Dungeons & Dragons Fifth Edition General Discussion
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Previous thread >>44115953
What's your favourite build in 5e?
Any good Witch homebrews out yet? Or perhaps a Wicca-flavoured (shut up I know Neo-paganism has just about nothing to do with old European beliefs) Warlock?
Kenkus forever, motherfuckers.
Need advice!
I need good reasons/events that would make me want to multiclass my Nature Paladin with Great Old One Warlock.
Please help I really wanna try multiclassing it but need an excuse to.
>>44147170
Tell me, Mr. Cawwington… what good is a beak… if you're unable to speak? I, on the other hand, can deceive the eye. Can you?Didn't think so.
>>44147232
The entities you revere are one and the same (as in an Old One that is plant/nature based), Swamp Thing style.
To the guy looking for vampire stuff from last thread
>>44117106
I knocked out a ... somewhat simple realism Vampire thing a while back, it still needs playtesting and balancing, and the Nosferatu bit is pretty much unfinished, but unlike most things I've seen it makes sense on two major fronts: why do vampires have large harems of attractive people instead of one or two that are much healthier, and why are older vampires stronger but more vulnerable. It's also designed so that players and NPCs don't have different rules to follow, since that always bugged me.
Check it out, I guess?
http://pastebin.com/X53ziLhw
>>44147232
Is this as part of character creation, or an ongoing campaign? If it's that latter, try speaking with your DM to give you a reason in-character.
If it's the former, consider that GOO 'Locks have somehow forged pacts with beings beyond their own understanding. Quite likely, there wasn't any formal negotiation or contract. Perhaps, instead, the GOO latched onto or or wormed its way into your soul in a moment when you were near death or when you were dreaming.
Or perhaps you thought you were making a bargain with some ancient, ineffable nature spirit. Perhaps you WERE making a bargain with an ancient, ineffable nature spirit - the world is far older than any of us can comfortably imagine.
Perhaps it's merely part of your part-aberrant bloodline being awakened, your great-great-great-great grandfather whispering in the ear of his favorite descendant.
Perhapsyou are the demons, Johnand you have only but to realize it totake off your face and reveal the mask that lies beneath.
>>44147149
There's always Druids.
What can I do when my party feels as if an encounter is unfair, even when it really isn't?
Context : my party of 5 pcs levels 8-10 with relatively overpowered magic items was up against an Ancient dragon, and when the Dragon focused down the rogue (because her magic bow had the capacity to do crazy amounts of damage from across the lair), the player seemed a little upset ("what do you mean I took 52 damage '")
that, and the Dragons legendary actions to succeed saves, were causing some hurt feelings In the party, even though the whole party survived with only a paladin, a Druid and some potions for healing
I'm planning on significantly upping the difficulty of the campaign soon, so how can I make it feel more difficult without making it feel unfair?
>>44147382
Have you been going easy on them until now?
>>44147382
>Rogue
>not getting shat on
All else aside, it's a really tricky class.
>>44147433
>>44147433
It's been more a matter of me failing to adjust CR for their magic items, but the last few arcs have been easy for them combat wise, yeah
>>44146136
The other day one died because aging spell
>>44147382
There's nothing you can do if they complain that an encounter they cut through with no losses was too hard.
Especially when they complained at the ammount of damage done - you can't reffluf that.
>>44147442
It has literally 1 trick that it gets at level 2. Aside from that it makes 1 attack/turn, then deals damage. That's the entire class in combat. Maybe, if you want to get tricksy you set it up so you trigger your SA off turn from the fighter giving you an extra attack, or someone casting haste on you and preparing an action.
Rogue's braindeadness is second only to the champion fighter.
>>44147382
An Ancient Dragon should wipe level 8-10's easily
>>44147502
Definitely, but seeing how he mentions overpowered magic items, and that they defeated it without anyone dying, I wouldn't be surprised if the rogue has a Bow of Slaying.
>>44147442
>"tricky"
is this wew lad's secret code for 'bad'? because if so, yes, rogues are extremely tricky
>>44147514
Then there's his problem, he coddled his players and gave them everything.
Whats the point of playing now? They've beaten one of the strongest enemies there is without any difficulty at mid level.
>>44147539
Probably becausethey're having fun, anon
>>44147514
Oath bow actually
Barbarian has a BFS and armor that buffs his AC for 10 rounds, Fighter has some magically poisoned Rapier.
Even then it could've been a tpk if I wasn't going easy on them
>>44147564
We just saw that they weren't. They started bitching and moaning at the slightest sign of adversity.
>>44147539
I'm planning on turning the difficulty up to match their power level, just asking how to do it without them bitching
>>44147600
They are always going to bitch now, because you have spoiled them into being so powerful.
And what are they going to fight?
Gods? Thats pretty much whats left after Ancient Dragons
>>44147539
>coddled his players
Should I go Necromancy or Conjuration for my monster summoning wizard?
He won't only be making undead, but also demons, elementals and more.
>>44147063
It varies for me but generally speaking I would say my favorite build would be my half elf fire sorcerer with red Dragon blood. I originally made him as a bartender but I think in the future I'm gonna have him be an entertainer using his fire to perform shows. Pick up elemental adept asap that bypass fire resistance.
>>44147647
>making anything but an army of skeletons with bows
>>44147572
OK, that's your problem then. They don't have artifacts strong enough to make them able to fight an ancient dragon - but you pitted them against one anyways.
1. They fought an enemy far too strong for them, and complained (rightfully) that it was so.
2. You 'went easy on them', creating a silly fight where the boss doesn't use his full power, allowing them to defeat an enemy that they should have ran from or died to, setting a precedent that they can defeat extremely powerful beings because those beings are -incompetent-.
>>44147674
What I mean is, when your players find themselves against a fight that's "too hard", they shouldn't complain to you, they should reconsider what the hell got them into the fight, and either adjust their tactics or run. Not stick around and defeat the nerfed boss.
>>44147647
>>44147657
This is how I would necromancer. An undead army with bow in hand will make pin cushions of everything while being super cool.
>>44147705
>>44147657
Yes bone archers will definitely be a part of my army. But in battles I will further use skills like animate object or summon elemental.
So it still worth it going school of Necromancy or should I go something else?
>>44147490
Tricky to handle for the GM.
>>44147515
Nah, "bad" encompasses too many things. Rogue means both GM and player need to constantly fight the system in order for it to work. They should just axe it and make an Urban Ranger archetype since that class as a far saner chassis.
>>44147736
Necro is absolutely worth it; it gives scaling bonus to your skellies and your alternatives aren't really great anyway.
Also, just keep in mind that animating hordes of small objects>>>>few big objects.
Not trying to be contrarian, but what about a Nechromancer whose schtick is ghosts/spectres etc, and less skillies/zombies and such? How would one build this?Binder wan.
>>44147705
this is unironically true in 5e, an army of skeletons with crossbows is fairly trivial for even a medium-level wizard and can put out absolutely unrivaled dpr
>>44147736
I'd still say go Necromancy because if you plan to use undead, you want them to be as powerful as possible. They are your permanent army, they don't need to be resummoned and are not tied to your concentration. Also they make good nightwatch if you are clever.
>>44147765
Ok sounds cool. Are the demon summoning spells from the new UA good? I like how they work and they will probably be allowed at our table.
>>44147796
No, because most of them run a good risk of unleashing a demon on your party if you fuck up. Use them if you want they are not completely worthless just not that good either.
>Rogue is bad
Wut? when did this meme start?
My warlock player wants to have his patron be an ultimately evil fiend who bound the PC with pact against his will. So, a question: how easy it is for the patron to track his ward? At present I'm assuming the patron is just a plot device and I can insert his underlings as enemies for the party whenever I wish to: the final battle with him will be at around level 20 or so. Am I doing this right?
>>44147901
The moment people actually looked at the class. There's basically no reason to take more than 3, maybe 4 levels for ASI.
>>44147994
Ayupp, although pact devils do exist I think if you want something more substantial.
>>44147786
>an army of skeletons with crossbows is fairly trivial for even a medium-level wizard
To kill. Easy for a wizard to kill, right? That's an ironic use of unironic, right?
>>44148008
To create. Tho "army" is a bit of an overstatement. Unless it"s actually a wizard/warlock, who can have like 200 skeletons relatively easy around level 11.
>>44147901
It's a cicle, happens with all classes, we had the monk is bad, the warlock is bad, the barbarian is bad, the ranger is bad, the cleric is bad, now is rogue's turn, next month will be either fighter or wizard.
I'm having a blast with my thief rogue with magic initiate (BB and GFB) and literally do tons of shit.
Previously I also had superfun with my assassin xbow xpert + sharpshooter and onle level of fighter.
>>44148007
>pact devils
What do you mean? Can't google it.
>>44147996
They're good if you just want to do a lot of damage in combat and have useful out of combat skills. Bard's don't deal a lot of damage. Casters have to manage spell slots. Barbarians and fighters don't have good out of combat skills compared to a rogue or bard. The worst things that they have to deal with is a drop off in damage around levels five to eight compared to extra attack and they have to actually think about how to fight in combat to get sneak attack.
>>44148044
>They're good if you just want to do a lot of damage in combat and have useful out of combat skills.
Which you get from a 3 level dip and assassin. After that, taking levels of fighter actually improves your damage more.
> Bard's don't deal a lot of damage.
Unless they poach the right spells.
>Casters have to manage spell slots.
Unless they are druids or sorclocks.
> Barbarians and fighters don't have good out of combat skills compared to a rogue or bard.
But they can get everything worthwhile from the rogue for 3 levels and then have better damage.
>and they have to actually think about how to fight in combat to get sneak attack.
It's ridiculously easy. Been playing for more than half a year now and the only time I couldn't get SA off was when the entire party was dead and I had to high tail it anyway.
>>44148044
Arguably barbs deal less damage than rogues.
Rogue deals 1d8+10d6+5 = 44.5
Barb deals 6d6+21 = 42
With feats
Rogue deals 2d6+10+20+10d6 = 72
Barb deals 6d6+21+30 = 72
Barb has reckless attack sure, but rogue just needs to land one attack to add all his sneak attack which is the majority of his damage.
>>44148024
Well to be fair the ranger and warlock do sorta suck in comparison to similar classes and the monk and barbarian have only one build path that is actually good, but the cleric is always good and the rogue got super buffed in 5e.
Also I'm guessing you were using some sort of hand crossbow build on that assassin? Was it a shortsword and hand crossbow or dual hand crossbow?
>>44148022
Why can a Wizard/Warlock controll more skeletons?
>>44148316
Because the warlock can rest to regain spellslots. he can control 8 skeletons/hour at minimum IIRC.
What are peoples thoughts on OotA? Browsing through as a DM and it seems like a lot of work to run.
>>44148117
Just one hand xbow
Can a sorcerer twin cast concentration spells?
>witch bolt on two separate targets?
>two witch bolts on the same target?
>activating both witch bolts on the same target on subsequent rounds
>activating both witch bolts on two different targets?
>twinning Fly?
>>44148336
Guessing from my memory but I think animate dead is 10 minutes cast time. At level 11 a necromancer takes 4 days to create 62 skeletons. This takes 2 hours and 50 minutes of work a day. He can still sleep and adventure.
The level 11 warlock / necromancer takes 9 days to reach his capacity of 137 skeletons working 15 hours and 40 minutes a day. He is not adventuring. He could just make 65 skeletons that only takes 2 days and only takes 8 hours and 10 minutes to maintain in each day. That leaves him with his spell slots for the day afterwards.
>>44148452
You can only keep one, you can twin cast for the first turn but then you only keep one
>>44148452
Yes you can twin spell concentration spells. You can't use your action on both witch bolts for the repeat damage. You can twin fly if you cast it as a level 3 spell. You can also twin cast haste.
>>44148452
Twinned spell requires a second target, not the same one.
Fly can be twinned but only at a minimum level where it targets no more than 1 target.
You can activate the twinned witchbolts on two different targets.
>>44147901
It likely depends on the campaign. In any given campaign any class can suck. In campaigns I run Rogues tend to have plenty to do. I imagine that in other games people design campaigns in which Rogues tend to do poorly.
None of that on purpose, but campaign design tends to work that way.
>>44148474
>>>44148452 (You)
>You can only keep one, you can twin cast for the first turn but then you only keep one
>>44148489
>>>44148452 (You)
>Twinned spell requires a second target, not the same one.
>You can activate the twinned witchbolts on two different targets.
>>44148481
>>>44148452 (You)
>You can't use your action on both witch bolts for the repeat damage.
So which is it?
>>44148083
>Unless they are druids or sorclocks.
Druids don't do more damage than rogues without thinking about spell slots.
Assuming five encounters in a day and five rounds in a counter and two short rests in that day then sorclock does 1420 damage against average AC and theif rogue with a light crossbow does 1420.5. The rogue does have to hide, and use stroke of luck when he misses. The sorcerer can do more, but that means worrying about spell slots, concentration and whether the target you just hexed will live for your third round.
>>44148583
The spell should still last as long as your using your action to do the repeat damage. Whether or not your action to repeat the damage goes to one or both targets is hard to say. I would think it only goes to one but if it goes to both then that's pretty good.
We have a guy in our group that wants his warlock to have the queen of hearts from alice and wonderland as his patron, he says instead of eldritch blast it shoots out a handful of exploding cards, each one the queen of hearts. Could this become a problem?
>>44148812
If it's only flavor changes it will be fine. If he wants to change mechanics that may become a bigger issue.
>>44148836
No its only flavor wise, was just wondering if this might become a problem when we have to explain IC his patron.
>>44148812
Tell him to stop watching once upon a time
>>44148857
Nah, as long as it's flavor and not too outlandish just have him call explain it as he envisions it. If he is shooting out magic cards from his hands because a queen from a bizarre alternate plane blessed him with such power, that seems par for the course for warlocks.
In my last session we got a random encounter while travelling with some tunneling mole-creatures. On the initiative roll I got 23 (17+5 from Alert) vs. the moles 21 (20 + 1); we'd encountered these before but the DM would not let me cast levitate as the moles went first. So I got pulled under ground, dragged off and gnawed by 2 of them, dropping my lvl 5 to 1hp, using Wrath of the Storm as my reaction. On my turn I used expeditious retreat to sprint back to my party who had also fallen down, only to be killed by a grenade thrown by a mole. After succeeding on my death saves, we got hit by another grenade, collapsing the cave and killing my PC. Can you guys think of any counter play here?
>>44149296
>Can you guys think of any counter play here?
Punch your GM for coming up with that bullshit
>>44149296
>I got 23
>Moles 21
>They went first
Double wut?
>>44149523
He thinks that a natural 20 always wins. In which cases is this not true?
>>44149568
>In which cases is this not true?
All the cases but attack roll, nat20 only works on attack rolls, on nothing else, they got a nat20 on initiative? good for them, they wasted a nat20 and go after your because you got 23.
Like this dude >>44149508 said, punch him, hard, you can't counter bullshit rules that he made up
>>44149568
He's wrong, you should have gone first
>>44149611
>>44149596
>>44149523
Thanks, I'll have a long conversation with him about initiative and how Alert works. I hope I can get a deus ex out of it; I have an idea for one anyway since I luckily multiclassed into cleric.
>>44149636
>Sorcerer/cleric
You dun goofed too
>>44149675
It's more for fitting a character than being super effective, plus some homebrew changes make it more viable.
>>44149701
Being a single class is not being super effective, why the hell people think that if you don't suck hard and are subpar as fuck you're "hurr durr minmaxed"?
>homebrew changes
That we couldn't have known because you didn't mention it beforehand
>>44149736
I've only been playing for a few months so I just assumed that >>44149675 was implying that sorc/cler is really shit. And I apologise for not mentioning any homebrew since it wasn't really necessary.
>yfw your GM only thinks on low as fuck levels and bans druids and monks because
Fuck this shit, I might as well get out of here
>>44149808
Well do you normally play low level games?
>>44149832
We start at 1st or so, but currently we're at 6th level. Also, fuck no, even at low levels the monk isn't op at all.
>>44147149
Land Druid (Swamp) or Feylock.
>>44148583
Does Twinned Spell make two spell instances (I.E., can't Concentrate on both spells) or change one spell instance to 2 targets? One spell instance, two targets. -M
http://www.enworld.org/forum/content.php?1900-D-D-5th-Edition-Sage-Advice-from-Designers-Mearls-Crawford#.Vm2lUr-DvQM
>>44150425
I'd say two simultaneous instances, but this might be fiddly.
So yeah, you might get both off but you're only gonna be able to Concentrate on one.
Started GMing a campaign recently about a human empire that has wiped out all other races and the last few left are either circus attractions, just hermits and in hiding. I tell all this to my PCs yet everyone still rolled non-humans. At the moment I've just had them start at the only safe haven for non-humans on the continent, but going to human controlled cities will be an issue. How can I make it seem fair but not fudge it by using illusion magic to make them appear human? Without a human player this will prove extremely difficult.
>>44150444
Well you are wrong. It was clarified that you can concentrate on both. See the goddamn link.
>>44147170
>can't speak, but can mimic anything they've heard
>sit a kenku hatchling down with a human infant as it learns common
>continue process into adulthood
>???
>profit
>>44150444
That isn't how it works. It is two instance of the same spell. Which means one spell so one concentration. Twinning spells works by adding a second target to the effect from the spell.
>>44150459
Yeah, I'm still not gonna.
>>44149701
If your DM's allowing a homewbrewed class, then there's no reason to think he doesn't also have the houserule of '20's always win'.
Be upset about the cave collapsing, not the initiative order. Who the hell collapses a cave?
>>44148583
Witch bolt is a special case, as its upkeep requires you to spend an action maintaining it during subsequent turns, meaning you could hit two targets but RAW could not maintain the two bolts. However, that spell is bad, so don't bother taking it.
If you cast a concentration spell that only targets one thing, you can twin it to target two things. You can Hold Person on two targets; one may succeed the saving throw and break free sooner than the other, but if both are held, you maintain concentration to hold both. If you Haste two people, both get the benefits, but you still have the risk of both losing a turn when you drop concentration.
Do familiars sleep? Is it possible for a familiar to keep watch all night for a sleeping party?
>>44149296
>Game filled with homerules
>"Can you guys think of any counter play here?"
Dunno, can you think of any way of winning at El Teto?. I will hold information about this game, rules, etc though, so the question becomes moot, looks familiar enough?
>>44150455
It's really fault for letting them roll non-humans in such a world. You can either warp the world around them, or back pedal on your mistake and ask them to reroll.
>>44150678
Do spirits sleep? familiar is not an animal, is a spirit that resembles an animal.
>>44150455
If you create a world like that, why would you let them roll non-humans - or let them ALL roll non-humans.
Make them live with their error. It was explained with the history of the world, if they wanted to all be "special snowflakes" or abuse racials, make them work around the fact that everyone hates them.
Hope that they have some strong casters to keep up illusions or a strong face to bluff why a party of non-humans are strutting around.
Which equipments a level 20 NPC Oathbreaker (villain) would have? I want her to be very strong, the final boss.
>>44150455
>tell them non-humans are extremely rare and despised
>everybody rolls non-humans
Clearly they're interested in the difficulty, GM-anon. Don't coddle them. Let them explore the difficulties of the life they've chosen.
You don't need to make it "seem fair." If they can't think of a way to appear human, well, that's what they've chosen as a group. Don't negate their choice just because you think it seems difficult.
>>44151005
How long have they been an oathbreaker? Did they fall at a low level and get stronger or were they a high leveled paladin that fell?
>>44151027
>>44150851
>>44150729
Thanks for the responses, I will just make them live with it and make them face the consequences, I have had no complaints so far even though the encounters have ranged from challenging to difficult and they seem to be enjoying the world unlike their PCs.
My playgroup decided to try playing 5e campaign (we usually played 3.5 but our GM is bit burned out).
I have a pretty cool idea for a character I am planning to roll but... But it involves one homebrew detail:
Would you as a GM allow LN Kobold Monk in your campaign?
>>44151005
Spellguard Shield, Rod of Lordly might as their weapon, +3 plate armor, and strangely enough I would suggest an eversmoking bottle.
Be warned that this fucker would be a beast to kill. Advantage on saves against spells and magic, a high as fuck AC, spell attack rolls against him have disadvantage, the rod of lordly might gives him an adaptable +3 weapon that has three powerful one use effects and that doesn't even take into account his paladin abilities.
>>44151055
She was a low level Paladin when it happened:
This is the BG so far (she isn't level 20 yet, and sorry for my english grammar):
Aera born in the material plane, far from the birth place of her ancestors, she is part of a special kind of Aarakocras, this lineage of her allow them to live up to 120 years for some reason that nobody knows why.
She was raised in a small village of the Twin Kingdons, and, learn the traditions of the dwarves and humans that there lived, always listened to the stories about adventurers that brought peace and justice to the unfortunates, and belived that justice was some right that belong to everyone.
She had a children when she was 12 years old, and this kid was raised by the same concepts that she was. When she completed 15 years her village was raided, a noble dwarf called Tordek with a particular army invaded the village and kidnaped several childrens, her kid was one of them, he used this childrens as hunt and killed them all like they were animals.
Aera saw her heart broke away in that moment, desperated she went to the autorities telling what Tordek did demanding punishment, but, nobody believed in her, she was just a Aarakocra from a village without importance and he was a noble above any suspicious.
As punishment for "lie about nobles" they cut her wings away, the worst punishment for a Aarakocra, now she is bounded to the ground, something worse than death, also she was banished from the Twin Kingdoms.
She was exiled in the Free Kingdons of Asphur, and while she was wandering she had visions, alucionations she belive that this was effects of the pain, the pain of the lost, the lost of her children and her wings. This visions were about a forgotten god in Namarias, she became a Vengeance Paladin, but every single place that she went she saw the same kind of injustice that she had.
>>44151343
She stablished herself in a small village in Asphur and become the Guard Commander, her methods became cruel and ruthless, minor transgresions were punished with serious punishments, she thinks that the world needs order, and she will bring this order to the world.
However she saw that her power were limited, and decided to find a way to bring back the Tirant King, a god that were banished a long time ago, she found that the god in her visions were the Tirant King, and now she wants to bring him back so she can be his right arm.
For this reason she started a rebelion in Asphur and started to take over territory, stablishing a control zone that nobody is capable of comiting crimes and live for tell the story.
She is making a army and want to take over the entire kingdom, and so take over the Twin Kingdons before she leave to the continent and take over entire Namarias.
For her the ends justify the means, and her means have become so cruel that she broke her Oath blind for his objective of bring back the Tirant King, and so she become a Oathbreaker, she belive, or at least want to belive, that is doing the well despite her cruel methods.
Aera have many followers now, most of them also want order and are tired of being in the hands of bandits, the propaganda is strong in her control zone, but also there is enemies that want her head.
Everybody must respect the law or face serious consequences, and in her control zone one law is primordial: Nobody should harm childrens, those who do that are killed in the most cruel way that she can think.
>>44151243
What does it matter what we would allow? Just talk to your GM.
Trying to Face as hard as possible. Is there a WotC background somewhere with both Persuasion and Deception as proficiencies? I can probably deal if not, just wondering.
>>44151511
Read the Backgrounds section, you can switch out proficiencies and such by RAW.
Yes, even in AL games.
>>44147063
Hunting Owlbears
In a few hours I'm going to run a game that will focus on hunting an Owlbear. It will consist of one player and myself (DM). The character is a ranger.
This is sort of a sidequest deal. A 'monster' has been sighted on the outskirts of a forest village, scared a villager. Nobody knows what it is. The Ranger is going to go after the creature and bring it down on her own.
What are some things I can do to make this more interesting? What skill checks and challenges? I'd like to see this last a full session, but not sure how to extend it.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
>>44152021
To expand a bit. I'd like to get the most out of the 5e skill system as well as the 5e Ranger.
I'd like to do something more involved than just 'roll to track' and then fight at the lair.
>>44151364
Then go with things like >>44151287 said. You will want to avoid the common paladin items like the Holy Avenger because they are mostly flavored to good aligned paladins. Go for things that are vicious and highly lethal to signify her becoming too cruel.
>>44152021
>>44152075
The owlbear runs through a natural obstacle course. Fallen trees, rivers, pits, ravines.Borrow skill challenges from 4E.
Dumb question:
How far away do random encounters occur?
I suppose it's one of those "use common sense" and "it's up to the DM" situations, but I liked how some older editions specifically said enemies appear at d4 x 100 feet away or whatever. There's no guidance like that in 5E, it's just a table.
Although I feel like it would be super slow if the enemies were hundreds of yards away but easy to spot (plains or a flat desert or something), and then everyone rolls for initiative. Characters with bows firing off a few shots with disadvantage, everyone else dashing, round after round.
>>44152170
>Borrow skill challenges from 4E.
I'm not familiar with 4e enough to do that. Any help?
What might be some interesting encounters along the way?
I want to give the Fighter in my game an option to use treated monster materials as weaponry, MonHun style.
I was thinking that a special weapon like this would have a power boost, making it more worthwhile to use than a normal metal weapon, but it needs a drawback.
Basically a monster weapon would be more rewarding to utilize but need more maintenance or on the fly upkeep of some kind. Any ideas?
>>44151487
Won't be able to contact him until game night, and I am trying to consider if I should try come up with alternative solutions.
Newbie 5th ed GM here, is there a guide somewhere for giving magic items to characters starting above lvl 1? All I'm seeing in the DMG is price ranges for different rarities.
>>44152170
What do skill challenges bring to the table for you, exactly? I've seen people defend them before and I just don't get it. It's just a series of skill checks but more gamey and less immersive. I don't see any positive aspect to them.
https://www.reddit.com/r/DnD/comments/3wo2bh/the_tree_would_know_better_than_us_i_suppose/
>>44152821
More than the Reddit or tumblr aspect to this, what I hate the most is
>crit
On a fucking skill check. That's not how those work god damn it.
>>44153020
Of course it sailed to the top of the subreddit
>>44152766
How would one work for the above example?
What would it look like?
>>44153020
This god damn.
>"I tell the guard I'm a chicken!"
>"Fine, roll Deception."
>"Natural 20! Haha, he believes me!"
>"Sorry, that's not how it works. Even if you'd gotten 30, you can't turn an impossible check into a success."
>"YOU'RE A SHITTY DM HE SHOULD BELIEVE I'M A CHICKEN!"
>>44153301
Why even bother with a roll?
>>44153301
>when your dm believed, and has always believed this is how it works, and upon being corrected houserules it to work this way.
>>44153301
Nat 20
> He believes that you honestly believe you are a chicken
>>44153347
It's the only way people learn. You might get closer to that octuple somersault you wanted to do, but the rules of reality and practicality aren't going to change to let you do it. So sure, roll Acrobatics. Maybe you manage two or even three.
Maybe some people enjoy being more lax with it which is why they houserule it. And that's how we end up with these stories about how the paladin tricked a horse into overthrowing the kingdom. It's just not for me.
>>44153482
Most these people don't even houserule it in. They only bothered to read the basics of their classes and combat, and assume it works like that for everything so they just assume a 20 on skill check works without ever stating it when the campaign was starting. Because most the people who play these games are doing it because its hipster.nerdy and can't be assed to actually be interested and read the fucking rules.
>>44153796
With the rise of the Wil Wheaton D&D games, lots of people have been playing D&D like they do, which is rife with nat20 skill checks
>>44153887
Willy doesn't play D&D. He has his own hipster game he is pushing.
>>44153482
>the only way people learn
Hardly, Anon. When I got my current group, they expected everything that they rolled a 20 on would succeed, which they got over pretty quickly with nothing more than "well yeah you made a really good attempt, but the outcome you were hoping for just isn't possible." As a sort-of compromise, nat 20 on a skill check for us represents luck, a result slightly better than the character's skill could ever have obtained, and if they can't think of an explanation for it then there's no bonus, it's just a 19+1. I prefer it this way by far, since no "THE IMPOSSIBLE HAPPANS!" plus it's fun to listen to "uhh uhh shit, maybe there was... a really strong updraft right as I threw the grappling hook? Plus desperation lent me strength? The orcish wardrums and marching have hit just the right frequency to create minor liquifaction in the plain, so the wall is sinking a little?", but my players understand that they can't do something that is literally impossible.
>>44152232
Why are the enemies just standing there? Why are they dashing towards the enemy?
If you spot a possibly hostile force at a distance, you're not going to immediately try and kill them. You're going to wait until you know they're up to no good, or else avoid them.
If you encounter enemies hundreds of yards away, make the uncertainty part of the encounter. Who are these people? What do they want? Can they be bargained with? That sort of thing.
>>44153923
You know what I'm talking about, though.
>>44150462
Then you have a creepy bird who regurgitates gems like "See Spot Run" in a little kid's voice.
>>44152260
Some scavengers feasting on the owlbear's most recent kill?
You should give the opportunity for a variety of different checks. Survival for finding tracks. Athletics for forging a river. Dexterity for running across a fallen log bridge or avoiding unstable terrain. Maybe Perception to notice previous hunters' pit traps or snares.
Just a bunch of different ways that the Ranger can go about finding the beast. You want most of the challenge to be skills-based or mental right? If there's too much combat beforehand, the owlbear could fuck him up.
>>44153947
This is a good point. I don't like the idea that 20 is always a success even with the "it's fantasy" excuse, because some things just are flat out impossible.
But maybe as a house rule that 20 sometimes does represent effect that MAKES it possible. I don't think this is much of a stretch in a lot of situations.
I know /tg/ is divisive on the guy, but Lindybeige made an interesting video about this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MF8UU4pqefk
My current PC is a Jim Hawkins(Book) type human sorcerer who spent his time at sea as a cabin boy between the ages of 17-19, which creatures from the monster manual will he likely have encountered/heard of?
>>44152590
It might not fit in his setting. Bring an alternative.
>>44154379
>Some scavengers feasting on the owlbear's most recent kill?
Like it, good set encounter.
Nature/Tracking to get to recent kill.
From there another tracking to get to next location?
Maybe have a string of encounters to be followed? What might be some other ideas?
I got like twenty minutes guys, I really appreciate any help.
>>44155624
So I'm thinking:
starts at location where 'monster' was last seen. at this point the player doesn't know what it is (and PC has never encountered one).
Tracking check takes PC to recent kill
Nature check at recent kill gives some information on creature
Tracking check takes PC to a scratched tree: used to mark territory
Nature check gives information on monster
Failure of tracking means that the PC has to start over
Other suggestions?
>>44155754
>Failure of tracking means that the PC has to start over
Never do this. It's really fucking boring if it's all rolling the skill again and again until you succeed.
I'm getting an error when downloading the DDEX3-7 from Mega. Anyone has the file and can reup it to someplace?
>>44155822
Another suggestion for failure?
I was thinking of a 'random' combat encounter but I'm thinking the Owlbear would have driven away all competitor predators.
What if a failed tracking check (really survival check) triggered a hazardous terrain check as suggested above? The PC has gone off course. Failure means you make an athletics/acrobatics check or suffer some small mount of damage (fallen trees, rocks, etc).
>>44155754
For failure, I'd recommend them going off on the wrong track, and having encounters that suggest this, with the option of trying again at any point they pick with a (small) bonus to represent that they know it's not /that/ way, so it must be one of /these/. Personally, I'm a big fan of "you meet some other hunters who are also tracking it, because it's a huge threat" possibly with "they seem like they're kinda shite, the best hunting trophy necklace any of them has is made from rabbit teeth" to indicate they're in the wrong place.
>>44155915
Those are okay. He could just have the owlbear track him, or stumble into its lair/ambush without knowing it's there, and give surprise round to the owlbear too.
anyone have any input for playing an Arcane Trickster who's a devout acolyte of the god Mask?
>>44155954
What I have set up so far is that the Ranger PC is the only one tracking the creature. At the moment, nobody believes there is even a threat out there. Small child just got away, comes back with big story, everyone laughs, party ranger believes. That sort of thing.
(I like doing some solo stuff for players so that their characters get to be the main character now and then. Next week the rogue is going to have some trouble in another town. But that is much easier for me to put together for some reason.)
>>44156000
I was thinking of that as a next step.
Before I did something like this, if X success met Y number before X fail met Z number then etc.
Success winning would be finding the lair. Failure winning would be falling in to ambush. But it would be nice to have a half dozen or so of these encounter location ideas so that it feels like he has been out there hunting for more than a few hours.
Opinions on Maptool vs Roll20 for online hosting?
I'll be dming, and I love the aspect of the game that's added by dynamic lighting. Both programs have it and it makes dungeon crawls a lot of fun.
I like to map out everything, ideally even the spaces between dungeons and small towns, so that players can always use their tokens to represent where they are. Maptool seems more comprehensive (I've DMed a small game with it before), but roll 20 seems more popular and user friendly.
Has anyone DMed a campaign with either? Could you let me know what you thought of the program?
>>44156167
My group of 7 currently uses Roll20, haven't ever used Maptool. Roll20 is pretty good for what we need, a good library of assets and webcam functionality is nice too. We prefer not to use the in built char sheets as its basically just copying up text, so we just use google drive and pdfs.
>>44156167
I use Roll20 and pay for the super premium shit and like it.
Things I like about it:
-Jukebox for playing sound effects/music to everyone
-Dynamic lighting that is pretty easy to use. Just draw a polygon on an area in a dynamic lighting layer and you determine what the players can and can't see through.
-Easy to make maps and switch between them. I made a bunch of encounter maps in different areas and can throw them up quickly.
-Well scripted 5E character sheets. Players can push a button to roll initiative and go into the turn order list, to attack (with advantage/disadvantage already in), and with a little scripting knowledge by looking at the wiki they can setup things like sneak attack, fighter abilities, spells and effects, etc.
-Handouts. I can write a summary of a quest and put it in their journals, summary of sessions so players know what happened, graphical handouts, private things to only certain characters, etc.
-Library of assets. If you pay the premium you get some assets, but if you want specific ones you gotta buy them.
>>44156663
Do you mainly use it to map things like dungeons / taverns / large buildings and swap between them? I'm wondering if it would be able to handle a large "overworld map", where the players could literally move around to scale, and then I could switch to the dungeon specific map once they get to that area. Does that sound like something roll 20 could handle?
For assets, I have the old Mapping_objects 3gb torrent for maptool. It comes with a ton of tiles for texture and premade dungeon layouts, as well as many misc objects. The only thing I can't find the functionality to do is create decent looking walls that block line of sight.
In maptool, I could make lines or paint with a specific texture like cobblestone. It seems like in R20, all you could really do is outline tiles in a black line, and then use vision blocking to make that a wall. Is there something I'm missing?
>>44156766
I have a map of the overworld in mine that it handles well, yeah. Party goes to a town and says they want to goto the Inn and ask around, I switch from overworld map to Inn map, ask them to drop their tokens, and they go from there.
>>44154863
I've seen a houserule that nat 20 is +5 and nat 1 is -5 for skill checks.
That way the player is still rewarded/penalised but its not auto success or fail.
Anyone got a Murder in Baldur's Gate pdf?
My first fight as a barbarian, against bandits
>Me and my group decide how to proceed
>Decide to release the captive bear the bandits had a hold on inside a cage with magic, while distracting the bandits with a crow familiar
>The familiar dies to arrows
>The bear gets scared and breaks the cage himself, going on the direction me and the mage were hiding
>Through sheer luck, we manage good stealth rolls and the bear turns to the bandits as the mage sends a deceptive crow sound on their direction.
>While the bandits and the bear engage on themselves, we position ourselves behind bushes and tents
>The bear gets killed as we decide how to best proceed to engage, while the paladin diverses the distraction of the bandits throwing a rock on a tent, provoking the bandits to release arrows on said tent.
>We can hear the bandits like if they were about to faint
>Brilliance strikes me
>I pull out a grizzly bear head out of my inventory, and throw it on the air so that it falls near the bandit pack
>Screams can be heard
>"GODDAMIT DUDE I TOLD YOU THIS FOREST WAS CURSED, WE'VE PROVOKED THE BEAR'S WRATH"
>The mage casts illusion featuring a gigantic bear skull
>GM: "I think I'm going to make the bandits throw Salvation"
>Laughter from every player there
>One of the bandits gets too scared and runs away
>The rest develops as a normal fight would as we engage taking advantage
>2 bandits throw arrows at our rogue and bard
>Pop Rage
>Knock out one of the bandits with a greatsword's sideblow, making it look like a Home Run
>Jump at the other bandit and strike using momentum with the side of the blade
>Dislocate the bandit's arm completely
>The mage kills her off with a fireball
>Everyone levels up
I never had this much fun playing anything. For real.
>>44157895
Barbarian is truly one of the most entertaining classesas long as you don't get so out of hand with it the group considers you a liability/nuisance
>>44157895
>familiar dies to arrows
Owch. That's a pain in the ass.
>>44155267
Tales of dragon turtles and krakens. Maybe bronze dragons?
Merfolk, merrow, sahuagin perhaps?
Sharks and other sea dwelling beasts most assuredly.
>>44158220
Not really? At most you're out 10gp and an hour of your time. Which isn't that big of a deal.
>>44158375
I thought it was 100 gp.
>>44158508
nope, just 10
I'm thinking about playing a necromancer with the charlatan background. He uses the false identity from the background primarily to hide the fact that he uses dark magic and he is pretty deceptive in general.
Should I go for the actor feat as variant human or would the charlatan background be enough?
Anyone have any tips on playing a death domain cleric?
>>44156000
So finished, and this is what happened:
> Tracked Owlbear to partially eaten corpse, learned information about its tactics
> Tracked Owlbear and then had to deal with old trail vs new trail
> Tracked Owlbear to territory marker (tree clawed)
> Tracked Owlbear to torn apart competitor predator in area
> Nature and investigation checks were used to gather more information
>Various successes and fails led to some checks against Athletics to get past dangerous terrain.
>One very bad check led to the Owlbear ambushing the PC, but not getting surprise (high perception check)
>Initial ambush combat ended with the Ranger running and badly wounded with Owlbear moderately wounded chasing.
> Ranger chose harsh terrain to run through to try and slow Owlbear down, Acrobatics checks to move without trouble and gain distance.
> Gained enough distance to use her bow, ended up turning the fight and pursuing the Owlbear. More Acrobatics checks to move through terrain.
> Owlbear made it to its lair, a cave.
Then, to my surprise, she uses talk with animals spell to try and negotiate with it. After rolling nothing but 20-25+ on persuasion over and over she gets the creature to move its territory to not cover the village. She then further figures out that it had been forced out of its territory by an infestation of large spiders (made up on the spot, so that forest is now covered in eight legged horrors for reasons). Now the Ranger plans on returning with the full party to assist the Owlbear in clearing and returning to its original territory.
Cause Rangers do that I guess.
>>44159814
sounds like a pretty good session
>>44159880
Good times,
Thanks for all the help guys. I'm really looking for ways to push the 5e system and I appreciate the assistance.
>>44159814>Then, to my surprise, she uses talk with animals spell to try and negotiate with it.Owlbears are monstrosities, not beasts.
>>44160086
she should have had her face be clawn off DESU
>>44160086
>Talk with animal spells is even more garbage than I thought
>Is there no end to ranger sucking
>>44160086
ironically enough the spiders have more of a right to living in the forest than the owlbear
>>44160086
I thought about that. That was the way I was going, heck they had just been in combat. Talking didn't seem to be the right answer anyhow. But forcing the Ranger to go into the cave and kill it with two swings felt rather anti-climatic as well.
But I decided to go with it, the player was really trying to make it work and avoid 'just kill it' (it had less than 15 HP left). So I went with the more complicated direction.
As it was, I had fun RPing the Owlbear off the cuff and speaking in growls that translated as 'but you are food' half the time and the player had fun trying to work the other side.
Why let the rules stop everyone from having fun and force a 'roll a d20 twice and kill it' solution instead of an RP solution that nobody had planned on or expected? I say go for it.
Instead of this ending with some XP, it ended with a bunch of future plot options.
>>44160086
>>44160138
>>44160220
>>44160473
To be fair, I don't think a wizard held it down and ran a magnifying glass over it and went "Yep, that's a monstrosity".
What if it was just like... a bear stuck in an owlbear costume?
How broken would it be to allow vampiric touch to work like GFB and Booming Blade?
ie Make it require a melee weapon attack instead of a melee spell attack.
I just want to find a way to make it stack with death domains divine strike.
So if level 20 Half-Orc Fighter using a +3 greataxe with the great weapon master feat, uses his action surge, rolls all crits every time, uses all his extra attacks, the great weapon master feat part about +10 damage and the full bonus attack action as bonus action, the racial feature savage attacker, critical hit bonus damage die, and whatever else you can use to get more damage.
Would it be something like each individual attack deals 3d12+18, which itself is happening 4+1 times, twice because action surge, so in reality its 30d12+216, or would the extra attacks feature apply to the bonus action attack from the feat, making it really 48d12+288
How fucking wrong is this?
>>44161003
Nothing gives you an extra bonus action on your turn and Extra Attack does not apply to anything but the Attack action taken on your turn.
>>44161067
I didn't say anything gives you an extra bonus action, I said that, as it says under the great weapon master feat, if you score a critical hit or bring an enemy's HP down to 0, you can take an attack action as your bonus action.
Under that, I'm assuming its the first one
My dream is to one day run a mini-campaign (level 1 - 5) of 3-4 PCs playing as goblinoid races.
The gist of the beginning would be that they're all a part of a warband that was broken up and separated behind enemy lines and have to try to not get horribly killed by the human / elf forces.
I came up with a rough draft of the three races, tweaking existing 5E abilities.
Can I get some constructive feedback?
>>44161003
>>44161067
This and Great Weapon Master explicitly only gives you one bonus melee attack. So 9 attacks total (4 from action, 4 from action surge, 1 from great weapon master bonus)
So 9 * (3d12+18) = (27d12+162)
Got polymorph today. Now I'm a triceratops. This shit is top m8.
>>44161258
>Not being a giant ape.
Do you not want to become King Kong and grapple dragons like a boss anon?
>>44160578
Then you would be wrong. Sexing local wild animals and monster is a highly important part of a wizard's apprenticeship. Find a nearby Wizard who's taken in an apprentice, and you'll find your answer.
>>44148459
If I remember correctly the necromancer only needs to recast once to regain control of all their undead.
>>44161421
god dammit i'm missing a glorious oppurtunity
>>44147232
OotA Paladins tend to worship nature itself over particular deities. Considering information about the Great Old Ones is so sparse and they tend to have a strongly neutral impact on the world, it wouldn't be outside the realm of reason for a Paladin to mistake, say, Shub-Niggurath for some sort of nature spirit. A dude with goat legs gave you a drink of alcohol, you partied in a swamp, now some being whispers secrets to you. Ain't nothin' wrong with that!
So through a series of character developments I was able to win the favor of Silvanus who basically told me in physical form "When death comes knocking at your door, think of me as the bouncer" He also granted me a permanent haven when in the forest. Does this make me OP? All the other players seemed to be fine with it.
>>44162147
The not dying part, maybe, depends on GM execution. A haven in the forest isn't OP unless you guys are exclusively hanging out in that forest. And even then, that tends to be useful for adventure hooks.
>>44162147
Nah, this basically means that if you would die from a third failed death save, Silvanus just tells death to step off for a minute, this person's time to go is not yet.
If this was me running it, the haven in the forest is a plot hook for me to try and have you help protect from invading evils and things that would try to corrupt the land.
Hey /tg/, sorry to be that faggot.
I used to have a group that would regularly play, ten years ago at this point. Eventually people stopped coming.
In this day and age is there anything online? Or do I have to try a track down a group of strangers?
>>44162147
Were I your DM, I'd expect you to regret dying, regardless of whether or not you come back. A player of mine had a necromancer back when we played PF, and Urgathoa tended to bring him back only because she was grooming him to be something far greater than his current level-14-sorceror, but always with a cost. First time he failed, he came back with Gluttony (eat minimum 100gp worth of food per day), the next time he came back without his eyes, and the last time he automatically failed saves vs diseases and was always contagious.
Admittedly, that's a neutral evil goddess with a vengeful streak and little conception of his limits, whereas Silvanus is probably a reasonably happy good god. Point is, if it seems unfair, there's plenty your DM can change at a moment's notice (god's patience runs out being most obvious) to make it less so, and the chosen of the gods typically get
>(20) Save the World [8 players]
for every quest starting at level 2.
I'd wait a while before worrying about fairness, and hope your DM has some sort of planning-ahead going on.
>>44162826
Roll20.
So I was looking at the Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide and wondering why the Long Death and Sun Soul monk and Purple Dragon Knight fighter were so mediocre and underwhelming, and then I noticed that Sean "I Hate Monks" K. "I Hate Fighters" Reynolds, good ol' SKR himself, is in the designer credits.
At least I can houserule the shit out of these garbage features, but I shouldn't fucking have to. How is SKR still getting work in tabletop RPGs? Why can't he just go away and let us have monks and martials that are worth playing?
>>44162967
Sun Soul and Long Death are good.
And PDK is just Champion-level boring.
>>44162826
There are things online but I feel online should be a last resort. I personally was in a similar situation but I found a group I play with through the Adventure League. Idk how people here feel about organized play but I love it. It is fair and, as far as my experience goes, the games are fun and consistent, and most players are very nice and welcoming.
>>44163029
Speaking of Champion, is that fighter archetype mechanically good?
Working on tables that determine random quirks of special materials and I'm running out of things to put on it. Anyone have any ideas?
>>44163112
Mechanically no, but that's because there are no champion mechanics. You crit more, you jump slightly better, you get a second fighting style, and you get a regen effect super late level that's only works when your under half. It's not bad but it is the worst of the three and is quite boring.
>>44163112
Its main combat feature is an expanded crit range, which improves damage by 5% of damage die (so like less than half a point of a damage per attack). It takes 20 rounds of combat for it to equal the much more powerful and versatile Battle Master.
And its main ribbon is jack of all trades on Str, Dex, and Con checks, which is okay but outdone by a lower-level Bard feature.
Base Fighter is still solid enough with its hit points and extra attacks and action surge that it can play fine enough but it's not very good at all.
So, /5eg/, I want the next session I'm doing to be a minor mystery. The PCs have just gotten to spookytown where the meat of the campaign will take place. When trying to find the temple blacksmith they'll find that he's gone missing. I plan to have them find him in working condition by the end of the session.
Any suggestions? I've never done a mystery before. I thought this was a good opportunity to try it out.
>>44163343
He's been kidnapped by a local necromancer, who is forcing him to turn his skeletons into Mecha-Skeletons, reinforced with iron and spikes and blades.
In truth the necromancer is only doing this to impress the father of a busty local girl, who has forbidden their marriage since the necromancer is dirt poor. The father is a merchant, and the skeletons are intended to serve as unstoppable bodyguards.
>>44163126
Translucent
Self-repairing
Vampiric (physically, rather than magically)
Duplicating (over time it'll prong off and make more of itself)
Magnetic
Aerodynamic/super smooth
Super abrasive
Leaves residue (like chalk I guess)
Attracts bees (why not)
Alive (it's not really a mineral, just some horrible living forgable meat)
Parasitic (wants inside of you or whatever)
Foul smelling
Fluff ones
Stupid looking (like embarrassing despite quality/usefulness)
Illegal item (banned for whatever reason in current area)
Stolen Item (actually someone's shit gone missing)
>>44163559
Thanks anon
>>44163343
Here's a mystery plot I've had brewing in my head for a bit that could work here:
Recently, people of this town have gone missing. They are kidnapped from their home or off the street and whisked away somewhere, mutilated, and their bodies turn up in the river or in an alley roughly a week after they disappear. The town is on edge and the blacksmith will be the one who most recently disappeared. The party must sort through all the evidence and find out who the killer is before the blacksmith meets the same fate. The suspects are an urchin who is constantly spouting crazy nonsense, the town doctor who is kind but creepy, the innkeeper who is about to lose his inn to debt collectors, and the town mayor who is very adamant about people respecting him. The culprit will bethe doctor. The urchin will confirm this but he us always making insane and outlandish claims so the party will probably still investigate the other suspects. Evidence should lead to an underground laboratory where the doctor conducts inhumane experiments trying to create an elixir of youth from the blood and organs of his past victims. The Smith will be chained in a cage. The doctor has levels in rogue and has several dogs that will attack the party.
You like it or is it a bit much?
Is there any diety in FR that would make sense for a wood elf cleric of death, with a skeleton army?
>>44163885
Single casting of Speak with Dead ruins the whole bit. Just have fingers or feet wash up rather than the whole body.
>>44163908
Fuck it, just worship Vecna. He did a planar tour anyways.
>>44163885
A neat concept, but that's quite a bit more involved than what I was hoping for. The next session is when the PCs get shown around town and get acquainted with a lot of the NPCs they'll be interacting with throughout the session.
I didn't have an combat planned, so mainly I'm looking at how to pad out the session. I figured a short, light mystery would both be fun and be good practice for me to get into that style since I want to incorporate bigger mysteries in the campaign.
>>44163938
Speak to dead only works if they've been dead less than a month
>>44163991
Bodies are showing up a week after they disappeared. The first one or two might he too old, but the most recent few won't be.
>>44163885
>>44163966
Actually, thinking about this more, this could definitely take place within the span of a single session and it's got an interesting, dark flare to it. Any more details or even advice you could give me?
>>44164043
It could be used as a work-around though. That or be lazy and have the doctor wear a mask around the lab or whatever
>>44163908
What alignment are you gunning for?
>>44164162
Preferably not evil
>>44164232
None of the FR Elf deities are cool with Undead, and the FR deities that are cool with it are evil, barring Osiris, who is literally the Egyptian god shoehorned into FR.
>>44163938
That's a good point. Thanks for the tip.
>>44164049
Well detail wisethe evidence should not directly point to the doctor, but rather where the victims are being taken. The lab I'm thinking should be in a basement of an abandoned building on the outskirts of town. The lab itself will hold the incriminating evidence pointing to the doctor. The doctor will start stalking the party when he is not with a patient after finding out they are investigating his work and will attempt to kidnap one of the weakest party members on their first night. This attack should end with him fleeing after he fails and leaving behind a crucial clue, a key to the basement. It could be either old and rusty or new and made of silver. Either way could hint to multiple suspects. Of course their should also be false clues to hint at the other three.outside of that it's your campaign so the finer details would be better for you to work out.
Also the people above are right is should only be body parts, no heads. Speak with dead is a mystery ruiner
>>44164232
Osiris.
http://forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/Osiris
Some DMs hate Mulhorandi stuff though.
>>44164279
Your personal alignment doesn't have to mirror that of your diety in 5th edition.
>>44163343
>>44163966
If you want something a little more mellow leave a note on the door saying he's out making deliveries but should be back by noon. It's clearly well past that so something seems amiss. If they search the place they find a list of orders he had to fill. If they follow in order they meet various NPCs who each day they met the smith and he went on his way. The second to last one on the list (not the last so if they go there first they find out he never showed up) has him at their house and is treating an injury the smith sustained while going about his deliveries. If the PCs can offer any magical healing he thanks then and promises to meet them back at his shop after he makes his last delivery.
>>44164389
It's retarded to worship fucking Myrkul or Vecna and then claim to be LG.
Any DM would be right telling you to fuck off.
I want to run a game with my friends online but whats a good program to use for the map where everyone can move their stuff on their own?
>>44165852
roll20
>>44165852
Roll20 can be pretty fiddly, but so long as you remember to set up the permissions etc correctly, you should be fine. I'd recommend taking an hour or two with a friend to fuck about with it and see what you'll need to do.
Do we know next core books coming out?
>>44166067
I think they posted a rough estimate of their release schedule somewhere, but I know it won't be for another year roughly. I think they are trying to avoid pumping out a mountain of books in a short time span like they have done with past editions. Tbh I like the slower release pace.
How would one go about giving a party a small pet dog? It would be a ribbon, but to an extent it should effect gameplay. By small dog, I do mean like a Lhasa apso.
Just for fun really, we have a little dog with us when we play so we thought it would be fun to let him in.
Plus I think the next BBEG is going to kill it. Perfect plot hook.
![5d30b79a5a48714c6cb656ded83ee587[1].jpg](https://i.imgur.com/edIiMKY.jpg "5d30b79a5a48714c6cb656ded83ee587[1].jpg")
>Have a player who wants to play a Dr. Facilier styled character
>He is dead set on being a pact of the chain warlock
>Wants a Shadow as his chain familiar and to have it replace his shadow
Should I allow it?
What does /tg/ think about the Witch Hunter class by Critical Role's Matt Mercer? Little too much "The Witcher"? Fun to play? Balanced?
>>44166420
Shadow's are only CR 1/2 like Imps and Quasits so why not. Sounds cool
Is imposing disadvantage on an enemy's attacks comparable to you gaining advantage on attacks towards them, or is it an imbalanced dichotomy?
>>44166543
Imbalanced if I remember the stats right. You are more likely to fail with disadvantage than you are to succeed with advantage against most enemies (assuming of course no magic items and max to-hit based stat for your character)
>>44166543
They aren't comparable. You'd have to take into account the CR of the enemy, the HP of the player, their class, weapon etc etc
>>44166575
>>44166576
If you have one ability that imposes disadvantage on a single targets attacks, and another that gives you advantage when attacking that enemy, that function exactly the same barring those two effects, are they equivalent and balanced against one another?
>>44166621
For the most part yes.
>>44166621
It's just that they do different things.
Please note that they are both powerful abilities. Barbarian can get advantage, but will then receive attacks against him with advantage. Fighter can give disadvantage, but only when using shield within 5 feet of someone else being attacked.
So be careful about just handing those abilities out without any kind of limit or drawback
>>44166640
It's for the sake of homebrewing. I'm basically putting in the opposite to the Oath of Vengeances' Vow of Emnity ability.
>>44166654
Will you make it cause disadvantage on all attack rolls or only on attack rolls agains the casting player?
>>44166420
You might want to remove this ability from the Shadow.
>If a non-evil humanoid dies from this attack, a new shadow rises from the corpse 1d4 hours later.
>>44166679
I'm not to worried about it since it isn't loyal to the player or his shadow. He will be warned though if I let him play it.
>>44166694
Just remove the ability. You might also want to remove or radically alter its Strength Drain
>>44166677
It's not within the flavour that I was going for, but that's the way I was planning it, yeah.
>>44166694
It could still be a problem, because every time the shadow kills a humanoid, that isn't known to be evil, they will have to wait for the new shadow to rise from the corpse, or risk the newly born shadow causing a shadowcalypse in some nearby settlement.
>>44166753
Which is it?
>>44166767
Just against the instigating player.
>>44148656
Wrong. Druids can do a fuck ton of damage played correctly.
My druid is so op right now it's retarded. Giant eagle power bomb grapple combo = 20d6 per round on a dash action. Or a whole fuck ton of animals summoning for an average 60dpr or I can just grapple stun fuck people all day long. Nobody can out do my druid's dumb cheese mechanics.
>Level 2 wizard in OotA
>Feel fucking useless
>Dealing almost no damage
>About a 50% chance that they save against one of the three spells I can cast a day
>Feel like more of a hindrance than a help for the party
Fucking hell please tell me this gets better soon.
How do you make large dungeons?
Like, multi-day adventures?
I was planning on stringing a both of 5 room dungeons together, but does anyone have good tips on how to create good dungeons?
>>44166981
It gets much better once you get to the durgar city. Just play it safe and spam magic missle.
>>44167005
Well you can either look online for large dungeons, or you can design them like a labyrinth. Either way the best way to make it last a long time is to make the dungeon have multiple floors.
Daily reminder that if you're not having four to eight fights per day, your 5e game is nonstandard and won't conform to balance expectations.
>>44167010
It also doesn't help I only have 12 HP due to a bad roll for my second level HP.
We just got to the part whereDemogorgon jumped the fuck up out of the ocean after we killed this one priestess. Now the rest of the party still wants to travel by water to get to blingdenstone which is where we decided to head to after escaping the drow
>>44166981
Did you recover your spellbook?
>>44167041
Do you mean per session? Because In the OotA campaign I'm playing in, our group usually only has at most 3 fights per session unless we are are dungeon diving. Moreover most AL modules don't seem to to go beyond 4 fights, at least in all the ones I've played in, and I'm quite positive they represent the standard.
>>44161564
They can maintain 4 skeletons, +1 per higher slot, +1 for the necromaner feature with each cast. The big difference is it only takes a minute to animate dead, so I'll throw up the right numbers later.
>>44167128
Yeah. My characters background meant he had an item of such personal worth that he would have faced the drow alone to get it back. The party decided to press on until we recovered everyone's gear before we booked it.
