/5eg/ - Fifth Edition General

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Are you prepared to lose your characters, /tg/?

>>54831830
There was that time we dealt with Juiblex, Orcus, Zuggtmoy, Grazz't all fighting each other in a heavily homebrewed out of the abyss when we were all level 9, that was fun

>>54831830
Well I'm running Storm King's Thunder and had a party of 3 Level 5 PCs fight three Frost Giants and two Winter Wolves. I thought it was going to be a TPK, pretty sure they only survived because the Bard used Tasha's Hideous Laughter and blocked the gates of the city with the giant leaders' hysterical flailing body.

>>54831830
The fucking Roper in HotDQ

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>>54831830
I wish I had cool combat stories to share, but 6 sessions in and i'm the only player that hasn't rolled initiative.

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New'ish DM here coming from 3.PF (yeah, I know).

Quick question, is there an easy Homebrew fix to make skills NOT shit in 5e? Skill proficiency is such a joke that it hardly ever matters and leads to non-proficient characters being able to pass certain skill checks on sheer luck while proficient characters can't reliably do things they're supposed to be trained experts at.

Surely this isn't how it's intended to be? Or am I just interpreting the rules wrong?

>>54831963

How have you managed that?

>>54831964
>I come from 3.PF
Okay, nothing wrong with that...
>skills in 5e are shit
Go back.

>>54831964
My DM only lets proficient people roll for things that would actually require training.

>>54831989
Thanks for the helpful advice, really.

Not really.

>>54831964
>having dedicated specialists even roll for their specialty in most scenarios

RAW you only call for a skill check when there is either a meaningful consequence for failure or a degree of uncertainty about a character's ability to perform the task.

>>54832019
Honestly, what did you expect? You come to a new game's thread and shit on it, and you expect politeness?
The skills work exactly as intended. Proficiency always helps, and more so as you gain levels; it eventually gives more than your ability modifier can.

>>54831987
Split party. So far the Monk, Bard, Druid and Rogue have all had solo fights, but me? The martial frontliner tank? Done literally nothing but talk to NPCs. Thankfully the last session ended with the lead up to me heading off to trash some bandits, so next session I finally get to see what combat's like.

>>54832121
For most of the game it DOESN'T help though. The margin of success a proficient character has over a non-proficient character is only 10-20% at low-mid levels. It almost doesn't matter at all until the really late game, by which point you've got enough spells and magic items to deal with problems anyway.

It just feels like being proficient should mean a bit more that a throwaway bonus. In 3.PF there were feats that gave +6s to skills, thats tha absolute max you can get in 5e at level 20 and that sucks.

So I'm joining a campaign sometime in the next month.
*Party is level 5
*Consists of two ranged attackers and a rogue assassin
*No healer or caster

So I'm thinking
*Human variant
*Zeal Cleric from PSA
*Magic Initiate for booming blade, could take Hex too for some extra damage plus a utility cantrip

Is this good or shit? Will the knockback affect the rogue when I'm at 6? Thunderous smite to knock people prone will fuck with the rangers if they don't have other targets.

Alternately I could take shileagh as a cantrip and not have to worry about my str, but I do like warhammers.

When all players want to do a lot of things at the same time like talking(that takes some seconds or minutes) or doing interactions wiht objects or things that need a skill check

how do you manage this? using turns?

>>54832173
That's because of bounded accuracy and it works a treat. Your expectations of powergaming need to change if you want to run a game of 5e well.

>>54832183

It's a good method. If the order they do things matters, use initiative.

>>54832175
go full dex party

be a band of thieves

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>>54832210

>>54831888
>Indirect killing doesn't count as killing
Read the RAI that using sacred guardians alongside sanctuary isn't allowed because it's clearly harmful even if you're only concentrating on something else that hurts the enemy instead of doing the damage yourself.
If we assume that the same sorts of spells that sanctuary wouldn't allow you to cast as 'harmful' as the same sorts of spells that it would allow people to cast on you are harmful, a 'harmful spell' =/= 'a spell that deals damage'

>>54832216
I never said dex was good, but roleplay potential is there. Once played a group where everyone was retarded str users. No healer or casters. Lots of fun

>>54832234
I know, I was just meme'ing.

>>54831891
The amount of salt this has generated has been great. Kinda sad that they're stepping back the rules a bit.

>>54832175
I'd recommend a moon druid
>Has pass without trace to ensure the entire party can stealth
>Can wildshape for bags of HP to defend the party
>Has spells that can hinder the approach of enemies or push them away
>Can heal

Cleric can work too but you don't really need to be some sort of special faggot Cleric you can just go from the PHB. Don't forget you can use a ranged weapon as well.

Your party does not need a front line, they need someone who can stop the monsters from reaching the back line. There's a difference.

>>54832173
>10-20%
This is wrong, and I've explained why so many times I'm tired of it.
+1 is NOT a 5% higher chance to succeed. EVER. If one person needs 11+ to succeed, and another person has a +1 over them and needs 10+... that's a 10% increase in accuracy. And the increase is more significant the harder a task is, meaning at high DCs, every point matters a lot more.

>>54832274
Wouldn't that only be true for opposed rolls? Or am I missing something? I agree that it's rarely as simple as only being a +5% since various other factors could come into play after you get that plus one like advantage, a spell, or expertise, other people, or whatever; but in the purest sense of needing to meet a DC that is possible to reach isn't a +1 with no extenuating factors a 5% change?

>>54832229
>'harmful spell' =/= 'a spell that deals damage'
But Spirit Guardians deals damage you fucking retard

Theoretically an alchemist artificer can fling alchemical items from within a sanctuary spell, right? They're not attack rolls and they cause checks but aren't spells.

>>54832417
It would be a difference of 5 in the percent chance, which is different from a 5 percent increased chance. Does that make sense?

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I could use some help on figuring out an end game for my 5e tempest cleric. so far the other characters are working on empire building, becoming a king, establishing a nights watch esque order and rejuvenation of the eleven race. Im trying to not go with the generic godhood or anything and im finding it hard to become inspired

pic related its how it feels playing right now

>>54832461
You're referring to the use an item action right? The spell doesn't say "attack action" or "attack roll", and instead just says "attack". I'd say it's entering an arguable territory (but not with a very strong argument), but it's so clearly against intent that I wouldn't expect anyone to actually allow throwing acid at someone to not require a save when sanctuary is up

>>54832497
Becoming a Saint.

>>54832517
how would that work exactly considering the pantheon of gods? would it be to just be a saint to the one I currently follow or a saint of the pantheon as a whole?

>>54832497
All great stories are based on conflict. Find something challenging for your cleric to overcome.

>>54832497
Try to spread the religion of your god or something?
Build temples and shit, become a missionary.

>>54832560
Depends on the setting really, probably look at being a Chosen on the God if it's Forgotten Realms or anything similar to it.

Another option to look at would be to become an Exarch, which would basically mean you'd be your god's right hand man. That's something you can't really work towards technically but if you ask the DM then something would probably be reasonable to work out.

The quality of the game aside, if you want some ideas maybe look at 4e's epic destinies? I'm pretty sure there were class specific ones for Clerics that might be nice.

>>54832583
picking umberlee was probably a bad idea for that

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>>54832497
Be overcome with apathy that you do not feel a particular calling to some greater cause like your comrades. Talk to your DM so that your prayers are constantly falling silent. Create inter-party drama as nobody understands what it's like when something as important as your god will not answer you any more. Make the last arc of your campaign about finding the mysterious answer to the disappearance of your god.

That's what I did.

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So in my next DnD session there's the SMALL possibility that the players will be sent, briefly, we're talking seconds, to the moon.

Is there anything special physically about the moon in the forgotten realms universe? Or does it just look like a rock?

>>54832639
jesus that is pretty neat

>>54832200
you know sometimes it feels chaotic, i think that making it turn by turn works on dangerous situations and leaing them be on normal ones

>>54832657
With fantasy settings there's usually a 50% chance there's elves on the moon. No idea for forgotten realms though

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>>54832633
>"Umberlee had worshipers among krakens, sahuagin and other evil sea creatures."
Release it, anon, become the next BBEG.

>>54832657
It's called Selûne and is basically a rock, though it also works as a giant orbital canon for the goddess aptly named Selûne.

I don't know anything else about it but I guess chances are she might have something religious up there? Maybe even a temple where her Clerics can go to?

>>54832657
Have a big ass moon-beast run at them and send them back right before it fucks em up.

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>>54832657
https://youtu.be/usyYqJf0rfk?t=569

Describe to the players that they appear in a sprase, dry rocky plain that stretches on as far as the eye can see. The night sky is luminescent with stars and an unbelievably bright light. The moon shines a pale blue in the sky as you look upon it, hanging larger over them than it ever has before. It's around this point they'll realize they are choking and unable to breathe. The chalky white dust below poofs up into their faces, onto their clothes and into their hair as they panic around, gagging and wheezing, even though they can't hear themselves doing so. They get a better look at the moon above and see that it is no moon at all - continents, blue oceans and faint lights of bright metropolises shine on the night side of the body. They're not looking at the moon - they are ON the moon...!

And then they come back.
Play the portal 2 soundtrack from link related timed with said description.

Also, as far as I know, the moon is just like ours in the Forgotten Realms. Have fun.

>>54832512
>The spell doesn't say "attack action" or "attack roll", and instead just says "attack"
In 5e, an attack is solely something that makes an attack roll. If it invokes a saving throw, it is not an attack.

>>54832712
the DM has this thing that raise's an undead army which is supposed to help stop the apoc event and im seriously considering unleashing it

>>54832512
>>54832755
Also, considering that Sanctuary explicitly states that area effects such as Fireball do not trigger it, it's pretty clear that an Alchemist's flasks do not trigger Sanctuary.

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>Play a character
>Accidentally get character married to a DMPC because I was young and stupid
>DMPC is a poorly roleplayed crazy bitch because DM was new to DMing
>DM decides to step out, I take his place
>Quietly write out my character and his formerly DMPC waifu
>Feel like shit because I think my storytelling is awful, but I needed to get rid of them
>Hide the in-story justification from players for actual years

>Eventually long-running player decides he wants to play a new character
>I make a joke that he could play a kid of my old character and the waifu
>His curiosity is piqued, eventually thinks the same
>Guiltily describe what happened with the characters, expecting him to laugh because I think it's almost fanfic tier
>He actually likes the idea of playing one of their children
>We eventually decide said character hates the waifu (her mother) because said waifu is actually an awful mother and person

>tfw I'm witnessing a multigenerational campaign and a player helped me redeem one of my worst characters

There's no feel like it.

How would I go about playing an Invoker from 4e?

How many uses do kits have and what thing do they contain?

also rolling initial gold is good?

>>54832849
By playing 4e

>>54832846
Nice story GRANDPA

>>54832849
Favored Soul sorcerer
Alternatively, cleric/sorcerer multiclass

>>54832881
Not an option because I hate the mechanics of it.

>>54832892
I thought about Favored Soul but honestly the biggest thing making me hesitate is their lack of spells per level. Would a Favored Soul/Cleric just for more spells be dumb?

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>>54832795

>>Creature isn't warded against things that aren't targeting him like a Fireball
>>That must mean that Alchemist items ignore sanctuary!
>>pic related

>>54832924
Alchemist items are saving throws, not attacks or spells. They explicitly are not affected by Sanctuary.
Are you too autistic to actually read?

>>54832258
Excluding S5 and S6 was the right move though, you don't want to screw over half the players during a campaign.

I'm kinda sad none of my characters died before though, the race against the clock would have been pretty cool.

>>54832910
You'd know more spells as a multiclass but you'll delay or prevent learning of higher-level spells. I'd recommend sticking with Favored Soul - it's not like Invokers were known for a wider variety of spells than other classes in 4e (because everybody had the same).

>>54832931
Not a spell, but uses a saving throw? RAW you're probably right (except for the fact that alchemists don't exist and therefore that's completely irrelevant), but RAI I'd say you're completely off-track here.

>>54832951
>Not a spell, but uses a saving throw?
Yes. Many magical effects are not spells, and Sanctuary only protects against attacks (which require you to make an attack roll) and non-area damaging spells.

>>54832969
I'd still say the writer probably just didn't think about it and the RAI would almost definitely include any targeted effects.

How does stabilizing a character works? that ogre just shanked a player and players roll the die and the character is good again

>>54832979
They've been pretty consistent with "attack = attack roll" and "spell means it's in the spell list" though

>>54833007
Stabilized just means the character is still at 0 hp but no longer has to make death saving throws. After being stable for an hour, you regain 1 hit point. If you take damage while stable and unconscious, you become unstable and have to start making death saves again.

>>54832461
If you've think you've found a loophole in sanctuary, it doesn't work.
Sanctuary has many loopholes, but the RAI is that all these loopholes are against the clear intended use of sanctuary and don't work.

>>54833012
I understand that, but when writing the particular description of Sanctuary they probably whiffed. Either way, it would make no sense for a direct and targeted offensive action to be allowed when attacks aren't. As a DM I wouldn't allow it.

>>54833033
yeah but in roleplay, what do the pc do? ban aid?

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Minor Illusion or Mage Hand?

>>54833077
If they don't have a healer's kit they probably rip clothing off of themself to use as cloth and that sort of thing to bandage the person up and do whatever quick treatments.
If they use a healer's kit they don't need to roll at all.
If they use magical healing the players gets up immediately.

>>54833077
Basically
Remove the arrow, apply pressure, tear off a piece of shirt to stop bleeding, that kind of stuff.

>>54833132
Why not both?

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So I would like some opinions, I use the Story-Based-Advancement System for my game, but I have characters at varying levels in my party. (1 level 9 who has been alive since the beginning and 5 level 8's who have died/ joined in at varying times.)

What should I do? Should I try and keep everyone on about the same leveling scale or keep them at different leveling scales? What about when someone dies and they make a new character? Should they come back at the same level or one level lower? Should there be a limit as to how far down they could go?
What if a new player joins the game should they be at the same level as the party or less?

>>54833174
there's no good solution to that. Best to let them be, maybe give the higher level(s) some alternate reward option while they catch up.

>>54833174
>What about when someone dies and they make a new character? Should they come back at the same level or one level lower? What if a new player joins the game should they be at the same level as the party or less?
For everyone's sake, same level.
For them because death already sucks, coming back one level behind sucks even more.
For you because now you have to make encounters weaker for them (1 level might not be that much, but still) or you might risk a domino effect where other players start dying and coming back weaker.
For new player because they'll start behind everyone and, unless there's other way to level up, they'll be behind forever.

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>>54833174
It's no fun to be the character who's useless because everyone else in the party is a higher level. Keep characters the same level, or close to it, no matter what. Use milestone leveling instead of EXP.

>>54833254
Being one level lower hardly makes someone useless, but it is kind of a monkey wrench in encounter design. I think >>54833187 generally has the right idea

>>54831964
That's something you fix as a DM
I have it set to where there are two variations to most things, like for example: locks come in various varieties. A simple lock can be attempted by anyone and automatically picked by someone proficient. Where as a good or master craft lock cannot be even attempted by a novice and someone proficient must role to open. This applies to all things. For example a barbarian would have to role to recognize a. Simple spell scroll but a mage would recognize it instantly.

I hope this helps a bit

>>54833274
Mostly true, except around the big power spike levels (5, 11, and 17).
You don't want to be the dude attacking once when everyone else is attacking twice.

As a Bard, can I use Suggestion on a creature for them to keep their armor on no matter what and ignore the Con save on Heat Metal?

>>54833187
>>54833225
>>54833254
>>54833274
>>54833296
>>54833316
I'm thinking about putting this up for a vote in my group. I have no problem shifting to a more fitting leveling system that my group would like, but I'm a little worried about abuse of the system.

>>54833328
Milestone Levelling is literally "I'm the DM, I think you all deserve a level after this recent quest". There's not really much of a way to "abuse" it from the players' side of things.

>>54833344
Okay so if I did this, do you propose that the party as of right now be at the same level (I ask the level 8s to go to 9 and make it so new players come in at 9 and new PCs come in at 9) or stay at the current level?

>>54833390
Not him, but I'd say yes, basically it becomes party level.
Everyone goes to 9, every new characters starts at party level.

Easy answers for your players:
>Why?
It makes creating encounters easier for me, I don't have to worry about making weaker encounters to accomodate party members behind (even though 1 level difference isn't that much).

>Why not use normal EXP leveling?
Because I want to drop big/strong encounters without having to worry to level you guys up mid-dungeon, throwing encounter balance off.

>Now I'm can simply die and make a new 9th level char, no fun
Depending on the situation, you'll lose your magic items, wealth, etc. Plus any relationships your current character has.

Can anyone summarize differences between Knowledge Cleric and Lore Bard? Thinking of making charsheet for someone proficiency based (torn between Rogue, Cleric and Bard). Mostly spell lists.

>>54833610
Read the book? There are few similarities.

>>54833589
Okay, this sounds reasonable.

>>54833643
Spells are a bit harder to navigate, compared to features.

>>54833344
Also isn't this Story-Based Advancement not Milestone?

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Made a variant of the dying rules, inspired by darkest dungeon. It's so player's can either stay down on the ground, or fight with the last ounce of life they have. Thoughts?

>>54833673
Not him.
Lore Bard has access to all spells in the game (6th, 10th, 14th, 18th). They're the best users of Counterspell/Dispel Magic because of Jack of All Trades.

Clerics have the same spell list between all subclasses but their Domain Spells and that's it.

>>54833725
>You can only use your action to do the following: Attack, cast a spell, or use an object.
You can heal yourself out of DD with spells and potions of healing, too easy imo

>>54833781
I was thinking that was fine because, someone else could just heal you with the regular death rules, if you want to use resources that's fine by me, but when you are out of healing it is quite precarious due to you only having so many failed death saves.

I originally had it be only a single attack or a cantrip, or an object use. Is that maybe more balanced?

>>54833937
Nah, just worried if it wasn't intended or maybe didn't like the death yo-yo, but thiese rules are for a more active death anyway.
Also, what about temporary hit points? Can you gain them?
You can move but can't take Disengage action, you're kinda locked into melee when dying.
Also, being knocked prone and having speed halved means you have probably 5 feet of movement on the first turn.

Not exactly problems, just gotta sanity check everything.

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I'm thinking of running Curse of Strahd for my friends soon.

1) Is it as good as it looks and as good as everyone seems to say it is?

2) Should I run Death House as part of it or start with something else and then transition in? Is Lost Mines of Phandelver => Curse of Strahd a good progression if Death House isn't a good start? Or is it better to just start at level 3 and get into the meat of it?

3) When I've asked for advice on running it before, the common thread has been to make sure I handle Strahd himself well. How do I avoid fucking up Strahd?

I grabbed the CoS guide from 4plebs, so at least I have that.

DMing for the first time since I was like 9. I've got two major issues.

First of all, should I prepare the longterm plot before starting? I've got very few good ideas for anything beyond short little adventures and that worries me.

Secondly how do I start? Should I just open with "You're all traveling down X road towards Y town" and tell the players to figure out why themselves? I really just don't know what I'm doing here.

>>54832041

there's always a degree of uncertainty in 5e. If the DC is 10 an expertised person can't even expect to always pass at low levels

>>54834090
Just start with small adventures and drop some plothooks that you may or may not use later.

Also, do a session zero to determine how the players know each other.

>>54834090
If the party don't all know each other you can start them in a town, ask them where they are in the town and what they're doing. And basically encourage them to meet up in one place by having some important event happen such as a raid on the town or something. They all go towards the commotion from different parts of town, meet in the middle, fight off the threat, and now are heralded as heroes by the people they saved.
Having the party actually form naturally during the game means that there's a lot more roleplay BETWEEN player characters since they kinda have to get to know each other.
Starting a party off already being together makes you miss out an a lot of that character building and you end up with a weird non-cohesive party who aren't even sure why they're traveling together, because they "already know each other" but they never got to actually play out these conversations that would LET them know each, and they miss out on important relationship building opportunities.

>>54834023

If the one you got isn't Sean McGovern's guide, it's PWYW at http://www.dmsguild.com/product/189372/A-Guide-to-Curse-of-Strahd . All of his guides are gold, but CoS and SKT are practically required.

Derek Von Zarovich (no relation) just finished his multi-part guide at https://www.elventower.com/curse-of-strahd-guide . It's a little less game-focused but does a good job covering narrative considerations.

My advice is when handling Ravenloft focus on story above all else followed closely by atmosphere. If you don't have that, you don't have anything. Generally I advise the opposite, preferring to let the story arise from the mechanics but that doesn't really work here. Ravenloft is a big mystical morality play and that means any story weakness is going to bring the whole thing down, so put your effort there. You'd be surprised how much hand-waving you can get by with in Ravenloft and that's what to spend it on.

Finally, my favorite way to play Strahd is as two truths in tension: he'd be an extrem

>>54834109
The point is an expert in acrobatics should be able to climb that shoulder high wall 10/10 times so don't even bother making them roll for it

>>54834150
(cont)
extremely likable and dutiful Lord if he wasn't such a huge failure as a person, but he's a huge failure as a person. The tension between those to will drive the whole thing if you let it.

>>54832849
Light or Tempest domain. How is this even a question? Have you even opened the book?

>>54834151
Well a shoulder high wall is probly not even DC10. A shoulder high wall covered in grease, maybe up to like DC14 if you're not just vaulting it. I call for more tables of random obscure situations and suggested DCs.
not cause i need it, cause i like it

Is there any good UN Mystic class rebalance made by someone?

>>54834138
Not OP but this is really good advice, thank you.

Do you have any tips to encourage roleplaying? I have three players who are super into it (a fighter and a rogue pining over the bard, makes for neat interactions) but our wizard is a major kickbacker and is always "uh. I mean. Following them, I guess?"

How does one deal with a chase scene? Both got same movement speed, so does athletics play a part and how?

Kind of lost on this.

>>54834309
Page 252 of the DMG

>>54834324
Thanks

Are there any areas of the Forgotten Realms that are fairly uncharted?

I need some help. I am running Lost Mines of Phandelver for a number of friends. The first session had myself and six players! Most of us are completely new, but it went well enough all things considered.

Do you guys have any tips for the second part? The group is just about to finish the goblin cave, and I'm a little worried about the city; explaining things, running things and making it fun. Most people (myself included) aren't familiar with role-playing yet, and so far as a DM I've mostly explained things and never really "acted" a character.

How do I handle cities? Particularly in Lost Mines.

>>54834370
Chult is one.

>>54834380
dont sweat it. The players get paid, follow Sildar to the inn, do their own thingand if they dont do anything you can have the Alderleaf kid run into them or something.
Also dont be ashamed to roleplay your socks off

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>>54834370
Thousands of little mostly desert islands, mostly inhospitable. The only people with any sorts of charts are fucking pirates.

>>54834090
One thing I've found from playing over the years is that if you just dump everyone together one of two things will happen.

1. Everyone sticks together because they are the players even if their characters don't have good reasons to do so

2. The DM comes up with extremely convoluted motivations to individually invest every character in the same mission.

Which brings me to my personal favorite solution. Sit your players down in session 0 and ask them what kind of GROUP they want to play. Starting from the point of Thieves Guild, Bandit Gang, Merchant caravan, Monster Hunters, etc. Then everyone builds their character within that framework and the motivations flow much more naturally.

I had a very successful campaign where my players decided to all be members of a Thieves guild, we had a Trickery domain cleric, a fighter who was basically played as a thick skulled street thug, a Thief and a Fae pact warlock. Most of them were either criminals or charlatans. All I had to do was put legendary treasure and seemingly impenetrable things in front of them and they were more than happy to motivate themselves.

Pick a coherent theme for the party that isn't Adventurers and everyone will naturally slot themselves into a party dynamic, the histories write themselves.

>>54834288
Not really. Seems to me that a kick-backer will always be a kick-backer, whether it's because they're just not as comfortable role-playing or if they're just not as interested.
Obviously make sure nobody is looking at their phone because that will turn anybody into a kick-backer.
Our kick-backer recently stopped playing because she "wasn't super into it" to absolutely nobodies surprise. On the bright side, literally nothing changed with her leaving since she was such a nonexistent presence anyway.

Does the spear mastery feat damage bonus stack with the dueling style bonus?

>>54834498
Yes if you one hand it.

>>54831964
proficient character doesn't need to roll

>>54834614
Thats Bards, everyone else has to roll eventually depending on DC.

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Anyone ever ordered a custom mini from Hero Forge for use in a campaign for your character?
I'm seriously considering dropping the $30 for the Premium Plastic and was curious about the quality

>>54834529
Sweet taking shield mastery first up at level 4 and then spear mastery at level 8 for my OtA Pally.

>>54834828
shill

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>>54834841
I'm not sure if you're telling me to shill out for it or accusing me of trying to shill Hero Forge's wares
I really want to know if anyone has gotten one before. They have all these little details and I want to know if they all make it to the final product correctly and if you get it shipped it arrives intact

>>54834828
Buddy of mine got one as a commemorative for his first campaigns character, not sure what quality but its black and looks pretty damned good.

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So I'm running the Banquet of the Damned module tomorrow and feel the need to spice up the Gulabus since I have PCs that likely are going to make short work of it if I keep in vanilla. Normally all it has is claw and bite attacks, so I figured I'd give it spells like Hellish Rebuke, Stinking Cloud, and Hold Person. Any ideas for abilities that would suit the theme of a demon of gluttony?

I was going to have some fun roleplaying it with a voice changer. I know the PC with an imp familiar is going to send it in to scout ahead, so I was thinking of having the players enter the cottage only to see the imp getting bitten in half by the Gulabus as it welcomes them in to join it for dinner. Was going to have it refer to each PC as a different course of a meal, like the Bear Totem Barb being the entree, so it would cast hold person on it and leave it for after eating the Elf Ranger appetizer. Maybe would use Hellish Rebuke for the sole purpose of searing the adventurers a bit for a better flavor. Does this sound too cheesy?

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>>54834899
White seems to be the cheaper version and it's only $15 and black is the higher quality/detailed version for $30 and I guess if you feel like dropping $99.99 you can get it in solid bronze for max detail and durability
But I'm not planning on going that far

>>54834932
Unfortunately i can't compare them directly, but i can safely say that the black was impressive, and the bottles on the base arrived fine and haven't fallen off.

>>54834828
Three of my friends all bought their characters as minis in the black premium plastic. They look pretty okay, but I think the bases are a bit thin and flimsy feeling. Otherwise they seem fine, details look pretty good. My friends suck at painting so they look kind of shit after they painted them.

I'm not sure if I want to drop 30 bucks on one model though.

What is the best Sorcerer Origin for Sorcadin (Paladin 2 / Sorcerer X) build?

Dragon for +Fire damage on GFB?

>>54835078
I don't think Wild magic really gives much benefit. It can do some crazy shit sometimes, but it usually also fucks you over. Dragon magic is much more consistent.

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>tfw think that the rentboy backstory I made up for my wood elf moon druid is cool, and a good explanation for various exotic forms
>tfw my group now thinks I'm trying to magical realm them

I really want to try to build "mad mage/scientist" character as a PC but I don't dig current two options for Artificer UA. Any class recommendations?

>>54835355
Necromancer or Transmutation wizard make good mad scientist types.

>>54835098
Not them but I am kinda sad about it. I really dig Wild Magic Sorcerer as a concept and Surges are cool but they just feel unfinished and significantly weaker than other Origin (or Origins if you count Unearthed Arcana).
Are there any fan made "fixes" for this?

>>54835386
I was thinking less of "It's alive!" or trying to sell crappy Philosopher's Stone and more of "Pseudoscience Manipulation"

>>54835403
Wild magic seems balanced for the best case, even though it rarely happens. Your surges are a double edged sword until well into lategame when you roll twice and choose a number, the other ability to spend 2 sorcery points for a shittier Bardic inspiration is dogshit. That's way overcosted for what it does. If it was just use your reaction to give a 1d4 it would be totally fine as a class feature, having to spend even 1 sorcery point would require it to be a stronger effect. Instead it costs 2 and is straight bad.

>>54831891
>TIME SENSITIVE sandbox
Why do they keep doing this

>>54835550
Because everyone seems to agree things need to be urgent
to counteract their stupid broken-scale time system that can turn class balance from okay to complete shit

As a wizard with conjure minor elementals what stops me from creating 8 1/4CR mephits and having them attempt to summon more mephits?
There is an average of 2 succesful summons and an average of 4 more mephits summoned. This amounts to 12 1/4CR monsters on the PC's side with a single spell. Won't this just throw encounters all out of whack?

>>54835613
Yeah, sick of how they made 5e only balanced for dungeons, really. But I do like dungeons.

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>>54835633
>balance edition around dungeons
>produce modules that feature, at most, one kinda-sorta dungeon
except pota but apparently no one likes that one????

>>54835417
learn to refluff.

>>54835622
The DM. The DM get to choose which creature appear from your summoning spell. So he probably won't give you mephits with summoning variant.

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>>54835690
10/10 design right there.

>>54835622
The Mephits that the Mephits summon won't necessarily listen to you, and if your concentration breaks and the Mephits get loose then now you've got like 30 fucking Mephits in the fight trying to kill you.

Was there some sort of Dark Sun podcast where thri kreen were stated to get three attacks for one bonus action?

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>>54835734
>summon a mephit
>summoned mephit summons mephits
>mephit-summoned mephits summon mephits
>mephit-summoned summoned mephits summon mephits
>mephit-summoned summoned mephits' summoned mephits summon mephits
>mephit-summoned summoned mephits' mephit-summoned summoned mephits summon mephits
>village population quintuples and becomes 83% Mephit within four minutes

>>54835815
Now this is a time sensitive campaign.
>Heroic rest variant
>you have 24 hours to stop 536,870,912 mephits from crushing everyone and everything hunder their cackling quasi-elemental weight

>>54835803
What? No. If anything, Mearls said that thri-kreen will not be made for 5e any time soon.

Does being incapacitated prevent the concentration of spells?

>>54835848
24 hour? Wizard can't even concentrate that long.

>>54835417
>>54835698

>Being a respected doctor and surgeon who became obsessed with reanimating dead bodies and the essence of life in general

It's not even original and it's exactly what you're looking for. It's not hard to refluff classes if you put some effort into it.

>>54835881
No. Concentration isn't an action, so incapacitated condition doesn't do anything to it. You can still move while being incapacitated for example.

>>54835734
>>54835815
>>54835848
>An elemental summoned by this spell disappears when it drops to 0 hit points or when the spell ends.
If the wizard wanted he could just un-summon all of the mephits at once, even the ones made by other mephits.

>The mephit has a 25 percent chance of summoning 1d4 mephits of its kind. A summoned mephit appears in an unoccupied space within 60 feet of its summoner, acts as an ally of its summoner, and can't summon other mephits. It remains for 1 minute, until it or its summoner dies, or until its summoner dismisses it as an action.

>>54835901
>Normal activity, such as moving and attacking, doesn’t interfere with concentration. The following factors can break concentration:
>Casting another spell that requires concentration. You lose concentration on a spell if you cast another spell that requires concentration. You can’t concentrate on two spells at once.
>Taking damage. Whenever you take damage while you are concentrating on a spell, you must make a Constitution saving throw to maintain your concentration. The DC equals 10 or half the damage you take, whichever number is higher. If you take damage from multiple sources, such as an arrow and a dragon’s breath, you make a separate saving throw for each source of damage.
>Being incapacitated or killed. You lose concentration on a spell if you are incapacitated or if you die.

>You lose concentration on a spell if you are incapacitated

>>54835921
Obviously we're talking about a simultaneously better and worse spell.
>ugh i'm so bothered by maintaining concentration on this summoned mephit
>lemme just change this around here and super-summon one
>oh no

>>54835873
Reason I ask is cuz a guy seemed so confident that thri kreen would get a 3:1 bonus action attack economy according to the makers of the game. Sounds fucked up

Is there feat absolutely necessary that a Monk NEEDS to get? I'm going with a Kensei Monk point buy, probably gonna roll with a warhammer.
I wand them to be human, maybe VHuman with the Fell-Handed feat?

>>54835969
Moblie is usually all a monk needs.

>>54836027
Because lol50footmovement and the Swashbuckler-esque hit-and-run?

>>54836088
Yes mainly the hit and run ability, It gives you a great deal of battlefield control when everyone is spread out and there are multiple targets in need of getting stunned or knocked prone.

Tg, balance this spell out for me:

Von Zarovich's Cruel Exumation
Level 5, Necromancy, Range:Touch
You make a melee spell attack Roll to touch a humanoid with 10 or fewer hit points, and compel it to die.
On a failed Constitution Saving Throw, the target dies, and rises next round as a Strahd Zombie under your control.

>>54836177
This spell also has no effect on a creature under a protection from evil and good spell

What's the best D&D adventure module (any edition) you ever played?
I wanna convert something to 5e.

>>54836230
>>54836177
Maybe turn after next and limit of 1 risen in this manner?

>>54836177
Why is a 5th level spell is stronger than 7th level spell?

Finger of Death give you allow you to save your ally during that one round. Change "the target dies" intto "the target drop to 0 hp" and boost "10 or fewer hit points" to 20 or something.

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So I'm thinking about forgoing direct combat damage to focus onillusion and utility as a warlock. I'm rolling up an Undying Tomelock that's going to grab Misty Visions and Master of Many faces as his first two invocations and Chill Touch over Eldritch Blast. I think it'll be a pretty fun character. Thoughts?

>>54835881
>>54835901
Explicitly so, readnigger.

>>54836251
The warlock is more fun and better designed than autists would have you believe. Sure that sounds like a fun character.

>>54836241
Curse of Strahd, which is 5e.

>>54836166
It's not super vitally important though, is it? I don't anticipate too many clusterfuck-type battles in this upcoming thing, just a lot of fighting in general.

>>54831830
Tpk'd to kenku, and giant octopus where one player sacrificed himself to save the ship are probably the top 2.

>>54836248
I see your point when it comes to giving your allies a chance to save you, but finger of Death is also ranged and deals an average of 60 points of damage, while this one has a chance to do nothing

>>54836251
Sounds spooky. I like it.

>>54836401
No its not vital, it's just very helpful when needed.

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>>54836251
>So I'm thinking about forgoing direct combat damage to focus onillusion and utility as a warlock

>>54836720
I guess you have a point. I'm just not so sure it's going to be all that handy in this case, I also rather fancy playing a non-variant human for once.

But on that note, if I do go variant, spear with Spear Mastery, or warhammer with Fell-Handed?
Are there any particularly fun/unconventional weapons to fool around with as a Kensei?

Anyone have good quality of life house rules that have improved the quality of your games? IE ones I started using was Circles from Torchbearer and Weather Watcher from Mouse Guard and it's helped the players get invested by having a chance to help world build and have some more agency in the world.

>>54833132
Get a sense of your GM. If they're going to let you do fun things with illusions (especially with Minor Illusion, which is silent), go with illusions. If they're going to be strict with your abilities, grab the one that has precise and objective bounds for its power.

>>54836251
I did just that for level 1-12. It works well.

That said, I would still grab Eldritch Blast. The tricky thing about focusing on illusions is that you don't always have a clever idea for how an illusion might help in a given situation. The great thing about Warlocks is that if you run out of clever ideas you can always fall back on "fuck it, I shoot the dude".

>>54833310
Asking the creature to stab itself, throw itself onto a spear, immolate itself, or do some other obviously harmful act ends the spell.

>>54836251
That sounds pretty fun, don't let anyone tell you different.

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Give me a backstory for a badass horse ridding villain.

>>54837225
Borrow the exploits of Genghis Khan.

>>54837225
Secretly a Centaur in disguise

Anyone here ever run a tropical / "pacific islands" campaign? Thinking about doing a shipwreck start and I have a bunch of ideas for tier 1 shit, but I'm blanking on an endgame.

Want to avoid lovecraftian stuff and/or dragons because the last campaign had both.

Chris Perkins has revealed there'll be a settlement of tortles by the name of Oh Hoi Hoi (what Mr Burns says). God fucking damnit.

>>54837599
for what?

>>54837641
Tomb of Annihilation.

I have a Life Cleric 1/Druid 1 that will level soon. Where should I go from here?

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>>54837733
>life cleric with other healing spells such as goodberry/aura of vitality memes
You stop being a meme, that's what.

I'm new to pen and paper and after reading the PHB and the Starter's Pack I still don't get how reaction works. I understand that you need to use the Ready command and say what triggers the reaction and the action that can be either movement/action OR attack but not both.

Still, I don't understand if you can either Move/Attack, Rush, or Move/Action and Ready up a reaction on the same turn. Help is greatly appreciated, english is not my first language.

>>54837855

If I'm reading page 193 of the PHB correctly, Ready is an Action-that means you can use a Movement Action or Bonus Action on the same turn you Ready a Reaction, but not a full Action like attacking.

>>54837758
I'd just rule that it creates 13 berries instead of 10. I see what people might want to do, and it'd probably work in v1.0.0 of a computer game (if QA were lazy during development), but no, that's silly. 13 berries for you, enjoy your level 1 spell.

>>54837992
I'm actually DMing for a group of friends since I am the one with most free time. We're doing rather simple stuff to keep it simple since we don't have a veteran with us. We don't have any advanced mechanics going on but I want to slowly introduce them while we get the hang of the game.

I have a warrior, a bard, a ranger, a wizard and a cleric, all of them at level 2. We're getting a level 1 rogue today.

If I understood correctly Readying an action is different to a Reaction. Something that everyone can do like moving and actioning a lever or shooting an arrow as soon something passes through a door (like some sort of Overwatch). The reaction depends on the class and its level right?

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>>54837855
You're right in understanding that you need to set a trigger to resolve as a reaction.
So, you're meant to choose action to take in event of the trigger, or choose to move up to your speed in response to your trigger.
"Examples include “If the cultist steps on the trapdoor, I’ll pull the lever that opens it,” and “If the goblin steps next to me, I move away.”

To do so, you can take the Ready action on your turn, which lets you act using your reaction before the start of your next turn.

When the trigger occurs, you can either take your reaction right after the trigger finishes or ignore the trigger. Remember that you can take only one reaction per round.

When you ready a spell, you cast it as normal but hold its energy, which you release with your reaction when the trigger occurs. To be readied, a spell must have a casting time of 1 action, and holding onto the spell’s magic requires concentration. If your concentration is broken, the spell dissipates without taking effect. For example, if you are concentrating on the web spell and ready magic missile, your web spell ends, and if you take damage before you release magic missile with your reaction, your concentration might be broken.

Seems like you can make a single attack though.

>>54838150
Good luck, mate and hope you guys have fun! 5e seems to be a well designed, streamlined system.

Nah, you were right, sorry for steering you incorrectly. You can ready an action to resolve as a reaction when the trigger happens.

It's both like and unlike a reaction in that you set what the triggering event might be, whereas a reaction from an ability or spell or etc happens when its conditions are met.

Forgive me for a possibly dumb/often-asked question but I may start DMing soon and I have never done so before and wish to seek basic advice/tips/etc. I've read around and see that LMoP is a good starting place for both new players and new DMs alike (I've been playing a few sessions over the past month, first time in many years.) How important is it to use the pre-built LMoP characters (with their 'related' backgrounds and whatnot)? Are there any major parts of the campaign that I should modify or change? Not sure what else to ask. I know it'll be slow-going as I figure out everything in the process.

>>54838150
>>54837855
This might also be helpful to you
http://www.sageadvice.eu/2016/07/09/can-i-move-and-attack-with-a-readied-action/

Mike Mearls says it's only one or the other, and Jeremy Crawford says when you use Ready, you prepare an action or a move, not both.

>>54838288
not important at all

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Playing an exiled triton paladin in an upcoming campaign, does anyone have any experience, fluff or tips for playing a triton? I have read through the triton sections in the sea of fallen stars supplement but can't find any more info online. Also, oath of ancients or devotion? Using a shield and trident

>>54838057
It would be fine if it required more than just a one level dip of druid or life cleric. I'd actually allow if if they had a reasonable class balance and a few more levels.

>>54838397
Okay. I had read some articles that said they were helpful in terms of intrinsic investment/knowing certain NPCs/faction relation(s)/etc. but I suppose I should think of my own way to interweave those parts too.

I also read that some plot points weren't presented very well either as in apparently there's a dragon and some people don't always find it, or if they do, don't know they can negotiate and such like that. y/n?

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Anyone else really like those DnD binder things they sell now? I'm thinking about getting more to use for my other editions
Probably the Underdark one for AD&D 2e and the obnoxious wizard one for 3.5
Undecided for AD&D original and 4e. Im already using the Demogorgon one for 5e

>>54832210
Only works if the whole party is merry

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>go to my local game store for some dungeon mat markers
>ask the guy at the counter if they have an adventurer's league
>turns out they do, and it's on one of my off days
>time to lift my forever dm curse
>show up on al day
>literally one group in their back room
>it's 3 people and the dm so I'm sure they have room
>ask if they're doing adventurer's league
>"no, it's a homebrew campaign"
>ask if they have room
>"sorry but we want to keep this campaign small"
I just want to play

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Given that 5e doesn't bother with complexities like touch AC or damage reduction, would it be fair to stat a siege weapon like a ballista or a scorpion as having a bonus to accuracy? You might still miss outright with it, but even if you graze your target it's going to take a lot of damage. Maybe combine that with a rule that you have to spend a turn aiming the thing before firing to make it less effective against small, moving targets.

The MM gives a Gargantuan Red Dragon an AC of 22. The pic is related, but you know that's not why I'm asking this question.

>>54834828
I've thought about it
It should not be this hard to get minis of dwarves or two handed sword wielding human males
So I get by with Reaper minis

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>>54834932
The only way I'd buy the bronze sober is if I somehow carried a 2e character all the way through the editions to 5e

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Guys, facing a green dragon's lair in about 1 hour.

As confirmed fun shit of the group, and the only guy who knows Draconic, I need fun ways to approach it without being turned to an oozing black shadow on the ground by acid!

What are the best bard magical secrets to take for Lore bard?

>>54838758
my only successful negotiation with a dragon was a young white one which are borderline retards. I accidently convinced it to tear off its hand as "proof" we killed him. Then I said a tooth would work better so it swooped down open mouthed for me to stab one out
I stabbed him through the roof of the mouth rolling a d100 where I got a 83 and the DM got a 07
He told me I needed to beat him by 40+ for it to work

>>54838758
>green dragon
>acid
ur fucked m8

>>54838815
That would have been a baaad failure.
>Stab dragon in the mouth
>It bites you in half

>>54838758

Treat the creature with the appropriate level of respect that it thinks it deserves.
Flatter it, talk it up, make it think like it could have use for you and your group.

Unless you guys are just trying to kill it and steal its horde, in which case, godspeed.

>>54838992
Nothing ventured nothing gained. Besides it was only a medium creature iirc but its been years. It was very young hence my ability to bamboozle it

>>54838758
Capture a kobold, carry it on a ten foot pole.

>>54838762
Counterspell, various healz, Wish, whatever feels cool. There's huge writeups about the viability of different spells.

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Anyone got a good list for homebrew feats? Any specific products in the dms guild to check out?

>>54839094
feats are almost always bad.

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>>54839094
in three months we're finally getting more official feats

>>54839122
It shouldn't take three months

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>>54839151
a-at least the tomb of annihilation dice comes o-out next month....
4d6 and only one of everything else is pretty shitty for 16 bucks.

>>54835848
Kill Six Billion Mephits

>>54837225
>the bad guy is the horse
>the rider is some random undead grafted on the back of the BBEG to save appearance

>>54839122
>in three months we're finally getting more official feats
We are doomed

>>54839410
that horse was actually a pretty good guy who doesn't afraid of anything

>>54831830
In a change from thread title: What's the most bullshit monster your party has faced? Bullshit being a broad category, whether it's "holy fuck the DM did not design this right/where the fuck did they get this from", sudden railroad forcing monsters, or anything else.

>>54831830
Wizards clearly isn't ever going to try and make any new battlemaster maneuvers so I'm going to try my hand at making a few. Anybody have a few ideas for what kind of moves you might want to see?

I know one of them has to be an Inazuma divekick.

>>54839494
Red dragon out of nowhere at the end of a hard dungeon, victiory would be questionable if we fought him after a long rest, but we were out of resources.

>>54839328
Yeah especially when you can get like 100 dice on amazon for 3 bucks more.

>>54839404
Nice.

>>54839683
There is even sets that come with
3d20
2d12
2d8
4d6
3d4
All matching for like eleven. I'm still buying it granted but thats because I'm a schmuck, collector, and intend to use it with AD&D

>>54839494
In Princes of Apocalypse, with party at 4-5 level we met lich in Sacred Stone Monastery (or some other dungeon around that level). That was pretty fucked up. I still question what was designer's intent with this one. It was quite enjoyable, overall, but... why?

>>54839404
410,757,864,530 dead mephits

>>54832726
That sounds fucking awesome, explain.
>>54832736
Something like pic related, maybe. >>54832657 try sending this over the surface at them, surface-worm style. It blends in at first, then they see the cloud of moon dust rising up after them as it accelerates closer.

>>54839595
Breaking concentration

Reflecting projectiles

Countering spells.

I really hope Lore Master gets a rewrite.

Really want a generalist wizard.

Well, shit. Due to some failure/stupidity, our party had to help city defend from local rebels. Burn my 2 level slots, try Earth Tremor (both people that I hit save). See we're losing more than we kill. Decide to leg it. Suddenly our gunslinger starts using his vampire shit (and in a way that doesn't work RAW, he has two attack replacements, but he used them together in one turn at level 3), and almost wins with some warlock help. Now I get blamed for losing the battle, I've got a vampire in my party, who rips people apart and I'm seriously considering just rolling another character than trying to work out how I can work with him.

>>54831830
My group seemed to particularly enjoy one of their first major encounters, an aberrant fae bug-thing with a swarm of insects holding it aloft. They made good use of the classic "big guy throwing little guy" maneuver to Thunderwave away the swarm and knock the creature down to the ground.

>>54840166
>I really hope Lore Master gets a rewrite.
They did, it's called War Magic.

>>54836241
Kingmaker(Pathfinder), Deep Carbon Observatory(OSR)

I'll run Lost Mine of Phandelver to a group of people who never played 5e. Some will be playing D&D for the first time. Party is cleric, druid, warlock and ranger. I worry they have no focused frontliner.

When I played through the module, half the party (3/6) died in that first level 1 dungeon. How do I not kill my group?

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I can't find the pdf for the three basic rulebooks in the OP, I've cruised through the pastebin and can't find it.

Can I get a link to a mega or something please? Thank

>>54834828
I bought 5 in one go—they're fuckin' incredible. Just about every detail you can see in the render is there.

Haven't painted them yet though, I've heard they can be troublesome.

So make absolutely sure that you can't find a fitting mini somewhere else first.

>>54834932
Buy black, the white is shit. I haven't had any structure/durability issues.

>>54840321
Go look on pdfshare threads.

>>54840238
War magic was nothing of the sorts, it was a boring attempt at a defensive wizard, Lore Master was all about being a person who had more flexibility.

>>54840321

http://d20.sabotender.com/5th/Source/

>>54840360
none up

>>54840317
If you don't want them to die right off the bat, fudge rolls and make enemies so things other than attack on their turns sometimes.
In SKT, my party was getting rekt by some Frost Giants, Barbarian was unconscious and Bard was low. So rather than killing the Bard too, I had a giant pick her up and attempt to run off with her

Playing a Blade-Pact Warlock Hexblade for the first time. Don't care if it's bad, I just want it to not be terrible, 9th level Character.

I've got Eldrich Blast, Booming Blade and Mage Hand. Armour of Agathys, Hellish Rebuke, Hold Person, Shatter, Elemental Weapon, Remove Curse, Fly, Dispell Magic, Banshiment, Scrying and Destruction Wave.

Invocations are Agonizing Blast, Devil's Sight, Beguiling Influeence, Rune Keeper and Eldrich Smite.

Plan is to sit back and E.Blast most of the time, occasionally if advantage presents itself or the situation calls for it, draw in close for a Booming Blade to make things interesting. Most spell slots are for utility and "what if" scenarios. Am I missing any vital spells or invocations that I really shouldn't?

How much work is adapting Storm King's Thunder to a floating isle setting?
For reference, there are also floating oceans and such.

How bad it trying to GM 5E for someone who doesn't have much experience GMing?

What alignment would you make this character? It's a bard who's been revived by a God/Goddess, once appealed by his musical talent and renown. Now the bard must travel from town to town, putting on shows for the masses that marks souls to be collected by the deity later on. He does take steps to provide his party with his troupe badge to ensure they won't be affected and always hands out free badges to kids, but in the end the show much go on. Now he's being forced to partake in what was once his art for a God's gain, failing to do so means he returns to the ground.

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Rules query. One of the PCs got possessed by a body swapper, so their consciousness/soul/whatever was taken out of their body and replaced with the swapper. I slapped a Geas on them. The character later returned to their body. Does the Geas spell affect the PC, or the body swapper?

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>>54835848
>536,870,912 mephits
Somehow the party pulls it off and gains 268,435,600 XP, hitting level 20 75K times over.
>YFW the party becomes the new gods of your realm

>>54837733
Wherever you want. Just as long as you leave.

>>54835403
Ive got some bad homebrew if ya want but im on mobile

Basically
You roll for a surge everytime you cast a spell above 1st level and your surges happen on 1+number of 1st+ spells cast since your last surge. You also surge on 20 when you cast a spell at your highest level.
I give all sorcs all metamagic options at level 3.
At lvl 10 i let sorcs trigger a wms on someone they hit with a spell every s/l rest or every wms
At 13 i let them cause a surge on everyone within 60ft ignoring cha mod creatures. I let them do this every 1d6 days minus 1 day for every 2 surges that center on them

>>54840471
Well he's lawful, that's for damn sure. But i'm not sure if he's
>Evil for being a soul collector (what's the deity's deal?)
>Good for protecting children from this deity
>Neutral because he does both

>>54840454
Do you at least have an experience with the system? Most difficult part DMing 5e in contrast to my admittedly limited experience with DMin other games was too much numbers to keep track in combat. But i am rather disorganized person.

>>54840471
Pretty much any could work, but i guess chaotic good? You're trying to break the contract and obviously care about the children.

>>54839122
Fuck feats, but goddamn I can't wait for more subclass options

>>54840321
Use the rem.uz link

>>54840317
I say just give everyone +10HP and be done with it.

Or you can make sure enemies mix up their turns, using dodge-actions or trying to shove, grapple or aid their allies, maybe throw a tent or do something silly like have two of the goblins try to skulk off to one side to steal the players horse.

Another alternate trick I've used, at the start were they find the dead horse and get ambushed by the goblins, a pair of Mastiff Hounds sprint out of the bushes and help, the players recognise them as belonging to Sildar. The dogs help point the players in the direction of Sildar after they clean up the goblins, while also just adding an extra couple admittedly weak bodies to put cover between the goblins and the squishies.

By the time that they rescue Sildar, they will be level 2 so have no need for the extra hounds and can thus return them to the veteran obviously.

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>>54840397
thanks a lot friend

>>54840475

I'd argue that Geas are soulbound and transcend the corporeal. The Geas applies to whichever consciousness it was cast on, so my vote says the body swapper.

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What's the best build to capture the feel of a GW2 Mesmer. They use illusions for battlefield control, but they're constantly in melee combat and have good enough defenses to pull that off (unless you use something other than longswords, but who does that?).

>>54840627
Why is Illya so lewd?

>>54839410
Had something like this.

Evil knight they were fighting who antagonised the party.
Eventually they knock off his helmet and reveal the bare skull underneath and that he is some kind of skeleton knight.
Turn undead and other undead-focused spells and tricks don't seem to work.
Turns out he is an intelligent, animated suit of armour and the skeleton trapped inside was just a red herring.

>>54839094

Shield Shotput

You have mastered the geometric and aerodynamic principles necessary to wield your shield like a discus. You may opt to use your shield as a thrown weapon when you attack on your turn. You use your Strength for the attack roll, it has a normal range of 15 feet and a long range of 30 feet, and deals 1d8 bludgeoning damage plus your Strength modifier. After throwing your shield, you lose its benefits and must reclaim or replace it on your own.

How would you handle large off screen battles? My players' characters are basically a special ops division of the military, so they go target key points to attack or defend. I want these to have influence on the outcome of the army vs army fight.

Any ideas on how to carry this out?

>>54840627
>>54840321
You stop that now.

>>54840637
literally bard

college of valor

Figuring out a witch-doctor/shadowman type of wizard school based on curses. Requesting advice and ideas, feature list goes as so
>2nd level ribbon
refluff of the spellbook and proficiency in herbalist's or poisoner's kit to show either type of "guy with jamaican accent that might know magic and can do things with herbs"
>2nd level feature
add hex to spellbook, always have it prepared(?) or can be cast once a long rest without using a slot if it is prepared
>6th level feature
add bestow curse (and remove curse?) to spellbook (with additional functionality/once a day metamagic-y effect?)
>10th level feature
bestow curse no longer takes your concentration(? This one seems to me too strong, and could go here or at 14) bonus action add a spell to the curse that takes your concentration, applying both(?)
>14th level feature
copy the create thrall from GOOlock(?) Area of effect bestow curse(?)

additionally looking for expanded applications of bestow curse, from gameplay things that would probably be balanced around the others available "at the start of each of the cursed's turn take 1d4 necrotic?" to the little fluffy things "Instant gender swap, target's skin is now blue, they smell like a goblin, etc."

>>54840708
Rolls for different events on both sides, with the DCs determined by how well the PCs do their jobs.

>>54840708
Literally just decide what happens if the PCs succeed/fail. It would be very frustrating to the players from a narrative point of view if they perform their job flawlessly and then their side loses because of a die roll made by the DM.

>>54840741
Just add hex to their spellbook automatically. No need to force it if they don't want to use it.
Bestow Curse (and Remove Curse) are already wizard spells. Just getting them for free is kinda lackluster and not particularly 5e.
You seem to focus too much on the use of particular spells, which isn't very appropriate to the wizard in general. A single feature giving it AOE at level 14 is interesting and flavorful, though.

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>>54840447
PLEASE RESPOND!

I need some ideas for Yuan-ti Pureblood Warlocks?

>>54840934
What, like their patron? Invocations? What the fuck

Have one of the yuan ti demigod hydra lookin creatures to be their patron and go demonic i guess. Flavor what you want to be burning poison fumes or whatever.

Are fighters useless? It seems like you have to minmax just to eek out respectable dmg early and then later when you're outclassed in dmg by every other class, you're pretty heavily constrained to only 3 moves, 4 times.

>>54840555
17 not 13

>>54840980
No

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>>54840980

>>54840980
that's not true at all
fighters are one of the best classes in the game

>>54840980
>not playing Battlemaster and supporting your team with maneuvers

well that's your first mistake

>>54840997
Is this using cantrips only though?

>>54840980
No

>>54840997
>first 10 levels

ranger supremacy edition, how can other classes even compete?

>>54840997
How the hell Fighter doesn't have a spike at 20th, when they get a Extra Attack (3)?

>>54841109
>le no one plays past level 10 meme

>>54841201
the chart is pretty shit all round

>>54840688
Read a comic awhile back with something similar to that which I actually rather enjoyed; what the group thought was just an old dude in armor turns out to be an animated suit of armor containing the corpse of its previous owner who had died of a heart attack. The armor is preoccupied with researching how to 'heal' the owner so he can return to doing great deeds, and gets preoccupied with the idea that its going to [need the heart of the main characters] (or something like that) in order to do so.

Damned neat, because its not something I see coming up very often.

>>54841201
Like >>54841232 said, this chart lacks many things and is shit. Doesn't count things like Pala spell smites, Ranger or Valor Bard with swift quiver.

For most of the classes its pretty useless to compare dpr anyway as only the fighter and rogue are pretty conditionless (except for action surge). Every other class has some sort of ressource to manage their damage unless a babarian is level 20.

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I live in a small country with not many gamestores and I have mostly played with friends. Can someone redpill me on adventurer's league? Are there like events?

>>54841216

I never have

>>54840980
Battlemaster a best

Also there was a discussion about Sentinel reaction attack+maneuvering strike yesterday. I ended up asking my DM and he's totally going to let me use it to force enemies to auto-miss. Hurray for having a DM who doesn't hate martials!

>>54841346
>redpill me on adventurer's league
What does that even mean? Do you want to know what minorities are heavily involved in it?

>>54841385
Your experience is not universal

>>54841417
>Hurray for having a DM who doesn't hate martials!
ABANDON THREAD

>>54840690
>Takes a full action to don, takes a full action to doff.
>But you totally can just toss it like a discus.

I hope you maintain them requiring a full action to put it back on.

>>54840708
Admittedly it wasn't D&D, but in the case of a previous game where we had a similar thing happen, mini-objectives popped up and depending on how they were dealt with, it would affect the greater outcome of the battle.

So even things like:
>You see a group of officers, commanding an attack forward
By killing them, battle swings in your favor. The game was notably higher power, so it basically became further abstracted - you would roll your attack/damage, and depending on how much you succeeded the roll by, that would be the degree by which the battle was influenced (or vice versa if you failed).

>>54840741
I would be tempted to say give them an ability to apply poisons at a distance / through a effigy. It flows with the ribbon feature then - but it's going to be dependent on the DM not giving some outright fucking absurd poisons to work with. It doubles down on the thematic elements though.

>>54840980
Martials are really good at turning things into pulp. Fighters are doubly so.

>>54841346
>redpill
No.

>>54841417
Well I mean it's not all that big of a deal. It's super fucking useful for if you're dealing with one big bad dude who attacks once in a round or whatever, but it's super easy to side step while also letting people shine in doing that.

>>54841438
>Your experience is not universal

Where did the meme come from then? I didn't start it

>>54836801
Late ass reply, but my party had a blowgun/whip kensei since he got to replace their damage dice

>>54841417
>Battlemaster a best
The only thing i dislike about Battlemaster is that it outshines every other subclass, it has the most utility and best damage, why should I pick something else?

Compare it to Arcane Archer which has only 2 uses per short rest and can't get even more by taking a feat.
Or compare it to champion which has similar dpr but lacks the utility.
Why take Scout, Monster Slayer or Cavalier if Battle Master is just straight up better?
Eldritch Knight is the only one I can see being good in a different way instead of just worse in every way.

>>54841498
>warlock is a shitty wizard
>rogues are bad
>wild shape works with martial arts
>magic item builds
There are many memes that don't make sense, anon. I'm not a historian.

>>54841438
>>54841458


It means I want to get the info on it. I didn't think people would have such a shit fit about it. I here a lot of talk about stuff being adventurer's league legal? Sounds like an mtg format or something.

>>54841566
>warlock is a shitty wizard

yeah, that doesn't make sense. it's sorcerers that are shitty wizards, not warlocks.

>>54841521
That's an issue with all the other subclasses, not Battlemaster

>>54841438
>Many popular figureheads acknowledge player's don't play to this level.
>Game designers load early game characters to compensate for people not playing late game.

Likewise just because you may have played high level doesn't mean everyone does. In fact of the 50 odd people I know in the tabletop community only 3 have played high level as a once off.

>>54840447
It'd be doable, but it would be a lot of work. There's big chunks of adventure where the PCs just have an open map, and when they reach a city/landmark, there's a description and something for them to find/do. They'll hit 3-7 of these on any given trek from main plot point A to main plot point B. In the end, you'd need to rework the entire map of Faerun into your setting, besides the little things like references to specific gods, organizations, and figuring out how dumbass hill giants get from one floating island to another.

There's already floating castles and airships in the world though, so that's a plus.

>>54841604
Its a weird fucking term. Outside of that, it's something that's pretty damned easy to google:

http://dnd.wizards.com/articles/events/adventurers-league-resources

>>54841670
That always drives me crazy. When one part of the game is obviously more fleshed out and workable, it's going to encourage people to focus there. They could absolutely flesh out other parts of it and encourage people to try higher levels, but, nope.

>>54841604
>inb4 hear not here

Autocorrect sucks ass.

>>54841626
Well Battlemaster is the one out of line, so I would say the fault is at the Battlemaster subclass.

But I would agree that all other subclasses should be as good as the battlemaster (or lets be honest maneuvers should have been a core class feature)

>>54841670
I never said playing at high levels was universal or even common. But it does happen, and even a small percentage of games means thousands of games across the world.

>>54841758
I 100% agree that Fighter as a whole should all have maneuvers and superiority dice ON TOP of the other subclass features.

>>54841706
I know but I wanted to hear you guys talk about it since this general is for 5th ed stuff. Everything in this thread could be googled.

I agree with the bottle neck gameplay too.

I gave my Bard a magical harp he bought from an unsuspecting miscellaneous goods merchant. He hasn't yet awakened it or realized it's magic as the knowledge domain Cleric failed both his checks and my Bard has failed all 4 attunment checks I've given him.

As such this still leaves me room to adjust it before they inevitably roll something higher than an 8.
I was thinking it would, when played correctly, bathe the immediate 10ft area in strong light and cast dim light out to 30ft, and give him +1 CHA when he plays it. He's got a level 4 Bard at the moment.

Too weak? Not particularly interesting? I was thinking of letting it Turn Undead once per day, up to 3 Lesser Undead, if he passes a DC15 check with it.

>>54841812
>and my Bard has failed all 4 attunment checks I've given him.
???

>>54841566
>wild shape works with martial arts
but it does

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>>54834828
>>54834841
>>54834898
>>54834899
>>54834932
>>54834973
>>54835000
>>54838720
>>54840346
I broke down and ordered the Premium Plastic ($30) for my Paladin
I'll post here when I get it in a week or two and let you all know how it goes

>>54841758
1) Kill Battle Master
2) Add Maneuvers to base class
3) Optional. Remove superiority dice, damage is proficiency bonus instead

>>54841812
>attunment checks
What the fuck is wrong with you

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so what actually is the best level

>>54841850
MM mentions "natural weapons," and though it doesn't go into specifics, it wouldn't be unreasonable for a DM to rule that martial arts based on mastering the human body don't work in other bodies.
But I'll grant that it's hard to determine either RAW or RAI and it will probably vary from DM to DM.

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>>54831891
>http://media.wizards.com/2017/dnd/downloads/UA-ThreePillarXP.pdf
My God..its written in High Gygaxian!

>>54841847
>>54841878
He doesn't know how to play a Harp. I'm not sure if the correct way to word it but basically he's bad at playing it

>>54841868
Give it some time to get here, but you'll like it, I'm sure.

>>54841945
Do you know what attunement is?

>>54841945
he's not proficient in it, then. there's still not "test" for attunement, you either attune to something or you don't. If the attunement requires proficiency then he needs to find someone to teach him.

>>54841871
>>54841758
>>54841801
People float this idea every once in a while. In the end of the day, some people really do just want to play a barebones champion fighter that has barely any resource management and always knows what they're going to do when their turn comes up.
These people might be new players, or they might be players who prefer to focus on non-character-related choices (like environmental hazards and opportunities), or they might be players who prefer to focus less on crunch and more on roleplaying - AND THERE'S NOTHING WRONG WITH ANY OF THOSE.

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>>54841868
Premium plastic is pretty good and keeps all the tiny details. Unfortunately I'm not the best painter but it works for a combat grid where nobody is holding it right up to their faces to see all the flaws.

>>54841910
11 for rogue
5 for everyone else

>>54841945
You don't need proficiency in an instrument to fucking use it, and attunement doesn't work like that.

>>54841986
Okay thanks.

>>54842040
>You don't need proficiency in an instrument to fucking use it
Yeah you do

What would I get if I mixed Eberron and Spelljammer?

>>54842075
> Proficiency with a tool allows you to add your proficiency bonus to any ability check you make using that tool.
>If you have proficiency with a given musical instrument, you can add your proficiency bonus to any ability checks you make to play music with the instrument. (PHB 154)
Bards don't even need to know how to play an instrument to use it as a spellcasting focus, they just need to have it.

>>54841812
As others said, there is no such thing as an "attunement check". If they spend a short rest with the item, they can attune to it, simple as that.

>bathe the immediate 10ft area in strong light and cast dim light out to 30ft, and give him +1 CHA when he plays it
Yeah that's not really interesting at all. And if you have a Cleric, I don't see why you'd give a use of Turn Undead to the bard. Take a leaf from the Instruments of Bards and give the harp something like this:
>When you use the instrument to cast a spell that causes targets to become charmed on a failed save, the targets have disadvantage on the saving throw. In addition, once per day you can cast Faerie Fire.

>>54841850
Martial arts requires unarmed attacks. Neither multi-attack or natural weapons work with martial arts. You can conceivably just turn into what ever the hell you want and make a 'normal unarmed attack' rolling monk damage, but RAW that's the only way you can use martial arts.

>>54842075
No you don't. Tools act like skills; he can still play the item, he's just not (statistically) as good with the item as someone who isn't proficient. Because he cannot add his proficiency bonus (or gain advantage where appropriate).

As far as I can recall off handily, there's no "You cannot possibly play a musical instrument unless you are proficient in it."

>>54842169
>Neither multi-attack or natural weapons work with martial arts.
I want to believe this is the case, but I can't find any rules stating this (especially concerning natural weapons). Can you point me to a particular page?

>>54842164
That's much more interesting. I'll do that.

>>54842230
>...use the Attack action with unarmed strikes and monk weapons...
Please point to where 'natural weapons' are considered to be either of these. Unarmed strikes are something specific. Similarly so is the Attack action. Multiattack, notably, is not the Attack action. They are all specific terms.

This is why it came up in the other thread that you can totally just be an weak dude who wildshapes to a creature and uses martial arts die unarmed attacks to attack for [monk dice]+(wildshapes)DEX/STR, and trigger martial arts techniques. Some DM's will shut you down on that, but that works within RAW

>>54842346
(To elaborate, you can still make an unarmed strike as a creature, but doing so means you're not using the creatures normal attacks/weapons/whatever. Unarmed strikes are a 'you use your body in whatever fashion', not a definitive 'you punch or kick' thing, so it doesn't necessarily require you to be humanoid. You can still headbutt something, or bodily slam it, or rear up and hoof it.)

>>54842392

...so in other words, you can use martial arts while wildshaped