>Official /5eg/ Mega trove, contains all official 5e stuff:
https://mega.nz#F!UVkTnT5b!FJ34UZ98BMY2mEtexenS7g
>Pastebin with homebrew list, SRD, resources and so on:
http://pastebin.com/X1TFNxck
>Community-generated Character Sheet, courtesy of charsheetanon
http://www.mediafire.com/download/5m5afrklabpz5aj/tgCharacterSheet.zip
>If charsheetanon fucked up, tell him to suck cocks here
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1vGvNuuVuJedatZfbIioz47FWGQBHkHbVKILuN_gyCRc
Previous Thread: >>46059628
Forgotten Realms Edition. Tell us about your Realms games /5eg/, have you set any campaigns there? Did you make any changes to the setting?
>>46068643
>Forgotten Realms edition
Abandon thread.
>>46068653
Why you gotta be a hater anon?
>>46068664
Didn't you know? If something is popular it's automatically the worst thing ever and thus warrants hating.
>>46068664
Retarded memeposting. Faggot has probably never played an FR game in his life, but /tg/ told him to hate it, so he does.
What album does your group sound like, /5eg/? Pic related, we just wanna have a good time on the high seas.
So we've had Ravenloft, what ever happened to that "Shakespearian Giants" thing that was going around? Is that the next adventure season?
>>46068709
I hope its MacBeth based and not Romeo and Juliet
How would I build a character built solely around using boomerangs, using the one magical boomerang from Elemental Evil as a base, with out DM saying that they can count as light weapons.
I re-organized the reference sheet, and made everything more consistent and pleasing to look at. zip is updated.
>>46068643
>Tell us about your Realms games /5eg/, have you set any campaigns there?
Our current one is there, though soon the party shall be vacationing in Barovia. So to speak.
>Did you make any changes to the setting?
Relatively little, except that instead of technology "stalling" around 3e's era, and thus guns and arquebusiers can be found in well-equipped professional or mecenary armies as 2e's products mentioned would be common "in about ten years or so".
It actually just adds a bit of fluff to the game and nobody in the party uses guns (they aren't practical adventuring weapons for the most part), but to the group when they see them it signifies a military force that's well-funded and decently trained. There's a recurring leader of a mercenary unit of dwarven fusiliers who is their sometimes-ally for example, and though he tends to travel in different sorts of professional circles then they do he'll hire them for problems a well-drilled regiment of dwarven gunners isn't really equipped to efficiently handle.
I'm going to be DMing Curse of Strahd in a few weeks after I set things up. My group is relatively new to D&D, and I've got a bit more experience than them. How much background information can I give them on Ravenloft and Strahd? Obviously I shouldn't tell them what his plans are, but what /should/ I tell them? I feel like there's so much they're meant to discover or pick up on in regards to his background and character, but I don't want to just throw them to the wolves and have them get mad because they didn't ask the right questions in town. I was thinking about telling them his backstory up to Barovia being sealed in the demiplane and leaving the rest up to them, does that sound reasonable?
>>46068755
>just printed out the first reference sheet not more than 2 hours ago
goddamn it, i should have known.
All the changes I suggested, cool. Somehow not what I imagined, but still very nice.
>>46068643
I currently run a game in the Realms.
1e Realms with a few 2e sources mixed in, that currently takes place on the Sword Coast, with a grand trip taking the chars all the way to Waterdeep.
Given that it's literally hundreds upon hundreds of miles long, it's going to take a while with adventures and crazy shit along the way.
>Changes
Plenty, some in where different towns are, adding in new towns, changing important mages or outright removing some of the crazier instances (we didn't need a mage who's literally controlled by mushrooms growing in his brain), and other things that you'd probably only notice if you were a hardcore FR junkie to know that stuff was there in the first place.
>>46068778
>How much background information can I give them on Ravenloft and Strahd? Obviously I shouldn't tell them what his plans are, but what /should/ I tell them?
Do it like how the examples of Barovian townsfolk and Vistini townsfolk have information; they know sort of the basic details, but most of the exact details of the information involving Strahd should be mixed with rumors and hearsay and superstition, with much of it contradictory.
>>46068664
Because it's a shit setting for tabletop games. It's fine for novels, comics, and vidya though.
>>46068794
sorry anon, it's the nature of the beast sadly. This is likely the last big update to the reference sheet though.
Also redownload the zip right now, because I fixed some alignment things since the post I just made.
>>46068778
I wouldn't worry too much about learning Strahd's backstory, there will be a plenty of opportunities to learn about him and get his attention.
this>>46068821 is pretty solid
run Death House
Question for those of you who actually know stuff about the human body and it's capabilities and all that. Are the weight and lift/push limits (15 and 30 times Str, respectively) in 5e relatively realistic, at least for an average, 10 Strength human? I'm curious as to using them for my d20-ish homebrew.
Alright, big Curse of Strahd spoiler here that I'd like to discuss.How fucking bananas is it that Mordenkainen is in this adventure, and that he lost to Strahd in a fight?
>>46068886
I would say I probably have average strength, coming from a job that routinely requires me to lift at least 50 lbs and carry it around (company standards don't allow us to carry more than 50 lbs per man).
I could probably carry around 150 lbs, assuming it's distributed properly and not just one big bag I'm carrying. I could probably push 300 lbs, but I'm not confident that I could lift it. Like, at all.
>>46068385
>>Despite what weeaboos might believe, samurai don't have magic.
My personal Samurai class is Fighter 17/Paladin 3
For paladin spells, take Heroism, Compelled Duel, and Command. Refluff as morale-effecting abilities.
There. Skilled (sorta) non-magical melee fighter sworn to an oath.
Where is the full CoS pdf?
>>46068896kinda neat imothe Darkpowers would never let one of their favorite toys die, not when they can still torment him
>>46068821
>>46068874
Alright, thanks. I tend to get hung up on the details a little too much so that's a weight off my mind. And yeah, I already have Death House set up to go since that was released early.
>>46068742
IT'S THE TEMPEST
>>46068618
I actually did MC into cleric without knowing about that for RP reasons, allowed by the GM despite my 10 wis. It made him ban MCing overall since he thinks the max damage once a day is bullshit but oh well, he isn't too experienced (neither am I for sure).
>>46068960
>banned MCing cause lightning buff once/day
lel
>>46068990
Almost as retarded as banning monks for being OP.
>>46068762
could you expand on this? new to the hobby, very interested in the history of the game, especially the handoff from tsr to wotc
>>46068990
He has a very different mindset to what I'd expect about this kind of stuff. If I'm new to a game, like fighting games especially since I've played Smash with him and stuff, he just announces stuff as OP and stupid even if he knows so little about the game, while I realize that just going with it I'll probably figure out that it's not the case at all later. I got 2nd level spells after my fighters got their extra attacks, did not feel very powerful in general and haven't had a single ASI yet.
>>46069040
A poor attitude to have, just in general. Ah well. I wish you luck and whatnot.
>>46069059
Thanks, we're fighting demons right now with res to lightning and fire so Elemental Adept would be nice but getting that sweet +5 charisma comes first for sure.
>>46069020
Not him, but in the earliest incarnations of the Realms, it was intended as a setting that would grow with time, and didn't have a lot of the medieval stuff TSR wanted to push.
Things got retconned over the years, but Greenwood's writing still made references to changes and things in the Realms, such as the fact that Volo's Guide to the Sword Coast has a reference to Steam Engines just recently being built, one of the waterdeep books talks about the printing press and how nobles are getting scared because peasants are learning to read, and the 2e FR guide refers to guns having recently been seen in use by mercenaries and pirates who sailed near Lantan. That same book said in 10 years or so (which is the time skip between 2e and 3e) guns would be used by the better militaries and mercenary companies.
3e, in WotC's attempt to simplify the setting, also threw out most references to guns, saying they still exist, and smokepowder is a thing, but it's now a magic item, and it's uncommon and unreliable and no one really uses it.
>>46068906
Yeah, the lift does seem pretty out therem. I was thinking more towards the pull/drag when I was considering that the 30x Str might be roughly realistic.
>>46068931>the Darkpowers would never let one of their favorite toys die,
They're fine with Strahd dying, they bring him back to unlife a few months later
>>46068960
He does know you only get that, what, once per rest? It's very powerful, but hardly game-breaking.
>>46068896
He went in solo I think it's implied, and Strahd took his spell book and staff away.
Probably never even fought him, just stole his stuff or had a minion do it.
What exactly is the System Reference Document? Is it just an abridged version of the PHB with no art?
>>46069369
its shit. wotc put it out because it was expected and they want to give off this image of getting back to the old days. its missing 9/10ths of the content of the PHB.
>>46068643
Do we really need the homebrew archive in the OP, now that the DMsG is a thing?
>>46069316
Yeah as once per long rest it means I do 32 damage with a 3rd level spell slot once and then use the other for 18 damage. If I was just pure sorc I would have been able to use Lightning Bolt / Fireball with each of them which is 28 damage each. AKA I do 50 damage over two rounds with slightly better burst instead of 56 damage over two rounds and less burst. I also have shield, martial weapons and armor profs but with 8 str I can't use heavy armor, shield is nice, medium armor is only good because I have bad dex which shouldn't be the case for optimized draconic sorcs (I have 14 so I get 1 ac from breastplate, 2 if I get half plate). Postponing sorc features and ASIs and so on means I'm pretty sure it's not worth it, though with 14+ wis it might be a fair bit better.
It was also because of the complexity and the poor wording in general which makes things hard to judge, for example another player wanted to play a druid/monk MC and thought natural weapons went under unarmed strikes because that makes sense logically. I'm kind of glad I didn't try out a sorlock because he would probably hate that.
>>46068643
I run an OotA campaign, I've found the best thing to do is to leave everything deliberately vague so I can decide if I should present it as it is or change it when the time comes for it. The only thing they know of the overworld is their homelands, which is the only topographical change on the map, but they can't point you to it because I never told them where it is.
When they get out of the Underdark, if it suits me I'll just say 'you're here now' and nobody will be the wiser.
>>46069424
It's actually once per long OR short rest, so you would get that more often ;)
>>46069494
Damn, I was confusing it with Wrath of the Storm. I'm afraid he might ban tempest cleric if I point it out but I'll try just acting like it was always the case.
Gonna be running a gothic horror fantasy setting on an ice continent (ie, Northrend or John Carpenter's the Thing) and I was thinking about cutting Orcs and Elves from the mix but I don't know what I'd replace them with.
>>46069569
Yeti people
Penguin men
Walrus dudes
>>46069612
Was thinkin walrus dudes to replace orcs. Penguin men sound pretty damn interesting as well.
>>46068839
>Pure Conjecture.
>Doesn't even provide a reason.
>Yiff in hell fag.
>>46069759
>>Yiff in hell fag.
what
>>46068747
Strayan Rogue (Swashbuckler).
>>46068755
>form fillable sheet doesn't automatically resize text to fit
>>46069400
>Open license
>Do whatever you want with it
>Shit because they didn't just do a dump of the PHB
Anon.
>>46069612
Dwarfs are walrus people in my DM's setting.
>>46069413
Yes we do. Because not all the homebrew is on the DMs Guild and lots of people don't want to pay for homebrew material. Unless you plan on making a trove, people can just visit the site themselves.
The problem with Druid Circle of the Land is that the Circle Spells are mostly Druid spells to begin with
>>46068515
Probably because Orcus played right can fucking slaughter any mid-high level party
So whats the best dragonslayer you could build in 5e?
With an eye towards all levels, not just the level 20 build that nobody will ever get to in practice, and preferably not a pure caster (though EKs and the like are okay).
I'm leaning towards a bear totem barbarian, for the standard GWM big hits with advantage to hit, advantage on dex throws for the breath weapon and resistance to all damage on top.
http://www.naturalcrit.com/homebrew/share/NyIgUsf6g
Rate.
>>46070927
Bear Totem 4/Paladin 10 maybe, you get the main benefits of the barbarian as well as the burst and aura of courage of the paladin. Plus holy fury makes for a solid character concept
>>46071020
>black text on black background/10
It's shit
>>46071028
> Doesn't use chrome.
Kill yourself.
>>46071020
>Four Arms
Hahaha what?
>>46071020
Remove the +INT mod to the damage of mind blast, it makes it do more damage than Dragonborn breath weapon and its of a rarer resist type (psychic).
>Four Arms. You have two sets of powerful arms. You can use one pair of these as a normal humanoid would, while your other pair can be used to attempt a grapple, shove, use an object or similar (no action required)
What action is used to grapple? Is it free like speaking? A bonus action? A better wording would be
>Four Arms. You have two sets of arms. You can attempt to shove, knock prone, grapple or use an object without having a hand free in your main set of arms.
>>46071075
Mind blast does no damage on a save
The wording is fine and clearly explained. Your reading comprehension is bad.
>>46071096
So a free action grapple, shove or use an object was your intent?
>>46068643
Sadly, all of my Realms table top experiences have been with DMs who enjoy using Elminster, Black staff, some ghost bitch and Drizzt to solve all of the issues and then give our party the "why you suck speech".
I imagine it could be good setting, but all my experiences thus far are that it is too full, too cluttered, and too minutely defined for any player actions to be meaningful.
I would love to play in a counter example.
>>46071096
>The wording is fine and clearly explained. Your reading comprehension is bad.
No, he's right. And it should be a bonus action with the extra arms to do something.
The text on the right side of the first page is also poorly placed and hard to read.
>>46068755
Get rid of the skills section.
That information only matters to the DM, you're wasting so much usable space.
>>46069040
>he just announces stuff as OP and stupid even if he knows so little about the game, while I realize that just going with it I'll probably figure out that it's not the case at all later.
I have a friend like this.
He also gets into a shitty mood immediately if he loses by too large a margin, and has a huge perception bias that his dice rolls are far below average.
What do you folks think of this Oathbreaker variant I came up with? What needs rebalancing?
https://www.dropbox.com/s/4wuczijvpz5qggg/Oathbreaker%20Variant.rtf?dl=0
>>46069018
>tfw I keep getting slapped with nerfs on my shadow monk
I am giving my GM one chance next session, or I'll live without a game. I can't stand GMs banning shit they percieve as "Gamebreaking" when it obviously isn't.
>>46071538
Maybe I should've waited until the next thread to post this
>>46071096
>> Rate
>> You're dicks for rating me and you are illiterate
Go fuck a cactus. Also, it's shit.
>>46071495
We're generally pretty good about joking when it comes to dice, of course stuff like rolling 5 failures in a row resulting in a first-session death is really annoying but there's no anger or anything which is nice. He's also a cool guy outside of that, and when his opinions are well-formed and he has experience with something he can have good insight and ideas, and his plot in general is great. Only thing I wish he'd appreciate more is the gamism side, with more strategic and challenging combat.
>Adventurer's League
>Keep getting paired with the new players to keep the old players together or something
>DM never gets the rules right (last night he nerfed the monk's bonus attack)
>Character is probably developing PTSD watching everyone else die horribly
This is kind of a shit show
>>46071538
Should probably be paladin hit die instead of any.
>>46071656
People leave AL eventually, they don't learn or they do and are sent to other groups while another newbie is introduced in your group? That GM sounds like he shouldn't GM, and also like he should experience a level 2 bear druid before nerfing the low level monks.
>>46069359
It's stated that Strahd straight up beat him and that he lost his book and staff in the fall.
>>46071681
>Should probably be paladin hit die instead of any.
Ah, yes, that's what I intended. I should specify that in the document. Thank you.
So, I'm playing my very first proper game of DnD later today, and need to finish my character. I'm going to be a Druid, probably Human (only PHB is allowed, by the way), at level 5 I believe, and I'd like to avoid any pitfalls.
Any advice you folks can give me, regarding spells/items/etc? I'm going for a Kamen Rider-ish vibe (thinking of a leather belt with a wood 'buckle' for example), but apparently I can't be an actual bugman so I'm thinking going for the caster specialization, hitting chumps with my quarterstaff, healing and helping, nothing too fancy.
Mostly looking for either big traps (This thing looks cool but doesn't work) or major things I could miss out (That spell looks unimpressive but it's amazingly useful), not really crazy stuff.
http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/the-classic-icy-hot/
my shitty standard dunk
>>46071538
Any other feedback?
>>46071713
Depends on your stats but if you have wis as highest then Shillelagh is good for gishing it up. Generally wis is what you need most, then cha/int for rp and con/dex for saves, initiative, ac, hp etc. If you want to know how useful each spell is there are some guides out there (http://web.archive.org/web/20151101095825/https://community.wizards.com/forum/player-help/threads/4138726) for that. Circle of the land is deemed worse than moon, haven't played any of them myself yet but land isn't that bad.
>>46071777
I'll be going with that default spread (15,14,etc) with Wis as highest, so I'll have Shillelagh in mind, thanks. I just noticed that Moon lets you transform into higher CR beasts (at level 6, which may be close, depending on how stuff turns out). Still no beetle, but I'm not 100% sold on either spec, since it's not really RESTRICTING me from healing etc.
Guides are looking pretty interesting, I'm looking at them now, thanks
>>46070927
>Giant killer at 3
>Multi attack defense at 7
>Evasion at 15
Ranger might be decent
>>46071681
No, it wasnt an intentional nerf. He just had the rule wrong. He treated it like nirnal off hand attack. He also let it happen at range with darts
>>46071828
The moon druids are always tanky but they also have peaks where they're really strong, most noticeably on level 2 when they can transform into bears and then every time the CR limit increases (like level 6). Variant human is also something to look at, though understandable if you don't want to deal with feats at this point. If doing that, you can get +1 wis to get it to 16 and round off another odd stat, for feats I'd say Magic Initiate or Sentinel are good but guides should go more detailed there.
>>46071883
Fair enough then
>>46071828
So looking at the guides, my best cantrips seem to be Guidance (duh) and Shillelagh, which seems kind of obvious.
I'll be making my guy at level 1, and going with the DM from there to level up appropriately. Not sure where to put the 8 on my stats, since even with the buff from Shillelagh, Strength doesn't seem entirely useless.
Hill Dwarf also seems like an idea, with Wis and Con bonuses (and a big GaoGaiGar hammer would be cool), but still doesn't solve the dump issue.
Going Moon means I don't have to choose a locale, as well, which is helpful.
>>46071983
Doesn't plain ol' human also get Wis to 16? I guess I trade a point in 4 stats for feat + skills. I know feats could be OP in 3.5, but the 5e ones seem much less crazy. Sentinel seems neat for physical combat though. But I'd talk it over with the DM at any rate, just making a mostly-done shell to give him.
>>46068643
How does anyone play warlock???
they have 4 (four!!) spell slots maximum
what the fuck
>>46072068
Use your cantrips (which are infinite) and take short rests to get your spells back.
>>46072068
eldritch blast spam
>New player
>Why would you play a wizard with -1 dex and no mage armour?
>I'm not a minmaxer!
Just kill me
>>46069018
But monks are OP, they don't need weapons or armor, they're always prepared and always armed, they also deal tons of attacks since first level, also that munchkin shit of quarterstaff + martial arts
>>46072091
>tfw minmaxer now means "able to do something with more efficiency than Mr Bean"
>>46072040
Feats aren't designed to be used before level 4 I think, at least most of them. Variant human is pretty much sky blue or gold (as the guides do it) for every single class as a result, not just being versatile and usable by anyone but superior to the alternatives in most cases. Normal human on the other hand can be good if you have a lot of odd stats but otherwise underwhelming. It's not like it will ruin the game one way or the other, but variant human is definitely stronger than normal human as it too can even out two odd stats and since most classes rely on 3 or less stats and one of those should be even already that's all you really need.
Hill Dwarf is nice for sure, extra hp isn't hugely important since you are tanky mostly because of wild shape but it's still cool with the other benefits. Strength is pretty much your dump stat, int and cha are also not mechanically useful but much better for utility and roleplaying.
>>46071656
>went to AL once to try playing before I started DMing
>DM tells the rogue that her shortbow is at disadvantage if she shoots *under* the 'normal' range distance (there were no enemies nearby so it wasn't a melee ranged penalty or anything)
>mfw
>>46072068
EB+Hex spam
Thanks so freakin' much for this. I plan on buying the guides in hard copy sometime soon, but I want to start playing sooner, and I'm broke AF. So. These are really great colour scans. Props.
>>46071828
Druids arent the best healers, or casters in general. Your biggest strength is summoning animals to take damage away from the party members
>>46072126
Giving DMs freedom to change rules as they see fit was a mistake
>>46072126
This is the kind of stuff that makes me happy to be an autismo DM that memorized all of the rules.
>>46072149
>cunning actio: nerfed
>martial arts: nerfed
>reckless attack: nerfed
>by the time he was nerfing action surge I was already leaving
>>46072116
I'll see if I can get Variant human then, but normal should be okay too. I was thinking Dwarf for the bonuses to the stats that I care about (Wis), but it's not a humongous difference (since the +1 Con doesn't matter a whole lot if I shift, and human gets an extra point in the rest of the stuff)
>>46072135
That solidifies Moon then. I know I'm not going to be a Wizard or anything, but some utility is nice, being able to patch someone up. Like I said, not interested in a whole lot of minmaxing
My group's thinking of homebrewing an urban fantasy ala D&D 5e. Should we, or go for other systems with a better firearms combat system.
So my players decided to meta-game during a point in CoS and I punished them for itthey followed the old woman selling dream pies in the Village of Barovia outside of town to Old Bonegrinder. I hinted if they wanted to confront her, but they decided to follow all the way to the windmill. They were subtly warned that the mill wasn't a safe place to go, but kept following. On arrival, they were also confronted by a cawing raven as another warning. They still choose to sneak inside. Once the party rogue does successfully, he hears immediately the cackle of multiple old crones. this dingus immediately goes "oh those are hags, we're totally fucked if we fight" out of character. I punished him by letting him watch as the boy was ground up by the coven leader, him knowingly unable (or too scared out of character) to do anything.
>>46072235
That's not really out of character, and is in fact an assumption on his part that could be wrong. Just because he got it right doesn't mean he's meta gaming.
>>46071472
Not really. I want my players to sometimes ask me if they can make a certain skill check, and that section helps them to make sure asking me is justified. I'll grant you it may be isn't necessary to have, but it merits being there if there isn't something a column of text obviously more important to add.
>>46072082
>>46072080
>>46072128
is there any reason to play a warlock over a wizard though?
>>46072263
Refresh your spells on a short rest?
I mean, that's kind of huge since other casters don't get that. Granted, they get less spells, but still.
>>46072235
>Say there is a statue
>ITS GOING TO COME TO LIFE
Every fucking time
>>46072263
If your DM only gives you one or so encounters in a day, then maybe it would be better to pick another class. But if your DM does the whole "adventuring day" thing that the DMG recommends, then warlock is rad.
>>46072283
I actually had a good experience with that. One time my players were in a massive room in an underground crypt, with stone gargoyles watching them from a ledge above. Then they walked into the middle of the room and fell into an obvious pit because they were so scared of the gargoyles.
>>46072283
>walk into a room
>"there are runes etched on the wall and pillars connecting the floor to the ceiling"
>"DON'T
>TOUCH
>FUCKING
>ANYTHING"
>>46072253
to a party of characters that have previously encounteredHags, it is too obvious to ignore. Yes,it could have just been three old ass ladies grinding up kids for pies, but the fact is that they ignored the rumors and literal warnings about Old Bonegrinder and still pushed inside. Using your prior game knowledge from other games to recognize the signs of a hag coven is, in fact, meta gaming. If they wanted to really save the kid and realize out of character that it was a coven or not, was confront her before reaching the mill, and investigate the perimeter, which they decided to do only AFTER pushing their luck and letting her reach her sisters.
>>46072235
I dunno man is there a reason the character wouldn't know about or be able to recognize hags and witches through familiarity? Has he never adventured before? Was the woman not acting suspiciously witch like?
>>46072335
It seems to me like you're making a huge assumption here that the players realized this was a hag coven from the beginning.
>>46072331
That bugs the shit out of me.
>EVERYTHING IS WARDED GUYS! DON'T TOUCH!
>doesn't even cast 3rd level spells
>isn't even 3rd level
>is a fighter with 8 intelligence
>>46072283
>>46072331
This strand of meta is absolutely hilarious to me
>party finds chest
>had a bad experience with a mimic
>spends ten minutes checking the chest and surrounding area
>nobody standing watch the entire time
>finally open chest
>ordinary box with some coin in it
>party gets sucked into the slowly encroaching gelatinous cube they didn't see
After the Fighter hulked out and murdered it in almost one go many laughs were had
>>46072273
You still get way less spells than wizard even if you short res once or twice per day, also wizards refresh some spells on short rest
>>46072221
The Modern Magic UA is supposedly really good and not talked about a lot just because few run that type of game, so that should be a good start. A lot of stuff can just be refluffed, and there's a fair amount of normal homebrew of urban things, so it shouldn't be much harder than doing a not-totally-generic homebrew setting.
>>46072283
>Ignore statue
>it's alive
>GM "lel, it's like you never played D&D"
>Surprise round for the statue and it's friends
>>46072370
Amount of spells per day ≠strength of caster.
>>46072358
>people being careful due previous experiences is metagaming
What?
>>46072408
Wizards still get more spells known and higher level spells per day than warlock, also, except eldritch blast, better spell list
>>46069369
It's the PHB races, PHB classes with one archetype each, the equivalent spells that were in the d20 SRD from 3.5e, the core game rules, a bunch of monster stats, and various rules from the DMG. It's meant for people to use with the OGL stuff that isn't in the controlled market of the DMs Guild.
>>46072422
>what are invocations and patrons
>>46072353
No. I'm not. The rogue player's eyebrow immediately raised at the words "old lady," and decided to say "I think I know what this is," as an OOC statement, which can be fine if he'd kept it to himself. They followed the creature, even after the warnings, without attempting to save the kid, directly to it's lair, before deciding to act, just to prove their theory. The book literally states the creature will not attack before reaching the mill.
>>46072341
That kind of roleplaying would be fine, but understand what he said, compared to would 'could' have been said. I would have awarded the fuck with inspiration for attempting to save the kid and saying something like "I've heard stories of old warty old women taking children from their homes, never to return. They're quite powerful, rumor says." but he instead waited to reach the lair, hear the cackling laugh, see the box of toads, childrens' clothes, etc. to say "oh they're hags guys, let's leave."
>>46072444
>before deciding to act, just to prove their theory
Again, this is all just assumption by you.
>>46071022
>>46071866
I like both of these, the barb/paladin sounds pretty fun though it'd take a while to hit its stride I suppose.
>>46068643
I want to be a balor, or as close as possible without polymorph
What do
>>46072412
Oh you're right. Whoops. Sorry, I had just woken up and I'm not thinking clearly.My coffee machine is broken and I hate Starbucks
>>46072499
but why
>>46072499
Ask your DM if you can be a Balor.
If he says no, don't play a Balor.
If he says yes, inquire further, but be ready to run as fast as your stubby legs can carry you.
>>46072467
one can identify someone's true intentions by more than just spoken word bud. You can call it assumption, but it doesn't really matter when I know my assumption was correct.
>>46072440
Invocations are shit unless you pic those that improve EB
Patrons powers are ok at best
>>46072544
>You can call it assumption, but it doesn't really matter when I know my assumption was correct.
And that is supreme arrogance. What it comes down to is that you don't know what your players were thinking, you only think you do, and so you punished them for what you thought they were thinking.
You're a shit DM.
>>46072440
Patrons give you extra spells on your spell-list, as well as unique abilities that focus on a core concept related to the patron. Invocations are the bread and butter of warlocks, giving them at-will spells (Disguise Self and Alter Self being favorites), spells not on the list at 1/day, and augments to other spells (3 to Eldritch Blast alone).
>I a world with witches, cultist, ect suspection of an odd old lady is metagaming
Ok
I guess if I end in a castle, in the middle of a dark wood with a pale count with large fangs I should totally trust him, right? it's not like he's a creature of the night, I can't know that because I've only been an adventurer my whole life.
>>46072571
Many domains in Ravenloft have monsters being much more 'things the peasants whisper about' than the traditional D&D 'slew three goblins while making the hay'.
Then again, CoS has the players being from outside Ravenloft, so it's moot.
>>46068896
It details their fight in the book well enough. The wizard and Stahd threw spells at each other to little effect before the vampire snuck up behind his opponent and wrecked his shit with superior melee skills. Taking the staff and spellbook was a breeze after that.
How do you implement something like illusion traps for your players?
Like let's say they enter a room with a fountain and the illusion triggers where it appears to them that the doors slam shut and lock, and water starts pouring from the fountain.
I know that if they investigate hard enough or even just leave the room that the illusion will end. But do you let the whole group end the illusion? Do you have the illusion end for individuals? If so, how do you tell them so that the players don't just metagame their way out of the situation?
>>46072558
You definitely are misinterpreting what I've been saying.
>>46072677
Spell it out for me then, because what I'm hearing is that you think your party was metagming, but have yet to provide any evidence of that beyond a player going "oh shit, those are hags". Even that's not really metagaming.
>>46072661
In my mind illusions trick the mind, so they aren't actually solid but they appear solid sort of like how dreams seem realistic and believable but once you wake up you realise plot hole as it were. Once you know what is an illusion and not, you can see through it, and if someone tells you you would probably realize as well. So if a player figures out but keeps his mouth shut, nothing would change, though if they walk through it and so on it'll be obvious.
>>46072699
He calls metagaming reaching to a logical conclusion that affects the outcome of a certain encounter.
>>46068931
>>46069359
Actually he went in with a mob of barovian commoners. And the story is they fought and mordy was flung off a goddamn mountain. At least that's what the gypsy told me
>>46072702
I'd figure that if they're under the effects of an illusion, then the illusion will make it seem like their friends drowned or something when they leave or see through the illusion.
Mainly I want to prevent metagaming. Like one player investigates and then sees through the illusion. Now suddenly the rest of the party just rolls investigate checks and all the tension is gone.
I was thinking about doing it in initiative order and passing notes to players who see through the illusion so that the players who haven't solved it are still kept in suspense.
>>46072661
The characters can tell each other that it's an illusion, and then the people who failed their save can go touch the illusion and see through it. Until the characters actually share that information, yes, illusions can fail for some people and not others.
>>46072766
Wait what is the illusion and its purpose? Seems like you can just send post-it notes to the player that investigates, saying out loud whatever they find out otherwise in the room (have a distraction like a false wall compartment maybe) and then writing what is an illusion privately.
>>46072766
Illusions usually say somethign like "interaction with the illusion reveals it to be an illusion, because things can pass through it." So if there's a Silent Image of a pit of acid on the floor, and you don't investigate it but you see a teammate walk right over it, you won't see your teammate appear to fall and dissolve in the acid, you'll just see that the pit is an illusion.
>Wear shield, full plate and defensive style
>Enemies always hit you, they never miss, not even when they have disadvantage
>Fuck this GWM
>GM "Hurr durr minmaxer you only care about dealing damage"
Well, if you deny my defense my only way to survive is killing enemies faster than they kill me
>Suddenly even 1 HD goblins have AC 24 or higher
And so I left
>>46072235
You are the goddamn dm of the century. That is exactly what ravenloft punishments should be. Only way it would be better is if you made him do a sanity check for witnessing such horrors.
How can I utilize my reaction, if at all? I've read the reaction rules and it is kind of vague. It makes it seem, to me, like you might be able to use it for a purpose other than a spell or opportunity attack.
Would I be able to, for example, hold sand in my hand and throw it into the eyes of an enemy that comes within 5 feet of me? Or would that fall under "preparing an action"?
>>46072818
>>46072810
I figured that the room would be filling up with illusory water. So the illusion is designed with that in mind, I suppose. Otherwise the second they touch the water they'd just know it wasn't real and there'd be no point.
>>46072913
I don't think there's an illusion spell that can fully make you think that you're in water when you're not. Mass Suggestion might be the closest you come. Or Phantasmal Force if it's a small enough area.
![FZXqcKZ[1].png](https://i.imgur.com/gAMhQJe.png "FZXqcKZ[1].png")
>>46072661
Just make the illusion work like the phantasmal force spell
>>46072904
That would fall under readying an action, which uses your action when you prepare it and your reaction when it triggers. Some class features also give you things you can do with your reaction, like the Protection fighting style or the monk's arrow-catching.
>>46072974
That sounds perfect! I also like the damage idea, since it'd represent some kind of stress in the environment. Or maybe the water is really some kind of acid or scalding hot. Though I suppose I'd make the rolls without their knowledge so the people affected by the illusion don't know that something's up. Or maybe just have the illusion automatically succeed in fooling them initially.
So for the one must die thing in death house. .. does it have to be a player character? Or could they sacrifice and animal or a monster? Just asking cause I know my players are crafty fuckers who will try to do just about anything
>>46073075
It says any living sacrifice I think, so even a squirrel would work. RIP the wizard's familiar essentially.
>>46073029
One important difference between Phantasmal Force and something like Major Image is that Phantasmal Force gives the character a chance to make an immediate Int save, while Major Image is perceived as real by default and is only seen through if someone makes an active effort to investigate or interact with it. People who succeed at their saves against Phantasmal Force not only avoid damage but don't see the illusion at all. However, they can't just tell their affected friend that the Phantasmal Force isn't real and end the spell that way. The affected person has to be the one to investigate Phantasmal Force.
>>46073108
That was my first thought honestly....
>>46073108
But knifing a wizard's familiar doesn't kill it; it just sends it back to its home plane. You'd have to actually kill the familiar, either through some kind of planar binding spell or by going to the familiar's home plane and killing it there.
>>46073075
According to my DM, killing the monster in the room counts, not that it mattered for us because it ate our sorceress on the dias because she thought it was a good idea to stand next to the tank despite having 14 AC and 4 hp.
>>46073227
In 5e is perfectly fine for a martial to have 14 AC and 4 HP, dunno why you complain about the sorcerer having that.
SCAN WHEN?
I SWEAR I WILL TAKE DOWN THE WHOLE FUCKING INTERNET!
Guys, my All physical stats at 8 and all mental at 15 fighter died, a second time, in the first turn of the first encounter seems like I have bad rolls because stats totally don't matter in 5e
>>46073518
I feel you...
>>46073518
its the 17th now, why haven't you bought a copy?
>>46073519
Oh hey, that's such a productive post. I can't wait for the intense and well-thought out discussion that will ensue as a result.
Here's a (You).
>>46073337
>14 AC on a ranged player standing in melee for no reason
>fine
>when modules pit you against CR 5 monsters at level 2
>"""""fine"""""
>>46073337
> standing near the tank
AoE generally acts on saving throws rather than AC.
Assuming the sorcerer's AC is entirely dex-derived, they could be okay. It probably isn't, though.
>>46073566
AC 14 it's fine on martials, dunno why shouldn't be fine on casters.
Also I played a dex fighter with no armor in tranny of the dragon queer and didn't have a problem, as long as you aren't vegetative state retarded everything should be fine.
God damn this general is cancerous
>>46073662
Then go back to your PF thread
>>46073614
More it's the fact that 8 damage (aka something that is achievable by most CR 1/4 creatures) insta-gibs the sorcerer. A draft horse could kick his/her head off in one attack.
>>46073717
How can she have 4 HPs total though? they start with d6 therefore 6, unless she started with 6-7 on Con, which seems pretty unusual, I can't understand how she had a max of 4 HPs.
Is there any real justification for this?
>>46069369
Pretty much, yes. It's the PHB, DMG, and Monster Manual without the bullshit. Enough to get you going making your own stuff, not enough to spoon-feed you a campaign. You want all the goodies? Pay money. You want the core rules? Grab a free PDF.
>>46073813
Lack of imagination
Need of filling pages
Paycheck depends on the words you write
Muh balance
>>46073813
What's the alleged problem? Museums have plenty of 3lb longswords from a number of historical periods.
>>46073813
Nope.
Not unless they got paid by the word.
>>46073813
What are you even complaining about? the misalignment?
>>46073829
You'd think so, looking at any spell description.
>>46073839
Maybe he was touched inappropriately by a battle axe?muh trigger warnings
>>46073560
Because I'm in South Arfrica. The book wil only arrive here in 2 months if I'm lucky. I've already preordered.
Looking for an scanbro with some compasion. I'm not being a cheapskate, I just wanna start running CoS asap.
>>46069770
>what
>not knowing about yiffing
Newfag alert
>>46073813
Longsword and Battleaxe are at least a little different, axe being cheaper but heavier.
Mace and morningstar having no redeeming qualities is kind of sad. I did like the rule that another anon suggested before, that morningstars do 1d8 piercing/bludgeoning, whichever the target has least resistance to.
I houseruled tridents to do 3d2 / 3d3-1 damage. Same max but better min and more consistent damage. Helps them have a reason to exist along spears. I play on roll20 so the actual dice and math isn't a problem.
>>46068643
So i am homebrewing a campaign and Steel dragons are coming up as part of it.
I want to stat them a bit differently tho (Thunder damage instead of both poison and acid) and add a sorcerers bloodline for them.
So here we go:
Ancient Steel dragon,
Huge Dragon, Neutral Good
29 Str (+8), 10 Dex, 23 Con (+6), 24 Int(+7), 25 Wis(+7), 20 Cha (+5)
AC 22 (Natural Armour)
Hit points: 256 (13d12+100)
Movement: 60 ft , 120 ft flight, 40 climb.
Skills: Intimidation +8, Persuasion +11, Deception +11, Stealth +8, Perception +11, Insight +17
Damage immunity: Thunder
Condition immunity: Poisoned
Senses blindsight 60ft., darkvision 120ft., passive Perception 29
Languages: Common, Draconic
CR: 20
Legendary Resistance (3/Day). If the dragon fails a saving throw, it can choose to succeed instead.
Actions:
Multiattack. The dragon can use its Frightful Presence. It then makes three attacks: one with its bite and two with its claws.
Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +15 to hit, reach 10ft., one target.
Hit: 19 (2d10 + 8) piercing damage.
Claw. Melee Weapon Attack: +15 to hit, reach 10ft., one target.
Hit: 15 (2d6 + 8) slashing damage.
Tail. Melee Weapon Attack: +15 to hit, reach 15ft., one target.
Hit: 17 (2d8 + 8) bludgeoning damage.
Frightful Presence. DC 18
Breath Weapon (Recharge 5-6).
The dragon breathes compressed air in 90-foot line that is 10 feet wide. Each creature in that line must make a DC 22 Dexterity saving throw, taking 67 (15d8) Thunder damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one.
Change shape.
Cont.
>>46074020
I'm that anon :3
>>46068643
>Faggoten Realms
They ever un-blow up the interesting and half decent areas/cities/nations that they nuked the everloving shit out of at the start of 4e so they could turn it into Neverhammercraft: Men vs. Orcs edition?
Running my first 5E game this weekend for a small group (two players) and I'm looking for advice on a few things.
Some background, I'm running the game for two of my friends, one of which is completely new to tabletop (playing a Paladin) and one who is somewhat experienced with 3.5 (playing a Rogue).
First thing, what should I do to accommodate a small party without simply lowering the amount of monster's per encounter? Would /5eg/ recommend utilizing healing surges? Gimping monster hit points? Making the goblins and skeletons they'll be fighting tactically retarded? I'm not going for realism here, just some good old fashioned pulp-fantasy fun.
Second, what does /5eg/ think about allowing Paladin's to take Two-Weapon Fighting as a Fighting Style? The Paladin player's miniature for their character is wielding two swords, so I figured I'd allow them to take that fighting style, but seeing as I've never actually played 5E I thought I'd seek y'all's council first.
>>46074332
Fewer monsters, and fewer fights per day, actually is the best solution here.
As for paladins taking a fighting style they're usually not allowed, I don't like needlessly bending the rules, but it shouldn't be that much of a problem. Note that the paladin can still fight with two weapons and take the Defense fighting style instead. See if the player even wants to fight with two weapons first.
>>46074332
>twf pakadin
Bad idea, his smite spells tend to be bonus action
As for a 2 man party, give them full die HPs and make monsters literally retard, this still could end on a tpk real quick though
>>46068643
I've changed a couple things for an upcoming campaign, but nothing that really matters much.
My current campaign is technically a Forgotten Realms campaign, but the party is exploring an island pretty far off the coast.
After that, the party will journey to a couple new(ish) cities near the High Forest, where they've got an abandoned castle as a reward. Bad stuff will happen while they're there.
>>46074332
>First thing, what should I do to accommodate a small party without simply lowering the amount of monster's per encounter?
Make sure you aren't putting too heavy of time constraints on the player characters to achieve their goals. If they need to withdraw from a situation and rest up, that needs to be clearly an option. Be receptive to them possibly hiring on some NPC goons to help with the heavy lifting. Have them skip out when they get paid and not take the initiative on decision-making so nobody feels like you're pushing a DMPC on them.
Custom-tailoring encounters to specifically suit the potency of the player character party and spoon-feed them xp is bullshit. Don't do it.
>>46074129
Legendary actions:
The dragon can take 3 legendary actions, choosing from the 1 options below.
Only one legendary action option can be used at a time and only at the end of another creature's turn. The dragon regains spent legendary actions at the start of its turn.
Detect. The dragon makes a Wisdom (Perception) check.
Tail Attack. The dragon makes a tail attack.
Wing Attack (Costs 2 Actions).
The dragon beats its wings.
Each creature within 15 feet of the dragon must succeed on a DC 20 Dexterity saving throw or take 15 (2d6 + 8) bludgeoning damage and be knocked prone.
The dragon can then fly up to half its flying speed.
Steel dragon:
Steel dragons live in human societies often masquerading as scholars, sages and mages of all kinds becoming part of human society and often investing in businesses to amass its riches while enjoying the social life that cities have to offer.
They prefer their human form over their dragon form mostly only using their dragon form in times of duress or when they are out in the wilderness hunting.
Their human form usually has a steel gray colored mark on their body ranging from steel gray eyes, nails, hair to tattoos and jewelry.
They usually leave troublesome situations to the law to deal with manipulating things from behind the scenes but will take an active role if directly threatened while quickly and directly dispatching threats in the wilds where the laws hold no sway.
cont.
>>46074332
There's really just one thing you have to do: make sure each PC somehow has the ability to get the other up from unconsciousness. If the non-paladin wants to be something that isn't a healer, at least make sure he takes the Healer feat or Magic Initiate with Healing Word.
>>46069118
My personal version of the Realms runs between that gap of 2e and 3e...I pretend the 4e version doesn't exist, just like WotC does now.
>>46071117
Those people are historical figures that are most likely long dead in the Realms I run.
>>46074506
Drizzt is an elf who was really young when he did all his famous shit. Is your campaign set in like 5000 DR?
>>46071117
My current campaign is set in Baldur's Gate. I like it because I can incorporate Sword Coast names and knowledge into the campaign. None of my other players know anything about FR, but it's nice for my internal consistency to have an established setting.
Plus reading up on lore can give new ideas. Oh, Iakhovas is an ancient wereshark who hates Umberlee? Well guess what cult just took over the temple of Umberlee a few years ago!
>>46074544
He was younger than the starting age for drows and elves, basically a 10-11 years old kid in human years
>>46068896
It's much more believable in this edition then it is in 3e, actually, and it would be believable in 2e; remember back in the day a wizard if he got hit AT ALL he immediately lost whatever spell he had prepped, and not only is Strahd an accomplished wizard himself he's also an excellent warrior and tactician who can leverage ambush tactics to his advantage.
One of my biggest beefs in 3e was how certain "iconic" characters were so unrealistically powerful that they could never conceivably be beaten by anybody, even another iconic, without a mutual kill happening.It's also only kinda a spoiler: my party will likely never meet the Mad Mage (or if they do they'll just kill him) since he's not their Ally they drew and they don't have the magical resources to fix him. Too bad, because meeting Mordenkainen would be great fun for them.
>>46074474
Can someone explain the appeal of ongoing continuity in an RPG setting?
>>46074412
A steel dragon has a feline-like body, shield shaped scales like polished steel, a face that shows a mix of human and feline features with thin spines forming structures like hair and beards and finally wings with feathers that seem like they are made of steel.
At birth their scales are blue-gray slowly taking on a more steel like sheen as they age.
Sociable intellectuals and business-dragons:
Steel dragons much prefer civilized society, fine arts, Intellectual pursuits and the like.
They keep a retinue of trusted humanoid companions and often operate large businesses as heads of merchant guilds etc.
Their preferred accommodations are mansions and castles that are large enough to accommodate them, their retainers , friends, business partners, guests and strong-rooms for their hoard mainly containing books, sculptures, paintings and magic items meant to be used by creatures of medium size.
They hate despotic rulers and will often start rebellions to overthrow them which places them at odds with some other metallic dragons (gold and brass) which they absolutely despise and will cause no small amount of indirect trouble for them.
They usually keep safe-houses in old abandoned towers and ruins in case they need to escape.
A steel dragon will always be able to recognize a member of it's kind even if shape-changed but will usually avoid each other with the exception of when they seek a mate.
Otherwise they prefer the company of humans the most.
The offspring resulting from copulation with humanoid races will always be of the race the steel dragon shape-changed into and will likely produce a sorcerer bloodline.
Draconic Sorcerer bloodline: Thunder damage boost/resist
>>46074592
>not liking coherence and continuity on a story
Read Naruto and Bleach then, you'll love them
>>46071117
Yeah, basically you have or have had shitty GM's. My sympathies.
I'd like to do a realms alternate history where the major cataclysm that alters the realms is the spirit eater ending of Mask of the Betrayer instead of the spellplague.
How would the realms look if this guy stomped the gods' shit in?
>>46071117
My last GM did the same! But with new characters created by him
>>46074622
I don't really *want* a story. I want a *setting* that my group can tell a story in.
>>46072283
Oh man, my players are SHITTING themselves over gargoyles and armor that's just everywhere and doing nothing.
They keep expecting Castlevania with an obvious enemy around every corner.
>>46068886
>>46068906
generally you can lift more than you can push. think of a deadlift vs. a bench press. deadlifting 300 lbs is much easier than benching the same weight.
push pressing it about your head is even more difficult.
>>46074656
When it comes to a setting with continuity, I am both for it and against it.
I like the style it was originally presented in, where it said "This is the present, this is what we predict for the future" because it also left a lot of blanks for anyone else to fill in.
Whereas the current style of "we're going to flash forward 10 years, then 100 years, then even further, because we want to completely rewrite the setting each time while ignoring what came before it" just feels like a cheap way to ignore older less desirable fluff when printing new books.
But I was also against the godswar and the arcane age boxed sets, so maybe I just hate big things.
Do you coup-de-grace unconscious PCs?
If there's a situation that looks like a PC is going to die, do you try to make it the one that does the most stupid shit? Or do you just wait until they do something so dumb and dangerous that there's no way you can reasonably let them get away with it?
It's interesting how the adventure that everyone is the most excited for is taking the longest to get a solid scan. That being said, I love what I've seen of the monsters, magic items, and story that I've seen so far.
>>46074813
You should never have a monster keep attacking an unconscious PC unless there is some magical power making them do it.
First of all, it doesn't make sense from a monster perspective. The player is unconscious, possibly dying. It's better to take care of the rest of the party first, then kill them at your leisure.
Second of all, it doesn't help in a metagame sense. You're just picking on the player. If they didn't do anything more than "the monster rolled well on its attack rolls," then killing their character is pretty extreme. The players see that you, as the person who controls the monsters, are singling them out. And that won't make them happy.
>>46074656
Theoretically the "ongoing" story of the Forgotten Realms just provides a continuity that leaves off where you pick it up. Something to explain why various factions have the attitudes they have in regards to other factions. Why the god of death and the god of strife don't like each other. Or why there are fifty-five flavors of elves. Or whatever.
When major mechanical differences crop up (with new editions, mostly), they can choose to throw the old setting out and make a new one that's consistent with the new rules, or they can leverage the presence of a fictional continuity and try to keep the old brand name intact.
As somebody who doesn't run Forgotten Realms games, I'm not the guy they'd want to ask, but all the clamoring for rehashes of Ravenloft and Dark Sun and Spelljammer suggests that refitting an existing popular setting is the correct business decision, if not the best creative decision.
>>46074813
Depends on the circumstances. A stirge will absolutely keep sucking on a downed character.
Finished up running the starter set with a group of new players a few months ago, and now they want to play again. They're level four.
What can I run with then starting at this level? I've got a homebrew campaign going with another group, so I'd rather do a module.
Think I'm now reasonably prepared to run CoS.
>>46075061
Curse of Strahd is good for 4th level. Go balls-out, yo.
Anyone has the Death House map in JPG or as an image file? I plan to start that module this sunday.
>>46075133
Just export the pages of the PDF as JPGs, easy peasy.
>>46075116
scan?
>>46075116
what are those maps from? printed yourself?
>>46075116
no tarokka deck?
>>46075171
there's a zip file of the CoS maps in the mega
I'm guessing he printed them out on card stock
>>46075168
No access to a scanner I'm afraid, brah.
>>46075171
These are the high res pack of maps from http://mikeschley.zenfolio.com/p678546160, printed at 600DPI on the sexy printers at my office. I just handed my notice in, so have been going on a massive PDF printing spree.
>>46075173
Shit! I knew I forgot something. I actually might do that tomorrow. Only have access to paper though so quality won't be what I'd like.
>>46075223
oh shit, are those the paid ones from >>46075227 ? I didn't realize they were on there.
>>46075061
Princes of the Apocalypse was written by almost the same team as the Starter Set, and includes recommendations for bringing a party into PotA from Phandalin. It also has its own L1-L3 material, but it's basically an optional side-plot and your players would be starting with the actual plot instead. It also happens to be set right next to the Starter Set region geographically, so it's almost like an extension of the Starter Set up to level 15, but with an entirely separate plot (unless you choose to connect them somehow, because the Starter Set does have some loose threads you could modify for that IIRC)
>>46075257
They're not, the zip in the mega is just the three B+W ones from the Wizard's site.
>>46074813
>>46074914
It makes perfect sense from the monster's perspective. PCs seldom stay unconscious for more than a round or two. If you don't finish them off, the cleric is just going to cast Healing Word and get them right back up again.
In a metagame sense, targeting the most vulnerable PCs is part of playing the challenge of the encounter as faithfully as possible. Every encounter includes the risk of death, and if you take that out of the equation, you take something away that the players are on some level expecting - consequences for their actions. Taking the risk of death out of D&D is like bumper bowling. Actually, no, because you can still fail to knock down pins at bumper bowling. It's like saying you bowled a perfect game when you really didn't even play.
>>46071472
>both groups I play with continually ask me or the dm in other group if they can use arcana checks to basically replace detect magic/identify
>keep trying to use perception to replace insight, investigation, And survival
>other DM lets them
How about it's really needed. You could ask him about making an alt page without it, but I wouldn't ever use it.
>>46071020
again, are these or are these not just literally eldrazi?
Or am I missing something here.
>>46075123
I don't have the money to throw away on a new book
>>46075271
I've been looking at PotA, but I don't know if it's any good. Seems like a handful of big dungeon crawls, and not exactly the most interesting theme as far as my tastes
>>46072499
>play tiefling
>play winged tiefling
>have red skin and some of the random appearance shit from scag
>???
>you're playing a fucking balor
why is this even a question?
>>46074944
Rules question relating to finishing off PCs. Suppose there's an enemy spellcaster who knows that an unconscious PC is going to be healed this turn if he doesn't finish him off, and he casts Magic Missile at that PC. Does it cause three failed death saves, or just one? The missiles strike at the same time, but each is a separate source of damage.
>>46072831
Fucking this
Current DM has no idea why AC is as it's listed in the book, attempts to buff everything and doesn't listen why that's explicitly bad.
>"I missed on a 14? what the fuck? I have a +5 to hit!
(before I did the stuff below)
>"oh, it has 21 AC"
>It's a fucking glabrezu
>Glabrezus have 17 ac normally
>we were trying to hit it in Darkness
>21 ac and constant disadvantage
Kill me.
>tfw I've just been giving myself an unwritten constant +3 to my accuracy since I discovered he was doing this because he doesn't literally ever check sheets
>It's been working wonderfully
>I'm 90% sure another player picked up what I was doing and did the same
>>46068742
I hope its romeo and juliet based and each adventure ends in a TPK
Is a knife-throwing bard blade viable or are college of lore or playing a rogue just better options?
>>46075272
It's not though. It's 81 pages, 900MB pdf of glorious maps
>>46075564
lol
>>46075600
Durr, I was looking in the wrong place.
>>46075116
>multiple of the same maps
huh. Planning on handing them out to the players?
Cool.
That must be a fucking hell of a lot of Ink, though. wonder how much that cost->>46075227
>it's free
Shit, son. Living the dream.
>>46075315
You think that singling out players leads to good gameplay and fun times?
Characters can die. They get crit'd at low health. They fall off a cliff. They do something stupid you warned them they shouldn't do. But having monsters attacking downed players (rather than, I dunno, the cleric healing them?) is like wild Voltorb or Geodude using self-destruct in Pokemon. The monster died, but so did your character. Nothing was accomplished. You just inconvenienced a person for the sake of artificial consequences.
Also, risk of death is always present if you have balanced encounters. That's just how games work.
>>46075633
Yeah, I have four players, and I have 2 unmarked 'player versions' of each map in the set, and one marked DM one for myself. I recently printed all the maps from PoTA and RoD as well, plus the entire Sword Coast Adventurer's Guidebook, which I'm going to bind.
Also every one of the maps is printed with the same map on both sides, it makes it look even better and, weirdly, feel nicer due to the high quality of the printer... I work in a company that does a lot of colour brochures and stuff, but even so, I have really been taking the piss with all these :)
>>46075592
If you go College of Blades, sure.
How do you have secret areas (especially big secret areas) set up for characters to find?
using roll20 myself was somewhat useful, as the blacking out sections they hadn't walked through yet was pretty nice, (but then a rogue had like a 17 PP so I was fucked anyway)
My current IRL dm has tiles, or uses a giant 40k table with terrain being used as various things, but he sets up the secret area beforehand, behind a "wall" It's really hard to just temporarially ignore it or something, especially when the rest of the group is super new and would just immediately jump at it.
Same deal would probably happen if I was running.
Setting up the secret area AFTER the players find it would probably take a good deal of time, and with how dumb my players can be, they probably wouldn't try to search for it unless they had heavy hints/actual evidence on the table that there is a secret area "hidden"
So, forever DMs or just people who are better than me at DMing, how do you do secret doors/traps/hallways, ect.
>>46071656
>>46071681
>>46072126
>>46072206
I DM AL and I don't suck. Jesus.
I just wanted to DM on a night my regular group couldn't make it. I don't have to come up with my own campaign but I can still DM.
I'm sorry you guys got the rejects.
>>46075634
You must have some kind of private definition of "balanced encounters" that includes monsters holding back from completing their presumed objective, killing the PCs. A certain number of monsters of a certain CR doesn't guarantee an appropriate challenge; the DM also has to play them with a modicum of tactical thinking and common sense. Unconscious isn't dead, and it's not like in real life where a critically wounded soldier will require a lot more than 6 seconds before he can return to the fight, if ever. If a PC goes down and the monsters are intelligent creatures who know that magical healing exists, they'll behave accordingly. No matter what their stats are, if they let the PCs win no matter what, they're not a challenge and should not be worth XP.
And all consequences in D&D are artificial because it's a made-up world. So...
>>46075762
A separate map, or drawing them in on a wet erase battlemat/whiteboard/whatever as they're discovered.
Any tips for a first time DM, playing with 3-4 people?
All newbies, except me, to TTRPGs
>>46073813
>Trident
A thrown trident gets stuck on the target on a hit, reducing movement by 5 feet
Trident can be removed with a dc 10 strength check
Removing a trident causes 1d6 damage
>Longsword
2d4 damage, 2h gains finesse
>Halberd
Can do slashing or piercing
>Glaive
+1 damage if standing still
>Mace
1d8
>Morningstar
Both piercing and bludgeoning
+1 to hit if standing still
>>46075315
A monster that is aware that the party has a healer would be better off spending its turn going after the healer. If the guy is down but still alive the cleric will be more likely to risk making himself vulnerable in order to save his buddy, which a smart monster can use to its advantage, while a dead guy can't be helped so the healer will either run away or focus on the allies that are still up and who could kill the monster while it's wasting it's turn finishing off an enemy that unlike the others is no longer an immediate threat.
And not finishing off PCs in the middle of a fight doesn't remove the chance of death. They can still fail their death saves and they can still be left to their fate if the rest of the party runs or also gets downed.
>>46068672
There are plenty of good reasons want to hate something when it becomes popular but they usually have nothing to do with the thing itself.
It often just means more and more people know about it, introducing a greater variance of kinds of people into the community, lowers the average proficiency with the material, which disrupts discussion efficiency.
tl;dr they're huge faggots.
