magical items don't have brains to use psionics with, though.
I suppose you can go for 'supernatural' but they're usually tied to creatures in some way rather than being a magical trap or an item. They're phenomenoms rather than coded specifics.

Anyone play a artificer yet? How is it? I may be running one for Strahd.

Also, how do I run campaigns involving giving the PCs property they need to build upon, restore and improve?

>Change firebolt to earthbolt
>Bludgeoning damage instead of fire
>Make the attacks mundane so enemies that have resistance to normal weapons have resistance to it because fire is more commonly resisted than bludgeoning
Does this seem ok?

>>54019136
Like a rogue with less things to do

>>54019031
>if you're going to inject future technology where it doesn't belong with out putting some sense to it
I'm going for
>extremely advanced capital ship crashes on an uninhabited planet.
>power core energy mutates everything to shit
>the survivors get attacked by the ones who shot them down some time later
>human emperor btfos them
>invaders blow their ships up to bury the guy
>some thousands years later
>there are no dragons on Vitihid.

>>54019416
I mean, sure.

That's okay.

.. But I still don't think that explains the lack of intelligent design of the items and how they seem to be conveniently tailored for a primal savage instead without giving the primal savage too much power.

>>54019460
Both the tiara and the halber are part of the human honor guard's gear. Without the power supply. The internal power supply only supports an AI (that went insane) and nightvision. Also every time the paladin player enters combat or the helm goes into battle mode, I pm him a warning text on danish. He doesn't even know what language is it, and doesn't even want to google it.

>>54019561
Personally, I think this is stupid as fuck, but if your party is enjoying it, go for it. It sounds like you're having some issues with party enjoyment though.

>>54018281
>Note that they can only attempt one long rest in a 24 hour period.
While true a long rest can also sustain up to one hour worth of interruption and most combat, unless you're losing horribly, will last no longer than a minute.

>>54019719
Nah, they're enjoying it, and were telling me that they're having a great time. They're just not catching up on the whole "it's actually sci-fi" thing.
Also what's stupid about it? Maybe I could improve it.

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According to the rules in the PH, how many known spells does a cleric have at first level? Surely they don't know the entire cleric spell list.

>>54019269
Personally I wouldn't see a problem with it. The change doesn't seem to have any huge mechanical problems, and if it fits a character's fluff then I'd be even more welcoming of the idea.

So I'm planning on making a Warlock Patron based off of Oni, from Japanese mythology. I wanted to make it center around an Oni companion that grows along with you and can be customized, similar to that Revised Artificer's Mechanical Beast archetype. I plan to have a few main "upgrades" that can really change the Oni, like one would make it more powerful in melee, another would give it spellcasting, and another would make it unable to fight, but instead you can an extra attack. That last one is mainly for Bladelocks because as it is, Bladelocks are ridiculously outclassed by the other Pacts as Eldritch Blast ends up far superior in every way compared to Pact Weapons.
Any suggestions or ideas for how to do this? I don't want to make the Oni able to use offensive spells too much, and the melee one will never be better than a Ranger's companion. Also, ideas for the expanded spell list would be appreciated.

>>54019416
Sounds vaguely like Might and Magic.

>>54019846
Yes, they do. That's the whole point of being a divine caster. You can only prepare a certain number of them at a time, though.

>>54019846
Clerics don't have spells known. They have access to all spells their class can use, but can only prepare so many

>>54019846
You have access to every divine spell, but you can only prepare a certain amount

Clerics are super versatile and that's what makes them great

>>54019828
I'm not a big fan of sentient weapons to begin with. It's too anime for me.

But one problem you might have is that the party, if they're in character, is always going to view sufficiently advanced technology as magic. So I think you might have some issues with getting across the fact that it's sci-fi to them.

So I'm in a homebrewing mood but I'm having some writers block. I'm torn between a few broad ideas but don't have any specific theme or idea for them.
>a new class/archetype that uses Int
>a monk or barbarian archetype that can cast spells
>an intelligent but physically frail race

Does anybody have an idea I could springboard off of?

>>54019959
>a monk or barbarian archetype that can cast spells
Str or dex based casting would be hilarious.

>>54019988
>you punch the ground with all your might, creating a shockwave
>you expertly swing your fan, creating a powerful wind to slash your enemies

>>54016211
There actually is a spell to make things immune to detect magic though: Nondetection and Nystul's Magic Aura. NMA can specifically be made permanent.

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Why isn't there an Imperial/Emperor Eagle monster yet? It looks awesome and huge, It could be the hallowed beast of some empire/kingdom or something.

>>54016701
>>their plan is to just show up outside the victim's place of business in a rented carriage, and claim they're here to pick him up.
I could see this going very well, in the sense of making for a fun game. Each time they try to bluff the target into a kidnapping and their failures only cost them whatever vehicle they rented that day. Your PCs would be Team Rocket.

>Here to pick you up for your appointment sir.
>Oh, it's you guys again. When are you going to stop trying?

>>54020085
>>54019988
What do you think, a monk and/or barbarian archetype that does this or a new spellcasting class with archetypes for str, dex, and maybe con magic?

>>54018979
10 buckies that you used that blighted tower quest

>>54020207
It did go well from that perspective. They ended up rushing through the city streets with their carriage on fire. It was a fun session

>>54020211
str/dex barb/monk
con sorcerer for le blood magic or something

>>54017907
CR is basically the "KO the wizard in one turn" line. XP is used to determine how challenging you should expect an encounter to be and there two comparisons for that. The single encounter and the daily XP. The single encounter total tells you whether the encounter is easy/medium/hard/deadly and the daily XP limit tells you where you pushing the party to exhaustion by the end of the day.

You're probably also running your enemies like morons compared to your party's tactics.

>>54020230
Not yet, but soon

They also overheard a kid talking about how he saw a strange walking tree with antlers in the woods to the west of where they are but they got lost looking for it and wound up back in town after some more mundane encounters because I hadn't statted a Leshen yet

But now they're even more interested in going back to the woods so I need to get that done

>>54018281
>It can arguably be difficult to shoehorn this many encounters into a day. In which case five hard encounters is appropriate.
Isn't it four? Sometimes three depending on just how far into hard.

>>54014738
Save or dies suck yeah, not that it matters, we once killed a Adult Dragon by going "Eeh, Warlock cast Cloud of Daggers, I'll cast Force-wall, he is trapped taking 5d4 damage a turn until he dies no saving throw."

We then beat one more boss by going "Eeh, Wall of force, clean up his minions, okay guys surround the bubble, buff up and ask if he would like to surrender peacefully."

Then the GM had to say "Nah that is Bullshit no more wall of force."

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What race would work best as some kind of oni? I'm considering reskinning Half-Orc.

>>54018297
>Is there a sweet-spot?
Not really, no. You have to decide it for yourself and your own party's tastes. It just depends on how important the journey and the destination are. You could fill an entire campaign out of the journey to deliver a box, or the box delivery could be just one quest that kicks off a larger campaign.

>>54020494
For a Player or Monster, if monster just use ogres.

If player, either Half-Orc or Bugbear.

>>54020494
Oni

>>54020494
Firbolg

I am a young lizard folk ranger soon to get a beast buddy, but I want it to some kind of lizard or dinosaur like myself, preferably with matching swimming ability so I don't have to leave them behind when swimming.

Any options you suggest or do I have to wheel and deal with the DM to custom something up? What would be a fair compromise do people think?

I'm not looking for a stat advantage, it's mostly a flavor thing, but I don't want a rubbish companion either.

>>54020266
>They ended up rushing through the city streets with their carriage on fire.
It's nice when players meet all your expectations.

>>54015033
Rewrite Lost Mine of Phandelver into another story but with the same general structure and sell it as a story for newbies

>>54020487
To be fair, Wall of Force is some major bullshit. Unbreakable magic barriers should never actually be unbreakable. Just practically unbreakable, like high AC and/or HP.

>>54020660
A Crocodile. Did you really have to ask?

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>remove school restrictions from eldritch knight
>allow EK to pick what class spell list they use
>So instead of just wizard you could be an EK (druid) or EK (warlock)

anything particularly broken with this?

Is there any metamagics you want as a stone sorcerer other than twin and quicken?

>>54018139
>Cast the spell on some one
>cant tell if it worked or they are just never happy

>>54020948
Always subtle spell.

>>54020869
I figured being Large, would be a balance issue and it only having a 20ft movement would be a logistical issue in world.

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is DnD a good way to get back in touch with old friends
they seem open to doing it

>>54020660
PHB ranger or revised?
For PHB the three options presented are giant poisonous snake, velociraptor and dimetrodon.
Revised is a bit less set in stone but the statistics for the suggested beasts remain in the realm of Medium in size and CRs 1/8 to 1/2, so that leaves more or less the same creatures unless your DM is flexible.

The Dimetrodon looks hella fun though. Nasty bite attack, same swimming speed as the croc but is faster on land.

>>54020943
Bladelock and Ancientpal already fill that niche, no?

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>>54020943
>EK with Shield of Faith, Sanctuary, and Bless
>EK with Shillelagh, Faerie Fire, and Entangle
>EK with Hunter's Mark, Ensnaaring Strike, and Good Berry
>EK with Bane, Guiding Bolt, Inflict Wounds, and Sanctuary
>EK with Armor of Agathys, Arms of Hadar, Hellish Rebuke, and Hex

>>54021109
what is your point? why are these bad?

>>54020991
A Young Crocodile. It's not so big and hardy (medium, d8), but it more agile (30ft.).

>>54020660
Giant Frog and Giant Poisonus Snake both work great.

The snake especially due to getting your proficiency to damage on its bite and again on its poision, but then again poison sucks as a type.

>>54021046
pls respond

>>54021362
Shield of faith means an EK can get 21 AC at level 3, going up to 23 with plate, and that is before they even use the shield spell

>>54021433
>>54021046
It can be? Though its not a magical cure all certainty. Any regularly scheduled activity, if you and they are willing to commit to it, can be a means to get back in touch with old friends.

Dare I ask under what circumstances you and your friends stopped spending time together?

>>54021542
hard to keep in touch when you go to law school and they don't
also not good at this social media thing

>>54021046
If they like fantasy stuff and can give up a day once in a while sure

>>54021109
>EK with Shield of Faith, Sanctuary, and Bless
Pretty neat
>EK with Shillelagh, Faerie Fire, and Entangle
Sure, I guess.
>EK with Hunter's Mark, Ensnaaring Strike, and Good Berry
Eh, I guess so. Though you could just be a paladin at this point for a better goodberry and hunter's mark and all that stuff.
>EK with Bane, Guiding Bolt, Inflict Wounds, and Sanctuary
No real point.
>EK with Armor of Agathys, Arms of Hadar, Hellish Rebuke, and Hex
Also slightly interesting, though mostly for armor of agathys.

>>54021534
Granted that is very high, but there isn't anything stopping a DM from having ways to give that player challenges.

>>54021571
Well if you want to use a D&D game as the excuse to get together again then by all means try it. It is hardly your only option in the realm of group hobbies, nor is it the only option for table top gaming to bring people together.

If you don't mind me asking, why did you bring your query specifically to the general thread for the fifth edition of D&D? Is it simply brand recognition, or did you friends specifically express an interest in this version of the game? That said 5E is pretty newbie friendly so it would be a good choice if you and your friends aren't as experienced at the game.

>>54021578
oh its they who were doing it, but for the new session I could join
Just wondering if this thing works via stream

>>54021534
but that EK wouldnt not have access the shield spell, because they chose to use paladins/clerics spell list.

also how is that anymore broken than a paladin in plate with shield of faith?

>>54021608
my personal experience with dnd itself (I'm more about mtcg on /tg/) is limited to baldur's gate, and my friend's dad is some old school dnd wizard so I'm not sure what version they'd play.
also this is becoming a bit too bloggy 2bh

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I want to play this guy. Incredibly high damage with a two-handed sword. Do I want fighter or barbarian?

>>54021663
Zealot Barb

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Is it me or does spelljammer seem like wasted potential? The concept is cool, but there's something about the setting as a whole that just didn't stick. It almost feels like it was just a vehicle to connect the separate D&D settings.

>>54021625
Magic Initiate if they get a feat somehow.

Personally, I don't find that problematic, because any DM worth their salt knows that AC isn't the be all or the end all.

Give the player a few enemies to tank that will attack their AC, but also have casters or rust monsters.

>>54021078
Revised. Ohh yeah, the dimetrodon is pretty nice!

>>54021364
This isn't a bad idea either!

I am not in versed as 5e as previous versions so not sure how to scale up or down creatures, are there rules or do you just wing it?

>>54021696
It was just a vehicle to connect the separate D&D settings.

>>54021663
One part monk, more parts zealot barb.

>>54021736
>monk
Nani?

>>54021656
Well, you didn't actually answer one of my questions, but the rest is all and well. Good luck on your journey toward maintaining contact with friends.

>>54021696
To a degree it was wasted potential. Metasettings suffer inherently from that.

Though all in all the 2nd Unhuman War is pretty cool, and so is the adventure series about the Wolf Men from Beyond the stars invading.

If they were to bring Jamming back in 5E I would love a story about how the aftermath of the 2nd Unhuman War and the Vodyoni Wars left Wildspace in ramshackles without the great super powers of space.

Perhaps the Arcane withdrew their gift of the spelljamming helms where they could, and as a result trade and the ability to travel the flow became rarer and rarer.

The Imperial Elven Navy of the Night Elves could no longer patrol the stars. The Lawful Guild of Pirates found themselves and their Death Knight Admiral grounded. The Shou and Wa Intellectual Empires had to either return to the realms or were stranded across the stars. And only the Illithid with their Nautali and Gythyanki with their Astral Skiffs continued to haunt the now quiet space.

Inter stellar trade dried up between the great systems and powers. Empires fell disconnected. And the ability to reach the stars became a forgotten memory.

Until now. A new age of exploration and sail begins anew!

>>54021750
http://darkestdungeon.gamepedia.com/Leper#Barks
Self healing and the fucker behaves like a monk but hits like a barb

>>54021848
Fighter can self-heal too, and you're not necessarily a monk just because you've got a calm, reflexive personality.

>>54021771
well thanks I actually have contact with one of them but this is a vehicle to get back in touch with the others.

>>54021696
That's literally what it is. It's a way to run a bunch of one shots with the same characters.

>>54021848
>self-healing
Second Wind and Survivor
>behaves like a monk
Personality is class-agnostic
>hits like a barb
GWM is there for that

He's a high-level Champion Fighter.

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Which background best represents being a doctor?

>>54021915
Sage.

>>54021902
>Champion Fighter
That can't be it, champions are boring as fuck

>>54021846
And then from out of the darkness Atropos rose up, the now silent space allowing the world born dead to scour the cosmos slowly for worlds to destroy to balance the scale between itself and a universe teaming with life.

As each setting suffered in the ages since that era, the laws of space have changed as it was forgotten. Do crystal spheres still exist? Is the Flow still a scintillating realm of phlogistan?

Somewhere out in the beyond, are there Elves who remember their history between worlds? Do the great Dwarven Citidals, mines and mountains in space, continue to slowly drift in isolation?

Do the Giff remember their once great presence as a stellar maritime force. Keeping their powder dry and remembering the sound of explosions?

Do there yet remain bionoid eggs in forgotten places to turn the unwitting into armored and enhanced bioweapons?

Are there still Elven Spirit Warriors ready to go to war as pilots in the undead carapaces of their insect armors?

Does the Spelljammer itself, the ship of legend, continue to drift between distance realms?
Beyond what is known and where we recount its passing?

And does the power of the Witch Light Marauder lay somewhere in wait for its engine of horror and destruction to be again unleashed by whomever so will it with the Witch Light Key in hand!?

>>54021915
Hermit is the only one with Medicine proficiency.
So any background but it, really.

>>54021915
you know you can make your own background, right?

>>54021915
Hermit is one of the few, if not the only one, backgrounds that even has medicine as a skill. But aren't you supposed to make your own backgrounds or customize them?

>>54021944
>hit things hard
>do good in combat

Play an interesting character then.

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/5eg/, I beseech you once more to give me advice
Long story short, one of my players had repeated, unlucky absences due to powers beyond his control. Thus, in order to keep the game rolling, the group decided that his character in fact suffers periodically from narcolepsy.
Now, the player is able to attend all sessions without any issue, but we want to keep the joke running. His character is a bard. One idea we came up with is:
>He can force someone to make a saving throw at disadvantage, but he falls asleep a few minutes later for about an hour
I feel like there's more things that I could do instead that don't step on the sorcerer's toes. What do?

Pic unrelated

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>>54013703
Anyone who says otherwise is delusional, ignorant, or lying.

>>54022061
...talk to your player about it and if he isn't comfortable with that particular disadvantage because he missed sessions?

Conversely, don't be a dick? Or do? I don't know you and your friends or what your interpersonal relationships are all about.

My friends want to play D&D and I got stuck with being the DM. None of us have played D&D though we get the gist of it. b I have a map, an overall storyline/timeline of important events in the campaign, but I'm worried about putting it all into practice. I'm more specifically worried about making the combat challenging but fair, save for the one "You Died" fight near the start of the campaign. I looked at the encounter builder, but while it looks good for generic encounters it doesn't show any good encounters for playable race encounters like typical dwarves and elves. Should I try to make generic character sheets for playable race fights or should I try to convert Duergar and Drow monsters to regular dwarf and elf fights?

Also since I only have the two other players in the campaign I made a string of other "NPC adventurers" who they'll see in different cities/dungeons throughout the campaign. How much emphasis should I put in these characters? I have their race and personalities written down but haven't made sheets for those characters yet. Ideally the players would rally those NPCs for the final fight.

Speaking of... I want the final fight to be a young adult Prismatic Dragon, but since 5e has none I took a look at 3.5 stats for a prismatic dragon and they are waaaay higher than that of a typical 5e chromatic dragon. I can make the case for the dragon being weaker due to the story, and that the adventurers get a buff by finding different artifacts help against certain abilities the dragon has. What I don't know is how gimped I have to make him for it to not be a complete slaughter.

Any advice is appreciated.

>>54022061
stop trying to ruin that players experience and agency for your own amusement

>>54022170
just run mines of phandelver

>>54022170
Run LMoP if you've never DMed 5e. Not even meming, it's good

>>54013703
Beholder, because it's the only thing that has managed to kill me with no chance of resurrection. Wasn't even disintegration

>>54022170
I was literally going to say this: >>54022199
I'll say it anyway
just run mines of phandelver

>>54022166
>>54022173
Not him but It sounds like the Bard can CHOOSE to force someone else to roll with disadvantage, but then the Bard must fall asleep for an hour afterward. This would be a buff for the Bard because the ability is optional. I think op is worried this ability might be too powerful.

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>>54013703
Bulette. Gotta love landsharks that burst out of the ground and leap towards the nearest halfling in the party with the intention of tearing them apart.

>>54022199
>>54022244
>>54022291
I looked into this one before, but it was made for four to five and I've only got two. Is there an intuitive way to scale it down?

>our party indirectly opened a portal to hell and now devils are invading
>the gods themselves tasked us to fix it
>we are level 5
>the world if full of npcs far more powerful than us, level 20 clerics at every temple. etc
>none of them can be assed to take care of the problem themselves, or even help us
>merchants still charge us for stuff even though we are the so called destined heroes who the entire fate of the world rests with

how should I talk to my DM about this?

>>54022166
>>54022173
Woah fellers you're getting the wrong idea. >>54022318 has it spot on.
He was the one who originally brought up the narcolepsy thing. I'm just trying to give him a way that he could continue the joke in a way where he could gain some benefit from it.

>>54022394
Use this: http://haluz.org/lmop/index.php
You input the number of players and their levels, and it'll rescale every encounter of this campaign, with a couple of alternatives.

And keep this link for future reference, when you're going to roll your own stuff: http://kobold.club/fight/#/encounter-builder

>>54022463
Thanks, this will work great!

>>54022450
Tell him to stop worrying about his grand, epic plot that he has no doubt written, and let him know that the fun of D&D comes from no one knowing exactly what happens next

>>54022394
>Have the two players start at lvl 3
>Have a DMPC or two you control go along to help them and cover for any party weakness

I am playing a mines right now with just me and another player and we are doing fine with starting at level 3

honestly its a bit too easy right now.

If I wanted to fire a light crossbow one-handed out of desperation, would you allow me to do it? Would I just get disadvantage, or would I get my proficiency mod removed, or both? It's not IMPOSSIBLE to shoot a crossbow with one hand, it's just not a very good way to do it

>>54022475
>>54022510
This as well, desu. Have a shy female elf life cleric follow the players around and tend to their wounds.

>>54022557
I would give disadvantage

>>54022562
>female (male)

>>54022557
That's what disadvantage is for in the 'whenever the DM feels fit to apply it' circumstance.

So I'd allow it but you'd have disadvantage in most cases. In some cases I wouldn't even say there's disadvantage such as within ~15ft of a target, though there might be something else such as 'no crits'.

>>54015220
I've seen my DM use the map making tool to this map you posted, but never mentioned what one it was before our campaign ended. What's the name of it and/or where can I find it?

>>54022624
>>54022568
Cool, thanks. I ask because my character is sword and board, and last session we had an enemy run away and our ranger missed his shot. I thought there was no way for me to draw my crossbow and fire it in one turn since it takes a whole action to remove a shield. Now I was thinking about it and realized I had my head stuck in videogame mode.
Next time I'll drop my sword at my feet, draw my crossbow one-handed and fire it. Shot with disadvantage is better than nothing

>>54022676
By RAW, you cannot do that. DM prerogative is totally a different thing. You can talk to your DM, but he by no means has to allow it.

Hand crossbows and throwing weapons are what fit that kind of situation a bit better. Might be worth picking up.

>>54022716
I know RAW I can't do it, but it seems a little silly, y'know?
>I want to attempt to fire my crossbow one-handed
>No, you can't even try because the book says so, therefore your character would never even attempt this. It is literally impossible to hold a crossbow with one hand and pull the trigger

>>54022668
https://inkarnate.com/

>>54022778
You can interact with 1 object freely. So you could drop your sword or draw your crossbow. To do both takes an action.

>>54022842
Dropping something from your hand isn't an object interaction, it's totally free

>>54021963
>>54021975
oh is making your own allowed? i thought i read something akin to that but didn't think too much of it.

>>54022857
The start of the Backgrounds section talks about customizing them.

>>54022778
Not necessarily arguing against it, just pointing out that your GM is well within his rights if he says that you actually in fact *cannot* do that, since RAW does not support it. Talking with anons on here is one thing, but you're best off asking your GM if *they* would support it - anon feedback exists entirely independently of that.

It's why I was saying that you might find worth in picking up a hand crossbow, or any of the throwing implements.

I'm looking for a god that

1) is Chaotic Neutral
2) is Tempest domain
3) is the god of storms and the sea

Poseidon comes very close but is just "earthquakes" while Zeus gets storms themselves.

Is there any such god in canon?

am i the only one that kinda hates the 5e bard? it doesn't feel like a bard, it feels more than anything like a supporty sorcerer

>>54019988
I saw a Bloodbender type wizard class homebrew that used CON as their spellcasting modifier, balanced by the fact that they must expend Hit Points instead of Spell Slots to cast and only have the D6 Hit Dice.

>>54023038
Yes, you're the only one.

>>54021717
If you really prefer the idea of having a crocodilian beast companion, you could always see if your DM would be up for "reskinning" the dimetrodon as a caiman, which is essentially a smaller cousin of the alligator.

>>54022394
two is fine, maybe remove a goblin from the first ambush. otherwise they're fine. maybe have Sildar tag along if they go to wave echo cave. I played it with two and we had a blast.