Baatorian Edition
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Previous thread What encounters have you had with the denizens of the Nine Hells? Have you bound any devils into your service via talismans and truenames? Have you contracted an imp into being a familiar?
Advantage on first post.
If an ancient wizard is using Magic Jar to possess the body of a much younger person, and then they cast Simulacrum, is the Simulacrum one of their original, ancient body, or their current, possessed body?
And on another note, if you cast Simulacrum, then used Magic Jar to inhabit the body of your Simulacrum, could your new simulacrum-body then regain health and spells as normal?
One of the enemies my players are up against is an Ultroloth heading a small mercenary company of yugoloths. They've been contracted by the BBEG to be an elite damage-response team, and to shepherd critical plots to completion.
The players hate this Ultroloth not for any of that stuff, but because he burned down their wagon and killed their pet pig.
Volley. You can use your action to make a ranged attack against any number of creatures within 10 feet of a point you can see within your weapon's range.
Whirlwind Attack. You can use your action to make a melee attack against any number of creatures within 5 feet of you, with a separate attack roll for each target.
Volley is best supplemented with Archery (+2 to hit with ranged weapons) fighting style (and we'll also give it xbow expert and 20 Dex):
>12 targets, heavy crossbow
>12d10+60
mean total = 126
Whirlwind is best supplemented with Duelist (+2 to damage when "dueling") fighting style (we'll give him 20 dex):
>8 targets, rapier
>8d8+56
mean total = 92
There is no clear benefit to taking Whirlwind. You can even pull off the Volley in melee range with the crossbow expert feat. How did WotC fuck this up so badly?
That has to be the shittiest chain devil I've ever seen.
How the fuck is Death House so freaking difficult?
It's recommended for 4 players. We have 5 with me as a barbarian, then a fighter, wizard, cleric, and Druid.
My DM has had to throw us so many bones once we got into the basement. The room with the wooden statue and the shadows my DM made it so destroying the orb the statue holds banished the shadows because we would of 100% lost otherwise. Then for the shambling mound the DM let us trap it behind the portcullis leading into that chamber. We've taken two long rests through the whole thing and it still felt ridiculous.
Did we miss something about that adventure? I know 5e is supposed to be hard but that seemed so stacked against us.
There's a reason it isn't called Life House. I'm not sure what you expected.
> I only know how to solve problems by killing them.
Death House is not the adventure for you. Ravenloft is not the setting for you.
Warlock question: I know Blade is commonly accepted as the weakest pact, but what's the word on the Patrons? From what I read, is Archfey a weaker option than the other two?
Speaking of chain devils, I'm thinking of making a dungeon that has a chain devil as the head Devil in it. The dungeon would basically be an abandoned prison / torture chamber with many hanging chains and hooks as well as many former prisoners turned into varying abominations. The Devil's contract to the prison owner was to prevent any prisoners from escaping at any cost. Now anyone who enters the dungeon will be Hunted and captured by the devil and his minions. Thoughts?
That wasn't a chain devil in D&D 3rd edition, that was a Chain Golem.
But yea, all things considered, most of the art work for 5th Ed sucks ass.
Rolled 4, 4, 4, 1, 1, 4, 1, 3, 2, 3, 3, 2, 3, 4, 2, 4, 1, 1, 3, 1, 2, 1, 1, 1, 1 = 57 (25d4)
There is some cool stuff you can craft with a single day's downtime (8 hours) and 2.5gp:
-100 arrows or bolts
-250 blowgun needles
-1 hunting trap
-5000 (5 applications of) ball bearings
-1000 (5 applications of) caltrops
-10 feet of chain
-500 pieces of chalk
-1 grappling hook, 1 crowbar or 2 block and tackle kits, and 50ft of hempen rope (a little heist kit)
-a portable ram and a net (breach and apprehend kit)
-1 healer's kit
-500 feet of ladder
-50 oil flasks
-a vial of perfume
-100 darts (25lbs)
-500 sacks (250lbs)
-[2 sacks and 76 darts] + [1 sack and 23 darts]; use your mage hand legerdemain bonus action to out-turn a sack of darts over an enemy for 38d4 piercing damage. Only 19sp and a copper a time.
-250 bars of soap
-60 iron spikes (improvised daggers, tavern brawlers?)
-2 two-person tents and fishing tackle
-10 tinderboxes
-500 torches
Poison (100gp)
>20 days at 5gp per day
>10 days with 2 people
>5 days with 4 people
>1 day with 20 people
=====================
5 person party,
if all 5 have 3 retainers from the noble background and everyone has proficiency in the poisoner's kit, then they can all spend a day to make a single poison vial.
I figured out how to make Rangers good and Favored Enemies useful.
Sounds bretty good.
I'd make it more like a butchery, with hanging bodies of humans/elves/orcs/dwarves/etc
On the service, I'd have a very metallic design, with big demon butchers that cut up all the bodies and disposed of them by feeding them to the ranks of the demon hordes of the lord Chain Devil, and below, in the rooms where the bodies are kept, their blood would drain into grates and there would be a network of blood drainage where all the lowly demons would feast on whatever they could.
Actually, OP's image is 4e
>on the surface
Are you dipping three levels, or are you going straight Warlock? Are you ignoring UA?
Fiend is probably the best because the temp HP is actively useful as opposed to the other two needing some work but the difference is small enough that I'd recommend choosing for RP reasons. The extra spells thing is mostly irrelevant because Hex and EB is better than most of the spells you could be spending your slots / turns on anyway.
Depends on what you want to do. Fiend easily has the most combat utility; GOO and Fey seem to be personal preference, with GOO edging out because the prevailing opinion is that lovecraft is cooler.
I've enjoyed Fey. The level 1 feature is pretty awesome when it lands.
I remember the devils for 4e looking a lot better.
Did you even read what I wrote? We completed two difficult fights without straight combat. Please explain to me how we should of dealt with the frocks and ghouls in the basement without killing them. Diplomacy? Literally nothing in that whole house would speak except the dead children (who's bodies we laid to rest) and the spooky cultists chanting at us to sacrifice someone.
I'm legit asking, please tell me how any of the encounters in there could be beaten without combat or running.
Okay.
Should be gricks not frocks.
>use your mage hand legerdemain bonus action to out-turn a sack of darts over an enemy for 38d4 piercing damage.
If your DM is letting you deal 38d4 damage by dropping 38 darts on someone he is being incredibly kind with damage and would probably let you win regardless of what you did.
that Sounds pretty Awesome. Thanks for the feedback.
I mean, if daggers spinning around in a cube can deal damage, why can't a hail of darts do damage? Darts are even imbalanced to be heaviest at the tip, meaning that falling darts are more likely to pointed nasty side down.
Considering it's technically magic turning a bag of darts upside-down, I'd allow it. I mean, magic can do whatever the fuck it wants, right.
>Did you even read what I wrote?
Yeah, I read it, any you missed the point entirely: you're not supposed to be able to complete encounters through combat alone. That's how the adventure's supposed to make you and the rest of the party feel relatively helpless compared to other adventures.
Trapping Lorghoth is an entirely valid tactic. The GM threw you the bone in the Shadows room, I'm assuming, because you wouldn't have fucking left otherwise. Thank him for being a bro and not wiping the party next time you see him.
I don't recommend that you play CoS in full.
>I mean, magic can do whatever the fuck it wants, right.
It can't turn undead
It can turn undead into piles of regular dead.
How were we supposed to know the shadows would of stayed in the room and not chased us? Was there any indication of this?
This isn't scooby doo were we get chased around a haunted house for 10 mins and lose the shadow ghosts by hiding in a suit of armor.
Clearly you need to invest more into your ability to hide.
>Was there any indication of this?
What do you want me to tell you to do? Read the adventure beforehand so that you know the results of any action before you take it?
You know what? You do that. Sounds about your speed.
You will never get those areas full of bodies to hit anyways.
I'm going full warlock (for now at least), and I'm already sure I'm going Fey because of character/story reasons. I just wanted to know if I'm handicapping myself.
Rolled 11, 5, 5, 14, 5, 9 = 49 (6d20)
Any DMs here? I have a question for you.
IF I showed up at your table with a level 3 undying light bladelock/level 2 sorcerer would you hate me for it?
That isn't the point, dummy. Having a larger area allows for more targets to be selected.
Very helpful post, ya poobrain.
> handicapping myself
All Warlocks have immediate access to Hex and Eldritch Blast. Not taking either of those is the only way to hobble yourself in the damage department.
Fey in general makes you better at charming, charm-like effects, and resisting being charmed. Focus on doing that well and you'll have a hard time going wrong.
So why the fuck does fighter get seven fucking attribute advances? I thought this was the game of bounded accuracy. Does Wizards of the Coast understand that they probably wouldn't have even needed these autistic stat caps if they would just tone down the level ups to attribute scores? Or at least, yknow, said you get +1 to two scores to encourage more well rounded characters? Mearls literally created a shitty rule to fix another shitty rule , does he even have the first clue about game design? Literally the only improvement in 5e is proficiency combining attack bonus and saves (even though we still have the autism of saves for each attribute score because of much ADnD).
Why are you getting so hostile over this? I'm legit asking a question with the intent to maybe learn something I might of missed in order to better myself as a player.
The description our DM gave of the orb said there was swirling smoke in it. When we touched it the shadows came out. It seemed logical to try and destroy it. What didn't seem logical was trying to run away. We had already ran into a pack of ghouls and a grick and there was chanting coming from somewhere. Running seemed like it would not lose them and would end up running face first into more enemies.
As far as feeling helpless the whole time, we definitely did. I personally really liked the level of difficulty we faced, it just seemed like if we hadn't of gotten to take two long rests and multiple short rests throughout, there would of just been no way to deal with even 2/3s of the encounters before just running out of health.
Only because you showed up to the table with it. My group has a strict Character Creation At Table rule, regardless of who's DMing.
>forced meme, the post
How the fuck do I use Shadows properly without either my party obliterating them in a round and a half or half the party outright dying from Str drain?
DM's out there...
Would you let a fiendish warlock gain access to diabolic talismans so he could summon resentful devils to temporarily serve him?
No, I'd just ask you to make a character.
Of all the shitty third party settings that were released under the OGL for 3.5, which would Veeky Forums like to see the most?
Pic related
How is any of that a meme or forced?
Why allow +2 to a stat then force a hard cap at 20 to force you to "diversify" (something I totally support, by the way)? Then pile on the stat increases so that basically every high level fighter has 20 in a physical stats and hence nothing to differentiate them (not that DnD 5e has anything in the way of real customization anyway).
None because literally none of them are good. Published settings are a crutch for terrible DMs, I can't see why any one wastes money on them other than to scalp them for ideas. if your adventures became part of some giant cooperative canon that'd be one thing, but they don't. Published settings really have no value.
Maybe, if it isn't unreasonable, I'd need more info. But if I'd allow it, it would definitely bite him in the ass later on.
not who you're responding to, but why do you think this is a problem?
also 99% of games will run with feats, for which a fighter will be grateful.
plus a fighters whole shtick is pretty much being passively better physically than anyone else.
>not that DnD 5e has anything in the way of real customization anyway
Don't stop now, you've got a good streak going.
Improvising a weaponized halfling as a dart:
A Str1 character can throw a 0.25lbs. dart
0.25dartlbs / 1Str = 0.25dartlbs/Str
(0.25dartlbs/Str)*20Str = 5dartlbs
A Str20 character can throw a 5lbs. dart
Halflings weigh about 40 lbs, rapier weighs 2 lbs., studded leather weighs 13 lbs.
Cast Reduce on the halfing: weight is reduced to an eighth, size is halved, size category increments down one
>tiny (reduced) halfling-rapier-armor complex weighs about 6.875 lbs.
Necessary Characters:
Medium Variant Human (Str, Int; Tavern Brawler: Str)
>Rogue (Arcane Trickster): at Lvl8, choose Enlarge/Reduce
>Lvl1: Str17, Lvl4: Str19, Lvl 8: Str20
Small Lightfoot Halfing (+2Dex, +1Cha)
>Rogue (Swashbuckler)
>Lvl1: Dex17, Lvl4: Dex19, Lvl8: Dex20
Greatsword Paladin with Command and 20Str
Pre-combat buffs
>Human casts Mage Hand
>Human casts Reduce on Halfling
In-combat
>Human's turn, he throws Halfling as an improvised dart at the target (using strength modifier) to deal 4d6+1d4+5 damage
>Halfling deals 4d6+1d8+5 damage (Human's turn)
>Human runs adjacent to the target, draws rapier
>Halfling attacks on his turn for 4d6+1d8+5-1d4 damage
>Paladin gets into melee range with target
>Paladin casts Command (Flee) on the target
>on the target's turn, it provokes an opportunity attack from the Human, the Halfling, and the Paladin
>Human deals 4d6+1d8+5 damage
>Halfling deals 4d6+1d8+5-1d4 damage
>Paladin deals 2d6+3d8+5 damage
For a total of:
22d6+7d8-1d4+30 (mean 136) damage
i would be okay with it. but i do find undying light warlock problematically powerful. but i also don't necessarily have a problem with a class being powerful, and you delaying your spell progression by 2 or 3 levels to pull off a few discrete tricks doesn't bother me.
is the point to have powerful greenflame blade? i never understood the obsession with having powerful cantrips when high level spells are so much better... but i guess if your dm runs you through the gauntlet every day and has tons of encounters then it could be useful.
yes but
How do you guys pick stats at the start no matter what I pick I feel like I'm picking stats poorly.
The only one I feel good about is a human with 16, 16, 12, 12, 12, 9
>reading up on a setting that has decades of material describing various parts of it that you can ignore as you wish
vs.
>spending hours/days building a custom setting that most of your players won't give a shit about
They're a great resource. Your complaint is akin to bitching about DMs not homebrewing a new system every time they run a campaign.
Are you going to spam this every thread now?
my characters are all vanilla humans is how.
partially because i like shiny pluses, partially because everyone else in my party rolls with rare races and stuff, and i like having humans in the party...
Whirlwind is only remotely good if you use the bizzare ruling that lets the ranger move while using it to become a tornado of death, but even that's a bit silly.
A better solution might be to let the Ranger whirlwind once for each attack he gets, so potentially 3 if he's dual wielding. That could be rather dangerous.
I just see a billion half elves. Did half elves get patched at some point? I think I remember hearing something about it but I've just been running with what is written in the book.
I went 16,16,14,12,10,9 with my human
4e art had a lot of variety. This included shit as much as quality.
To me it seems the thematic coolness is inversely related to the mechanical usefulness. Devils are generic and boring but the most useful, unknowable horrors are coolest but the pact is niche at best. Fey are somewhere in between.
more Dragonmech i really enjoyed that one!
and the iron kingdoms were good too
>DM doesn't allow the ranger to move during his whirlwind (I can't seem to manage an interpretation that would imply he can)
>have the ranger Prepare his action to Whirlwind
>Charger Fighter shoves and pushing attacks the ranger through a group of enemys
>ranger moves 25 feet during his Whirlwind attack
Im'a level with you: GOO doesn't appeal to me at all. I've seen a handful done well, but the torrent of Lovecraft shit being foisted on the Nerd-chic population is leaving me cold.
I'm fully aware I'm meta-hipstering here. I am sorry.
>500 sacks
What? How? I don't even, what the actual fuck.
It wouldn't be so bad if players went with Mindflayer Elderbrains instead of Yog Shuggoths.
I'm working on some conversions of Iron Kingdoms stuff for 5e.
It's not the best system for what's going on in there, but the IKRPG is a fucking travesty and I'm not going to let that keep me from having a good time.
It's not a chain devil it's a hitorian from jangling hiter.
It can tune a piano, but it can't tuna fish. that's a bard spell only
>Player wants to GM
>Ok
>Says he has an original and awesome idea
>Idea is to translate our old M&M game
Ok, clearly some people are to ready to read D&D 5e, this is not the first time I hear stupid shit like this
While I don't really know anything about making sacks that seems like a lot for one person... Then again what would an adventurer do with 500 sacks... Get 500 liches to "clickety clack get into my sack"?
This. Having a warlock call upon fiendish creatures to temporarily serve him will either cost him a lot up front or cost him a lot later on. It could make for a pretty interesting story though, with the warlock having to pay his debt later on or something in that trend.
500 sacks hold 500 cubic feet/15,000lbs of gear
omg your awesome. i really liked the powered magic items it was a cool concept
As the player, I would make it my duty to avoid the lower planes forever after a single summon.
This literally has trap written all over it and I can't imagine a player would ask for it worded this way.
Yes but though carrying 500 full sacks. And who has that much gear anyway? Maybe when you slay a dragon and need to transport its hoard with a baggage train those 500 sacks could come in handy.
I understand the sentiment. Everything begins to suck with oversaturation
>convincing me to reply
The fighters extra ASIs are more like bonus feats (since that's where they'll go) which is a legacy mechanic more than anything.
The 6th level ASI is neat though, it means Fighters get to hit 20 in their main stat before anyone else does.
Just to be clear, I'm not doing a full setting conversion: I'm porting bits and pieces based on what works and what doesn't with 5e.
Happy to post some 1st drafts when I have them, though.
I just finished this homebrew for a little project I'm working on. What do you think?
>tfw you've only ever seen one player actually hit 20 on their main stat
Is that because they didn't take any feats or because they played to a high enough level?
The level 6 one is really badly written.
He only took one feat and then spent the rest of his ASIs on ability scores; game ended at level 12. The other players either took one ASI and a +1 feat or just feats.
Yeah, I'm gonna reword a lot of stuff by the final version
i don't like the idea of a renowned weapon being a class feature. thats just turning cool story/character opportunities into something more game-y instead of naturally occurring. imo.
i don't get why a wanderer would turn their charm spells into frighten spells but okay
double proficiency to attacks and spell dcs seems way too poweful
> i never understood the obsession with having powerful cantrips when high level spells are so much better...
We're talking about a Warlock here, they get to cast one leveled spell a combat, two if they're really lucky. That also means not using those spell slots on out of combat utility.
Anyway, cantrips can do competitive damage with leveled spells (especially when Quickened lets you do two a turn). I like that in 5E you can make a viable magical type character who uses cantrips for damage.
> Renown Weapon
> Can eat other magic weapons to acquire their powers, without limit.
> No actual mention of how to merge with a renown weapon; only how to replace it if you lose it.
Ok.
>That also means not using those spell slots on out of combat utility.
This, by far, was the main reason I went Bladelock on my first warlock. I took a lot of utility spells to round things out.
Variant Human with the standard array is my default. 16/14/14/12/10/8 with a Feat makes a playable character that feels well balanced basically every time.
Also for the next game I'm thinking of making a Warlock again as the group already has Paladin, Fighter and Thief.
Maybe start with one level of Bard though; what's the ruling on spell slots from normal casters to lock? Could you use warlock slots to cast Healing Word?
You can use spell slots for virtually anything between your classes - a Warlock / Sorcerer / Paladin multiclass could cast his spells with any of his appropriately leveled spell slots, and could use his Pact Magic slots for Divine Smite or for metamagic points.
If you're multiclassing Warlock then take two or three levels of Lock and the rest in another class. Warlock is incredibly frontloaded and you get more out of extra levels going into Bard / Sorcerer / Monk / Paladin / whatever than in picking up more Warlock levels.
>i don't get why a wanderer would turn their charm spells into frighten spells but okay
When I had this idea originally, I thought bards had a bunch of fear inducing spells
>double proficiency to attacks and spell dcs seems way too poweful
I was afraid of that, I'll probably tone it down to either spells or attacks
> Can eat other magic weapons to acquire their powers, without limit.
You can only have one weapon fused to your renown weapon at a time, it says that but the wording could be better
> No actual mention of how to merge with a renown weapon; only how to replace it if you lose it.
You use the replacement ritual to fuse the weapons, again, I'll reword it
I have greatly enjoyed playing a GOO Pact of the Tome warlock.
I've considered trying out a Fiend warlock with pact of the blade, it looks like it could be pretty fun. Especially with the temporary health you get from kills. And especially if you get to level 14 and get to slam an enemy through hell for 10d10 psychic.
Reposting from previous thread, cause I didn't get a bite last time. Can I get some feedback on this Homebrew I've been working on? Some stat changes, rebalancing, reflavoring, etc?
>He doesn't go Oath of Devotion as a Paladin.
I got as far as Compresso and gave up:
> Magic Natural Weapons at Character Creation
At first I was mad at this on its own, but then I re-read the race's base features: you don't have any Natural Weapons. None. Unless you're a Druid, this feature does absolutely nothing.
> inb4 unarmed strikes.
Not the same thing. Read the book.
What facilities would you need to establish in your cave-system lair to allow you to live there for a reasonable amount of time?
What are the essentials that every self-respecting villain needs in his secret lair?
if you really want to get into it.... its just the usual overpowered homebrew. throw it on dms guild and start making bank i guess.
you made a race that gets advantage on stealth checks, can stun enemies in a cone for a whole minute, has advantage on saving throws, etc. if you don't see a problem with this you likely never will, so just go be happy i guess.
the patron is okay but the level 1 ability is essentially the equivalent of the level 10 great old one ability, but at level 1. so i would rethink that.
>not going Ancients
>not defending Beauty
>not having Faerie Fire