/5eg/ D&D Fifth Edition General: New Hotness Edition

Reposting cause I am concerned about the balance.

Path of the Shark:

Level 3: Bite - While raging, can use a bonus action to make a melee weapon attack, with proficiency. The damage is d4+ Str piercing, and rage damage. (Optional, d4 scales with levels, ending at 4d4)

Level 6: Predator of the Deep. Can breathe underwater, gain a swim speed equal to movement speed, and has advantage on Survival checks meant to track an injured creature.

Level 14: Frenzy of the Predator: When your bite attack causes damage you gain a thirst for blood. For the rest of your rage, bite attacks are made with advantage.

Not sure about the last one, but it could be good.

Dwarven Bard Brewmaster tracked down ancient ale recipe that was scribed in runes on the shell of a living, giant turtle. That turtle was a part of the recipe, once the recipe was complete and the ale given to the turtle, it transformed into a figurine of wondrous power.
It could be ridden, it could be used to produce a shield, and it could be used to fight.

The best magic items are the ones with great and interesting effects but serious detriments that make you question using it along with potential for utility.

Does anyone have any good ideas for the "I hide a truly scandalous secret that could ruin my family forever" character flaw?

You're gay.

Reposting: So I'm running Death House soon and the party consists of a War Cleric, Ranger, Fighter and an Undying Warlock.

The Fighter and the cleric use shields but the Warlock doesn't have eldritch blast and intents to go pact of blade.

How fucked are they?

Anyone ever had any success using Warding Bond?

Your family waifu is trash

Born from an affair seems like an easy flaw from a noble family. Especially an obnoxious preachy family who won't shut up about traditional morals.

Lv. 3 - Kind of a better version of frenzy barbarian I guess, but most people consider that to suck.
It doesn't work with reckless attack so well because reckless attack only applies once a turn, so I guess there's that at least.
Lv. 6 - Interesting. I think it should rather be 'Breathe underwater for X minutes' such as 'your constitution score in minutes' though, or else your barbarian will become a merperson because of their spirit animal.
The survival check is pretty interesting, I think it should be extended to 'any escaping creature' though if possible. That said, 'injured creature' sounds more fiting.
Lv. 14 - I don't really like how this works. You have to hit to be able to hit more. That said, it might mean players would use reckless attack to make sure they hit their bite.
However, this ability is more of a damage/hit buff when the other lv. 14 things are tactical things like forcing enemies to attack you or being able to fly in short bursts, and they don't work with earlier abilities.
I'd suggest for the level 14 skill to think of something tactical that could be used in interesting ways, i.e. being able to latch onto someone to prevent them escaping with something grapple-like. Probably something else as wolf knocks prone as a bonus action, and prone can prevent escape.

Oh cool. Fresh thread.

Got a problem here. I'm noticing some tension between two players. I'm a player two. P1 is some sort of crazy build with arcane trickster levels, conjuration wizard levels, and pact of the chain warlock levels.

He's playing like a magician type of guy, always has a gadget, trick, or spell up his sleeve. He's kind of blown through a lot of skill challenges by pulling explosions out of nowhere (dm assures us it's all legit, and it's pretty cool so I'm okay with it too)

P2 is a straight berserker barbarian. Pretty simple character, but he's a good meat shield.

Anyways the barbarian player just yelled IRL at the other player to hurry up with his turn. Nobody else thought he was taking a long time. Any idea what could be causing this tension?

So I'm thinking of making a moon druid in the near future. I was originally going to just make it a wood elf or something standard but then I got inspired to make it a tiefling instead. Since most of the moon druid's power comes from the animal forms anyways, could this be viable in a serious and deadly game, or would it end up underpowered?

Not that hard if your family is posh nobility. A member of the family is illegetimate, they fund or are funded by criminal elements, your souls are all owned by a fiend because your ancestor traded them away for power, etc.

Gnolls in disguise.

Well in general they should do fine depending on how wisely they play both in and out of combat, but honestly them having a cleric helps so much.

However, they will most definitely lose at least one party member to the curse unless they are both smart and lucky.

I mean without knowing any of the players no one can really help much. Maybe the barbarian had a shitty day at work or was just pissed off at not being as useful as the other dude. Just talk to him like a normal person and ask whats up

A basilisk.

>reckless attack only applies once a turn
Look it up idiot, it's for all str based attacks for the rest of your turn
You have to use it on your first attack so your point about the limited usuage of reckless attack is wrong
That being said, make the 14th ability something any barbarian could use, because of how the rules work you can mix and match animal totems and the 14th level thing would be useless on anything that wasn't 3rd level shark

Incest runs rampant in the family.

What curse do you mean? Do you mean the ghosts possessing them?

Ha, first response is something my DM would actually probably not allow thanks to a phobia. Great answer though, that would be amazing for dungeons.

Wait that's actually the breed of dog, I read that and thought "surely it can't be" as I was focused on the mount concept. I'm really considering a nice dog companion now, but mounted combat is my thing and I'm a bit too tall for riding a dog.

A warhorse is what I'm leaning towards for sure, just seeing if there was some other cool options I was missing before the next session.

My god does represent themselves as a white wolf, that actually could be perfect if I talk it over with the DM and see if it might be a bit too silly for them, and if they'd go for the different statline. Thanks user.

That sounds sweet, maybe do what the previous user suggested and talk over swapping out the statline for something more substantial like a warhorse. Or you could maybe even go for a similar "style" of animal like a moose and talk over giving it stats.

You're probably right about the flying mounts too, depends on which sort of player you give it to I guess.

Thanks for all the replies, given me a lot to think about already!

The curse people can choose, and probably will always chose, to accept in exchange for being brought back to life while in the dark lands of barovia.

Yeah for the 6th level features I wanted to give a lot of good ribbon utility, the underwater breathing could be completely useless in some campaigns so I didn't feel the need to manage its effectiveness, since the effectiveness is measured by what they are doing.

With the level 14 feature I originally thought of giving a more supportive ability like the 6th sense sharks have, and give the barbarian blindsight, but honestly anti-invisibility isn't that great compared to a fly speed, disadvantage against allies, and bonus attack prone. I thought of the grapple but it would just feel silly seeing a dwarf biting something and trying to swing their axe at it. All I can think of sharks for are their 6th sense and just bloody murder.

What else are sharks known for?

Oh so you were talking about Dark Gifts?

But to even get them, they have to die in the first place. So why would they get killed because of the curse?

yes

I'm thinking the only way you can use Warding Bond successfully is in conjunction with Shield of Faith and Aid. I picture a cleric basically standing back-to-back with a paladin and just locking that shit down.

No I mean it doesn't matter what the party comp is because unless your party is really lucky at least one party member is going to die and then probably be brought back to life.

>they have to both wear a platinum ring
your reasons for marrying a cleric waifu have just increased

A fucking horse. Are you a special snowflake winged catman, too?

So, Wish. 33% chance to never be castable after suffering stress. Is the stress only from casting any spell after Wish, or is it for casting non-spell-clone Wish?

The problem is I DID look it up.
I previously thought it applied to all rolls
Then I saw "On the first attack of your turn"
Then I'm possibly slightly inebriated and read it as "Only applis to first attack of the turn."
Anyway, yes, it would apply to bite. That also makes level 14's thing useless if you use reckless attack.

Perhaps something speed or stealth or fear related. The ability to charge a distance and then attack or being able to move at the start of a fight, even in a surprise round, or something like that.

...

The 14th level thing could be something to do with either the toughness, the single mindedness, or the scariness of the shark
Like for toughness it gets THP when it damages a creature who under max hit points
For single mindedness ripe off berserker barb and make it so while on rage they can't be charmed or frightened
For scariness make it so whenever they're ranging they can scare enemies some how

So much random junk, all FR-only.

> Gourmond

Is there any quality homebrew Engineer class that doesn't simply refluff the wizard?

I want a class that is specifically non-magical, but still have a lot of utility.

>Homebrew setting
>Revival of any sort has a high chance of getting the clerics and paladins of the god of death sent after you unless you get special exception for whatever reason
>Animating undead is extremely frowned upon unless you essentially have the god's blessing to do so

Should I say fuck it and use that kind of magic anyways, or should I keep out of that sort of trouble?

Male, human, sword&board, oath of devotion paladin. Couldn't be more bog standard in anything else really. It's just when everything else about it is magical, why can't the beast itself be?

The stress happens any time your wish is not "you casting another spell of 8th or lower, without cost or restriction of casting time or class". Though in truth some the options are worth the risk and stress. Like the create a massive and expensive object function, you could create a castle/fortress/tower instantly and make it out of pure steel or something. Or give your whole party resistance to several damage types.

>Craft scroll of Wish
>Use the scroll to wish for nonstandard effects instead of directly casting wish
>No chance of burning out your wish spell forever

It's only one damage type
And since it's only going to be 1-3 before you lose wish, the DM can just ignore those damages and change up the enemy type
I guess if you're good at rolling you can just get resistance to all damage but otherwise the DM will void it with black dragons to fuck you up

Just last session I got about a +2 rapier? Went from using a rapier and shield to claws that do 2d4+dex damage and are light, so I can do two of those attacks and still benefit from a shield. This at level 3, we also got some plate for the pally which is basically +2 armor, it's a short campaign so it's natural.

I gave my players at level 2 before the boss of a 2-session game a rapier that can automatically ground winged creatures within 60 ft. as an action, a ring of Enlargement (10 rounds max, but no concentration), a crown that can blind people by firing light out of it and make you immune to psychic damage, as well as a cloak of immoveability, so you can't be transported or moved in any way if it's unwilling.

Wasn't there some trick about creating a clone of yourself and having the clone cast Wish? Is that a better alternative?

Your (noble) family backed the wrong faction during a recent war.

Just craft the fucking scrolls, user.
By using wish to circumvent component costs, you can rack up a shitload of money quickly anyways. Either through making things, enchanting items for people, or by offering spellcasting services (Raising the dead is a very expensive one that will net you great cash AND great renown)

Your noble family was blacked by the wrong faction during a war.

evening

anyone got a link to Frog God's Book of Lost Spells? gamedays tommorow and a player is interested in checking it out

That wouldn't work because if you get burned out on wish then go into the clone body, your mind is still the same mind, still unable to cast wish. I know there is a snow clone spell but Idk the details on how it would work per say.

>DM allows you to craft scrolls of wish.

You must have a very generous DM.

Sounds like they're fucking behind the scenes.

Best way to resolve it is to turn the next session into a mass orgy.

People who don't observe Concession Stand Rules when it comes to pen and paper combat are the fucking worst.

Caster of ninth level spells reduced to scrounging for gold from the bourgeois like some dirty preasent, how droll.

>Best magic item found
Boots of Striding and Leaping
>Best item given
Basically a hookshot a la Zelda

Brown Bear
>climb 30ft

I like the temporary health, when a bite attack hits you gain Temporary health equal to your rage damage. Your temporary health is lost when your rage ends.

This seems like a weak conditional heroism, could be a little weak even.

>Get into a 5e campaign
>Have a lot of fun
>Add a new person
>Becomes funner
>Third person is pulled in
>Third person is only available one day a week
>Can't play without them

why must life be suffering

You probably mean Simulacrum, which will only work if you go through the normal process to create it (i.e. you can't use Wish to cast it quickly/cheaply because then the simulacrum wouldn't have a 9th-level slot).

The number of times you can play per month is inversely proportional to the number of people in the game

well put

Oh yeah, fuck that reminds me.

Instead of the bite, weapon attacks while raging. That seems pretty damn strong.

It's been three weeks since we played. I don't know why they were dragged into the campaign.

>>Revival of any sort has a high chance of getting the clerics and paladins of the god of death sent after you unless you get special exception for whatever reason

How would they even know unless you told them or started waving diamond dust in front of them?

The Necromancer Games one? Also try out Google.com.
new.vk

.com/doc5682622_428462173?hash=bf305955d198ea023b&dl=bebaeaf4e15c9bb45f

>Can't play without them

Sure you can.

Well, yeah, we could. But when that person drops out, another person drops and it becomes "welp, guess we can't"

>all these liches and necromancers floating around
>literally never encounter a marut
What gives

Hey, reporting back

I took your advice to heart and just asked him directly what was going on in our group's discord.

he got back to me that he's pretty embarassed about how he acted. Basically, he's a bit unsatisfied with how boring his character is, and he sees us having fun, and especially the crazy build guy having fun. He thinks it is cause he took a non caster.

Should I try to convince him that non casters are fun? Or just help him give his character a noble death so he can remake as a caster?

One of these things is not like the others

People play more than once a week?

Hows the DM cope with that?

Tell your DM to stop being a jerk. Nothing the "crazy multiclass guy" can do is legit.

My Warlock got a Rod of Lordly Might and the GM came up to apologize for not giving me something more in line with my class and asked if I would like to repick.
I was like "nah, I'm good. Thanks though."

My Half Orc Paladin's secret was that he was adopted
his family is full human
he's just not that clever.

thanks bro

It seems pretty legit to me. We've got custom long rest/short rest times (8 hours for a short rest, 4 days for a long rest), so he has his familiar spend most of the time making poisons/traps/etc. With the rules as they are, the familiar gets quite a bit of output.

Minor Conjuration lets him conjure up bombs constantly, and with an invisible familiar, and an invisible mage hand, he's constantly sneaking them onto people and then sneak attacking them from range with bolts.

The only absolutely homebrew thing that the DM's allowed is that the guy can use minor conjuration to conjure any small object that he's put in a special bag of holding, regardless of the other rules for minor conjuration. But the DM and them were cool about it, let us take a vote, and it unanimously passed.

But yeah, that's the only homebrew ruling in favor of the crazy multiclass guy.

My friends have complained at play barbarian or warlock, I think it depends on the player. I'm quite happy with just attacking every turn and fluffing those attacks as cool stuff, but some people just don't feel satisfied with that and feel like full casters get so much more stuff to work with - if that's the case, I don't think you can convince him really. Sometimes it can be as simple as not liking the character too, regardless of what they can do it's just not fun to play.

You're misunderstanding the situation.

One person can play once a week. Which means everyone needs to be available that one time of the week or game's off.

>his familiar is able to do anything other than float around and look pretty
First strike.
>able to make bombs
Second strike.
>special bag of holding
Third strike.

Why wouldn't an imp familiar be able to make bombs?

It has intelligence 11, which is slighly above average for a man, so it can assuredly follow instructions given to it. It has suitable hands to manipulate the components as well (Dex 17!)

Speaking as a DM here, why wouldn't a pact of the chain warlock be able to give his imp instructions and parts and get a bomb at the end of the long rest?

>familiar
Can rightly do lots of shit. Familiars are useful if you have the right one

>bombs
Conjuration wizard can do this (also alchemist's fire, poison, etc)

>bag of holding
the true mark of a that guy

>SPECIAL bag of holding
automatic dismissal

First, the imp isn't proficient with artisan tools.
Second, it takes ten days of downtime and 25gp of raw materials to make even the simplest offensive thrown item (alchemist's flask).
And finally, there is no such thing as gunpowder in D&D. So no bombs.

Bombs are kind of at that questionable tech level for the average D&D setting but there's no reason that you couldn't summon one with minor conjuration by the given rules. Unless they are explicitly magical in your setting.

I guess, but it made sense in context of the narrative. We had saved a world famous artificer from certain death, and he rewarded everyone with a custom magic item. DM worked with everyone to get them something neat for their characters.

My druid for instance got a custom staff of the wildness with some spells switched out.

>What's the best magic item you've given to your players/found as a player?

Our party has Blackrazor.
Right now much of the drama of having it revolves around us carrying it because it's too useful to just get rid of but so dangerous that we don't dare just toss it and chance someone else finding it, and we try not to risk using it in battle unless we've no other choice.
We've only employed it twice in moments of extreme desperation so far.

Sorry if there is a thread about this or a resource somewhere, but where can I find pre-made characters for a DnD session with 5-7 friends who have never played?

I've only played 2nd edition. About 5 times. Not sure which edition our designated DM has DM'd. But I guess 5th or 3rd edition premade characters are fine too. I'll read all the guide if needed

>proficiency
Sure, I guess. I'm not that guy's DM, but I don't like the crafting rules by default, particularly for the reason that it takes 10 days of down time to make items that might be relatively simple given the setting
>10 days of downtime
Okay, see above. In a high magic setting, the default crafting rules are crap.
>gunpowder isn't in D&D
Come on now. Don't run into such an obvious Depends on the Setting.

I'd totally allow this, and even if the imp wasn't making it, I'd allow him to conjure bombs if he had seen them before.

>being / having a DM that actually plans for shit
Ha ha ha ha ah aha ha ha ha ah aha.

I'm bored as fuck and I love making characters, let me do it for you.

What level and how many?

>tfw got a +3 Rod of Lordly Might on my Fighter
>at level 7 or so

something exotic if you want to have fun, spider was already said, but exotic only really works with nature paladins

elephants literally are a mount RAW, so that one isn't even "dm permission", and theres not much that says armor couldnt be applied to every mount anyway (why would you be able to armor a regular horse, but not a mule), even if its not RAW

that being said, the more special snowflake-y and higher cr you get, the lamer it is going to be, expecially since find steed can be fought with
you can easily get a better "mount" and use it as a pet, than a ranger can get of a pet

that being said, theres alot of Lower CR "fun" choices that arnt super op or mary sue
your dm sounds a bit lax, so theres no reason you couldn't ask for say, a rug of smothering mount if he was lax on "animal"
or if he's pretty RAW, Giant goat and giant wasp are both EASILY within the CR and abilities given that he would be fine with it

the first page of the animal list says you can easily change around stats if you dont like "what the animal is" basically
another user suggested just use warhorse stats, but Giant goat is mechanically pretty similar to a higher CR elk
the same way tiger and panther are the same animal, just higher/lower CR

Best magic item I've been given has been a third party created item called a Thunder Axe. One-handed 1d10 battleaxe +1 that I could bonus action do an additional 1d8 thunder damage with once per long rest. Did some stuff if I did the bonus action and then critted, but the odds of that happening were so slim that it was negligible.

On the other hand, my party if currently in OotA and the DM made the mistake of giving our paladin a Shield of Missile Attraction. Now all the drow poisoned arrows go to him instead of any of us. And he's a dwarf.