File: 1444679699978.png (243 KB, 600x600) Image search: [Google]

243 KB, 600x600

45024645

Because it's cool.

So I'll start off with a big question...

my group is pretty loose with the rules

not in a way I particularly like but thats kind of besides the point

its mostly me and the paladin correcting people politely when appropriate, which is fine

but we just hit level 3 and our monk said his speed is 45 feet one combat, which is clearly wrong. hes a dwarf, so his speed should be 35, but he obviously looked at the table and added 10 more speed to his movement.

i didn't say anything because... whatever, but is there a good way to bring it up without being that dick that nerfed his monk? i don't really care but lately all the things my DM doesn't notice about people playing have been bugging me, but I really like his campaign otherwise and I like my party so its not like I want to leave. But I also don't want to be that guy who is always arguing with the DM and players, even though I already have been that guy multiple times (and I've always been right, but no one really seems to care).

like is it even worth bringing up? I mean by level 5 his speed would be stupidly fast and thats just dumb. Maybe someone else will catch on at that point and I should save up any potential animosity for more important rules violations.

And believe me, half of me wants to find a different group. I don't even care about RAW particularly, but our DM kind of just adds and drops rules on the spot, and makes stuff up, and sometimes he's cool when me or the paladin correct him, but sometimes not and it really bothers me...

>>45024773

>>45024645

Goddammit.

>>45024778

Are you using maps/grids?

Because if you aren't it really doesn't matter that much.

>>45024807
we are

again, its not thaaaat big of a deal, but in the aggregate it does bug me that people don't even bother reading what things do or learning the basic rules... especially when our dm doesn't know something so he makes up something dumb on the spot instead of just listening to me or the paladin...

I like 4 honestly, but everyone I know seems to prefer 6 at least. 4 is enough to cover most "roles" and still be personal enough.

IMO

File: RC-OAs.jpg (297 KB, 640x913) Image search: [Google]

297 KB, 640x913

>>45024850
My group is 5 and I find myself wishing a lot that it was 4, or even 3. I think 3 would be fun because there would be more focus on each individual character's arc.

4 or 5 is ideal for me, but sometimes enough people will show up at my shop that we have 7 at the table which is way too many in my opinion.

>>45024778
Depends. It's always annoying when you spend a lot of time learning a system only to have the people you play it arbitrarily decide to ignore rules, usually just to make their character stronger. Like, maybe if it was interesting in a narrative sense, but nooo, you're just adding dice to your damage cus' you fucking feel like it.

>>45024871
Very much so. According to my completely anecdotal evidence, large groups are good for beer & pretzels, small ones are good for getting really immersed.

>>45024850
>6
Ah, the ol' "no time for RP because we have to grind through three hours of a basic encounter". Don't even have time for combat quips, just grind grind grind. At least, that's how it always ends up for my groups.

>>45024903
>beer & pretzels
my group is so good for this, thats one of the things that keeps me staying in it even though I think I could pull together a way better group

that and I can stay a PC and not have to DM

>>45024916
It's definitely not bad, hell some of my most fun memories of pen and paper games are sitting around cracking jokes with friends. But when I really wanna properly play D&D and focus on the game, characters, encounters, etc, a smaller group is better.

>>45024934
>But when I really wanna properly play D&D and focus on the game, characters, encounters, etc,
ugh this is what i want so much

I'm also this anon >>45024778 who was talking about constant rules violations and people clearly not reading the rules.

so many small problems, but the guys who host always buy everyone dumplings and I genuinely like all the players not to mention I got the group together in the first place.

But I can think of a few friends I have and how much more fun it would be to have a more strict and more RP-y small group.

But also how much more work it would probably be for me. Or at least starting groups always seems like work. plus it would be up to me to DM most likely... maybe thats cool and I just need to man up

>>45024840

Maybe you or the paladin should DM your own game and run a tighter ship.

...and I'm not just saying that to increase the total number of DMs out there, that's one of MANY reasons I'm saying that.

>>45024739
As a player? 3. It leads to interesting group dynamics between both the players and the party characters. That might just be because I had 2 roommates who were into RPGs and a friend to DM for us, but hey, whatever works, right?

As a DM? 5 or 1. A five player party is easiest to balance a campaign around, at least in my experience. But I've also got an itch for writing and running solo campaigns, and my group really enjoys getting to bring their solo characters together for high-level campaigns.

>>45024739
How do i munchkin the Sun monk in the best way.
Con higher than 10 isn't needed thanks to ranged attacks that much i know.

So far i'm in a campaign that started at lvl 7 and as far as our DM told us we're going to keep it up until lvl 20 (which i highly doubt we will manage).

Thing is the guy was very active in one of the games i ran and cheezed far too much, crying and bitching when i wouldn't allow him quite a lot of his bullshit and even dragging away a player from my game as well as scaring of the two chicks (who are great at RP and actually taught me how to play) from the game.
But because i'm a civilized man (and because the little fucker is the son of a lawyer who got rich through suing people over injuries and who can raise all hell against a poor student like me) i didn't bitch slap him.

The guy peer-assigned us classes and said all the source-books, SCAG and UA stuff is good for the game.

He thought he'd fuck me over by giving me a monk...kek...

So how do i annoy him the best while making it fun for the other players as well?

Also the guy is illiterate when it comes to using PCs so no worry about him browsing /tg/.

So im gonna play 5E for the first time and im going to play a cleric. what makes for a good cleric in this edition?

>>45025471
1) guidance
2) bless
3) go wild as the cleric class is very strong

>>45025475
How about a war domain cleric?

File: 1451552345505.jpg (11 KB, 480x441) Image search: [Google]

11 KB, 480x441

Posting a game I just played, had a great time

>Friend decides to DM realising that dicking over players with debuffs, racism and huge monsters is very fun and gives me a chance to quit forever-DMing
>Wants to run Gritty low-magic Monster Hunter style game, big bad monsters with glaring weaknesses we have to exploit
>Backstory is we’re a bunch of criminals, outcasts and invalids thrown into the wilds to protect ‘the last bastion of humanity’
> Party consists of Human Beastmaster, Werewolf gunslinger, half elf Witcher-y Homebrew, human tanky fighter and me a Gnoll fighter
>DM has given beast races such as myself buffed stats for the drawback of save-or-suck berserker rages when I kill a few enemies
>We do a few missions, Weaknesses are obvious and fairly easy to do (toxic slow moving zombies are highly inflammable)
>My rages have not hindered the party thus far
>Get tasked with finding some herbs that grow in latently ‘magical’ places and a mistletoe that grows in trees literally hundreds of metres high
>Fight some bandit Gnolls and some kobolds at various sections throughout the woods
>Too easy
>Get to ‘perfect camping site’ described by DM, has thick bushes that provide good cover
>Nighttime and DM activates his trap-card
>The bushes were a fuckton of twig blights, followed by a smattering of vine blights
>Werewolf is restrained and the rest of the party is dealing with th blights
>I crit fail a berserker check and become under the DM’s control, Smack the werewolf hard but eventually play it off as trying to slash the WW bonds
>Finally time to go up the trees, DM’s been hinting at something incredibly humorous to himself
>Worry
>I’m the only one who’s packed climbing gear, go up with half elf. Werewolf is hanging round at the bottom while the tanks fucked off and the beastmasters exploring
>A few easily made checks later and we’ve got the ingredients
>This forest is rife with harpies and we notice a huge nest with fucktons of shiny gold

Cont..

>>45025525
>Glittering Gold Trinkets And Baubles, Paid For In Blood.mp3
>I go for it, unbeknownst to me the half elf has been charmed by a harpy
>Jumps off the tree to the sultry voice
>DM gives a lifesave in the shape of a vine
>Razor Vine
>Half elf survives but can’t do much
>I carry on oblivious to all but the gold
>Get down there and get attacked by a harpy, which knocks my weapon away, and after a brief struggle, dropping my spear and a failed WIS save, i too go off the edge
>The Half elf sticks out a relatively undamaged hand and saves me, but 3 harpies decide to fuck our shit up
>I Bola one down, the half elf manages to shoot down another and the third fucks away
>Settling for a smaller nest and bounty, we knock a lower hanging nest off
>The werewolf down below, having must’ve pissed off something powerful is suprised to see a spear thud down right in front of him
>A minute later and he fails his save to dodge a harpy whose wings have been clipped
>Low on health, he just jumps out of the way of another dropped harpy
>thoroughly annoyed, bashes the harpy corpses into mincemeat
>Looking up, he sees the tumbling gold and jewels fall toward him
> failing yet another check, (he’s rolled nothing above ten this entire scene) a final goblet upon his head knocks him to zero like a looney tunes sketch

He eventually forgave me cause he found a doubleshot flintlock in the pile. Fucking gr8 m8s. How are your games going /5eg/?

File: 1453249245169.png (22 KB, 1280x1024) Image search: [Google]

22 KB, 1280x1024

What Houserules have you implemented that have improved the quality of your game?

I've allowed spears and tridents to be included into the polearm master feat & Allowed my beastmaster ranger's pet to have death saving throws

I'm fairly new to 5e but not to D&D in general:
With how nice eldritch blast + agony+ hex scales, I wanted to start with 2~3 levels in warlock then switch to sorcerer and use all the sorcerer's spells for utility that also keys off CHA.

But then I noticed that in 5e, sorcerers just get a massively cropped version of the wizard spell list, missing out on a chunk of the utility spells.

Can you be a good utility sorcerer? Would I be better off lowering my con/dex to get my int up instead, and going warlock/wizard?

>>45025683
From what I've seen of Sorc/Wiz I've played with in a party, Sorc seem to be mostly focused on damage and debilitation, and Wiz are the generalists/utility casters.

>>45025683
Bear in mind that your Eldritch Blast cannot run off anything other than your Cha.

>>45025683
Sorcs are designed to cast more at the cost of spell depth, but they still get enough spell slots imo

It's possible to be a good utility sorc, you just need to only pick 2/3 damaging spells you can rely on, then pick the remaining spells carefully, if stuff doesn't work out you can always swap it for another spell when you level up

>>45025724
I'm aware, that's why Sorcerer is my first choice.

>>45025708
I get that the general purpose of sorcerers is to be blasters; the main question is whether it's possible to be a good utility sorcerer without the same spell range that wizards, or even clerics or bards have.

>>45025774
>Bards

Just as I posted that I realized that I'd completely forgotten about the other caster class that relies on cha - but I ruled it out because another player is already going with that class.

Hmm, that's something to consider as well, maybe.

>>45025762
The assurance that it's viable is helpful, thanks.

>>45024739
I've played 2, 3, 4 and 6.

3>4>>2>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>6

>>45024739
>"Thankfully my twat mage friend isn't here to brag once again about the ogre and Flesh to Stone. Namu amida butsu."

>>45025791
sorclocks are considered the 'best' multiclass option by many, so don't worry bud.

>>45024778
Just say it. If the DM doesn't care he can let him have the extra speed anyway. If it bothers you that the DM can't rule for shit tell him that.

>>45025501
Not so strong

>>45026004
What makes them good in particular?

I know about the short rest sorc points trick which I already told the GM I don't intend to abuse much, and the quickened eldritch blasts, is there anything else?

>>45026076
It's basically just the eldritch blast

>>45026089
That's kind of hilarious but reassuring at the same time, thanks.

>>45026097
Well you need the +cha invocation too, of course. The other two EB boosters are also good.

>>45024739
4 is my favorite party size but anything between 4 and 7 I can roll with. Less than 4 usually causes problems in all the games I have played in.

>>45025762
Sorcs can get all the best utility spells: Haste, Fly, Invisibility, Improved Invisibility, et al.

And if I'm reading this right, when you swap out a spell it doesn't have to be for a spell of the same level, just for a spell you know. So when you hit 5th level you can take both Fireball and Haste by swapping out one of your 1st or 2nd level spells.

>>45025454
>Con higher than 10 isn't needed thanks to ranged attacks that much i know

But even if you're min-maxing and get your Dex and Wis all the way up, you should still have points left to make Con a third priority with a score of 12 or 14.

To make it fun, call out your attacks. Maybe don't literally say "hadouken" or "kamehameha," but something like that.

Would any of you know of anyway to increase the cr of wildshapable creatures, or is circle of the moon the only way? Also would any of you allow anyway for a druid to wildshape into a Monstrosity due to their naturalness.

>>45027171

Could homebrew some beasts. My DM gave the party druid a homebrewed giant beetle to fight with some bells and whistles. I think he pulled it from an earlier edition or something.

>>45027171
You'd need a new subclass made up that has some subset of better monsters for different options. I've got an archetype up on dms guild that allows a couple of swarm forms, for instance. Also using new monsters, as >>45027184 suggests.

As for monstrosities you can't just allow blanket access to it because there's too many weird abilities to exploit. Again, maybe a strictly managed subset of them.

>>45027171
If CR is at all reliable it shouldn't really matter what the hell you wildshape into as long as it's the right CR.
Of course I don't trust WotC to have made a reliable CR system so I'd have to take a good look at the monsters before allowing them.

Would you give a surprise round to an enemy that was activly talking to the party and suddenly draws a weapon and strikes at them? I'm trying to find a clearer answer in the books but all I can notice is surprise rounds are more for ambushes where one side is unaware of the other. Give the party a dex or perception check to avoid the surprise, maybe?

>>45027488
Monsters don't balance the same way that PCs do. Beasts are largely sacks of hp and damage so they can't really break anything.

>>45027518
I would say if the attacker rolls a sleight of hand Vs. passive perception then the attacker would get a surprise round. Otherwise as soon as he draws his blade and shows hostility it would be initiative rolls to see who is faster on the draw.

>>45027518
No. Not unless he has some special thing that lets him draw a weapon faster than normal (which I'm pretty sure isn't possible by 5e rules, since it takes the Interact with an Object Action, which is free).

You might give him an initiative bonus since he drew first with the intent to kill, but I wouldn't give him a surprise round under your circumstances.

I came up with a strange ability for monsters. It's kind of convoluted, but with my players constantly keeping track of initiative, and being annoying about it too, I had to make it.

Relinquished Initiative: This creature chooses to go 2nd, 3rd, or 4th in initiative order. At the end of every round roll their initiative as normal. They assume this new initiative.

This same creature has Metamorphic Body, it's a celestial dragon golem.

Metamorphic Body: In response to Draconic Guardian can change his Draconic Species to match the effect or spells damage type, if available. This can only be done once per round as a reaction, and can also be done in lieu of one part of a multi-attack.

This thing is to teach my players to STOP ONLY TAKING FIRE SPELLS HOLY SHIT! THE IRON GOLEM DIDN'T TEACH THEM SO I GUESS THIS WILL HAVE TO!

>>45027683

I'm dumb and been awake 24 hours.

"In response to being targeted by a spell or ability the Draconic Guardian..." and the rest is correct.

>>45027683
>STOP ONLY TAKING FIRE SPELLS HOLY SHIT!
You could just have them fight things that are immune or resistance to fire. Like demons and stuff.

In the Forgotten Realms setting, using magic and technology together, how would a mad scientist go about attempting to create a Pod racer?

>>45027733
The Iron Golem failed to teach them. It's only two specific players, and I don't like one of them anyway. To the point where I want him gone. We don't have room for murderhobos, though we do a lot of killing.

I don't dislike him per say, just his playstyle. Doesn't mesh well with the rest of the group.

>>45024739
I've had a lot of fun playing with my wife running solo missions with her rogue (at level 3) before we introduced her to the group (level 6). It made a lot of sense story wise, integrated her into the main campaign with her being able to provide different perspective and fill knowledge gaps of the area with the group (and vice versa), and most importantly introduced her to the game and familiarized herself with the rules.

I normally run 6~8 people, but I think 4~5 is optimal.

>>45025570
Ranger's pets have a CR increase
Unarmed damage is 1d4+str for everyone, unless you have Martial Arts.
I allow called shots or specific limb targetting with a hidden bump in AC.

>>45027683
>STOP ONLY TAKING FIRE SPELLS HOLY SHIT! THE IRON GOLEM DIDN'T TEACH THEM SO I GUESS THIS WILL HAVE TO!
Have them fight smart enemies that coat them in oil, or coat the field of battle in oil...OIL EVERYWHERE.
Same for methane in the air.
Or enemies immune to fire.
Or spell reflecting enemies.

>>45027683
>with my players constantly keeping track of initiative, and being annoying about it too
Not entirely sure what you mean by this, unless you're using some houserule for initiative that makes it something other than 'roll a Dex check and act in order of highest to lowest'.

The rule itself seems somewhat convoluted, though I can't say whether it's better or worse than what you're already running on.

>teach my players to STOP ONLY TAKING FIRE SPELLS
First off, calm down. This is a game where you're trying to create a story for your players to experience, not one where you're pitted against your players.

Secondly, work on the wording a little. What happens when it's targeted with a spell that deals Radiant or Force damage, or some other damage type that does not correspond to a type of dragon?

Perhaps you could consider modeling the ability of the Absorb Elements spell.

But you should definitely consider talking to them out of character if you don't like what they're doing. Only if that doesn't work, then should you give them logical consequences in-character.

They're well-known heroes who predominantly use fire spells, aren't they? How would their enemies logically react to this?

>>45027683
I'm confused as to why you don't want them to keep track of initiative. Is the game not made with initiative order in mind?

And maybe fire is the character theme. Wouldn't make a whole lot of sense for a red dragon sorcerer to fling frost at people would it?

>>45027769
You should probably handle it out of game, then. Find out if anyone else feels the same ways as you, and if they do, take it up with the guy in private and ask him to either change his play style or leave. If everyone else is perfectly fine with him, and it really bothers you, you should probably just go find another group.

>>45024739
My ideal size is 3 players and an DM, if I'm running. It's small enough to feel nice and intimate, you don't feel like you're running a massive clasterfuck, and it gives me the freedom to potential toss an NPC their way without combat getting that bogged down isnce it's just upping it to 4 combatants.

If I'm playing, 4-5 which is also my preference from 5E. Really, it just varies game-by-game. Solo games are ERP games. Or at least in the Western Wastes setting, really just games with a friend of mine as we flesh out the rest of the campaign setting from the point of view of her cast of 12 or so characters that resulted from a love for making characters.

Currently, the party is an arcane trickster, a magitech knight, and a spellslinger, though that after the swashbuckler ran off at the first sight of her vendetta. Depending on situatoons, sometimes they end up with an NPC accomplice, such as a Way of the Native monk after they freed him from the stocks and accompanied him back to his tribe and dealt with some stuff.

>>45027843
>Not entirely sure what you mean by this, unless you're using some houserule for initiative that makes it something other than 'roll a Dex check and act in order of highest to lowest'.

No, they just start acting on their turn before I'm done writing and then I have no idea what they just said because I'm adding damage, since they never do it. I've told them to stop and only 2 of my 6 players have stopped doing it.

>What happens when it's targeted with a spell that deals Radiant or Force damage, or some other damage type that does not correspond to a type of dragon?

Can't change. Simple.

>But you should definitely consider talking to them out of character if you don't like what they're doing. Only if that doesn't work, then should you give them logical consequences in-character.

I've already gone over the whole "You really don't want a single element of spells." spiel. Did not work, even let him change it if he wanted to. His response was "My character is a pyromaniac." Shit, his first response when someone attacked a room full of delegates was "I cast fireball!" Which would have landed right in the middle of about 10 delegates.

>no game for 3 weeks

comfort me /tg/

>>45027945
>Solo games are ERP games
Having run one on ones with friends (other males), wife (female), and nephews and nieces, I can say it's never ventured into that realm. That's completely dependent on the players and DM.

>>45028001
Does stopping in the middle of the game for a quickie count? Because my wife and I have done that a few times.

>>45027967
either use the many spiteful tools available to dog the character in the likely shit he's caused, or just talk to the guy outside of the game and get firm about it like a normal person. it's your game too anon

>>45028021
Nah, that's just being married / having an SO. Unless.....it was a diplomacy check of some kind.

I published an adventure on the DM Guild and people are voluntarily paying for it. Feels good, man.

Next I think I want to publish an event-based adventure at a festival or tournament, with sport combat and other things the PCs can compete in without actually risking their lives. You know, more of a downtime activity. Would this be too boring? Should I add a more serious B plot, like a murder the PCs have to solve before the tournament is over and all the suspects go home?

Thoughts on fighting Sahuagin on land? Would it be too weird if they had a Reef Shark/Hunter Shark with them that was "swimming" through the air?

>>45028265
Instead give them a sea beast with a land speed. I suggest a plesiosaur.

>>45028279
That's a thought. Mainly I'm just looking for ways to make Sahuagin encounters without just making it "you fight six of them." Partially because that feels boring, partially because I only have four fishman models.

>>45028360
If you don't want to involve any water, like having them try to drag PCs into canals or moats where they'd have an advantage, you could have fun with the four-arms thing and give them various weird combinations of equipment, like two greatswords, four flails, a longbow and two pavise shields, or a rapier and three bucklers. (I know multiple shields don't stack, but they can when you're the DM.)

>>45028468
I was thinking that they'd storm into the local temple of Umberlee's fund raiser, demanding for the return of some relic of Sekolah. So it'd just be a straight forward battle.

But I do like your idea about giving them a variety of weapons/armor.

Basic rules question that has been a bit of a point of contention in one of my games. Should a monk be able to break up his or her movement such that they move between flurry of blows strikes?

>>45028702
I don't see why not. Shouldn't it be treated like any other source of multiple attacks?

>>45028727
The phrasing of the rule is "Immediately after you take the Attack action on your turn, you can spend 1 ki point to make two unarmed strikes as a bonus action."

The contention has largely been around the meaning of immediately after you take the attack action.

>>45028767
That is a silly RAW way to look at it. The developers even says that you can flurry BEFORE you use any attacks from taking the Attack action. It doesn't make sense the Monk has to full-round action like old Monks had to so don't include it. If you do then you're a faggot.

>>45028812
I'm not the DM, my ruling would be to let them do it because I just don't see why it would be overpowered in any way. It's kind of weird, this guy missed someone taking cure wounds as a cantrip for like two months in a different campaign.

>>45028839
I recall the official ruling was that you can move between flurry attacks, but I don't think there was so much a rules reading as it was what was intended.

>>45028249
DMsG is actually a really interesting addition to D&D, and I'm really curious to see how it impacts the development of the edition.

Think about what it could mean for Unearthed Arcana. If they decide to do a new UA artificer draft, they could just go through all the material that they now own, read what the players have come up with, and check the sales/orders numbers and rating on each title. That'll give them somewhere to start, rather than just throwing darts at a board.

>>45024739
The best games I've been in have been two-player parties, but three-person groups are also pretty good.

The nice thing about smaller groups isn't just getting to focus more on each character, but also getting to flesh out the relationships between the characters a bit more.

What's the point of the whole Adventurer's League organized play stuff?

>>45029303
>implying it doesn't mean that WizKids is going to put even less effort into 5E
>implying the closest we get to a PHB 2 won't just be them taking the highest selling materials and repackaging them, at the same time taking them off DMsG and suckling the profits themselves
>implying 5E is even getting development at this point

I'm sorry, but 5E is basically just Paizo back in the days that all they made were APs. The only time you're going to get anything closely resembling content will be the Player's Guides or Adventure Guides released specifically for campaigns or campaign settings. And given the 'wealth' of options that SCAG presented, the approaching sunset is definitely shit-colored.

>>45029343
So you can play relatively consistent games even with different groups.

File: image.png (89 KB, 908x801) Image search: [Google]

89 KB, 908x801

>>45029303
That's actually my main reason for posting material on the Dungeon Master's Guild. I don't give a damn about the profits, I just want to do what I can to ensure that, if they end up releasing an official shaman class, it isn't just another generic wisdom-based nature caster.

>>45029364
>what is Unearthed Arcana
What they'll do is cobble together something based off of the postings, true, but they'll likely do at least some playtesting, and UA is the best way to do that.

It's a team of six people, man. There's only so much they have time for.

>>45024739
Hey there guys. Im hosting a DnD session at the FLGS near me and I wanted to premake a variety of different characters that people could just choose from if they wanted to join in.

I looked through the resources pastebin and the download for character generator has a lot of pics and a link that is so so.

Are there any character builders out there like the ones made for 3.5 and 4e?

Once I have these level one characters made I'll upload them so people can use them if they want for easy play.

File: Vampire Hunter.jpg (390 KB, 527x893) Image search: [Google]

390 KB, 527x893

>>45024739
>>45024739
My group wanted to try out a series of "unconventional" characters, which was interpreted as rolling up unusual multiclassed characters at level 5.

I wound up with a Cleric 3/Ranger 2, and decided to make him as a scout/field medic. What should I do from here?

Pic unrelated, but perhaps not? A vampire hunter might fit the cleric/ranger mix as well.

>>45029444
>What they'll do is cobble together something based off of the postings, true, but they'll likely do at least some playtesting, and UA is the best way to do that.
Not to mention that materially changing it through playtesting would give them a justification to keep the older version on the DMsG AND releasing the newer one in a book, resulting in an increased number of ways that people can give them money.

>>45029444
>what is Unearthed Arcana
Half-baked shit that is written up Monday morning once a month as an obligation?

>It's a team of six people, man. There's only so much they have time for.
And Onyx Path is 3 people, yet aside from a few delays, they're currently capable of handling the entirety of World of Darkness, from Vampire and Werewolf and Mage to Changeling and Demon and Mummy and more. Half the people, yet they have the time to actually make their products. The official content release from WizKids in the past year or two is what?

EEPC
>Four races and some spells

SCAG
>Zero content for bards, druids, and rangers
>Only one complete background, because writing up trait/flaw/bond charts is really, really hard.
>Swashbuckler is identical to its UA release except swaps a pure taunt for disadvantage
>Storm Sorc is identical to its UA release without bonus spells

>>45029657
>Ignoring Princes of the Apocalypse, Out of the Abyss, all the Encounters material, and all the Adventurer's League material
The fact that it isn't precisely the content that you want doesn't mean it isn't content.

Besides, you're acting like the ludicrous content bloat of 3.5 was a GOOD thing.

>>45029303
>>45029364
You're both forgetting that the point of the DMsG is actually to post adventures, not player options.

>>45024778
Are you having fun?
If no, are they having fun?
If yes to both, stop bothering with such bullshit, who cares if the monk can run fast, or if the wizard casts one spell he shouldnt be able to because he ran out of them.
It's a game, the focus is having fun, and rules are there just as guidelines. I'm sure 10 ft won't make the difference, and if you're that worried about it I would change game.

>>45029755
>What, you don't want to run out Adventure Paths in the Realms?
>You want books of practical content, rather than APs that you might mine for monster stats?

Yeah, pardon me for wanting something useful. 3.P's bloat is garbage, but the utter lack of content that WizKids is providing us is equally shitty. 4E had a good balance between the base PHB's and the [X] Power books, ignoring the other content of Dragon.

Is it that wrong to actually want two archetypes for rangers that are viable as-written?

>>45029469
Playing a Cleric is a big deal, you're not just an healer, you're a servant of your god. Try creating a whole new class for those couple levels, name it "field medic", give him the ability of preparing medikits and stuff like no attack of opportunity when you heal someone during combat or when you pull them out of the brawl after they drop unconscious

>>45029657
>>Storm Sorc is identical to its UA release without bonus spells
>implying it should have them

>>45029853
That wasn't the implication at all, you ninny. It's that other than, "Oh wait, sorcerers don't get bonus spells, let's nix that," literally nothing of consequence changed from its UA release to its publication. Now, granted, the Waterborne Adventures UA was back when WizKids was at least pretending to give a shit, but the people acting as though UA material will get rigorously playtested or even playtested at all are full of shit.

>>45029842
>Playing a Cleric is a big deal, you're not just an healer, you're a servant of your god.
>Try creating a whole new class for those couple levels
You know, I like my house, but the trim doesn't quite match my taste.

I could call a decorator, but I think instead I'll just set the house on fire and hammer what's left back together. Same thing, right?

going to run a siege sort of game next week where the players have to defend the capital from an army of snakemen and an angry wizard. I'm thinking of making it objective based, with roughly five objectives available, and as the party completes objectives, members of the King's Army complete or fail the other objectives. Objectives would be stuff like defending the bridge, fending off siege weapons, slaying enemy generals, or mounting a charge against the enemy. I kind of wanted the wizard to function as an excuse to summon a dungeon-like tower with him at the top as a final boss, and once the players are finished with all of this, introduce a gargantuan-sized boss that the players must slay because it routs the remaining army. Does this sound overwhelming? Any tips on creating open field battles that are interesting?

>>45029876
I apologize; it seemed like you were complaining.
You're correct in that any UA content is minimally playtested, if playtested at all. Releasing it and then having a follow-up survey helps them put things together better in theory, but the extent to which they use the feedback is unclear.

I am admittedly still salty about the Modifying Classes UA where they flat-out said "don't fuck with the sorcerer's spell list" in their guidelines, and then immediately used a sorcerer archetype with an extended spell list as their example. And then released another the next month.

>>45029808
>Onii-chaaaan~ My goalposts! They're moving on their own!

The fact that you don't like the content, again, doesn't mean it isn't being produced. It's not a question of laziness or ineptitude, but of a different focus.

Hasbro has the D&D brand under close scrutiny these days. It used to be that WotC's numbers were lumped together, which meant that Magic's profitability gave D&D a little more breathing room. Now, however, D&D has to provide results. Most likely, market research showed adventures as more profitable than splat books, which I can honestly believe--they give the DM a game to run, reducing the workload of that least-popular position. Similarly, Adventurer's League gave people a place to play without having to have a preexisting group, which is going to mean that you have a new potential customer base.

You compared this new release model to Paizo. Guess what? Pathfinder outsold 4E. Given that everyone and their dog knows that Pathfinder is a broken mess, I wouldn't even be slightly surprised to learn that the business model was just more profitable.

>>45029893
I'd say from my experience that they are not fun and they take way more effort than necessary to be something amusing. If you want an "open field" feel then let them hack and slash effortlessly through low-level scrubs and have only fights where they're against important and flavored opponents actually take place. Build up a few encounter maps where they can meet these people and that should do it. Narrate the time between and let them help out without rolling dice if they're at the least somewhat capable at the the "background" task. An entire battlefield is a mess to make but small encounters on it can be far more memorable and fun.

>>45029774
But writing a usable adventure is hard. Shitting out an untested feat or subclass so your character can be like they guy in that video game is easy and lucrative.

>>45027769
Have you considered not being a passive aggressive bitch and just talk to the guy out game about his behaviour?

>>45029977
>Pathfinder outsold 4E
Dank meme, bra. Especially given that while 4E was supported, it outsold Pathfinder every quarter.

>>45030017
I wanted to construct it so that traveling across the map wouldn't be a stressful string of encounters and make it clear that the footmen can handle a good deal of the work, while giving them smaller, more detailed tasks that would make them feel as if they're swaying the overall battle. Also a reason I considered the wizard's tower in the middle of the battlefield, to allow them that classic dungeon crawler feeling if that's what they choose to do while not railroading of them into it.

>>45030131
>while 4E was supported
PF was supported longer, and it is still being supported.

You're both thick. Shut up.

>>45024739
Best games I've played have been 3-5. I usually run 6+ because DMs are in short supply where I am. None of these parties last long because the bigger the party, the more convoluted the scheduling.

>>45029977
I never moved a fucking goalpost, you fuckwit. From the very first post, my complaint was specifically that all WizKids were going to give us were shitty APs rather than books of content, with my post being critical of the half-baked options that made up a sliver of SCAG which was dominated by copy-pasted content about the Realms.

>5E is basically just Paizo back in the days that all they made were APs

>>45029657
I don't know if you're baiting or just misinformed, but I'll bite. Onyx Path is one dude who leases out the WoD IP to his friends and Kickstarter suckers so they can trawl through and touch up material from a decade's worth of game. The actual games that require new rules and shit (Awakening 2e and Exalted 3e) have been in development hell for years.

The fact that WotC releases anything new at all is an improvement. That says sad things about the industry, but whatcha gonna do?

>>45024739

I'd say 3 + x. You need three good players in any given group. Including at least one, ideally two, willing and driven to push the group towards goals. NOTHING is more shitty than a bunch of characters that just aimlessly shuffle around because their players are completely passive.

If you have a party of three, and they're all excellent, this is ideal. Very tight play. Each character has a good deal of responsibility and gets a lot of play time, with one another and the world.

If you have a group of four, you can carry one poor player. That Guy who is your friend but only really cares about fights. Or is introverted to the point where he barely plays, but enjoys hanging out. Or whatever. Four is a safe group.

I'm not fond of five, but you can carry a couple poor players this way. With too many good players you wind up suppressing them by not offering enough time to each.

>>45024784
>>45024773
Does this "cool" quality make you actually competent or is just a buzzword for looks good but it's useless?

>>45030034
Yeah, and that's what the DMsG is doing right now. >>45029444 shows a total gross of roughly $50 over about two weeks. He gets half of that, so Wizards and OneBookShelf get $25. Let's say that they split it evenly, and Wizards gets $12.50. That's about half the price of the SCAG on Amazon, and that SCAG price includes printing costs and the vendor's cut. In half a month.

In other words, in significantly less time than it takes to produce something like the SCAG, with significantly less overhead, they've made a profit equal to half the book's market cost. Now, that would only be one copy of the SCAG...but he's also only one content producer. There's shitloads of stuff on the DMsG.

In fantasy number land, let's assume that every playgroup that bought a copy of the SCAG has at least one member who posts material to the DMsG. In theory, if they maintain levels of content production, WotC would have to put out a SCAG every month to match what people would be spending on the DMsG...and, again, we're talking about the market price of the SCAG and taking out the royalties and publisher's cut from DMsG materials.

And, on top of that, the way that the DMsG gives you your cut incentivizes spending that money on other DMsG products that you might not otherwise have purchased.

So, again, this is all magical Christmasland napkin math, but it's quite possible that the DMsG will end up being more profitable to them than normal book releases. You already have some content producers fixing and updating material in response to customer feedback--again, without WotC lifting a finger.

Give the easy shit to the player base, and they'll happily become a content mill that makes you money, while you keep focusing on releasing the official adventures that keep the setting's canon story running.

>>45030403
Pretty much. Just fucking hamsters on a wheel.

When my group started we had 8 players, which was a fucking nightmare. Over half of them were pretty shit at first, mostly because every fucking dude in there insisted his girlfriend play, even if she didn't want to. One gel constantly fell asleep at the table, like, no shit, head down, passed out and goodbye. Hated this stupid bitch. The moment she mentioned something about not showing up I encouraged the hell out of her absence. I sort of feel bad, but she was dead weight to the game. Since then the rest of my players have gotten pretty fun and I've learned to balance things around 6-7 players, and I've almost taken to being excited when players miss out on a session. I of course have my favorite 3 or so players though, and when they're going to miss I generally just cancel the game. Probably makes the other players feel like shit, but I'm not going to run a campaign with 3 apathetic women and one guy who actually wants to play.

>>45030225
It was stated in >>45029657 that the "only" content from the past two years was the EEPC and the SCAG. When it was pointed out that this ignores two adventures and a shitload of modules, the goalposts moved--those didn't COUNT as content, for some reason.

I suppose it might be a case of no true Scotsman, rather than moving the goalposts, but they're similar enough.

Either way? Dismissing an argument because of a logical fallacy is itself a logical fallacy, so it doesn't really matter.

>>45030383
not the guy you're responding to, but i made the last post in the last thread and i said (in response to presumably you or whoever asked why use 2 weapons)

>want to spread damage around, can get +1 AC, have two weapons that have some rider on each attack, want to smite three times in a round as a paladin instead of two, just because you want to, etc.

Poke holes in my upcoming scenario? Players (level 6) are about to come into a new Kingdom, and I want to see where this idea falls apart.

>Kingdom has been facing more criminal activity / banditry over the past few months
>The Party has been tipped that Evil Faction X is about to move into said Kingdom
>Players arrive, do some good deeds
>Crime still increases, large threat looms over city
>Kingdom hires another group to help out in the city, and take on some threat too big for The Party to handle
>Turns out, they hire Evil Faction X
>Evil Faction X is led by young dragon who disguises himself as a Human, and is increasing his influence / hoard by setting himself up as the Hero in a number of cities (my main Villain).
>Kingdom loves Villain, and The Party.
>Kingdom slowly aligning themselves under Evil Faction X

File: 172044.png (196 KB, 900x1165) Image search: [Google]

196 KB, 900x1165

>>45030403
It's a shame because adventures are all I'm interested in buying and all i'm interested in writing. There doesn't seem to be a good search feature for finding just user-made adventures that doesn't also muddle them in a mountain of splats or retro books.

>>45030490
You're going to run into a problem in that the players are going to want this influence, and might compete with the villain to the dislike of the Kingdom. If that's what you're going for, then sure.
However if you keep it too much f a secret that the big bad is actually this hero, then nobody is going to figure it out until it's too late and you have to spell it out to them, making them do one of two things: try to uncover him publicly and away popular opinion, or, most likely, execute him. I don't know your players, but I know mine, and they'd turn the enemy, and anyone who stands in their way, into a pile of jerky.
Otherwise, could be a sweet twist, and not horribly different from what my scenario is in my game.

>>45030383

me >>45030489 again

the heart of the matter is why use 1d6 + mod 3 times when you could do 2d6 + mod twice.

pre level 5, two weapon fighting is pretty awesome. you can hit multiple targets, you can spread your damage around, its like doing 2d6 + mod but with two mods.

at level 5 though the math changes a bit. you're doing 3.5 average + 4 damage from your mod 3 times, say, so thats 22.5 damage on average if you hit. whereas if you just used a greatsword you would be doing about 8 damage + 4 for your mod twice, for 24 damage.

the difference is not too significant. mostly its when you hit three attacks as a fighter that two weapon fighting starts to fall behind, and also that great weapon can still use their bonus action if available. so you have to just pick what you want, a bonus action? Being able to spread around damage?

if you found two flametongue weapons, or cast hex, or hunters mark say, or wanted to use more maneuvers as a battlemaster in 1 turn two weapon fighting pulls ahead. for paladins its honestly a bit better. the only problem is you cant get +20 damage for -5 accuracy on two attacks, whereas with the feat great weapon master you can. but anyway the point is theres ways to leverage both.

but if you're a fighter with 3 attacks, two weapon fighting starts to lose ground... again unless you find specific ways to leverage it.

and its worth noting that great weapon master probably has more, better, easier ways to leverage its uses versus two weapon fighting.

i think the differences are overblown online, but they do exist. mathematically two weapon fighting cant be as strong as great weapon without some pretty awesome magic weapons, and at that point our great weapon fighter would likely have a strong weapon and some strong magic armor too. so idk.

i don't think you'll gimp yourself too hard if you go for it, especially because its unlikely you'll even reach level 11 if you start at level 1, or if you do it'll be after a long, long time.

>>45030464
I don't personally see a problem with it. Official content is basically just "homebrew, but by these six specific guys." Hell, the aarakocra basically says "this might not be appropriate for all games, but it really works with my group and the way we run our campaigns."

Tapping into the creative potential of a customer base that is basically defined by "likes to make things up" isn't exactly stupid. I've seen some amazing pieces of homebrew over the years, just as I've seen absolute drek. But the drek doesn't mean the good pieces don't exist, and a free market with feedback tools will let you have the players wade through the drek and identify the good pieces for you.

Yeah, the nature of the beast will skew things some--some content producers will have communities they can advertise to, while others won't. But that's why you then sift through the ideas and actually edit them before slapping the official logo on them.

>>45030575
Well, the tip they originally received had a Title and an initial (for example: "Sir X"). The Villain is going to be introduced with a similar name, something like "Lord Xavier" (to go along with the example).

Also, they've had run-ins with this faction before.

File: image.png (491 KB, 1113x782) Image search: [Google]

491 KB, 1113x782

>>45030517
>There doesn't seem to be a good search feature for finding just user-made adventures that doesn't also muddle them in a mountain of splats or retro books.
Have you tried "using the sidebar that is explicitly for that purpose"?

>>45030489
If you're going to spend a feat is better to spend it in polearm master

>>45030677
>the hottest adventure is a mislabeled splatbook

kill me now

>playing with tiles instead of theater of the mind

It's like you enjoy pain

>>45030903
>absolutely everything in the game mentions and is based on 5ft tiles
>theatre of the mind
Kek

Thinking of uploading an adventure path for DMsG based on a campaign I just finished running. It features Binders, Vestiges, a Prophecy, a War, a Hidden World, and a Mad man that thinks himself a Savior.

Anyways, I wanted to have a couple of races and classes/subclasses as expanded character options. So far I've got Warlock (Binder) and Ranger (Witch Hunter). But I want another martial class if possible. Was thinking of either Monk (Seer) as holy men that can glimpse the path of the prophecy to gain insight through minor divination abilities or Rogue (Technoarcanist) as a light skirmisher specializing in working magical weaponry and inventions.
But neither of these presents a concise strong theme that I find interesting to build around. What do you guys think?

>>45030903
That's what I'm trying to convince my group of . They've been slowly sliding that direction since we started.

>When I started, I used a dry erase board OCCASIONALLY
>One person gets a figure
>All players get figures
>One person gets a grid playmat
>People start buying figures of characters and monsters
>Start using props etc.

>>45030903
Wheat the hell pain could there possibly be? Do your fingers have arthritis?

>>45030939
I might check it out if it didn't have mall those randomly capitalized words.

I want to upload something to DMSGuild because it seems like easy shekels

But I have no ideas and haven't even played that much DnD relatively speaking and don't want to just contribute another floating turd to an endless sea of Ranger remakes and edgy BloodDragonVampireCountHunter classes

>>45030636
I think you're covered then

>>45031054
So write up some monsters. Help solve the scarcity of monsters with CRs between 5 and 15.

>>45031054
Start coming up with some ideas, then.

How do I deal with choices that split the party?
My party is too big and they often disagree on extremes, I usually let them settle it amongst themselves but I hate that some of them feel like their opinion doesn't matter.

Asked this in a previous thread, but I didn't get much.

Any suggestions for an oath and a domain I'm building for two of my players?

The oath is for a halfling who, over the course of the campaign, has come to embody the virtues of halflinghood. Specifically, they'll get a message from the halfling goddess of hospitality and friendship, Cyrollalee. They were a ranger, but for narrative and balance reasons, I'm letting them trade in all their ranger levels for paladin ones.

The other is a former cleric of Sylvan who fucking hates people. Like, completely ignored the good in their alignment. They're getting an alignment change and a message from an evil god of nature and lycanthropes. They'll now have an evil good giving them powers. I was hoping for something slightly meaner than the existing nature domain.

>>45030490
>The Party has been tipped that Evil Faction X is about to move into said Kingdom

If your party is anything like mine, they've already forgotten the names of every faction involved, and probably forgotten the reason they came to the city in the first place as well.

>>45031090
If I was smart, I'd make an array of correlated monsters uploaded separately spanning that entire CR range.

>>45031119
The first one would work as an Oath of the Crown paladin - the "crown" in this case being the peace and quiet of a properly-run halfling community. It's the oath most focused on protection and support. The other should just have the Death domain.

Seriously, not everything needs its own splat.

>>45031128
They used to be like that. But we have a new player that's been there for two sessions, and she takes notes on EVERYTHING, so she ends up reminding them of stuff and keeping them on task.

>>45030880
Yeah, one cock up, but most of the results are adventures.

>>45031173
But it's funnier that way.

Question for the martial types out there: is there any reason to take a greatsword over a maul? They both do 2d6 with the heavy and two handed properties. The maul's a bit heavier and the greatsword's a bit more expensive, but otherwise they seem pretty comparable. I only ask because people always seem to mention greatswords when the subject comes up, but I never hear people mention mauls.

>>45031322
No, not really.

And for low-level games, skeletons are vulnerable to bludgeoning, so they're usually better mechanically.

It really comes down to character concept and flavor.

>>45025762

I just wish all spells had a few extra spells based on their bloodline. Especially because Favored Soul does, in the article where they tell people not to give Sorcs bonus spells. Storm Sorcs did too in the playetest, but then they removed it...kind of a bummer, because Call Lightning isn't available to them any other way. Call Lightning is oozes with flavor for them too.

>>45031322
Bludgeoning vs. Slashing, it's your call. I personally always take the Maul, always seems to work better for my characters.

>Battlemaster Dwarf
>Cleric Human
>Paladin Tiefling

should i buff rogues, rangers and fighters?

>>45031335
>>45031349

Thanks for clearing that up! I'm looking at making a Cleric with the Tempest domain, so I thought a maul would be a good thematic weapon.

Refluffing / making a new spell for my ice based Wizard.

Blast of Ice
Everything the same as Lightning Bolt except:
>6d6 damage
>Failed save, freezes enemies for 1d4 rounds. Enemies can make a strength check vs. your DC to break free

Thoughts? Also, has anyone made any custom spells?

>>45031420
5e has moved away from die-based lengths of time.

Make "freezed" mean restrained, last 1 minute, and require concentration to sustain the restrained condition.

>>45027683

>only taking fire spells

it's because fire spells are most of the good ones

>>45031420
You really need to define exactly how frozen they are. Are they restrained? Paralyzed? Or does their speed just become 0?

Even if it just roots them to the floor but otherwise leaves them free to act, that's pretty brutal for a spell with the potential to affect many creatures and no need for concentration. At the very least they'll all have to waste an action on the Escape action to break free. If you really want a spell that freezes people solid, try refluffing Hold Person instead.

Is there a "best" dragonborn color/breath attack to take, or does it boil down to personal preference? I'm building a fire dragon sorc, if that makes any difference.

>>45031496
Your breath weapon's damage and save DC will always suck. Fire is likely to come up most often, as far as resistances go, but that's hugely dependent on the type of campaign you're in.

>>45031496
Fire is fine, especially if you're being a dragon sorcerer and choosing fire as the damage type to enhance on your spells, since there are more fire spells than any other damage type. For non-sorcerers, the only real difference is which creatures are immune or resistant to the damage type, and even then it won't come up that much. By far the most common immunity/resistance is poison, so do not take poison breath under any circumstances.

>>45025544
No one cares and that game sounds terrible.

>>45025683
Sorcerer lets you spend 2 Sorcery points to cast Eldritch Blast as a bonus action for double the DPS. Lock 3 / Sorcerer X gets to do two quickens and a Hex each short rest plus their actual Sorcerer spell allowance.

>>45024739

Hey friendholes, what information do you find useful in a setting sourcebook? I'm putting something together for the DM Guild and am trying to gauge the sweetspot between "plenty of useful information" and "holy fuck I don't wanna read your shitty novel, asshole".

How would you make a functional Strength-based Bladesinger?

>>45031830

With difficulty.

>>45031820
If it's not for Forgotten Realms and is your own setting, don't put it on DMs Guild.

>>45031830
By rolling stats and lots of good luck

>>45031443
>>45031474
Hmmm, to keep it inline with power level for this level spell, would

>On a failed save, target is paralyzed (or restrained?) until the end of the caster's next turn?

Also, I do have Hold Person, I just fluffed it as "encases enemy in frost" a la Sub-Zero.

I guess I just need to decide how much damage to reduce by, and what a suitable secondary effect "Ice" based spells would have to alter other elemental spells of the same level.

For DMsG, how much would you need to alter an older (3.5), free WOTC adventure to be able to sell it?

Thinking of updating / re-writing the Calzone Golem adventure....

>>45031934
Significantly. If you use any of the same names, you're liable to run into copyright infringement. Different maps, different adventure layout, the works.

>>45031934
>>45031955
That's an interesting question, would Wizards be okay with people selling conversion guides? Like, not repacking the whole adventure, but just a 3 or 4 page thing that has updated stats for all the encounters?

>>45031976
The only way to find out would be to contact them and ask, but I'd wager probably not.

Is there a good Beholder model out there? Reaper's looks like hot garbage and the official minis are like a million dollars and also not great looking.

>>45031993

In my 16 years of D&D I've not once encountered or used a Beholder tbqh familia?

>>45026816
Well no that won't do.

Maybe call out moves with ridiculous names aimed at really vulnerable areas of the enemy body...

COCK SMASHING FIST

BALL CRUSHING KICK

ASS DESTROYING SPEAR-HAND

File: 1403641089847.jpg (450 KB, 900x648) Image search: [Google]

450 KB, 900x648

Is there a way for characters to change their appearance permanently outside of wish spells? My players got themself wanted with their faces known in a major city and they need new identities. So my idea is to have them go and find a ghetto doctor for magically aided plastic surgery. Could even be some Franken Fran style doctor deep in the underdark. But I'm curious if there are spells that do the same thing permanently.

>>45032040
Disguise Self is a 1st-level spell. There's also Alter Self, which actually changes their body instead of just masking it with an illusion

>>45032016
They're iconic for a reason. I'd like to eventually work up to an encounter with one.

>>45032016
>not relishing the idea of using old tropes
Fuck

>>45024739
4 PC's has had the best balance for story and combat in my experience.

Of course it all depends on the players.

>>45024739
any character creators that aren't browser based yet? shit rarely works for me due to the fact that i don't have access to "normal" computers

>>45032022
What, like that Pete Holmes interview with Ryu?

MY HURRICANE OF FLESH WILL POUND YOUR ASSS!

>>45032064
>permanently

>>45032151
True Polymorph, then.

>>45032107
There's an excel sheet generator that I've used. I think it's hosted on EN World. It's pretty good, though it prints out kind of small.

>>45032040
>Scarring, disfiguring, limb-removal, burns, enough necrotic damage to the face and go X amount of time without healing.
>Changing clothes and wearing a mask.
>True Polymorph
>Reincarnate

>>45032131
Maybe i need to work on the move names.
Basically the old bullshit-name kung-fu techniques.

Crawling snake destroys your anus!
Severing the family jewels!
Old dog eats shit!

And so on...

Someone give more suggestions.

Are there any Cleric domains that are particularly good or bad? I'm making a viking style cleric who'll take either War, Tempest or Nature. I think Shillelagh might make Nature better at fighting than War? I'm a Minotaur so I'll always have some use for spare bonus actions in combat.

What are the legendary adventures that a party must go through? Things like Tomb of Horrors, Ravenloft, Isle of Dread. I'm looking to sort of hit the classics with this new group I'm running with, as part an introduction to DnD and as an introduction to Lore and monsters. Plus I'm just really interested in having a reason to read through old modules.

>>45032203
Tempest a great, war a good, nature an okay.

Just take magic initiate to pick up some druid shit.

>>45031322
Greatsword is more smooth, maul is swingier. But it's barely different. Average with great weapon fighting style is 8.33333333 for the sword and 7.3333333 for the maul. Does one damage matter???? It's up to you.

>>45032256
If they're both 2d6, have the same properties (heavy, two-handed), and only differ in TYPE of damage, how do they have different averages?

>>45032256
Greatswords and mauls have the same damage dice, dummy.

>>45031461
Unless 10 enemies are standing in a line, then... Lighting bolt.

Cone of cold and chain lightning are cool too though. But yeah.

>>45032164
>>45032183
They made enough ruckus to turn the friendly city of waterdeep to force laws that forbid using illusions and masking yourself in public. So I guess they are down to level 9 magic, heavily injuring their faces, killing and reincarnatong or finding a ghetto doctor.
I wonder what they will choose to do, especially since they all are also a bit broke.

>>45032233
>Magic Initiate
We'll probably not be starting above level 3 and I think I'll want Shield Master as well so not having to spend an IAS on Shillelagh early seems worth taking Nature for. I guess I could also dip a level into Druid, even?

>>45032327
A level dip into druid is an option, or variant human. Honestly, at low level nature's pretty much fine. War shines at low level though, I'd probably put War about Tempest.

>>45024778
Bring it up with the DM, but say "I just noticed..." or something along those lines.
If the DM seems fine with it, just let the monk keep his extra movement speed.
Just ake sure you don't come off agressive on the matter, or you will appear as the no-fun-allowed rules-lawyer type of guy.

>>45032315
>City makes stupid laws
>Leave_City.jpg

>>45031830
Well bird style or whatever is all about picks and hammers, so with a pick or a maul. But like other anons said... Roll high.

I think if you were to here's what you do.

Max strength and int, con third, then dex. You gotta dump wis and charisma.

Your whole playstyle is being a caster first, and occasionally wading into melee and casting hold person or whatever and using that to leverage smacking someone really hard with great weapon master. If you really want to use a pick... Convince your DM to make a heavy war pick. Otherwise, when not blade singing, hang back and just be a normal squishy wizard with manly muscles and cry because your AC is 10. But having +int AC and maybe Mage armor and shield means you can still be beefy sometimes.

Even a dex based blade singer can't just run into combat and hit people all the time. You still have a shit hit dice.

>>45024778
>"yo dude, isn't your speed meant to be 35?"
just find an excuse to read the tables, act confused, not upset.

autist.

>>45032366
>variant human
Character concept and setting means I'm 99% locked into Minotaur for race, but thanks for the suggestion.

>>45032281
>>45032278
Oh lol I was thinking maul was 1d12 like a great axe.

My bad

>>45032413
One of them plays a gnome with anger issues and swore to burn the whole city down. I'm sure they will go back to waterdeep eventually.

>>45032415
This.

It's literally just as easy as:
>"Whoa, how do you move so fast?"
>"Geez, you get HOW many attacks?"
>"What spell is that? That's a crap ton of damage"
>"And that works on ALL saves?"

Gets more than one set of eyes on a particular ability or stat or spell, and then clears up confusion when someone checks it. Even if you check it.

>>45032470
>>45032415
>>45032398
I'm just already that guy I can't handle more of it. I'll try and convince my friend to enact this plan who is in the group and take the hit for me.

>>45032415
>>45032470
Agreed. When it comes up next you just go, wait, why is it so fast?

D&D can be a complicated game at times. It probably isn't malicious, its just making sure things are in line.

>>45032517
>>45032545
Don't do it in a dick way, act surprised / impressed. If you give the impression of "I want to do that too!", you'll infringe on their cheating/snowflakeness and they'll shut it down......while the truth comes out.

>>45032450
>>45032203
Follow up:

Tempest Clerics can spend their reaction when hit by an attack to deal lightning damage, and whenever they deal lightning damage they can push the target back. I assume the hit still goes through as it occurs after the attack hits?

>>45032610
Reactions go after the event that triggers them unless stated otherwise, you still take the hit.

>>45032545
>>45032590
Ok I texted my friend he said he would try and bring it up tomorrow at our next session.

>>45025544
Mine is going pretty good. Our GM is great but absolutely unforgiving vis a vis player death and pulling punches. The party seems to be divided into two factions, the rogue and bard making up the gritty pragmatists and the barbarian and paladin taking the naive hero role. I'm really afraid things are going to devolve to blows soon.

>>45031669
People telling stories about their games used to be the lifeblood of D&D threads.

But surely meming is better.

File: 1448780941308.jpg (127 KB, 800x534) Image search: [Google]

127 KB, 800x534

>Barbarian sets himself alight with an Alchemist's Fire in order to rage indefinitely

Fucking Genasi

>>45032702
But that's amazing.

10/10, would play with raging eternal burning man.

For the Cleric anon:
If you're set on Minotaur then don't go Nature Cleric. Nature Cleric is great to use if you dump all of your stats into wisdom and use shillelagh as your primary weapon. But since I assume you'll be going for strength, War, Tempest, and Life are good.
Think what would synergize with the party

>>45032702
It still ends after 1 minute regardless.

>>45032751
Thanks.

>Think what would synergize with the party
Party hasn't been made yet; I'm taking the basic character personality (viking raider type Minotaur) and then applying it to a couple different classes so that I can meet what needs done the best - if we don't have any divine magic I'll go some sort of Cleric (leaning most heavily towards Tempest, desu) and if we're instead lacking in frontliners I'll play a Fighter, that sort of thing.

Is it just me or was setting a low magic system in fucking Forgotten Realms a really shit idea?

Also why does WotC only have 6 people working on D&D?

What is going on?

>>45032853
>low magic system
lol wut? This is a system where at-will spells are equally as effective as hitting a guy with a sword and you can bring people back from the dead at all but the first four levels. It fits FR just fine.

>ctr-f
>no mention of Strahd
>in the D&D 5E General
>wtf people

Is anyone here actually excited that RAVEN MOTHERFUCKING LOFT is coming back?!?

>>45032853
>5e
>"low magic"
Considering every class save for barbarian has a caster subclass (and totem barbarians actually use magic utility rituals) and high-level spellcasters are still reality-benders, I'm not sure that "low magic" really applies. The only "low-magic" thing about 5e is that magic items aren't integral parts of numbers progression, which doesn't stop characters from getting a shit-ton of magic items anyway.

>>45032788
In that case, considering you'd play a fighter if you needed a martial, Tempest is a good choice.
Ask your DM if you can have a warhammer that you can imbue with electrical energy to make it extra Norse

>>45032909
I know everyone is going to play a Simon Belmont clone but I don't care I'm super excited.

>>45032909
>Had a dedicated general for it when information was released
>Discussed it
>No new information released since
>WHY AREN'T WE STILL CIRCLEJERKING YET

>>45031820
Useful:
>Useful: Kingdom Names, rulers, government type
>Fucking Boring: 1000 year history of each kingdom plus details about tax collection schedules
>Useful: where these cool magics come from
>Not Useful: what styles of weaving come from
>Useful: why the fuck would adventurers come to this kingdom
>Not Useful: 10 pages of backstory on this one dungeon that players will never, ever see
>Useful: List, membership and motivations of these evil and good cabals
>Fukkin Boring: detailed histories of each member of each cabal, lists and memberships of each church of each god

>>45032945
>Ask your DM if you can have a warhammer that you can imbue with electrical energy to make it extra Norse
That definitely sounds like something he'd be down for.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4Ao-iNPPUc

>>45032922

Play 5e with 8 hour short rests and week long rests and suddenly it's very low magic tbqh

>>45032995
Just in case you hadn't already looked, the Tempest cleric is really lacking in electric spells. Ask the DM if you could get something like Shocking Grasp and use it while holding a metal weapon. Or change the attribute of a spell from holy/fire to lightning

>>45032040
>My players got themself wanted with their faces known in a major city
>but that's too much work so they want to completely undo everything that happened because magic

This kills the tension

>>45033097
Any DM that wouldn't allow a player to swap out one type of damage from a spell to another for strictly thematic reasons is a shit DM.

>>45033151
Even if it's like, force? Different elements have different overall value.

>>45033151
>strictly thematic reasons
If it's going to trigger the knockback it isn't for strictly thematic reasons, obviously, although I do agree that any reasonable DM would probably be okay swapping the damage type on some spells.

>>45033188
Force might be the only one I'd say no to. Different elements have different values sure, and there is no way I'd allow them to change at will to bypass resistances.

As I said strictly thematic. Or even to make a type of Dragon Sorcerer not shit. Isn't there like 7 poison/acid spells compared to 50 fire ones?

File: d21.jpg (22 KB, 300x269) Image search: [Google]

22 KB, 300x269

>>45033151
>run OotA
>tempest cleric player asks if he can swap out Sacred Flame's radiant damage for lightning damage
>let him
>a lot of demons are resistant to lightning damage but not radiant damage

>>45033151
But there's more than just damage / type.

Take >>45031420
for example

>Cast Lightning Bolt
>Player says I want it to be ICE BOLT instead
>DM OK
>Does equal damage
>Ignites everything flammable in its path
lolwut

Hey, how does the "bad reputation" feature for the pirate (sailor variant) background work?

If my character has it, would the other PCs have heard of him before? What degree of infamy does it convey? Trying to figure out how it's simultaneously "almost everyone is so scared of you they won't call the guards if you skip paying for a drink" and not "everyone eyes you warily and people close their shops until you pass."

All the other benefits are purely benefits. This doesn't entirely make sense to me.

>>45033251
It takes 2 seconds to think of a logical and reasonably balanced fix for that. Of course those things would be considered. I just thought I wouldn't need to say that because the assumption is that we aren't retarded here. Guess not.

>>45033151
Spells are made with elements/resistances in mind. Some have better/worse saves or extra effects depending on what it deals. 5e was not designed with element swapping in mind, or else things like both thunderwave and sword burst would not exist. Though I really wish it was designed with some degree of spell customization in mind. Tired of all these unnecessarily specific spells

>>45033329
Background benefits were a dumb idea.

>>45033399
Background features were a great idea, they were just poorly-implemented social features or too specific so they get forgotten most of the time.

>>45033399
No, they weren't. They provide a little bit of flavor and a mild but worthwhile benefit. This one was just kind of poorly implemented.

>>45032702
When I played a barbarian I punched my own wounds to keep raging.
Crit'd myself too.

>>45033329
Some common sense is called for, as these kinds of things are judgment calls that would not be handled well by rules. If it's a seedy place that regularly hosts known criminals, they won't close when you walk by. PCs can know you if they want to, if it makes sense that they'd know the area's criminal underworld, or if the DM lets them roll for it. Anyway, people pick it for the fun and flavor, which is as backgrounds should be. Not everything is for theorycrafting munchkins.

>>45033721
I actually just thought it would be cool to have the party be like, "wait, isn't this that infamous pirate? What the fuck does he want with us?" because part of my character's concept is that he's a former bloodthirsty monster who went through some shit and now wants to try to do good to make amends for his past misdeeds.

File: 585r4g848sco.png (404 KB, 429x600) Image search: [Google]

404 KB, 429x600

Need an opinion. Do you guys think this character is obscure enough that the guys at my table won't know who it is if I use it as character art?

>>45033895
Is your group okay with weeaboo bullshit? If so, you're fine.

File: Ubertino.jpg (36 KB, 512x768) Image search: [Google]

36 KB, 512x768

>>45034012

Well, they all seem to be familiar with shit like Dragonball or Naruto. Being from /a/, I had to contain my cringe, but I don't think they explicitly dislike anime-themed stuff.

This is the character I'm currently running with them.

>>45033895
If by obscure, you mean queer as a 3-dollar bill?

Like, a jester - fine - but a gay anime jester? Are you 15? Are you edgy?

>>45034066

Was going for androgynous clown. I mean, I could grab a pic of Hisoka or Kefka, but I don't want to be accused of using mainstream art. It was only today I thought to search Pixiv for clown art, after months of searching other places, and I find a veritable treasure trove of potential art. I'd never heard of Lemy Abelard before, but I'm hoping he's obscure enough so that I won't be called out.

Have you ever role played as an otoko no ko, /5eg/?

>>45033766
I wanted to make a devotion paladin like this

>>45034447
My character is a monk. He had a really cynical, hateful outlook and thought there was no point to anything, might as well just kill anybody who looked at you funny. Then he was shipwrecked and taken in by a group of monks. They cared for him and when he was better, he decided to stay a while. Ended up staying for five years, and his whole worldview changed, so now he wants to do some good and help other people like he was helped.

File: 8820088c64f0a746d40a6dbd42230908.png (580 KB, 646x1328) Image search: [Google]

580 KB, 646x1328

>>45034122

Perhaps some day...

>>45034122
>wasting dubs on weebspeak

You mean "have you ever played a trap?" Fuck yes, and it was super gay.

I had fun, though.

File: Psion v0.2.pdf (1 B, 486x500) Image search: [Google]

1 B, 486x500

I've wanted to play a psychic warrior type of character for a while, and a DM for an upcoming game gave me the green light to homebrew up a full class for it.
I've been dicking around with continuing the Unearthed Arcana mystic beyond the first 5 levels. I re-tuned a few things, reworded others, and renamed it from mystic to psion (because reasons).
I haven't playtested any of this, and it's a pretty rough draft, but I'd appreciate any feedback, proofreading, "it's broken because you can do ___", tips, suggestions, etc.

>>45034835
Taking a look now, expect feedback in an hour or so.

>>45034850
Thanks anon.

I've sort of designed it around being a bit of a parallel to the wizard, with the base class being more of a "shell" for the subclass and discipline choices filling it out and providing character definition.
The biggest struggle I have is trying to build things within the discipline system WotC put out in the playtest.
I see them like "mental stances" with passive benefits, with each stance unlocking a set list of "mental manuevers", where normal casters lack a "mental stance" and just know a large handful of "mental manuevers" they can use whenever. If that makes sense.
I need to work on adding more disciplines for each subclass. Currently there are only 9 available to each order, so the choice in disciplines is less "which ones do I get?" and more "when do I get each one?".

How do you guys handle ability checks? I want to get away from binary pass/fail.

In my head I'll set different DCs for different tiers of knowledge-based checks (knowing bears live in forests and caves is very easy, knowing the origin of gnolls might be hard).

But what about other checks? Say someone is climbing a wall or kicking down a door. Would it be fair to add "not only do you succeed, you also..." and "you fail badly, so badly that..." type situations? Maybe on a natural 20 or a natural 1?

The "pointless rolling" thread is making me a bit worried about this, but I like the general idea behind games like FFG's Star Wars.

>>45035250
I think you have the right idea with partial successes and partial failures.

I would also suggest reading http://angrydm.com/2013/04/adjudicate-actions-like-a-boss/ if you've not.

File: PFtiefling.png (561 KB, 500x701) Image search: [Google]

561 KB, 500x701

This DM's guild thing:

Is there anything good on it?
Is there anything worth paying money for on it?
Is there anything you'd like to see on it?

File: image.jpg (122 KB, 736x1091) Image search: [Google]

122 KB, 736x1091

>>45035363
No to all questions tbqh

>>45034835
interested in this. I have a player with a Psychic Warrior in my 3.5e game that I might move to 5e