/5eg/ Fifth Edition General: Comfy Drider Edition

What is the best wizard subclass?

Assuming you have a DM who is capable of adequately role-playing npcs, I think illusion is the best. All of the features are really good if you put some thought into how to use them. The 14 feature is also probably the best skill in the game, because of how flexible it is.

No but the feywild has a bunch of them, if you are seeing owlbears you are on your way to Dryads and Faires and all that.

I see, that's pretty cool

People are going to say Divination cause of Portent, but divination spells aren't that flashy and good until much later on, clairvoyance the level 3 spell is just the beginning.

Conjuration I always wanted to do, Evocation was fun when I did it, Enchantment for when I want to be the half-elf slut.

Yup want to do a campaign there myself.

Is portent that good? It's only 2 d20s to start and it says you have to use them before the other person roles. So isn't the odds of it being a better role only Every like 3 days?

So I had an idea recently of how I wanted to implement psionics into my games. Namely, by having them function as Wizards, but with a spell pool mostly limited to Illusions, Enchantments, and a handful of other fitting spells.

How well would this work?

I want to do counting and summon 8+ mephits or an Azer with that +30hp.

Fuck auto correct, conjuring, minor elemental

It's good. It has the most obvious benefits of any level two feature.

I think minor conjuration is the best though only if the player is creative.

I'm adding those small trolls that rapes everyone from Berserk next game. See how that goes.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

What can I read to get inspiration for the Feywild ?
I don't know what encounters to make for my players in 2 weeks.
I've read the Feywild Heroes book from 4th but it's honestly not helping much.

Rangers are always garbage because the appeal to the character is flavorful and it's a trap.

Like a new player to D&D and sees a ranger and immediately thinks of a guy in a green hooded cloak, killing shitloads of people with arrows and running between trees knifing people. Or touching the ground and being like "They can't escape", etc.

Whereas in D&D, tracking is almost never, ever relevant (elsewise Rangers would be forced party inclusions), your damage isn't any more impressive than the rest of the party (sometimes even worse), and when you get to the point where you start dealing with magical bullshit and intense monsters, the whole "I'm a guy in the woods with a bow!" schtick doesn't help you at all.

You have a VERY magical party. Wizard/Cleric/Sorc/Druid is kind of nuts.

My two recommendations :

- Warlock. Warlocks have lots of cool powers and enough variety in their build that you should be able to make something useful to the party without stepping on someone else's toes.

OR

- Bard. You can still be the Bow guy like a Ranger but now you have all kinds of dirty tricks to use with it. There's also that neat level 10 Bard trick.

>Hit level 10, take Swift Quiver from the Ranger spell list. Cast as a bonus action, it gives your quiver an endless supply of ammunition and allows you to make two extra ranged attacks per turn as a bonus action for one minute. What that means is that when you cast that spell as a Bard with College of Valor, you’ll get to make 4 ranged attacks per round with a bow or other weapon for basically an entire combat.

Basically a level 10 bard gets to be a better archer than a level 17 Ranger.

Changeling : The Dreaming. I'm not kidding. Even though it's a White Wolf setting ala Vampire the Masquerade, the entire fucking game is essentially about the Feywild before the Feywild was even a thing in D&D.

Well, for a random result, there's a 0%-50% chance they would have rolled better/worse. I can't imagine calculating the chance it actually matters, so let's go with this. So taking the average of all the possible rolls, there's an average of a 27.5% chance each die gets used where the real roll would have been preferred. Then there's a 67.5% chance the portent roll was better for. There's always a 5% chance it's the same. Aggregated, it's a 40% chance for each die that it's a good thing for you.

You can improve the odds a lot by just not using poor portent dice.

>Basically a level 10 bard gets to be a better archer than a level 17 Ranger.
Except with archery style, hunter's mark, and colossus slayer or horde beaker, I think the level 10 Ranger is still the better archer. Maybe it takes crossbow expert, too. Too much hassle to verify from tablet.

A very low/high portent roll is a guaranteed success/failure on a significant ability. Need that Bad guy to fail his saving throw? With Portent you don't have to hope, you KNOW.

Want the Paladin or Rogue to crit something? Got a vital skill check? Trying desperately not to be seen by an enemy? It's incredibly versatile.

Still has less attacks until level 11, and it's still INCREDIBLY depressing to think that a Bard literally just needs to take 1 spell, as opposed to the Ranger, who has to build his entire character around the concept.

Jeez I was dumb when reading it then, I completely forgot about replacing enemy rolls

Thanks a bunch! The wikipage already is very interesting. It's amazing to see that the bestiary is very close to being the same between the two games! I love it.

Anything else? I've got my own ideas, but the inspiration I'm getting from WotC stuff is a bit... childish, I feel.

No, the depressing thing is they'd both be better served by casting conjure animals.

pitt.edu/~dash/britchange.html if you feel like doing a little more plumbing.

How do you all handle generating hp on leveling up: do you roll your hit die+Con modifier or take the average of your hit die+Con modifier?

The only one I know that ever wanted to roll for HP was the player that had a character who was literally luck personified, so it kind of fit. Everyone else just takes the average like any sane person.

The 'average' given by RAW is slightly higher than your average roll (by .5 hp per level). You are statistically better off taking the flat number than rolling.

First level I always give them their max + Con.

Every level after that, it's their choice, but there's no do-overs. You can take average + con if you want to play it safe or you can swing your dick on the table and risk rolling a 1 in pursuit of that big score.

I let my players choose which one they want, each level. But if they talk about choosing random, i warn them that it's slightly suboptimal on average, and I won't give them any mulligans of any kind.
I think that's only fair.

And if your DM is going easy they'll let you take the average if your roll is low

If you're a wizard, it's ridiculously stupid to take anything but average given the option.

If you do the mathematics, you'll realize that you have a roughly 82.5% (Okay, I can't actually remember the real numbers but it's around about that) of ending up with WORSE stats by level 20 than someone who does nothing but pick average.

On the other hand, you can mix taking averages and rolling. If you roll until you get above average HP in total for example, you're more likely to achieve above-average HP in exchange for opening up the opportunity that you never reach above-average and have a shitty-HP character.

Be divination wizard and talk DM into letting you just roll any 2 dice and using them in place of the same type, always roll them for HP if there is a chance to lvl up

Has anyone else had a very negative experience with princes of the Apocalypse? Maybe it's just my DM, but the whole campaign feels very time constrained and doesn't really allow for much down time or general questing. There are entire towns my group has never even had a chance to visit because of how dire the situation is with the impending doom threatened by these cults. Especially since it seems that they can very easily bring about apocalipsis with little to hinder them accept each other. Which essentially just causes a Snowball Effect where as soon as you beat one you have to keep moving.

As an example of what you can do with malleable illusions:

Smuggle explosive gunpowder (or similar, provided it exists in your setting and you have seen it before) into a guarded location using create. Simply create as much grain as possible with the create spell, then turn it into gunpowder later with your class feature. It is actually the object you created. You can also have whatever wooden tools you want by turning your shadow magic hemp backpack into a whatever solid oak creation you want. Also, since it's an illusion I have no idea if they can even be destroyed.

Disguise Self can be changed at will with the feature.

Illusory script becomes a doctor who blank fake ID.

Mirage arcane gives you the ability to create megastructures with technically infinite height. I'd stick with under a mile high, RAI. You can then make these mega structures real, and change their shape, or bring your aura of compete control over the environment for ten days with you.

Go rogue thief or assassin with expertise in medicine.
Be a doctor.

What fighting style are you using anyway?

Or maybe the ranger cast the spell as well. After all its a ranger spell.

Anyone got any good homebrew Warlock Pacts?

In honor or your post number why not make a pact with an angel or something, meant to do it with devil, but messed up

I typically dislike homebrew, but I once saw a guy using a pact where the pact owner was their character's future self. Then again, I'm a sucker for time travel shit.

Not a patron, a Pact like Pact of the Blade, Lore, or the Chain.

What happens when you make a Phantasmal force illusion real? Is it only real to the target?

If I make a Phantasmal ladder force, targeting me for instance, can I make it real and then climb up a ladder that only I can see or interact with?

>Brings up the get
>Not a pact with Cirno

Ya blew it onii-senpai.

I made a witch one where the Patron is your coven, or a singularly powerful witch.

He doesn't get it until level 17. Bard gets it at level 10.

That's the point.

I dunno what else you'd want from pacts that doesn't exist. It'd be neat to have maybe a pact that was a suit of armor that did special things. Maybe a pact of the doppelgänger to get a copy of yourself, but in the appearance of your patron that acts independently of the warlock.

Might help.
dropbox.com/sh/i0icyxe1s5obfmq/AACKS8jOW7XlAGa_q3kCdOXma/Complete Warlock.docx?dl=0

Re-addressing this now that I'm at something more powerful than a phone:
1-10: "low" numbers. Use them on something you want to roll low.
11-20: "high" numbers. Use them on something you want to roll high.
1 and 20 are safe. They can only be tied. 10 and 11 are the worst. There's a 45% chance for a random roll that you'd like to be low to end up lower than 10, and likewise a 45% chance for a random roll you'd like to be high to end up higher than 11. So the range is 0-45. The average is 22.5% that you get a portent that ends up being "bad" when used, because the random roll would have been more to your liking. There's a 5% chance of a tie. So there's a 72.5% chance for a "good" result.

Corrected conclusion, there's a 50% aggregated "good" per die. So, on average, Portent will "work" on one die per day.

I think I can convert that % into shift on the die roll, and tentatively say that Portent averages -10 to one die roll per die. But you have to use it before the roll is made, so it's never possible to be sure it won't be wasted. You can only try to use it the best you can.

This is kinda meh, pretty low quality for what walrock usually puts out

That sounds really neat. Link?

>Mirage arcane gives you the ability to create megastructures with technically infinite height. I'd stick with under a mile high, RAI. You can then make these mega structures real
Mirage Arcane already provides tactile illusions. The structures are real for all specialties.
>, and change their shape, or bring your aura of compete control over the environment for ten days with you.
This is the awesome part for illusionists. Malleable illusions is really amazing.

Everyone gets maximum HP.
Let the meat tanks have more than 10 HP over the squish-ass wizards, I don't give a fuck. There's enough random bullshit in the game without adding how many times you can be stabbed to the list.

Encounters can always be scaled up slightly to compensate for the higher than average HP, not that D&D was particularly balanced for the exact average to begin with.

What are you looking for? I'm bored and I'll take a shot at writing one up real quick plus two invocations specific to it. Ideas off the top of my head.

Pact of the Gate, an extradimensional space all your own.

Pact of the Secret, a hidden truth man was not meant to know

Pact of the Vow, you hold the power of curse and contract

Pact of the Unnameable, you gain power over truenames

Pact of the Vessel, you play host to an avatar of your Patron

Also willing to take any cool thematic suggestions.

Ok, a 1 is -9.5, on average, so that can't be right.

Ok, 1 is -9.5, 10 is -0.5, average change is -5.
11 is +0.5, 20 is +9.5, average change is +5.

So Portent is an average of +/-5 per die. Sometimes it will backfire.

I do the same for the same reasons.

thank you mathfag

Do you regain hitpoints as a Necromancy Wizard with Grim Harvest by letting your summoned skeletons kill something? Do the kills they make count as making direct kills with a spell does?

Artifact spirit pact.
You serve a master sealed in a magic item that scales up with your warlock level.

Do we have any FR lore experts here? I started playing D&D not more than a year ago, and have been DMing for some months now. Players are about to reach Waterdeep, and I'm looking for inspiration and info on how to describe it, how to make them feel they're in this huge, sprawling medieval city. Besides the wikia, of course.

What would you say is the highest level an NPC could reach before they reach legendary status?

In 3rd edition it was absurdly low, with 6th level being the highest you could go before you started performing ludicrously extraordinary deeds. What about in 5th?

I'd say it might be a bit higher, around level 8.

It doesn't specify that the structures are immobile either. Can you make massive structures that move? Can you make a success elevator?

Can you make a giant rock hundreds of feet across to crush your opponent's cities?

Perfect. I planned on hitting the party with a combatant who is an unexpectedly gifted fighter, and had 8th-level war cleric in mind. The idea is to make them powerful enough that it would catch them off guard, but not enough for them to question why someone of that caliber was running around as a complete unknown.

Go ask Ed Greenwood on social media. He answers everything.

The DMG seems to say go by what looks right, but what are some general guidelines for creating a race?

So I am a variant human wizard artificer at level 10 who as the Alchemist feat.

Can I enhance the potions I made with my infuse potion so my superior healing potion just gives me back 40hp?

Could try the SCAG.

Pardon the confusion, but an half elf bard has 5 skills to use at level 1?

It's a city that literally has several boxed sets dedicated to it.
The City Systems set is a set all about how to run giant cities with several pages dedicated just to describing different kinds of NPCs, noble fashion, and all sorts, primarily focused in Waterdeep.

While I could go on further and further, just have a picture.
The scale of the map that dude is sitting on is 1 inch = 100ft.

Hey, anons? I'm trying to homebrew a Defiler Arcane Tradition for Wizards in 5e. Can anyone give me any feedback on this first draft for how the Defiling feature works?

2nd Level Feature: Defiling
When you cast an arcane magic spell with a spell slot, you may declare that you are defiling as you cast it. When you defile, you create an aura of death that stretches a number of feet from you equal to the level of the spell slot you are casting with. This aura kills off the land it touches and inflicts necrotic damage equal to your level on any allies within the affected area. When defiling, you may take either of two options to empower the spell.
* If the spell allows for a saving throw, you may double your proficiency bonus to determine the saving DC the target must try to beat.
* If the spell has a damage roll, you can make the damage roll twice and apply the higher result.

7. Two from half-elf, three from bard, two from your background.

>Half Elf Variants
>IF your DM allows it, your half-elf character can forgo Skill Versatility and instead take the elf trait Keen Senses OR a trait based on your elf parentage
>Skill Versatility: You gain proficiency in two skills of your choice
>Keen Senses: You have proficiency in the Perception skill

>Quarterstaff can do the same damage as a Greatclub with Versatile, or without using both hands with Shillelagh, costs the same but weighs less, deals the same type of damage, and every class gains proficiency in it, unlike Greatclubs

>Trident is the exact same as the Spear, but costs and weighs more

>Every single damage Cantrip has scaling
>Except Magic Stone, which requires one action to cast, and another to attack, and it deals 1d6 plus your spellcasting ability modifier, with a range of sixty feat, and requires ammunition, and has concentration
>but someone else can use their attack action to throw one, using your stats, so it's okay

>Shape Water lets you fuck around with water, changing the direction or flow of water, allowing you to literally swim up a waterfall (slowly), or walk on water by freezing it (slowly), change it's color to make it look like a potion, or whatever the hell you want
>Mold Earth can turn you into a fucking magical excavator, moving five foot cubes at a time (that's a lot of fucking dirt), or just make it really hard to walk on
>Gust lets you blow shit away, pushing enemies or items, away, or slam doors and windows shut
>Control Flame lets you put out fire, or change the way it looks
>You can make fire too!
>but you need fuel
>and fire

>Air Genasi is really good at holding it's breath, and a 2nd level spell (2 traits)
>Earth Genasi is good at walking, and a 2nd level spell (2 traits)
>Fire Genasi darkvision, fire resistance, a cantrip, and a 1st level spell (3 traits)
>Water Genasi gets water breathing, acid resistance, swim speed, a cantrip and a 2nd level spell (4 traits)

>Halberds and Glaives are exact fucking same

Allrigth. The character creation was kinda confusing me there, thanks.

You forgot
>tridents are martial weapons, spears are simple weapons
>tridents don't benefit from spear mastery

...

Is there a background that'll give me Alchemist Supplies proficiency that isn't Guild Artisan?

You can swap proficiencies to adjust a background to fit your character. Read the beginning of the background chapter

I don't have it, sorry, but maybe you can Google-fu it now that you know about it.

Folk Hero

You don't even have to follow backgrounds 100%, you know? They are customizable, you as long as you get proficiency in two skills, two languages, two tools, or a language and a tool. I don't think you DM would be completely against someone with the sage background, with the Alchemist specialty, having one language proficiency, and proficiency in alchemist supplies.

See, the thing is that I'm very new to all of this. 5e is my first edition, and 1st tabletop RPG in general. So thanks a lot for pointing me to this set! Any idea where I can find a PDF of it?

Not sure if that would be very helpful, but I'll try.

Damn, I can't believe I forgot checking it...

Anyhow, thanks anons, I'm grateful. Being new to this and having to describe stuff in english (not my native language) is quite difficult, but I'm having lots of fun.

>Control Flame lets you put out fire, or change the way it looks
>You can make fire too!
>but you need fuel
>and fire

That's what happens when you let M. Night Shyamalan design it.

>But then the Fire Nation attacked.
>And the other benders were utterly unable to put out their fire sources, e.g. covering it in earth or dirt, bending the air away from the flames, splashing fucking water on them.

Damned be M. Night Shyamalan for ruining something with such potential.

mega.nz/#!gI8kyBTA!QMdrr1_pCWaQVbgUdm0DV3E9Npa8fmjwOR2OGpelscc

That's literally "C - The Money of Soul and Possibility Control".

>silly things that don't really matter: the post

Pact of the Gate sounds cool. Someone also mentioned a pact of the Doppelgänger, having a clone of yourself that is in the manner of your pact.

Pact of the Moon: the immortal and primordial viewer of all in the night is the one who you pledge nefarious action to. no matter what you call your alignment all actions must return to evil or chaotic with harm intended to someone. while in return you are granted a dagger, this dagger can be a focus for a few magic spells that require negligible cost, the backstab at half of the multiplier of a rogue staring at level four, and the spell invisibility as level one with greater invisibility in darkness as a feat at level 5. the dagger is +1 at level 3 +2 at level 6 and +3 at level 10.

Idk it was off the top of my head mess it up how your dm allows

Malleable illusions lets you reset a Mirror Image to 3 images, as long as one remains.

Pacts are patron independent boons that you get at level three. Any patron can get any pact.

What you designed is a patron. And arbitrary alignment specific shit is yucko.

Question for DMs. I'm going through the rulebook right now and it seems really bloated. Each race and class has their own rules, with 9 races and 12 classes and even more subraces how do you keep track of it all?

Yes, but the main mechanics are simple, and everything has stuff in common. Besides, it's not like you have to deal with everything at once, usually you'll have at the most 6 players, so you just have to remember THEIR thing. And obviously, they have to help you remember it, they have to know how their race and class works. After you have discussed and cleared any doubts, the game works on a basis of mutual trust.

You don't even know bloat unless you played the alternatives. GURPS/3.5pf/etc.

5e is super streamlined. Just reading through all the races and classes should really be enough to easily keep track of it all.

But even if you're seriously incapable of remember it all, you can limit what you need to know to whatever your players are playing. The players also should know themselves what they're doing. As long as they do and you can trust them you don't even need to know everything the class can do.

I've actually played for GURPS than DnD, and 3.5/Pathfinder is hella bloat.